The Effect of Television Violence Upon Society

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VIOLENCE ON TELEVISION

This essay shall endeavour to critically examine the extent to which the current portrayal of violence on television is responsible for violent behaviour in society. Arguments both giving strength to the proposition and those against it shall be presented. Attention shall also be given to the way in which television is regulated, along with a comparison between UK and American case law.

Concern that violence on television is harmful to individuals and only serves to encourage criminal tendencies and violence has been ongoing for many years. Back in 1964, the issue of programme standards on the television was brought to public attention when Mary Whitehouse launched the ‘Clean-Up TV Campaign’. The campaign sought to remove the ‘exhibitions of sex and violence’ on television, with Mary Whitehouse asserting that: ‘If violence is constantly portrayed as normal on the television screen, it will help to create a violent society’. Over the following months, police incidents were recorded where there were strong grounds for believing that minors had been influenced into committing the act as a result of what they had viewed on television. Hansard records from December 1965 record Mr Anthony Wedgewood Benn (the then Postmaster General) as stating that ‘Radio and television exercise enormous importance in the lives of the community.. They have a greater impact – particularly television – than almost any other medium and they are major forces in shaping the thinking of young people’. Many feel that limited progress has been made in this area: 1978 saw the enactment of the Protection of children Act and the Video Recordings Act 1984 entered into force following a strenuous campaign against obscene and violent videos. The latter Act introduced the regulation of films by the British Board of Film Classification.

The organisation Media Watch UK provides statistics for the year 2003 relating to the number of films shown on television by the five terrestrial channels. Certainly, in light of these statistics (1120 incidents involving firearms and 765 violent assaults were portrayed in the 206 films shown), there is little doubt that violence and serious brutality is all too prevalent upon our screens. It is now essential to evaluate whether these depictions could reasonably be said to have an effect on the levels of violence in society today. The cases and arguments which give weight to the proposition that television violence does indeed contribute to crime shall first be examined.

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Much research has been carried out in this area over the years. A report recently carried out by Professor Kevin Browne at Birmingham University and published in The Lancet (February 2005) assets that violence on television (and computer games) does indeed increase the risk of children acting in a violent manner and suffering from emotional disturbances. The report states that the effect was ‘small but significant’ in the short term and of particular relevance in relation to young boys. Yet it also concedes that the effect is less clear as regards the effect on older children and in the longer ...

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