Violence On Television T.V. Stations example essay topic

Television Violence Violence in television, is it turning our children into violent, destructive, and hateful toddlers. Yes or no? In today's society television plays such a big role in our everyday lives that it is hard to see if it effects our children's behavior. Television has the potential of being a very constructive learning tool, if used correctly. On the other hand if used in a destructive manner it could, hypothetically, turn our children and future leaders of tomorrow into deadly hate mongers.

I believe that television does effect the way people think and behave. In a survey given in 1978 at an unnamed college in Washington D.C., when asked if what was seen on T.V. effected the way they acted, 2% thought it did, 7% didn't know and, 91% didn't think it effected them at all (2). In 1993 a similar survey was given in London by the Broadcasting Standard Council (BSC). When people were asked if they thought T.V. effected the way people behaved 41% said yes, 4% left without finishing the survey, and 55% said that they didn't think it effected the way people acted (14). As seen in the survey the problem of television violence is being made more aware to the people of the world. The problem has also grown over the years to a more serious dilemma making the government start to try and solve the problem by initiating laws in which television stations must limit violence on T.V. (6).

It is still not enough though the problem must be taken care of promptly before it changes society as a whole. If the problem is not taken care of swiftly then it could effect the future of the world by having violence rampage the streets of our towns. In the past when television was first invented it was a much happier time. people could walk on our streets without having to care if they were going to make it home alive. I'm not trying to say that television is the reason that society today is so dangerously violent, but as violence on television evolved so did the violence on our streets.

In the past there were not as many violent T.V. shows if there were even any. Also T.V. was more of a family recreation, most families could only afford one T.V. set so when children watched T.V. they were supervised by their family making violence almost an impossible thing to see if parents were not interested. Today, there are an average of three televisions per household so it is harder for parents to make sure their children are watching suitable programs. This also makes it easier for a child to watch unsuitable violent television shows (7). In today's society violent acts occur commonly that can be linked to television or movies. In December of 1993 a young ten year old child after watching an episode of Beavis and Butthead went into his two year old sisters room and lit her baby crib on fire.

This not only burnt the house down, gave the ten year old kid serious third degree burns, but also killed the two year old baby by burning to death (8). Also in October of 1993 after watching a movie in titled ' The Program ' a handful of college kids mimicking a scene from the movie laid down in the middle of a busy intersection and dodged traffic. This little she raid killed two of the kids, gave another two serious injuries which put them in the critical care unit of the hospital for a month before recovering, and gave one student a fractured collar bone and multiple fractured ribs (15). Because of these two incidents and many more television violence has been brought to the attention of the citizens of the world. It has also grabbed the attention of the United States government. Since these occurrences the government has strengthened there hold on the collar of the television stations around the U.S. by making stricter restrictions on T.V. shows (3).

In the future, The government has put together laws that they would like to pass to limit television violence. Such rules are 1) A set of 1-800 numbers for parents to call to get information on T.V. shows that contain violence. This way the parents can choose or limit the viewing of violent programs for there children. 2) Also there would be a count of violent incidents in a show before each program on the television, this would also allow parents to regulate children's viewing. 3) Violence warnings would be shown before each show containing violence (This is already done with most television stations). 4) The government would monitor promotional spots for violent shows.

The government would prohibit a commercial for violent television shows until an hour later in the evening when children are asleep. 5) There would also be the organization of a presidential commission to identify other potential solutions to television violence. 6) Finally, there would be a disallowance of tax deductions for the cost of advertising on violent shows (9). Also there is anew invention out called the V-chip that would be put into all new television sets. This invention takes signals sent from the television stations, and then translates them telling the T.V. if there is violence in the television show being watched. Then if the parents want to program the T.V. set to not show violent material the T.V. blacks out such material preventing children to watch (13).

There are many arguments why television can't be completely abolished. One of these reasons is the constitution. The first amendment states freedom of speech, this is the biggest reason for television stations to continue delivering violent programs to are homes through television sets. Any time the government makes a substantial move towards relieving the problem of television violence the television stations cry out that it is interfering with their right to freedom of speech (5).

This may be true but where in the constitution does it state that we can not have the choice to choose what are children can watch. The T.V. stations believe that it is are right to choose what we watch, but the best way to do this is not by limiting what the stations can show but by screening television viewing in the home by the parents. Many people feel the same way, in a book in titled Classroom Combat teaching and television by Maurine Doer ken she writes that it is not the responsibility of the television stations to keep children from watching violent shows, but is the responsibility of the parents to teach their kids to turn such garbage off themselves (4). Another argument for the television stations is that children here violent terms and see violence any way so why take it off the air.

This argument states that children at school hear such terms as 'drop dead out-fit ', and ' break a leg's o why stop it on television. They also state that at schools children see fighting and hate between other students so why don't people try and ban violence at school before they try to ban anything else (1). Television stations also fight that there is no substantial evidence saying that violence on television directly effects the way people and children act, and until there is they refuse to take such violence off the T.V. (11). Although all these reasons if looking at them from their point of view sound good enough there are also some very good reasons to put a stop to television violence. First there are the stated deaths of many adults and children that can be linked back to a scene from a television show or just the show itself.

Included in these are the ones mentioned earlier in this paper, but there are also more. Such as: In 1990 when the movie 'Natural Born Killers' came out two kids one male one female went on a killing spree stating they had gotten the revelation after watching the movie, in which to similar people go around killing person after person just for fun. Also after the movie 'Dracula' was released three teenage kids in Florida killed a tourist and tried to suck her blood. There are also many more accounts of incidents such as these all relating to a movie or television show that contained a violent nature.

All these violent occurrences and yet television stations see no direct relation between them and television? Another thing is that when the constitution was written there was no such thing as television, so how can that be used as an excuse to keep violence on television (12). T.V. stations also suggest that it is not there responsibility to teach children what is right and wrong, but it is the responsibility of the parents. This may be true but with so many families with two working parents it is almost an impossible feat to regulate what their children watch, so there has to be some kind of regulation on the violence to keep the children from getting these horrible ideas in their head. Television violence is a problem, there is no possible way to say that it isn't. We have to stop that problem, and the only way to do so is to put tougher restriction " son television stations. There is no doubt that television and movies can be used to help children as a learning tool.

In New Mexico, an organization offers entertaining alternatives to television violence, to families afflicted by violence. This organization puts video's out so parents can give their children something to watch other than the violent material on television (10). Organizations such as these are great. They are trying to help the youth of today before the problem gets to big. In conclusion, I hope that this information given can help show the problems with television violence.

It is said that by the time children graduate from high school they would have seen eight-teen thousand murders or other violent acts on television (10). That is to many acts of violence to not effect the way children or adults behave. There must be something done before it's to late, and our children grow up violent, non-caring, hate filled people. We must stop it now or in the future, our future leaders who are the generation, who learned from watching television well be terrible people doing terrible things around the globe. It is not to late we just have to get busy and make things right, starting now.