Does Television Promote Deviant and Violent Behavior in Teens - Research Paper Example

?Running head: MEDIA VIOLENCE Does television promote deviant and violent behavior in teens? Insert Insert Grade Insert 21 April 2011 Does television promote deviant and violent behavior in teens? Introduction Future fulfillment and success that is enjoyed by people in their adult life depends mainly on the emotional as well as the intellectual development that was experienced in their childhood. Childhood development is shaped by experiences encountered a child. The experiences are derived from direct experiences that results from interactions with people around us and indirect experiences that are attributed to the ever-growing media sources in the technological world we are living in. In the modern world, the media sources have been taken over by the mass media, which incorporates the television it is most prominent and prevalent category. The fact that television is easily accessed in the current world and it is attributed, as another form of modern advancement, majority of the children in the current generation will have been exposed to it for the largest percentage of their life. According to the evidence attained from researches conducted, it has emerged that infants raised in households that have television indicated their first awareness to the device at an early age of as young as 6 months (Clifford et al 1). Over the years, a lot has been said and written over the impact of television in the developing teenagers within our society. A lot of the attention from the researchers while conducting their researches has mainly been focused on the negative effects that television has on the teenagers as opposed to its positive effects. While considering the due care that is needed while showing the various programs to the teenagers, it must be noted that television when used sensibly will give rise to numerous benefits. Argument for According to Straubhaar and LaRose, violent behavior effects from television have received a lot of attention from researchers than any other antisocial behavior. The effect of television on the youngsters and teenagers at large has been an issue of concern in the public domain. This is because it is difficult for the youngsters to comprehend the difference between the current world they are living in and the world they perceive in the small screen. In the current world teenagers tend to spend numerous hours in a day watching the television without supervision. This hence creates room for possibility of harming the young developing mind with contents that are regarded as antisocial behavior and as well as violent behavior (Straubhaar and LaRose 407). It is automatically obvious that majority of the various programs aired by the televisions will not lack a scene of violence. It has been discovered that three-fifths of the overall shows that area aired by the televisions incorporate violent scenarios at an alarming rate of 4.5 violent scenes per show. The children shows on the other hand are even worse as they contain more violence that anticipated and to make the matters worse these shows glamorize the violent scenes. Thousands of studies that have been conducted and majority of which are associated by the Bandura’s Bobo doll study, indicate that children will imitate the violence shown by the television or any other mass media. The Violent scenes that are televised not only influence the teens to carry out similar actions of violence but also perform different forms of violence other than the one seen. Although much of the focus on the violence televised by the televisions is fictional base, it has also emerged that the violence depicted in the news regarding the various wars and conflicts may be disastrous to the developing teens. According to Gupte (85), teenagers posses the ability to mimic what they what they see or hear from their television sets despite the fact the content they are mimicking is might be negative or harmful on their future life. Some of imitating actions that depicted by the teenagers upon watching the shows that are televised include play fighting. The sad thing is that it only takes the pressing of a television button to access the diverse messages that are aired out by the various television shows. The fact that the television televises entertainment, sports, and other educative shows does not mean that it should also televise the shows that are harmful to the developing teens. In this modern era, in rare circumstances do we find a household that does not have a television set or even a teenager who has never experienced watching a television show be it at a friend’s place or at the movie theaters. Most of the teenagers are induced to television watching at an early age and this in return results to depicting of the televised world into the real world. Behaviors like imitating the super heroes that are shown on the television screens become a common behavior among the teenagers (Gupte 85, 86). In America, the media is regarded as violent. This has instigated numerous researches to find out the impact the media has to its viewers. The studies conducted revolved around the teens as they are regarded of having the potential of developing. On average, the amount of violence witnessed by the teens on their television sets has surpassed the amount of violence present in the real world. It is approximated that by the time a teenager will be celebrating his or her 18th birthday, he or she will be a witness to over 200,000 scenes of violence over their television sets with an additional 40,000 murders. These vast accounts of violence have raised eyebrows with parents and researchers concerned with the alarming statistics and especially the manner to which these acts of violence are portrayed on the television sets. According to statistics attained in at least a period of three years, over 40 % of the characters used in perpetrating violence were attractive, over 75 % of the perpetrators of violence were unpunished and over 85 % of the violence scenes depicted no long- term aftermath. To make the matter worse the televised scenes that are depicted are accompanied with humor. These depictions of violence in a positive manner are bound to increase the levels of modeling viewers who mainly the teenagers (Gullota et al 70). Apart from raising the levels of aggressiveness among the youth, studies have revealed that the continued viewing of the violent scenes on the television can also result to desensitization of the viewers. According to the cultivation theory, television addicts are mainly less concerned with violent acts as they perceive these acts as justified and they can tolerate it. The viewers’ perception on violence is molded according to what he or she sees on the television thus in time violence is not viewed as problematic but rather as an acceptable behavior. Studies conducted have indicated that watching violent content in one way or the other may lead to mistrust and fear of the viewer in the real world. The cultivation theory suggests that addicts of the television often perceive the world in a frightening and violent dimension, which is contrary to the situation at hand. In addition to this, these viewers tend to be victims of the same violence they are watching. In summation, the violent televised shows are one of the root causes of violent behaviors among the teenagers, as they tend to be more desensitized and aggressive to the aftermath of watching these programs in the sense that they consider the world revolving around them to be fearful, a phenomenon regarded as “mean world syndrome.” The discouraging issue is that the violent content is often portrayed in a manner that is bound to increase the violence instead of reducing it. This therefore indicates that violent content can be regarded as one of the risk factor that pertains to aggressive behavior of the teenagers. According to Martin, Majority of the experts lay the blame of deviant and juvenile behaviors on the television and other forms of the media. It is these forms of media that glorify the unacceptable norms of the society such as drug use, irreverence towards the parents and irresponsible sexual behaviors. When these behaviors are seen or encouraged over the televisions the teenagers are attracted to them and tend to try the theoretical behaviors practically. This therefore indicates that teenagers imitate what they see or hear over the various sources of media. The fact that the television or the film industries glorify these behaviors, they bear the burden of decline in moral behavior and increase in moral decay among the juvenile. In the modern world majority of the rap and rock songs are incorporated with messages of violence in their lyrics. This will bound to increase deviance among the teenagers as the forms of entertainment known to them glamorizes the themes that are inclined to deviance behaviors (Martin 89). Argument against The general perceptions and explanations that are attributed to the effects of television in the social life tend to incline on the negative aspects thereby disregarding the other factors that bring about the positive effects of television. It is a fact that teenagers are surrounded with other factors that tend to influence their behaviors more than the television set. Television is not the only source upon which children can learn their social behaviors from. Other sources such as observation and interactions with peers and family members play a critical role in development of a child’s behavior as it is considered to be first hand. Television is considered as a socializing agent but the fact remains it comes second after the category of family members and peers. In addition to this, the information attained from the television is bound to be implicated with the lessons attained from the peers and family members as well as ones individual experience (Fisch 112, 113). One of the functions of the media is to depict the current happenings in the modern world. These happenings are often depicted in the television dramas or the news. For instance, while dealing with violence, the media plays its role by indicating the threat it poses and implies the appropriate response that arises from the threat. The focus hence needs to be shifted from the simple journalistic idea if the reality, which is expected to be captured by the media to, charged motive media images that are structured to have a role in the determination of social agendas (Anon 24). Family dynamics is a crucial factor in development of a child. Studies have indicated that presence of interfamilial problems among the teenagers manifest itself in the delinquent behavior. Negative environment within the family will play a pivot role as a risk factor if the adolescents are to develop with the antisocial behaviors. According to the studies, the relationship between the family environment and the developing delinquent behavior can be summarized as a strong predictive behavior. This therefore means that television is not the critical factor that influences an adolescent’s behavior especially in relation to violent and deviant behaviors. The family is the first hand factor around the developing adolescent teenager and when there is a negative environment within the family, the first hand experience of the child is bound to be reflected by it. This therefore indicates that in order for a teen to develop negative or antisocial behaviors, the cause may seldom come from one factor but instead from a multiple of factors. The impact of the television is not an automatic factor as compared to the family environment impact in shaping the behavior of a teenager. Educational Television programs are regarded to have a positive effect on children’s cognitive development as well as social development. There are programs that encourage prosocial behaviors among the children. Positive effects have been identified in the variety of different cultures as they advocated sharing and respect within the society. Among the positive effects of prosocial shows are the increase in interaction levels and a decrease in aggression levels among the teenagers as the effects will be will be visible even during the adolescent stage. Watching TV programs has also been regarded as another way of fostering group identity, as teenagers are known tom identify themselves with media preferences (Parke and Clarke-Stewart 307). Stand Despite the various factors that contribute to the negative development of a teenager’s behavior, the one factor that cannot be ignored is the impact the television has in shaping the behavior of the developing teenagers. It is important to comprehend the developmental dimension of how the media incorporates the television effect to the behavior of the youth. The response of the youth to media violence is critical in understanding the appropriate steps that need to be taken in order to assists the youths that are adversely affected by the media violence issue. It has been established that majority of the adolescents as well as adults that are violent are attributed to aggressive as well as violent behaviors at their younger age. This is because the risk of developing to a violent adult is high on highly violent youngsters. Media violence is one of the factors that are attributed to negative and antisocial behaviors among the developing teenagers. At a tender age, human beings tend to imitate what they see a process called observational learning. It is at this stage that the youths are normally curious in experimenting on each and every behavior. The observational learning has been described as one of the main psychological process upon which the effects of media violence are based in a teenager’s developing life. In April 6, 1998, the Time Magazine wrote an article that indicated that a time was coming when the debate on media violence will be put in the same platform as the one the debate on tobacco’s impact on health was kept on. In addition, the article went on to condemn researchers who do not bother in debating over the increased bloodshed over the television that is bound to affect the teenagers witnessing it. The article was initiated by the school shootings of Jonesboro, Arkansas where 14 people that incorporated a teacher and 4 students were shot and injured while two boys were shot and killed. According to the statistics revealed by American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), over 3,500 researches have been conducted with the aim of establishing the existing relationship between the violence behavior and media violence. In the statistics, it was revealed that only 18 of the researches indicated a negative relationship between the two with the rest of the researches accounting for a positive relationship. This has resulted to the health care professionals identifying media violence as one of the root cause of violent behavior. The AAP has hence taken the initiative of sensitizing the parents on the effect of media violence which include; antisocial behavior and aggressiveness, increased fear of victimization, decrease in sensitivity to violent issues as well as their victims and increase in the urge for violence incorporated in entertainment as well as in real life (Page 262). Slapstick humor as well as other comedic elements has a way of camouflaging scenes of violence. As from its definition of humor achieved from physical action, slapstick humor has been incorporated in various television shows. There are several reasons as to why comedy, which is one of the many television shows, is regarded to condone violence. Some of the reasons include: 1) in comedies, the seriousness of the violent scenes is downplayed leading to the notion that violence is just another trivial by the viewer; 2) violence is camouflaged by excluding it from the schemas; and 3) when combined together humor and violence will result to downplaying the level of violence. Apart from the use of humor in the TV shows that are televised, the justification and legitimization of violence by the TV shows is another way of promoting violence and deviant behaviors among the teenagers. It is morally correct to indicate that wherever an act of violence is not punishable and instead rewarded it is regarded as legitimate. In the televised shows that are commonly popular with the teenagers, 70 % of the superheroes go free despite the fact that they have incorporated violence in their activities. In addition to this, these super heroes are rewarded at a 32 % of the situations that they have used violent actions. These acts of violence that are directed into the shows that are destined to capture the teenagers’ viewing, are mainly perceived by the teenagers as morally correct actions. Glamorization of the perpetrators of the violence is another mechanism that has been perfected by the TV shows in order to capture more viewers in the media industry. This however creates a positive image of violence in the numerous minds of the teenagers, which at long last results to violent behaviors among the teens. Some of these perpetrators of violence in the TV shows are elegantly dressed have a sense of style and are portrayed as filthy rich. According to majority of the teenagers this are just some of the qualities of a guy they consider “cool” and hence will look up to them and emulate their behaviors with the belief that they will attain the same status as them. In the review of the evidence that portrayed teenagers are addicted to the media diet, Huesmann, et al found out that children could watch at least 28 hours of TV while teens could watch at least 23.5 hours of TV in a week. Another study indicated that 90 % of the boys were video games fans while 67 % of the girls played video games. In half of the total video games played by boys was violence oriented (Biglan, et al 79). As regarding the deviant behaviors, some of the entertainment shows are centrally focus on portraying a negative perception. The music entertainment shows that depict singers advocating on the use of drugs such as marijuana are bound to instigate negative and deviant behaviors among the teenagers. Majority of these singers are depicted in a lavished life of comfort that is yearned by majority of the teenagers and the moment they portray the use of drugs and other negative sexual behaviors as a common way of life. Teenagers will incline to the newly acquired way of life by trying out the same behaviors shown on the TV. Conclusion Although there are many factors that are attributed to the increased levels of violent and behaviors within the teenagers, television as one of the media source can be ranked as one of the major factor. The fight against media violence that is attributed to the rise in violence cases among the teenagers has not been made any easier by the ever-changing technology that has ensured that majority of the households worldwide if not all have a television set. This will therefore mean that by the press of a button the teenagers will be able to access televised contents that might prove to be devastating and harmful to their developing life and behavior. Although some of the critiques have suggested that the negative behaviors among the teens is as a result of a number of multi-factors, the role of the television cannot be whisked away easily as it is regarded one of the main category of the mass media and it has large market base. It is through the televised shows that the teenagers create an imaginative image of a violent concept. Lack of differentiation of this imaginative violent concept and the real world is what results to the numerous accounts of violent and deviant behaviors among the teenagers who do not foresee the consequences of their actions. In order to tackle the issue of media violence it critical for one to understand the various mechanisms used by the media to facilitate their objectives of attaining a large market base without considering the long-term effects they are causing. Media mechanisms such as humor, justification, legitimization and as well as glamorization are some of the media mechanisms that should not be advocated if the teenagers are to be assisted out of the media violence predicament. Works Cited Anon. The curse of the Bonbrush tornado Facts and fictions of television violence Christians and nationalism in Wales. Third way, Vol. 10, No. 3. London. Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd. 1987. Biglan, Anthony, et al. Helping Adolescents at Risk: Prevention of Multiple Problem Behaviors. NY: The Guilford Press. 2004. Clifford, Brian R, et al. Television and children: program evaluation, comprehension, and impact. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 1995. Fisch, Shalom M. Children's learning from educational television: Sesame Street and beyond. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 2004. Gullotta, Thomas P. Handbook of adolescent behavioral problems: evidence-based approaches to prevention and treatment. NY: Springer Science+ Business Media, Inc. 2005. Gupte. Recent Advances in Pediatrics (Special Volume 17). New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd. 2006. Martin, Gus. Juvenile justice: process and systems. CA: Sage Publication Ltd. 2005. Page, Randy M. Fostering emotional well-being in the classroom. MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. 2003. Parke, Ross D. and Clarke-Stewart, Alison. Social Development. NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2011. 21 Straubhaar, Joseph D. Media now: understanding media, culture, and technology. CA: Thomson Corporation. 2006. Read More