Violence on TV

Surely the things that happen on the screen don’t change you if you can manage to separate the reality from fiction or do they?

In 1970s psychologist Albert Bandura studied the influence of violent scenes and the tendency of children to imitate what they see. Albert proved that children imitate the models of the aggressive behavior. As a result of 15 years of “consistently disturbing” findings about the violent content of children's programs he identified these major effects of it:

Children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others.

Children may be more fearful of the world around them.

Children may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others.

So quite impressive, right? But that’s not all.

The research by psychologists L. Rowell Huesmann, Leonard Eron and others starting in the 1980s found that children who watched many hours of violence on television when they were in elementary school tended to show higher levels of aggressive behavior when they became teenagers. By observing these participants into adulthood, Huesmann and Eron found that the ones who'd watched a lot of TV violence when they were 8 years old were more likely to be arrested and prosecuted for criminal acts as adults.

Well you can say that nobody can be absolutely certain what caused the violence like is it an impressive thriller or childhood trauma. But studies reveal that children watch approximately 28 hours of television a week which is more time than they spend in school. The typical American child will view more than 200,000 acts of violence, including more than 16,000 murders before age 18. Children's programming, particularly cartoons, displays up to 20 violent acts hourly. Not a surprise that after such a brutal impact kids grow up rebellious and immoral.

But what about adults? Do they get influenced too? Yes, indeed. The tv violence doesn’t shock us as much as the real-life one so it seems to be more acceptable sometimes even normal and habitual. In many other cases the aggression is shown by positive and attractive characters so it gets encouraged and admired. Moreover, the demonstration of brutality on the screen excites the nerve system and that leads to the aggressive behavior of viewers,  heavy TV viewers think that the world is more dangerous than it actually is. This phenomenon is often called the "mean world" syndrome.

Well, that makes you believe that spending a lot of time watching crime shows is not a good idea, doesn’t it? And even though  you realize how harmful can your obsession with thrillers be why do you still want to do it so badly? There`re different points of view on that problem. Zillman suggested that the psychological tension people experience when they see others being in danger contributes more bright emotions in the end when everything is alright (the stress in the beginning is worth the satisfaction afterwards). But this theory doesn`t approach to the cases when there’s no happy ending. However, Tamborini said that horror films appeal to the people with low level of empathy, while whose who have high level usually worry about characters too much and that spoils the impression. Slater believes that thrillers fulfill the human`s need of adrenalin and excitement. Sparks states that watching that kind of films helps to forget about everyday problems, Cantor calls horrors “the forbidden fruit” as he thinks that their attractiveness is in the fact that they are not socially approved. Goldstein claims that people watch these films for company and just to spend some time together with friends since people feel closer to each other when they`re frightened.

But there`re also some interesting points of view on that problem as some researchers believe there`s actually no negative impact of the violent content on people. The thoughts differ starting with the suggestion that people can only be affected if they are already prone to aggressive behavior and ending with the opinion that watching somebody suffering makes people more sensitive to the moral rules and feel guilt and also that television helps releasing bad energy and contributes the decrease of real-life aggression. But as Nicholas Johnson said: “All television is educational television. The question is: what is it teaching?”

So besides the obvious points of influence there`re some of those which can indirectly affect your life:

• Violence Has No Consequences

In the movies no one gets seriously hurt. If kids don't see the consequences of violence it teaches them that violence doesn't cause serious harm. And when heroes use violence it sends a message that it is an appropriate way to respond to problems. Furthermore, the real world consequences of violence — the physical handicaps, financial expense, and emotional cost — are never a part of the plot. Also when people are killed, they simply disappear. No one mourns their death. Their lives are unimportant.

• A World of Good and Bad

Media violence takes place in a world of good and bad. In most TV programs and movies, viewers' emotions have to be enlisted very quickly. Deeper, more realistic, more ambiguous characterizations make it hard for viewers to know who to root for. It`s also made foe good guys to contrast so their sins would not be that obvious. As a result, TV and film criminals are l00% bad. No one could care about them. They have no families. They deserve no sympathy and they get what they deserve.

• Adorable violence

Aggression in the cartoons is shown brightly and beautifully. If you infuse the images of sadism into the already established ideas of beauty violence will become a part of them. That’s how the new aesthetic perception and the cultural ideals get formed.

So I did my own research on that topic and asked some people what they think.