Violence in the Media

Violence in the Media

There is a direct correlation between the violence shown on television and in the movies and the violence in America. By age 11, children will have seen, on average, 100,000 violent acts 8,000 murders on television.

History was a major cause of violence in the television industry. From the beginning of our country violence has been a part of our history. The Revolutionary War for our freedom followed by conflicts with the Native Americans who inhabited the land before us. The Civil War was also one of the deadliest events in our nations past. The "Wild West" and new frontier were filled with stories of bandits, robbers and murderers. Outlaws like Wild Bill Picklock and Jesse James were celebrated as legends although they were criminals. Urban gangsters of the prohibition era became icons. They were well dressed, had money and power and the TV. and movies portrayed them as living a glamorous lifestyle. In the fifties and sixties Westerns were the popular television shows. They showed the characters as rugged individuals who used violence to eliminate crime.

The news media is also a main source of violence on TV. Technology has become more mainstream and less expensive, so there was more coverage of events. The JFK assassination was televised live followed by the sight of Jack Ruby murdering Lee Harvey Oswald. Robert Kenney's murder was also broadcast live. The racial turbulence of the sixties brought riots that would often escalate and result in police brutality. Airing this coverage on the daily news is said to have led to other confrontations throughout the country. Vietnam was also the first war without government censorship of the media. It led to anti-war demonstrations and riots at colleges and universities. These demonstrations often began non-violently, but because of police presence and crowd control, quickly turned violent.

Hollywood has created such a desensitized audience by showing so much violence on screen, that now they must show excessive levels to get a reaction from their viewers. Violence sells. Ronnie Zamora, a Florida teen who murdered an elderly woman blamed it on television. Although he was found guilty his defense was that the violence he saw on TV influenced his actions. The television stations finally decided to cut back on violence in their content which would last until cable TV became popular.