| Television today
is one of the most essential commodities of a
house. No house can be called a house without
a television. From the poorest families to the
richest the access to view a television is easy.
Having said this television is one of the key
areas for market ting goods, a very good pastime
to many people, a source of information etc.
Today however, television is the main cause of
violence across the globe. Television shows today
have to have a scene of violence. These scenes
effect the way we live and the relationships that
we posses. Violence on television does lead to
aggressive behavior by children and teenagers
who watch the programs. This conclusion is based
on laboratory experiments and on field studies.
Not all children become aggressive, of course,
but the correlations between violence and aggression
are positive. In magnitude, television violence
is as strongly correlated with aggressive behavior
as any other behavioral variable that has been
measured
Children often imitate and mimic the language
that is shown on T.V. This attitude can be proven
by the fact by the way of dressing, speaking style
and particular body language. This attitude also
affects the way people think in certain circumstances
in life.
The violence that is portrayed today in television
is enormous. Recent studies show that violence
which is portrayed on T.V. is usually what drives
people to act in a violent way. This effect can
be proven by the research that was done by two
television researchers Bandura and Ross. They
divided two sets of children into two groups.
One of the groups was shown a video in which a
doll was being kicked and treated in a violent
way. The other group was shown a video in which
the children were having a tea party with the
same doll. They took the children to a room where
they were kept alone with the same doll. The result
was that the children who saw the violent film
started to act violently by kicking the doll that
was displayed on T.V.
According to the audience rating (Nelsen, 1988)
the average American family has the television
on for more than seven hours each day. The study
also states that the children between the years
of 2 to 11 spend an average of 28 hours a week.
From this study we get to know that out of the
7 hours a day most of the time the television
is watched by the child.
In conclusion, media violence has many unhealthy
effects on children and adolescents. Even though
violence has been and will continue to be a staple
of our media environment, it is appropriate to
speak out when especially problematic presentations
are aired in contexts in which children are likely
to see them and when inappropriate programming
is actively marketed to vulnerable young people.
Although the entertainment industries are mostly
concerned with profits, they sometimes react to
large-scale criticism, and sponsors and local
television stations prefer to avoid public censure.
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