Com150 Finals

Com150 Finals

Running Head: TELEVISION VIOLENCE AND ITS EFFECTS ON CHILDREN

Television violence and its effects on children

Steven Griffiths
University of Phoenix

COM150

Disconnecting Reality from Reality TV
It’s an all too familiar sight; you turn on the new, or open up the paper only to see the sad headline about a child being killed as a result of TV violence. On July 2, 1999, in a small community in Dallas, Texas a 7 year old boy was accidently killed by his brother while attempting the “clothesline” maneuver as seen on TV, more importantly it was seen watching the popular wrestling matches on television.   This opened the nations eyes to just how influential children are to the programs they are viewing.
It would seem as though, the violence viewed on the TV programs of today is graphic and more disturbing than in television of the past. The television of today is most gruesome and shocking – all but gone are the days of The A-Team, F Troop, Happy Days, and the Lone Ranger. Television of the past is far tamer by a comparison of today's available programming. Some of the reasoning is that most television networks are free to become as violent as humanly possible, without the oversight of the government. Television is nowhere near the same as it was even 5 years ago; it’s not the same it was 50 years ago, but, again, and here we are.   How influential is our society? It would seem as though we just want to emulate everything we see on television, we also want everything we see on television.   When is the time to draw the fine line between reality, and the reality in “The Box”?   Who ultimately takes responsibility for the programming and its viewing audience:   Parents, the broadcast corporation, or the producers, or maybe the company that produced the television?
TV violence has no consequences
Think about what it is you are watching on TV, or at the movies, the hero of the film (who always wins by any means necessary) carries a gun.   What he does...