Does violence on televison lead to violence in real life?

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DOES VIOLENCE ON TELEVISION

LEAD TO VIOLENCE IN REAL LIFE?

S Hoyland                                                                                        R Walters

                                                                                                          P J Daly

Furness College

Channelside

Barrow-in-Furness

Cumbria

LA14 2PJ

INTRODUCTION

The debate on television violence has been on going for many years now and has produced a wide and varied set of views and research results.

Many well established psychologists have attempted, through various types of experiments and observations, to either support or negate a link between violence on television and the violent episodes in “real” life.

These sets of data have thrown up some interesting views and personal conclusions regarding the subject of television violence, and we will show the varying views and conclusions that some of these psychologists have reached; and by using a respected and well known system we will try to show the views of a small section of our community.

Previous research into the link between violence and television

Over the years numerous psychologists have produced thousands of experiments and

or research to support or negate the link between violence and television.

In 1987 a psychologist named Cumberbatch produced data on the actual amounts of violence found to be in British television programmes. He concluded that 30% of the programmes contained some form of violence, with an overall frequency of 1.14 violent acts per programme and 1.68 violent acts per hour. Each act of violence lasted an average 25 seconds leading to violence occupying just over 1% of total television airtime.

His research showed that in 26% of violent acts death occurred, but in 61% no injuries were shown and the victim was portrayed as being in pain or stunned. In 83% of cases, no blood was shown as a result of a violent act, and considerable blood and gore occurred in only 0.2% of cases.

Cumberbatch also revealed that most perpetrators of violent acts were more likely to be portrayed as “baddies” rather than “goodies”, and violence occurred twice as frequently in law breaking than in law-upholding contexts.

His research, although neither for or against violence on television, gives us an idea of the amount of violence on television we are exposed to.

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Howitt and Cumberbatch in 1974 analysed 300 studies of television violence and it’s direct effect on children’s behaviour, they played down the link between television violence and the children’s behaviour.

A further study into the relationships between the media and violence carried out by Eron 1987and Phillips 1986 found a different conclusion. They concluded that a positive correlation between the amount of aggression viewed at 8 and later aggression at 30 could be seen.

George Gerbner (1989) researched television and its influences on human behaviour and said:

“ Television influences human behaviour because there are “routes” or mechanisms ...

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