Violence in TV programmes are extremely prevalent.
From drama serials
to movies
and even children cartoons.
According to the National Television Violence Study, 71% of the people who showed aggressive acts in TV programmes did not receive any negative consequence after that. Kaiser Family Foundation Report has also showed that about 15% of children watch television alone. Without parental supervision, the message that children might get is that violent acts are not wrong since they will not be punished for it.
We may not realise it, but there is a substantial amount of violence in children cartoons. The popular Tom and Jerry,
and even Looney Tunes.
Some cartoons are obviously violent, like Happy Tree Friends.
Cartoon violence is of concern because children can learn through Observational Learning. In the Bobo doll experiment by Albert Bandura, children who saw violent actions in the video shown, performed similar violent actions after that.
With the prevalence of violence in television programmes and lack of parental supervision, children might eventually grow up with a skewed perception of our world.
Word Count: 175
References:
- Criminal Minds poster: https://thebcmquibbler.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/wallpaper_criminalminds_1024x768.jpg?w=300
- Batman Begins Movie poster: http://ychittaranjan.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/the-dark-knight-poster-joker-batman-dent.jpg?w=423&h=277
- Tom and Jerry: http://gethealthinformations.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Tom-and-Jerry-Fighting.jpg
- Aggressive acts research: http://www.dumex.com.sg/young_children/child_development/article/tuning_out_tv_violence_from_your_children
- Without supervision: Kaiser Family Foundation, 1999. “Kids and Media @ the New Milleum.”: http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/Kids-Media-The-New-Millennium-Report.pdf
- Tom and Jerry scream compilation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tITaznmV8iI
- Most violent looney tunes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGH03m2pGEM&feature=related
- Happy Tree Friends: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIEiry4eLoY
- McLeod, S. A. (2011). Albert Bandura | Social Learning Theory. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html
- BoBo Doll: http://bio3520.nicerweb.com/Locked/chap/ch05/5_11-Bobo_doll.jpg
thebcmquibbler 
October 8th, 2012 at 11:03 pm
You start off by cting the evidence that watching screen violence has little effect – and then you make the case that it has considerable effects on children using the now much criticised Bandura experiment as an example. I think you’ll find your first statement is probably correct and that there is a considerable difference between violence perceived as ‘play’ and what makes people violent in real life.