Violence on Television Essay -- essays research papers

"There was murderers going around killing lots of people and stealingjewelry." This quote comes from the mouth of an eight year honest-to-god girl afterwatching the evening news on television. The eight year old girl claimsthat she is afraid "when on that point is a murder confining because you never know ifhe could be in town" (Cullingford, 61). A recent report from the NationalInstitute of Mental Health (NIMH) pools evidence from everyplace 2,500 studieswithin the last decade on over 100,000 subjects from several nations toshow that the compiled evidence of televisions influence on behavior is so"overwhelming" that there is a consensus in the research community that" strength on television does lead to aggressive behavior" (Methvin, 49).Given that the majority of scientific community agrees that "the researchfindings of the NIMH exit support conclusion of a causalrelationship between television violence and aggressive behavior" (Wurtzel ,21), why is it that "the Saturday morning "kid vid ghetto" is the mostfierce time on T.V." (Methvin, 49), and that "despite slight variationsover the past decade, the amount of violence on television has remained atconsistently high levels" (Wurtzel, 23)? Why is it that, wish the tobaccocompanies twenty years ago, the present day television broadcastingcompanies refuse to consent that violent films and programming can and dohave insalubrious effects on their viewers (Rowland, 280) What can be done tocombat the stubborn minded broadcasting companies and to reduce the amountof violent scenes that infest the topical air waves?The television giants of today, such as ABC, CBS, and NBC continue toair violent shows, because they make money off of these programs. Ingeneral, society finds scenes of violence "simply enkindle" (Feshbach, 12).Broadcasting companies argue that "based on the high ratings, they aregiving the public what it wants, and theref ore are serving the publicinterest" (Time, 77). Michael Howe states "We have to mobilize thatchildren and adults do enjoy and do choose to watch those programs thatcontain violence" (48). At the same time, however, we must also rememberthe undeniable truth that "there is clear evidence between televisionviolence and later aggressive beh... ... boob tube and the Child. London Oxford University Press,1958.Howe, Michael J.A. Television and Children. London NewUniversity Education, 1977.Lowe, Carl, ed. Television and American Culture. New York TheH.W. Wilson Company, 1981.Methvin, Eugene H. "T.V. violence the shocking new evidence."Readers Digest Jan. 1983 49-54.Milavsky, Ronald J., Ronald C. Kessler, Horst. H. Stipp, andWilliam S. Rubens. Television and Aggression. OrlandoAcademic Press Inc., 1982.Palmer, Edward L. Children and the Faces of Television. NewYork Academic Press Inc., 1980.Pearl, David. "Violence and Aggression" Society Sept.-Oct.1984 17-2 3.Rowland, Willard D. Jr. and Horace Newcomb. The Politics of T.V.Violence. sharp-witted Publications Inc., 1983.Feshbach, Seymour and Robert D. Singer. Television andAggression. San Francisco Jossey-Bass Inc., 1971.Skornia, Harry J. Television and Society. New York McGrawHill Book Company, 1965.Time. "Warning from Washington Violence on Television isHarmful to children." May 17, 1982 77.Wurtzel, Alan, and Guy Lometti. "Researching TelevisionViolence." Society Sept.-Oct. 1984 22-31.