Violence On Television example essay topic

Garmin McDowell Mr. Garrison English 11 May 8, 2000 Media Violence Psychological research has shown three major effects of seeing violence on television. The three major effects that many parents world wide fear are children may become More aggressive and behave in harmful or hazardous to others. Be less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, and children may be more fearful of the world around them. Violent programs on television lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch those programs. Children begin watching television at an early age, sometimes as early as six months, and are ardent viewers by the time they are two or three years old. The general pattern of viewing is one of the steady rise in the number of hours viewed from early childhood to preadolescence and then a sharp drop in viewing during the adolescent years.

According to audience rating surveys, the typical American household has the television set on for more than seven hours each day, and children age 2 to 11 spend an average of 28 hours per week viewing. There is a growing concern in this country about teenage violence and how it is connected to the violence seen on the television. The impressionable youth of America somehow fall victim to spending many hours a day watching television and is exposed to violence. Studies show that the average child has witnessed eight thousand murders before they actually finished elementary school. Most of the shows that the younger generations watch contain some violence. Several years ago when Power Rangers was first Broadcasted, it had a great effect on the younger population concerning violence.

Many children began trying to imitate these so called "Heroes". Three out five children, eight-six percent males had a tendency to want to rough house with the other children and or had outbursts of violence. Of course, conditions in society, does not make it easy to pull a child away from the television. Parents work and most families cannot afford to have a parent stay home and watch the children. This situation is understandable and does not necessarily mean that parents do not care for their children. Parents regardless of the situation should try to be as involved as much as possible.

Parents should take time out to speak to their children about certain programs they might come across while viewing the television. Parents should also view programs with their children so they can get a better understanding of what their children see when they turn on the television. Many children urged their parents to enroll then in martial arts classes because of the big influence which they gain through watching television, in which beating someone by using martial arts is glorified. Despite the hardships that parents of children must go through to provide a adequate environment for television viewing for their children, most children feel that they do not need to worry about television. Sure they Parents extensive television viewing is bad for your eyes, and parents tell you that television is polluting to the mind; but why then do they let their children watch it or have a set in the household for that matter.

A solution to this problem which has plague America is the V-chip. Starting in 1998 The law states that the television must industry to come up with rating systems to work with the V-chip. The V-chip is a tiny computer that allows parents to block programming that they feel is inappropriate for their children to view. Sexual content and violence are rated from level 1 through 5.1 being the lowest amount of violence and 5 the highest amount of violence that can be tolerated. The V-chip raised issues about ratings giving producers more freedom to air violent shows. Will the ratings entice children from watching these forbidden shows?

Also what happens tot he quality adult shows like ER and NYPD Blue which contains violence, experts feel they should get tougher ratings because these shows are not geared towards the younger generations. Karen M Thomas / staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News, Keeping Watch "The V-chip's emphasis is on violence rather than values, but four area families say there are many reasons to question TV's influence on kids". The use of V-chip is favored mostly by adults who have children. Adults openly acknowledge the fact that they have trouble monitoring what their children view on TV. Most parents today admit working and raising a child are hard tasks to fulfill. They feel that the V-chip benefits them because it censors graphic content in television at all times.

Parents can feel confident that their children are not being influenced by television programs. while they are at work. Children in the long run also benefit from the installation of the V-chip in television sets. Younger viewers are not subjected to graphic content and are less likely to portray acts of violence in their own lives. The invention of the television was probably the best inventions made, but the violence. Which is portrayed on the television is not necessary there must be another purpose for such a wonderful invention. This violence today is only corrupting America's whole society due to all the violence that we all see today.

Television is a wonderful tool to express the way that you feel but if the way that you feel is the need to show murder then there must be a problem with you there has to be another method to entertain America instead of killing. Today children by the age of nine are capable of murder, there is a problem with this because now this influence is actually coming out to the forefront because now kids are killing each other in School yards all over the country many kids are dying because of the influence of these shows they watch on the Television..