graphically. Violent cartoons can be seen by children as not hardly being violent at all as even tho it contains a high count of violent acts
it is subjective, therefore subjective assessment of the film War of The Worlds can limit a childs emotionally suffering.
The third and final assumption is "Violent images can be extreemly distubing to children and the impact of these can be long lasting". This
can be related to Eron's longitudinal study on the aggressiveness of children in correlation to the amount of television watched. One of the
key findings in the study was that the amount of television watched at a young age predicted the level of later aggressiveness. Eron found
that there was evidence that children who were aggresive when they were young tended to wach more violent television progreammes when
they are older.
Part 2
This relates to the first assumption. The Social Learning Theory was devised through Bandura's most famous study in 1963.
He exposed groups of children to violence. Bandura explained how children learn new behaviour by imitating their role models.
A real life situation or a film in which a model beat up a rubber "Bobo Doll", was shown to the children, afterwards the children
were given the opportunity to reproduce the behaviour observed and their responses were compared to that of a control group
who had not seen the model. The findings indicated that the children who had watched the model behaved more aggressively
than the control group often producing many of the specific actsof the model. Bandura concluded that children could learn through
imitation quite spontaneaously without any deliberate effort on the part of the model or the learner.
According to Gunther and McAleer, viewers can be highly discriminating when it comes to portrayals of violence, and arn't invariably read
into T.V content the same meanings researchers do. Thus, merely knowing how often certain predefined incidents occur in programmes
doesnt tell us how significant these features are for viewers. The potential for emotional upset is increased when violent portrayals are set
in a relistic setting, when the violence is depicted as justified or rewarding, when viewers identify with the characters and when the victims pain
is shown graphically. Programmes which are extreemly violent in terms of objective counts of violent acts which can be seen by children as not
violent at all.
Eron (1982) and Husemann, Lagerspit, and Eron (1984) reported on a major longitudinal study. First of all, the amount of television watched and
levels of aggressivenesswere assessed in some young children. Then aggressiveness and the amount of television watched were reassessed in
the same participants seven years later. One of the ke finsdings was that the smount of television violencewatched at a young age predicted the
level of later aggressiveness (measured by the number of criminal convisioctns by the age of 30). This suggeststhat watching television violence
may be one of the cause of aggressive behaviour. In addition,. there was evidence to suggestthat children who were aggressive when young tended
to watch more violent television porogrammes several yers later. This suggests that more aggressive individuals choose to watch more violent
television programmes.
Part 3
If we accept Social Learning Theory in relation to the first assumption then young people would imitate their role models, therefore after
watching a film like War of The Worlds, children should be aware of how to behave, which in society should be a non-violent way. Peer
mentors such as police officers or social workers and parents would have a major influence on the mentality of young people, causing them
to choose the safe non-violent lifestyle. A problem with this is that a variety of role models would be needed to appeal to a cross
section of young people. Additionally role models may not wish to be associated with youths involved in violent acts as they are
not highly looked upon in society.
If we are to accept Gunther and McAleer's findings then subjective assessment of violence should be used and incorporated into the film.
Children would be viewing the intended film however psychologically ignoring the violent content no matter how high the frequency of violent acts
occuring. Therefore this would reduce the chances of upsetting children and protecting their emotional wellbeing and , however this has implications.
It would be unrealistic to suggest that a film with set plans and ideas should be moulded to a specific target population.
If we are also to accept Eron's findings then childrens time watching television should be limited and the programmes watched monitored and therefore
should be guided away from watching the film War of The Worlds. This would prevent increased aggressiveness at a later stage in life, as the chance
of a child witnessing violent acts are reduced. An implication of this would be that the parents/guardians of the child could be accused of inhibiting the
childs fun and entertainment, especialliy if the child particuly would like to see the film, and this may be frowned upon and/or seen as over protective in todays
society.
