TV Violence

Last week in AP Lang we had an in-class essay assignment that had to do with entertainment.  In this essay we had to defend, challenge, or qualify the statement that entertainment was "ruining society."  This got me thinking about my blog because I often talk about if I like or dislike something on TV but I never discuss the bigger issues of television itself.  It's actually a fairly controversial topic because there are so many things out there that are causing so many different opinions.  When I think about why this subject has gotten so much hype, I think about all the moms out there that are constantly complaining about the amount of violence on TV.  Which they definetly have a right to, there is a lot of violence, and it may or may not be affecting the youth.

I read a couple articles before beginning this blog to get an understanding of how violence is changing us.  A major argument I found was that it is "desensitizing us." This occurs because we keep seeing violence over and over again, and we being to stop reacting like we should.  This is a valid point.  I feel like in a lot of the shows I watch, when I see violence, I don't really react to it too much. But when my mom, who only watches TV occasionally, sees the same thing she responds with a gasp or a comment saying that it's awful to show on television.  But that's not all these articles are saying. Many go on to say that it's causing our youth to become more violent themselves.  Now I don't know about most people, but I find that hard to take as a legitimate reason.  I've been watching Law & Order since I was in elementary school and I'm pretty sure I've turned out okay. Obviously there must be some evidence to these accusations, and I'm sure they have some to show.  

The article Violence on TV: The Desensitizing of America points out some key research that highlights the cons to having these graphic images on TV.  This includes information such as 10% of violence in America is caused by TV.  One out of ten cases of violence are caused by television? Really? This seems so unrealistic to me. There are so much more factors that play into it, such as social, biological, and psychological factors, and yet people are focusing on the one thing that they can somewhat control. Another argument discusses how violence is glamorized or glorified. But I find that also hard to believe. I mean yes, kids are probably like "Oh cool! He can beat that guy up." But they aren't walking away saying "You know I bet I could do that. I'm going to go try it on a stranger."  

So yes, television will always be controversial in many aspects, but that's why it's called entertainment.  It will keep surprising us for years and years, and hopefully will never stop. If you're interested and reading more articles about the topic of violence in TV, here are some more articles that I found interesting/useful in learning about it.
Violence Formula: Analyzing TV, Video, and Movies 
Media Violence and Aggresion