The Effects of Television Violence on Real Life Violence    

The Effects of Television Violence on Real Life Violence

    Media violence has had many effects on real life violence. Media violence is a contributing factor to the development of aggression. One of the biggest types of media violence is shown on the television. Television violence can have an effect on anyone, no matter the age. Even children are exposed to violence on TV. Children are always watching and being more aware of what they are seeing, making them more susceptible to the violence they are seeing on TV. If they see it on the television, they may begin to think this behavior is socially acceptable. Children exposed to media violence are predicted to have aggressive behavior into early adulthood. Violence is shown in almost every television series. However, not all television violence is the same. The different types of violence shown is physical violence, sexual violence, emotional violence, cultural violence, and verbal abuse. Violence is a legitimate and even necessary cultural expression. Television violence has become a common characteristic of many television programs.

    The television is used as a marketing tool in today’s society.  A child today is born into a home in which the television set is on an average of over seven hours a day (Hough). Most of the stories about people, life, and violence are told by those who mean to sell something. This means that the TV is more likely to tell stories that lend themselves to a marketing effort, which distorts large areas of life that are not visible. Television is there at birth and stays there throughout life. The roles children grow into are no longer homemade or community-inspired. They are products of a complex, manufacturing and marketing system. Television violence is an essential part of that system.

    Children’s attitudes are affected when they watch TV that contains violence. Children who watch a lot of television tend to see more violent programs than children who watch less television. Children who spend more time watching television, especially those that contain violence, are also more likely to show later aggression and restlessness. A number of studies have shown that those young viewers who have a more aggressive state prefer to watch more violent programs. The only variable that predicted children's attitudes towards violence on the television was based on how many hours is spent watching TV. Repeated exposure to television violence has been implicated as a major factor of real life violence.  Although, being aggressive as a child did not predict watching more violent television as a teenager, suggesting that watching TV could be a cause rather than a consequence of aggressive behavior. However, later research by Gentile and Bushman suggested that exposure to media violence is just one of the several factors that can contribute to aggressive behavior.

    Children are increasingly becoming heavy media consumers. Research indicates that much of the media directed at children contains violent content (Huesmann).  Even children's movies have some amount of violent content. While media violence exposure may have short-term effects on adults, its negative impact on children is continuing. Children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, they may be more fearful of the world around them, and may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others. Television violence is found everywhere and seems to be unavoidable.

Television content has different effects on boys than they do girls. Watching violent television series results in a long-term increase in aggression in boys but not always in girls. Boys typically prefer violent programs; girls prefer nonviolent ones. Girls are also reported to approve of violence less. They are more frightened by television violence, they respond to it more emotionally, and they watch it in a more involved and less detached way than boys do. Girls are then more likely to not pay as much attention to the violent content as the boys will. When parents have placed restrictions on what their children can watch, the children have found many ways of getting around these restrictions. The psychologist Huesmann and Eron found that the children who watched a lot of television violence when they were eight years old were more likely to be arrested and prosecuted for criminal acts as adults. The violence seen on television cannot be controlled and will always have some amount of an effect of those watching the material.

    Television violence usually targets a certain group of people. According to George Gerbner of the Annenberg School of Communication; an average of one hundred and fifty acts of violence and about fifteen murders entertain us and our children every week, and that does not count cartoons and the news. Violence takes on an even more defining role for major characters. It involves more than half of all major characters. Children, lower-class, and mentally ill, or otherwise disabled, characters pay the highest price -- thirteen to sixteen victims for every ten perpetrators. Major characters who are bad are more likely to be killed than those portrayed as good. Gender, race, and age also matter. For every ten positively valued men who kill, about four are killed. But for every ten "good" women who kill, six are killed, and for every ten women of color who kill, seventeen is killed. Older women characters get involved in violence only to be killed (Gerbner).

    There has been many consequences that have occurred with television violence. The television's impact is especially pronounced in terms of how people feel about walking alone at night on a street in their own neighborhoods. Overall, viewers say that being out alone at night on their own street is "not safe." Whatever real dangers may lurk outside people's homes, heavy television viewing is related to more intense fears and apprehensions. Those who seem to be insecure may be prone to violence, but are even more likely to be dependent on authority. People have become imprisoned to their neighborhoods and cars, and they have become frightened to walk in the city and to use public transportation. Dramas using subways as the scene of action have predicted such fearful images that the city of New York banned the use of its subways as locations (Gerbner).Those who watch heavy based violence television shows are more likely to feel they need more protection by buying locks, guns, and watchdogs. Although violence occurs at a younger age and is more likely to occur in poorer neighborhoods, the real epidemic we have is not homicidal violence but the fear of violence.

    Throughout the years television viewing has increased. More and more people are watching TV every day. The amount of viewing time has also greatly increased.