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Television violence

As one watches television for entertainment or simply to keep up with what is going on in the world, one cannot escape the fact that violence is present in much of the content we consume on television, and because it is one of the most widely viewed media outlets by people of all ages, it can have a significant impact on us without us even realizing it.

Worries about violence being shown on the television has sparked a lot of conversation and debate on who’s responsibility it is that such acts are portrayed and broadcasted to the public, but more often the blame is shifted on the broadcasters, and what they choose to expose their audiences to, the main fear and argument against including violent acts in television programs is that might partake in and try to recreate these acts in real life, so the audience is left split one half is accepting of such violence and they see it as entertainment only and the other is afraid of it spreading and them falling as victims to these violent acts if they spread, nonetheless more regulations on such content could be beneficial and help illuminate any dangers of being exposed to it can occur so it’s a matter of balancing between the two sides on the broadcaster’s behalf, However, there is a smaller category of television programming which is identifiable by its heavy reliance on violence for its audience appeal (e.g. war, gangland, humorous, cartoon, sadistic crime, etc.)

Children and violence's impact

Children's exposure to violence has shifted from being a community issue in which children are exposed to different acts of violence in their neighborhoods, such as the use of guns, knives, and drugs in the case of lower class members of society, to now being a widely spread issue among all classes, thanks to television and other media broadcasting outlets, with an emphasis on television as one of the main outlets that the public had access to as appose to the internet and the streaming services we have today, being exposed to violence at such an early age, when the children are still developing, may have a long-term impact on them that will persist throughout their life as they grow older and this might be noticed in their emotional state as well as their behavior, for example children who were exposed to violent acts on television and in media over all or even their surrounding community and family have shown to have abnormal anger issues, they get irritated quite easily, they have trouble with maintaining a healthy sleeping pattern and night terrors, emotional anguish as well as the language they use being highly effected by the influence around them and what they see on television and other media broadcasting outlets, fear of being left alone and neediness.

PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) have been found when studies were conducted on children exposed to violent acts as well which is a disorder where those who have been through a traumatic, frightening, or deadly occurrence have which makes a lot of sense given the violent nature of the content these children consume, with all of these symptoms varying from moderate to severe depending on the child's age and stage of development when the violent content was consumed, the stimulation theory, as it is called, claims that to see violence performed in the visual media 'leads to an aggressive excitement that results in aggressive actions, The other hypothesis, often called imitation theory or learning theory,

Claims that the viewers - children in particular - learn and imitate violent behavior patterns from the characters in films or TV programs

Normalization of violence

Being exposed to violent acts constantly can develop numbness when it comes to how serious we take these violent acts if they were to occur in real life, meaning that  if we are used to seeing graphic content all the time it’s not shocking anymore to us and we start to see it as something normal and that is because the fear we have and the anxiety when exposed to violence become less and less prominent the more we are exposed to it so if it were to happen in real life we wouldn’t grasp the severity of it and we start to see violent occurrences as something normal and that in return can make us not be as empathic towards the victims of the violent acts as well as normalizing aggressive behavior as a trait.   

Violent stereo types

With the television being a versatile medium and a huge on in terms of that a lot of programs and films are broadcasted on it, that leads to the possibility of stereo typing cultures and countries to be known as hostile and violent giving a false perception of the reality, racial stereotyping associating an image of violence with these people, with younger people and children it’s harder to tell what is right and what is wrong on TV, so they will soak all of this information as facts and it will be engraved into their heads, even with adults, being constantly fed the same information all the time one starts to believe that that must be true, in return people start treating these cultures and countries in a different way, as if they are barbaric.

Aggression

At this point researchers have established a strong connection between media violence and exposure to it and aggression, studies have shown that almost 60-65% of TV programs contain violence and aggression can highly increase based on the amount of hours the viewer is exposed to and subjected to that violence.

Aggression related to the exposure of media violence can be divided to many categories like physical aggression where using physical force like beating, hitting, stabbing, kicking or using any form of physical force against other people or objects even because vandalizing a property can also be seen as physical aggression or another form of it can be verbal aggression like raising the voice and shouting or it can be domestic like it was mentioned previously where in a couple one of the two practice letting their anger on the other or in a family where one family member lets out their anger on the rest of the family members.

There is also another type of aggression that can be caused by being exposed to violence seen in media which is rash aggression where it is temporary and can be seen in the heat of the moment and subside when the argument is over like yelling at someone during a verbal altercation.

The violence portrayed in television programs, and its effects on the views can be seen as a debate because we cannot know exactly how people’s behaviors and responses are going to change after being subjected to it so on one hand we cannot deny that it has harmful effects especially on impressionable young people, but on the other some people simply just see it as a form of entertainment and can distinguish between real life and what they see in the media, so taking disposition that all violence in media is bad can be a problematic thing to say because not only it is used for entertainment purposes only but it can be used in a social context also and just like other content being portrayed in varying levels in the media such as pornography where people are also divided violence in media has a broad scale so there is no right or wrong answer  or should it exist or not it simple serves its purpose, but also too much of it definitely has bad influence and that is undeniable according to many studies conducted, so its usage concern more extensive inquiries concerning gender and youth primarily.

Violence and it's relation to gender

Generally speaking, violence on television is more associated with men than with women but that doesn’t mean that female violent acts are nowhere to be seen in the media or on TV with that being said media that portrays men practicing violence is taken a lot more seriously than women and the effects can be seen in domestic violence for example and that is one of the effects also of being exposed to violence in the media, seeing domestic violence between men and women can normalize it in real life, even subconsciously, there is and without a doubt a level of seriousness associated with when any of the genders commit violent  acts in real life, for example a woman committing a crime may cause a lot more outrage in the public’s perception than if a man did it, and that could be linked to femininity because being violent goes against the ideals of femininity so in a way they are said to be letting go of it so Subsequently a man committing violent acts whether it is on the television or in real life is might be somewhat pardoned because it is perceived as being part of his nature whereas the women not so much regarding her feminine nature.