Violent television in agressiveness in children Essay Example for Free

Violent television in agressiveness in children Essay As a quick glimpse at the recent events that grace the newspaper’s headlines show, there is indeed a growing concern over the violence that manifests in schools all over the country. It encompasses a whole range of issues such as bullying and perhaps the most frightening, school shootings. With all of these problems plaguing not only the education system but also the entire nation as of late, the question that comes up is whether or not this is actually caused by the violent television shows and movies in the cable TV programming. While there has been no irrefutable data that lends credence to the theory that violent shows in television is the real culprit behind today’s misguided and often violent children, there can also be no argument against the statement that though violence on television may not be the sole cause, it is one of the contributory causes. There are a number of media effects theories that solidify the argument that it is violence in media or in television that has led to the deterioration in the moral foundation of today’s children (Gauntlett 1998). A good example of this would be the â€Å"Hypodermic Needle Model†, which is a theory that the influence of media is so powerful that it can be used to â€Å"inject† messages into the minds of the audience and control them (Gauntlett 1998). While it is not being suggested that television is being used a medium to brainwash today’s children and turn them into an army of zombies for the media, it is being proposed, however, that the programming and quality of shows on television, such as violent programs, has a profound effect upon the youth. The influence, therefore, that television has upon children is inevitable. While this influence may have waned in the advent of the internet age and YouTube, it still bears a considerably large amount of influence over the younger children who are not able to access such media devices (Fisher et al 2004). Therein lays the danger; young children with impressionable minds are exposed to violence on television leading to a deterioration in the moral and ethical foundations of today’s generation. Another interesting theory to correlate the cause, violence in television, with the effect, violent behavior of children, is the postmodernist thought on the approaches to the Media Effects Theory (Gauntlett 1998). The main ideas of this theory rely on the fact that the ideas and perceptions of individuals has already been preconditioned by media in a sense that whatever input or meaning that is derived from media is already placed in a predefined context (Fisher et al 2004). This school of thought therefore suggests that in analyzing the behavior and effects the fact that media has already preconditioned the minds of the individuals and influenced the reception. As such, given the volatile nature of the mind of a child, the input that a child receives from violent programming on the television creates a preconceived notion of what the real world is like. By showing violence on television, a child may think and perceive that such behavior is actually socially acceptable (Fisher et al 2004). Studies have shown that there have been causal links found between aggressive and violent behavior in children and the type of television programs that these children generally watch. Every day the world searches for answers for many of the would-be â€Å"avoidable† tragedies such as school shootings, gang wars and juvenile teen violence. The reason for the term â€Å"avoidable† stems from the fact that many consider these as effects of media influences and morally condemnable social behavior. While media and television, in particular, are not the main causes for these tragedies, it cannot be denied that they have contributed to these problems. There may not be an easy solution for this but by identifying the causes that have led to this dilemma a big step has been taken to rectify this situation and to prevent more disasters such as this from ever happening again. References: Gauntlett, D. (1998) Ten things wrong with the effects model' in Harindranath, R. , and Linne, O. , (eds) Approaches to Audiences A Reader London: Arnold. http://www. leeds. ac. uk/ics/theory/effects. htm Fisher, Deborah , Hill, Douglas , Grube, Joel , Gruber, Enil . (2004) Sex and Violence on American Television: An Analysis Across Program Genres and Network Types. Journal of Broadcasting Electronic Media 48:4, 529-553