TV Violence
Affects of media violence "Nearly four decades
of research on television
viewing and other media have documented the almost
universal exposure of U.S.
children to high levels of media violence"
(Norris, 187). Violence is a
component characteristic of many television
programs and unfortunately our
lives. Every day we tend to watch news, and
every day we hear that people were
killed, robbed or tortured. Four out of
ten people said that they had been the
victims of actual or threatened
violence in the United States. Usually I ask
myself why some people have
tendencies toward violence. What factors cause those
violent and aggressive
behaviors? Among broad other reasons such as mental
health, personal
characteristics and economic status there is the violence in
media that gives
people those nonsensical ideas and inspiration. In my Core II
research paper,
I am manly concerned how children K-12 are affected by movie and
television
violence. In the long-term research over the forty years, researchers
have
proven the link between watching television violence and perpetrating
actual
violence and that exposure to TV violence is hazardous to children health
and
welfare. Nonetheless, others have managed to conclude that there is
no
relationship what gives the issue controversy and a number of
contributing
factors must be consider (Journal of Psychology, July 1997).
Factors that I have
to take in consideration are: every day exposure to
television (estimated time
spent of watching TV), type of favorite programs,
frequency of talking about
death and violence with parents and friends, child
age, gender differences,
parental control and responsibility, peers, child’s
communication, orientation
and interaction with environment and may other.
Four years ago I in my
psychology class I have studied about learning habits
in early childhood when I
encountered affects of movie and television
violence on child development. It
was from psychological perspective but it
gave me a good insight about the
topic. Almost every day track in the news
and politics only expended my
knowledge in this field. The only things I did
not know were about U.S. Senate
approval of an amendment which probe the
marketing of violent and sexually
explicit materials to minors, and about
President Clintons effort and concern
that children by the time they are
eighteen will be very exposed to violence and
dramatized murders on
television and movies. Research for my topic I began at
home on the Internet
but with very indigent results. I found few sites with
extensive information
on movie and television violence but they did not provide
me with enough
information and I headed to the UCF library. In the library, I
started my
research using on-line library catalog and the Web-LOUIS
system.
Throughout these systems, I found several books related to my
topic. These
systems did not provide me with sufficient information on
journal nor magazine
sources related to my topic. Thus, I shifted to another
host system to look for
journal and magazine sources relevant to my research.
At first, I found plenty
articles in various magazines available in the UCF
library, but when I narrowed
my search, I obtained just enough to operate
with. I wrote down the call numbers
for these magazines and journeyed trough
the library to find those specific
articles. When I found articles relevant
to my topic, not all were easy to find,
I spent some quality time reading
and researching. When I finished with sources
available in the library I
began my entire research process again but this time
with Ebsco-hos where I
also found loads of full text articles available on line
relevant to my
research. Despite all the difficulty I thought I would encounter
in my
research, I am satisfied with my research process what was very
successful. I
will pursue my research even expand it in order to obtain
better
understanding and more information on the issue, conduct one more
interview not
with ordinary people like I already did.