Television, Violence, and Kids

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how, traditionally, people have looked for cues about how they should behave in their social environment from peers, family, school and church, and how, increasingly, these social cues regarding acceptable behavior have come from the media. It looks at how incidents such as the Columbine High School shootings were inspired by movies and the television. It discusses how television has a tremendous opportunity to instill good values and principles in today's youth, but because of the amount of violence shown, it instead inspires violent behavior in children and adolescents in a variety of ways, as well as a certain long-term desensitization towards violence.

From the Paper:

"By inflating the prevalence of violence, television contributes to increased perceptions of the world as a dangerous place (Center for Communication and Social Policy 28). This increases the motivation of a child or teen to carry a weapon. Among urban youths, studies have shown that interpersonal violence is the greatest cause of death and injury. Gun violence has replaced accidents as the leading killer of children and adolescents each year. Although violence on television is not the only factor in these deaths, pediatricians have recognized exposure to media violence as a significant risk for their constituents (Hogan et al)."

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