Violence in America
In New York, a sixteen-year-old boy broke into a cellar. When the police caught him and asked why he was wearing gloves, he replied that he had learned from watching television, if you wear gloves you won't leave any fingerprints. In Alabama, a nine-year-old boy received a bad report card from his teacher. He suggested sending the teacher poisoned candy as revenge as he had seen on television the night before. In California, a seven-year-old boy sprinkled ground-up glass into the lamb stew his family was about to eat for dinner. When asked why, he replied that he wanted to see if the results would be the same in real life as they were on television. (Ledingham) In many people's living rooms sits an outlet for violence that often goes unnoticed. It is the television. The children who view it are often pulled in to its realistic world of violent scenes with sometimes devastating results. Today, over three thousand studies show violence on TV affects not only childhood aggression but also adulthood violence. (Szaflik) Since television was introduced in 1952, it has become so much a part of our existence that many people cannot imagine life without it. Americans love TV and love to watch a great deal of it, yet their ple
When children are taught how to do math problems, it is because of how their teachers showed them. If one tried to jump in all at once, it would be unbearable and one would get out quickly. Scientists, pediatricians, and child researchers in many countries have done studies over the last thirty years and almost all of them have concluded that media has a big effect on the aggression now present in Americas youth. Coyote hit by a train and remain unharmed, who will teach them that in real life they will be killed? "When you show a young kid somebody being run over and they pop back up without harm, that's a problem," says Ed Donnerstein, communications and psychology professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. "There is nothing heroic about violence and it is wrong to show kids that it is. The children also tend to gain impatience. (McLeese 141) This does not mean that media violence is the only source for aggression or violent behavior, but it is a significant contributor. The chip would allow parents to prevent a television program from being seen in their homes if the rating system was determined that the show had a high level of violence or sexually explicit content. In most cartoons if a cartoon character is killed, the other cartoon characters usually don't care, or may even laugh. (Berger 24) Television is a powerful teacher and if children are always viewing their favorite characters using violence or aggression to get what they want, they will do the same. By watching aggression, children learn how to be aggressive in new ways and they also draw conclusions about whether being aggressive to others will bring them rewards. " (Ledingham) Sigmund Freud and Aristotle, who suggested, "drama was effective and desirable because of 'catharsis'", have mainly studied the catharsis theory. However, is censorship the answer? Research has found that the best defense against the media is a strong family that makes an effort to impart values and gives children clear boundaries. " Many psychologists seem to agree that the more accepting children are of violence, the more it desensitizes them, and the more likely they are to become violent.
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