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TV Violence Is Harming Our Children What’s the most violent thing you’ve ever seen on television? A murder? An assassination? A deadly explosion? A war report on the nightly news? Whatever it was, the chances are, that image is etched in your memory. Now, we’re balanced young people. We know those images won’t do us any harm. Or do we? Could it be that even well-balanced people like ourselves are somehow affected by TV violence? I’d like to talk a little today about some of the things I’ve learned lately about TV violence, and I hope that by the time I’m done, you might see the whole issue a little differently. Let’s start by answering this question: What actually constitutes TV violence? After all, one person’s boxing match could be another person’s blood sport. So right at the outset, we have some difficulty in nailing down the issue. Not surprisingly, a lot of people have already tried to tackle this. After all, there’s a lot of money at stake in the TV business. When you start debating what should or should not be shown, there’s a lot riding on the outcome. Just ask the people who produce the shows. Ask the networks who collect the advertising revenue. One group which has made an attempt to define TV violence is The National Coalition on Television Violence. They have created Media Violence Guidelines, which describe violent acts as those that: · Involve an agent and a victim. · Contain an expression of overt force. · Are committed with deliberate and hostile intent. Their guidelines do not include accidents, emotional displays, horseplay, slapstick, threats, and sport activities as acts of violence. Now, if we accept that as a fair measure of media violence, and then apply that to what is actually being shown, this is what we find, according to the Coalition’s own publication - the NCTV News - for June 1991.
Approximate Word count = 1187
Approximate Pages = 4.7
(250 words per page double spaced)
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