Affects of media violence Nearly four decades of research on television viewing and other media have documented the almost universal exposure of U. S. children to high levels of media violence (Norris, 187). Violence is a component characteristic of many television programs and unfortunately our lives. Every day we tend to watch news, and every day we hear that people were killed, robbed or tortured. Four out of ten people said that they had been the victims of actual or threatened violence in the United States. Usually I ask myself why some people have tendencies toward violence.
What factors cause those violent and aggressive behaviors? Among broad other reasons such as mental health, personal characteristics and economic status there is the violence in media that gives people those nonsensical ideas and inspiration. In my Core II research paper, I am manly concerned how children K-12 are affected by movie and television violence. In the long-term research over the forty years, researchers have proven the link between watching television violence and perpetrating actual violence and that exposure to TV violence is hazardous to children health and welfare.
Nonetheless, others have managed to conclude that there is no relationship what gives the issue controversy and a number of contributing factors must be consider (Journal of Psychology, July 1997). Factors that I have to take in consideration are: every day exposure to television (estimated time spent of watching TV), type of favorite programs, frequency of talking about death and violence with parents and friends, child age, gender differences, parental control and responsibility, peers, childs communication, orientation and interaction with environment and may other.
Four years ago I in my psychology class I have studied about learning habits in early childhood when I encountered affects of movie and television violence on child development. It was from psychological perspective but it gave me a good insight about the topic. Almost every day track in the news and politics only expended my knowledge in this field.
The only things I did not know were about U. S. Senate approval of an amendment which probe the marketing of violent and sexually explicit materials to minors, and about President Clintons effort and concern hat children by the time they are eighteen will be very exposed to violence and dramatized murders on television and movies. Research for my topic I began at home on the Internet but with very indigent results. I found few sites with extensive information on movie and television violence but they did not provide me with enough information and I headed to the UCF library. In the library, I started my research using on-line library catalog and the Web-LOUIS system.
Throughout these systems, I found several books related to my topic. These ystems did not provide me with sufficient information on journal nor magazine sources related to my topic. Thus, I shifted to another host system to look for journal and magazine sources relevant to my research. At first, I found plenty articles in various magazines available in the UCF library, but when I narrowed my search, I obtained just enough to operate with. I wrote down the call numbers for these magazines and journeyed trough the library to find those specific articles. When I found articles relevant to my topic, not all were easy to find,
I spent some quality time reading and researching. When I finished with sources available in the library I began my entire research process again but this time with Ebsco-hos where I also found loads of full text articles available on line relevant to my research.
Despite all the difficulty I thought I would encounter in my research, I am satisfied with my research process what was very successful. I will pursue my research even expand it in order to obtain better understanding and more information on the issue, conduct one more interview not with ordinary people like I already did.
