Now in days violence is all around us. It's in the streets, it's in our daily news, its even in our living rooms. Do you realize that as you are reading this, someone out there is dying a brutal death, a baby is being mistreated and someone is getting raped? In a world where everything is at the extent of our reach how are we ever going to stop violence? As you read along, you will come across my beliefs on media being one of the sources but not the primary cause of violence.


Television came out in 1927. In 1948 prime time scheduling began and there were only four television networks available. “In 1950, only 10% of American homes had a television and that 10% of people were mainly wealthy. By 1960 the percentage had grown to 90%. Today 99% of homes have a television and most of the children have one in their bed rooms". If most children have a television in their room then who’s controlling what they are watching?

I think the problem here isn’t the media having an influence on the children but the parents who allow their children to watch anything at anytime they want. I agree with television having some sort of an influence on small children but it’s up to the parents to teach them how to distinguish the difference between the media and reality.

In the early days programs such as The Queen's Messenger was aired on WRGB in 1928. In the fifties shows like The Adventures of Superman, I love Lucy and Death Valley Days were very popular. Now in days shows like The Bad Girls Club and Seducing Cindy are well known. Everyone relies on television for their source of information and entertainment. Television has become a significant part of our everyday life. It's utterly impossible to imagine life without it.

Back then shows like Leave it to Beaver and I Love Lucy were very innocent compared to The Bad Girls Club. The Bad girls Club is a huge example of what television has turned into. It’s a reality show with a bunch of “Bad” girls terrorizing the house, fighting in clubs, and having sex with different guys. It’s on during the day and certain times at night. It just proves how kids are able to watch something like this and actually think it’s OK. The parent’s might not notice what their kids are watching since it’s on the Oxygen channel. Kids are imitating what they see and then we wonder why the rate of teen pregnancy has gone up.

There has been a lot of controversy about the violence in T.V shows. Violence and nudity is shown in a lot of video games, television programs, ads, films and music lyrics. Some people feel that there is too much violence exposed in the media. Many scholars believe that T.V is the number one cause of the rise in violence. Turn on your T.V at any time of day and you can bring a murder scene right into your living room. Most likely, as many Americans, you've grown accustomed to it and even expect this to happen. Now watch it through the eyes of a child and think about how common it is for us to watch violence on any program. What do you think a child would absorb from the media if we view violence as "normal"? Many studies have made the claim that the media is the main cause of violence.

"Scientific research is clearly showing that watching violence makes people more violent – and not just at the time they watch the violence, that is, not just on the school yard as children, but years later, as adults. Many of us are already concerned about our society and our culture today – what happens when this generation grows up?"said Sen. Sam Brownback. If the main cause of violence comes from the media then what do we do, Throw out our television?

To answer that question, I personally believe that as grown ups we should be able to separate the media from reality. I never heard of an adult going on a killing spree just because he saw it on t.v. It is more believable for a young kid to get influenced by t.v, especially if the parents don't teach him/her the difference between reality and the media. Regardless of the negativity associated with children watching television there are people who believe television is good for kids. According to an article written by Carey Bryson, She writes how healthy viewing habits can be beneficial to children that watch t.v. "Three quarters of parents do not feel guilty about their child watching television and when appropriately managed and supervised, believe it or not it can have a positive influence in a child's life," according to psychologist Tanya Byron.



Most surveys and articles I've come across are comparing kids who watch a lot of t.v to kids who don't watch it all. Obviously most of the kids who don't watch a lot of t.v come from families who can afford to keep their children occupied in different activities. As a way to really acknowledge the differences between kids who watch a lot of T.V and kids who watch a minimal amount of educational programs researchers would have to run an experiment over time. There is no way most of these studies are completely true if experts are comparing kids who live in very different environments. Kids who watch a little to no T.V have all sorts of fundamental things to do that have nothing to do with the impact of television and as a group they belong to families much wealthier than those who watch hours and hours. In order for experts to really examine the influence of T.V on kids they would have to do a long term test on two kids who live in the same type of environment, stick one of them in front of the T.V for hours a day (which I doubt any parent would allow) and the other kid would go along his/her normal everyday no-t.v routine. Then, I would agree with the media having a negative influence on kids.

Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro, two economist from the unversity of chicago conducted a recent study for long term affects on television and children. They proved that television can affect children in different ways depending on where you lived and when you were born. If you were born in 1948 and lived in Denver when television became popular in 1952, then your brain would be less "damaged" then a kid born in Seattle, 1948 (where TV had already begun broadcasting ).They also compared test scores within the same city for kids born at different times and found no distinction between their test scores and education.

Gentzkow and Shapiro got ahold of the 1965 test score data for 300,000 kids. They looked for any major effects of television exposure and found that there were no vital test-score differences between kids who lived in cities that were exposed to TV earlier than others. When it came to homework and drop out rates there were no changes at all. If anything, the data revealed a small positive improvement in test scores for kids who got to watch more television when they were young. Also, kids who spoke English as a second language benefited a little and did well on test scores based on reading and common knowledge.

Since the main concern here is the influence of television on young kids then I believe parents should limit the amount of time kids watch t.v. They should interact more with their children. Children mimic what they see and can spend more than thirty two hours weekly in front of the t.v, while only spending thirty in class. If the children are watching t.v more than they are learning, then they are bound to be influenced by it. Parents should keep their child occupied with productive activities. There are activities that don't require spending. It's a matter of being creative and taking a part in your child's learning. Another option parents can consider is keeping the television out of bedrooms. This would limit the amount of time spent on watching t.v and would also keep the parents aware of what their children are watching. But like I mentioned in the beginning television can have an influence on children but it is not harmful if the parent's are aware of what the kids are watching.