Children and Television Violence - Essay Example

I. Introduction The mass media have carried over with it issues over its effect on society, and such conflicts oftentimes put emphasis on media’s power to negatively influence children. Numerous scholars argue that mediated violence instills children with the idea that force is an acceptable way of solving life’s problems. Infrequent opposing outlooks are provided, such as the claims of Fowles (1999) that such violent scenes serve as liberating instances for the viewer, despite of age, “fantasy mayhem on the television screen—sometimes in the form of cartoons and sometimes not—helps the child discharge tensions and animosities” (ix). This paper then will aim to investigate the issue of television violence with respect to promotional campaigns, seeking for a clearer understanding of the ways by which advertisements for violent amusement products function to attract the young viewer’s attention (ibid). Disputes about the media’s influence on children are frequently grounded on assumptions of developmental psychology, which claims that children lack the cognitive capability to discriminate commercial meanings from other media content, and hence are views as particularly vulnerable. Numerous researches have surveyed the effects of mediated violence, frequently assuming that a relationship, either correlative or contributory, is present between a child’s exposure to provoked violence and his or her eventual expressions of real physical violence. Such investigations usually argue that children exposed to television violence will sooner or later come to accept manifestations of violence in actual world backgrounds, be they real physical attacks or violent ideas and sentiments (Evra 1990). This has guided a number of researchers to conclude that the relationship between mediated and real violence in children is in reality causal. As such as theories of developmental psychology argue that children acquire awareness of societal expectations through observing and imitating the actions and behaviors of others, it has been claimed that even short term exposure to provoked violence augments to the threat that young viewers’ future behaviors will be typified by intensified physical or emotional hostility or aggression. Yet, to date, majority of the studies have put emphasis on violence enclosed in the entertainment channels themselves, discarding promotional campaigns for, and deep-seated within such programs. Only currently have the advertising messages for and within amusement products been provided any thorough analysis (Gunter et al. 2003). II. Children and Violence in Television Recurrent exposure to television violence has been attributed as a primary determinant in the eventual reduction in the fears or desensitization of individuals to such violent scenes. It has been disputed that this desensitization, consequently, may deteriorate some viewers’ psychological limitations on aggressive behavior such as guilt and fear of retribution and their anxiety towards social rejection (Hough & Erwin 1997). Turner, Hesse and Peterson-Lewis (1986) assumed that the harmony of proofs supports the idea that watching television leads to long-term intensification in hostilities in boys but otherwise in girls, although boys and girls view comparable amounts of television and girls recount the content of the television shows as well as, or more improved than, boys (ibid). A likely explanation for any gender variations may rest in the kinds of programs selected by boys and girls. Boys normally favor violent programs; girls favor peaceful ones. Girls are also revealed to prefer violence less, appreciate it less, and view it as less sensible; they are more terrified and alarmed by television violence, act in response to it more emotionally, and watch it in a more occupied and less disengaged manner than boys do (ibid). In spite of the kinds of television programs favored, children who watch a great deal of television are inclined to view more violent programs than children who view fairly less television. Children who consume substantial amount of time watching television, particularly violent programs, are also more probable to display later hostility, aggression, agitation and a belief in a terrifying world (Fowles 1999). A widespread and significant issue raised when the potentially detrimental effects of television violence are discussed is that any relevant negative impacts are inclined to be identified and discriminating to those already disposed to violence. Several studies have demonstrated that children viewers who are more aggressive admitted that they watch or favor to watch more violent programs. Cross-cultural research implies that this finding seems to be applicable in almost every nation surveyed (ibid). Provided with the potential effect of television programs on children, the regulation of their viewing is of primary concern. Such regulation is frequently considered as the parents’ obligation, even though evidence indicates that depending on parents is often an unsatisfactory protection. Parental supervision over children’s watching of television seems to have been weakening for a number of decades (Hough & Erwin 1997). Rubinstein (1983) discovered that even though there was considerable parental involvement about the levels of sex and violence shown on television, parents put forth a fairly low degree of control over their children’s preference of what television programs to watch. Moreover, when parents have put limitations on what children can watch, the children have discovered means of violating these limitations. Usual strategies have included viewing programs on another television in a bedroom or in neighbors’ house, creeping downstairs and peeping through a door, or going to a friend’s house to watch (ibid). Major reports from important health sectors in the United States, namely, the 1972 Surgeon General’s account and the 1982 National Institute of Mental Health Review, concluded that television programs and advertisements contributed a significant portion in the lives of children and had a general potential to affect their aggressive behavior. The Surgeon General’s report revealed findings from several original and particularly commissioned studies of youngsters and teenagers, which used different research approaches (Evra 1990). The overall conclusion of this set of investigation was that constant exposure to television violence is a contributory factor provoking the aggressive dispositions of children, and may be specifically relevant among youngsters and teenagers who previously showed signs of aggressive behavior (ibid). The emergent perception from the United States in the contemporary period, hence, is that television is a contributory factor in relation to the stimulation of aggressiveness among young viewers, which means its effect starts to be felt prior to the child’s first schooling, and that it persists into adolescence, through which time the harm of amassed exposure during premature age is done. The case for causality with regard to television violence is thus proven. The mission is not to carry on the investigation of this media-effects matter, but to monitor what in fact appears on screen and regulate that material which has previously been demonstrated to have potentially detrimental side effects on young viewers (Fowles 1999). The cause-effect relationship is not accepted to the same degree in other societies; for instance, in Britain, where it is considered by newscasters and many intellectuals as unconfirmed. However, there is a concern on the extent of violence on television and the form and characteristic it takes (ibid). According to some media scholars, the relationship between watching violence on television and the degree of aggressiveness in children viewers mounts over time, with a number of children and adolescents appearing to be more vulnerable to harbor television dependency. Mediocre academic achievers, those who possess less developed social abilities and social networks, and those who imagines about violence all are inclined to show higher levels of aggressiveness. Such children also are predisposed to consume more time viewing television programs. Moreover, children who recognize more robustly with antagonistic television characters and see violence on television as being more realistic also have a propensity to show more obvious aggressive predispositions (Shimanovsky & Lewis 2006). Therefore, according to the social development framework, a combination of developmental aspects appears to integrate with television to advance aggressiveness. Researchers have conveyed concern that exposure to considerable amounts of television violence may desensitize children to actual violence. Even though the processes through which desensitization might take place is vague, it is probable that viewing violence on television may increase the child’s acceptance for actual violence either through indicating that such behavior is ordinary or through creating actual violence appear unimportant by comparison. Moreover, desensitization might take place through weakened emotional response to violence subsequent to viewing television violence (ibid). Further desensitization impacts have been shown with further graphic forms of violence, even though this research has commonly been restricted to adolescent men. Recurrent exposure to programs and movies depicting violence, often within a sexual backdrop where women are the injured parties, was discovered to alter the outlook of college men such that they turned out to be less concerned about rape victims and more tolerant in their judgments about suspected rapists (Shimanovsky & Lewis 2006). III. Conclusion Parents’ fears on the potential harmful effects of violent television program and advertising content are definitely applicable in the lens of Cultural Spillover Theory, which would speculate that the justification of violence for entertainment objectives may be relocated to other social interactions. Such spillover is intensified by the increasing flow of programs, advertisements, and video games, a greater part of which integrate the use of violence as indispensable features of play and socialization (Wober 1988). Parents and researchers acquainted with Social Learning Theory, specifically, would emphasize to the assumption’s premise that human behaviors are learned through observations of significant others, both real and a product of the imagination; when a violent act is pleased, as when a video game demands hostile acts be devoted prior to the player’s progress in the game domain, such increases the likelihood that such acts will be shaped in other social interactions. Actions that would typically be regarded as misbehavior in actuality, when confirmed and even demanded in game play, with no detrimental outcomes such as punishment or injury, teach the best tolerance and essentiality of such behaviors (ibid). Such lessons are specifically disturbing based on current discoveries in mental and developmental psychology, which claim that humans like their primate ancestors, have built in capabilities specifically designed to evolve the skill of imitating. Eventually, social interactions and play trigger the observational skills children have already learned, even if such knowledge has been gained with neither the intention to learn nor a consciousness that gaining knowledge has occurred. The positive or negative motivations children acquire in such situations determine whether violent behaviors persist. Mediated incentives and parental punishments, if any, influence upon the concluded tolerability of violent outburst, in that the confirmation of a violent act in the amusement world, when not counterattacked through a parental figure, can result in a child’s approval of similar behaviors in unrestrained actual world interactions (Gunter & McAleer 1997). Often and recurrent portrayal of violence, without negative repercussion, can hence lead to the integration of such violent characteristics into a child’s stock of social scripts. References Barlow, G. & Hill, A. Video Violence and Children. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1985. Evra, Van J. Television and Child Development. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1990. Fowles, J. The Case for Television Violence. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1999. Gunter, Barrie & McAleer, Jill. Children and Television. London: Routledge, 1997. Et al. Violence on Television: Distribution, Form, Context and Themes. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003. Hough, Kirstin J. & Erwin, Philip. "Childrens Attitudes toward Violence on Television." Journal of Psychology (1997): 415. Rubinstein, E.A. "Television and Behavior." American Psychologist (1983): 820-825. Shimanovsky, Michael & Lewis, Barbara Jo. "Influences Exerted on the Child Viewer when Exposed to Violent Imagery in Television and Print Advertising." Journal of Evolutionary Psychology (2006): 41+. Turner, C.W. et al. "Naturalistic Studies of Longterm Effects of Television Violence." Journal of Social Issues (1986): 51-73. Wober, M. "The Extent to which Viewers Watch Violence-Containing Programs." Current Psychology (1988): 76-92. Read More