research paper-media voilence

1Media violence and its impact on child behavior

Submitted By

Maria Sajjad

BSc (hons) Economics

2009-2012

Beaconhouse National University


Abstract

“If you came and you found a strange man...teaching your kids to punch each other, or

trying to sell them all kinds of products, you'd kick him right out of the house, but here

you are; you come in and the TV is on, and you don't think twice about it.” (Jerome

Singer). Media has the potential to generate both positive and negative effects on the

youth as well as children. In the present era it is said to be one of the best educational

tool, but the question that lies here is “what is it teaching?” If it is displaying violence

then what impact would this have on a child’s behavior? In our paper we will be focusing

on the aspect that does Medias’ portrayals of interpersonal violence generates aggression

among the observers, if so, how? Further we will determine the impact of media violence

on the youth, and to what extent does it disrupts the behaviors of the child and gain an

insight into the correlation between media violence and the aggressive behavior within

children, and which effects of violence does the media portray in the form of cartoons or

video games for the children, which in turn stimulates aggressive and violent behavior.

Our research tools includes the secondary data from the web, the newspaper articles as

well as study of related books and the primary data in form of surveys that we will

conduct on which our research will be based. Through discussing different aspects of our

topic we have presented a number of recommendations to the parents, government and

the media organization through which this media violence can be lessen and its increased

impact on children can be reduced.


Introduction

Media is defined as one of the primary source of awareness in the present world. In general,

"media" refers to various means of communication. For example, television, radio, and the

newspaper are different types of media. There are some advantages as well as the disadvantages

of televised media, besides the advantages, here we are focusing on one of the unnoticeable

disadvantage of media that is the violence portrayed by the media, and what impact does it leave

on the children, what behavioral changes are developed within the children and how does the

constant exposure to this violence leads children to develop aggressive behavior. Media violence

is defined as the depictions of physical force, threats and harmful consequences that occur as a

result of unseen violent acts, which are labeled as violent depictions, credible threats, behavioral

acts and harmful consequences. It is seen that media violence poses a threat to public health in as

much as it leads to an increase in real-world violence and aggression. It is seen through research

that fictional television and film violence contribute to both a short-term and a long-term

increase in aggression and violence in young viewers and children. Video games are clearly

capable of producing an increase in aggression and violence in the short term, although no long-

term longitudinal studies capable of demonstrating long-term effects have been conducted. The

relationship between media violence and real-world violence and aggression is moderated by the

nature of the media content and characteristics of and social influences on the individual exposed

to that content. Still, the average overall size of the effect is large enough to place it in the

category of known threats to public health. Extensive research has documented the link between

TV viewing and violent behavior. Thousands of studies have been done since the 1950s, with all

but 18 affirming the connection, an analysis posted by the University of Michigan shows. By the

time a child turns 18, he has seen roughly 200,000 violent incidents and 16,000 murders on TV,

the analysis finds. Long-term exposure to such images desensitizes viewers to consequences and

reduces inhibitions, making violent behavior more likely. Promoting media literacy is the most

frequently recommended solution put forth by social researchers and child advocates to counter

violent media influences. With help from organizations that monitor and track these influences,

parents can limit exposure to potentially harmful music, movies and video games. And can be

done by replacing TV with activities that stimulate mental and intellectual development, such as

reading.


Theoretical framework

Effect on

AAA

Constant exposure to media violence

Stimulates aggressive behavior in children

Causes children to develop heightened

fear in world

Less sensitive to pain and suffering from

others

Child Behavior

Unable to distinguish between fantasy and

facts

If continued they become a threat to

the society

This includes video games, cartoons and wwf etc., all programs portraying media violence

Other factors leading to aggression in children

Gender, male are more vulnerable to adopt aggressive

behavior than the females

Mental disabilities Children belonging to Dysfunctional families


Research Questions

For our research on ‘media violence and its impact on child behavior’ we have complied the

following major research questions

1. Is the violence gratuitous or justified? Does it have consequences?

2. Does the introduction of media violence stimulate the violent behavioral changes in

children?

3. Are Children who watch high levels of media violence are at increased risk of aggressive

behavior as adults?

4. Children who consume high levels of media violence are more likely to be aggressive in

the real world?

5. How does televised violence result in aggressive behavior?

6. Does the child see television violence as realistic?

7. What role can parents play in order to moderate, mediate and reduce such influence?

Hypothesis statement

Null hypothesis: Children who watch high levels of media violence are not at increased

risk of aggressive behavior

Alternative hypothesis: Children who are subjected to media violence are at an

increased risk of aggressive behavior.


Rationale of study

In our opinion the research on ‘Impact of media violence on child behavior’ is important and

crucial due to the reason that our study and in-depths unveils the different aspects of how media

violence has an impact on the behavior of children and youth and how does the violence that the

media portray leads to the behavioral changes in people and children leading to the real violence,

and how can this be controlled. Further the purpose of this paper is to review experimental

studies and short-term field investigations designed to assess the influence of violence in the

mass media on aggressive behavior in the viewer. Moreover the research paper is important from

the point of view that it gives analyses of both childhood and adulthood behavioral changes, and

how certain cues in the media may trigger the activation of aggressive scripts that are acquired in

any manner and thus stimulate aggressive behavior. Further to investigate the role of media and

to make them realize their voluntary responsibility of adhering to an accepted ‘code of conduct’,

preferable chalked out in consultation with regulators/ government agencies. On the other hand

the research paper also focuses on the parental attitudes toward media violence can mitigate the

impact it has on children.


Time Frame

The era of consideration for the collection of research on the topic is 1963 to date. We

have chosen this era because most of the research was done in this period, experimentally

and non-experimentally.

We have spent about 21 working days collecting the data, 7 days to analyze it and 4 days

to compile the research paper.

Research Methodology

Our primary source includes the surveys from the parents of children under the age of 12.

Our secondary source includes the web search, review of the newspaper articles and the detailed

study of the related books.


Literature review

In the article ‘impact of TV violence on children and adolescent’ , Barbara Frazier, M.S.W

analyzed the impact of the growing violent content in media and the adverse effects it leaves on

the audience, here the target audience that he is catering with are children and the adolescents

and what behavioral changes does the media in cultivates in the audience. Then he further gave

the example of the TV shows like WCW (world champion wrestling) that portrays violent

content and certain cartoons that pictures violence and how does this stimulates aggressive

attitudes within the children and adolescents.

Barbara Frazier then further provided with the statistics which states that “The Nielson data

collected in 1993 reveals that the American child watches TV 21 to 23 hours per week. On the

average this includes about 2½ hours per day for children up to the age of five, about 4 hours per

day for children between the ages of five and twelve, and then viewing drops off to 2 to 3 hours

during adolescence. Furthermore, 98% of American households have TVs, making television the

single most important source of media in the lives of children and adolescents.”

Further he stated that their exists a positive and direct relationship between media violence and

aggression and he states that this media violence have two major effects of the exposure to media

violence can be , the first that this could cause desensitization to violence this means that

children will be willing to accept violence and will be themselves perpetrate for ti, the other

major impact that it will leave is that the due to the continuous exposure children will believe

that this world is primarily a dangerous and unsafe place.

Barbara Frazier, then conducted a thorough research that how is media violence and aggressive

behavior positively correlated, and he further proved it through the experimental work of

different theorists,

In the article “media violence and youth” by Nisar Ahmed Khattak published on May 30th,

2010, the man emphasis was on how the violence portrayed by media brings about the behavioral

changes in children and what adverse effects does it leave on the youth. In this article the writers

says that children under between the age group 4 t0 12 are more vulnerable to the media violence

and this is due to the fact that they in between this age they are unable to distinguish between the

fantasy and the facts and may take those violent acts that they see in the cartoons or movies as an

ordinary occurrence and start applying them. The writer after studying the child psychology and

after doing a thorough research further adds that children are innocent and they start imitating he


heroes in the media, and it is seen that unfortunately the entire hero’s are rewarded for

violent/bold actions. So the children when views these aggressive actions and violent acts, then

this has an effect that this leads to the behavioral changes in the children. The short term

behavioral changes according to the writer are the aggressiveness in the physical/verbal

behavior, where as the long-term effects can be much more adverse affecting the society as a

whole. Then the writer provided some of the recommendations that how can we regulate this

media violence and further suggested the role of parents in this aspect, in order to decrease the

magnitude of the effect of media violence.

In the article “Violence in the Media-Effects on Child Behavior” by Kelly nault, the writes says

that the violence portrayed in media has a negative effect on the child behavior, according to the

writer and her research witnessing television violence causes children to become less sensitive to

pain and suffering from others, in addition the constant exposure causes children to have

heightened fear in the world and causes then to demonstrate highly aggressive behavior and

violent behavior towards others.

Then the writer further suggested some steps and policy recommendation that how can this be

controlled, few of the recommendations to the parents are like time limit on the watching TV,

In the article ‘media violence spurs fear, aggression in kids’ by Marinda Hitti published in Feb.

17th, 2005 the writer says the violence that is portrayed in media that appears in the form of

cartoons, movies, video games or on the computer screens can have an effect on the thoughts,

emotions and the behavior of the kids who watch this. The writer further in her article says that

over the years there has been a research on how media violence effects the child behavior and in

her article the two British experts from the university of Birmingham add to the debate as "There

is consistent evidence that violent imagery in television, film and video, and computer games has

substantial short-term effects on arousal, thoughts, and emotions," write Kevin Browne, PhD,

and Catherine Hamilton-Giachritsis in The Lancet's Feb. 19 edition.

The two researchers reviewed many researches on media violence and kids, and all of the studies

were done in North America, form the six research papers two of them comprises of the TV and

movies, while other four comprised of video and computer games.

They concluded that the violent imagery that is shown, stimulates aggression behavior more in

the young boys and children then in girls, the researchers also point out the fact that the effects is

more evident in the younger children then the older ones.


Now the question that arises is that which kids are more effected by the media violence, the

answer to this is that besides the age, the personality and gender also plays a significant role, like

boys are more effected then the girls, further a little research has been done that how mental

health make a difference and how children having mental health respond to media violence and

have more chances to fall prey and develop aggressive behavior. Secondly the writer says that

the children who belong to the dysfunctional families respond to this media violence and develop

aggressive behavior. "For example, growing up in a violent family and being a victim of violence

or witnessing violence between others is known to have a strong effect on a person's

predisposition to act aggressively". The writer then says that how can we put media violence in

perspective, that can be done if the parents monitor their children, this is hard for them to keep a

check and monitor their children’s media habits. With movies, cartoons, video games their

parents don’t know what they are watching. The writer says that this is a serious issue and should

be taken notice of by the parents in order to save their children from ruining their personality. In

the research on the effects of media violence and its effects on aggression by Jonathan

L.freedman, the author studied the different researches on how media violence leads to

aggression in children; the research included the experimental tests in order to analyze the impact

of constant exposure of media violence on child behavior. One of the researches was conducted

In 1956, researchers took to the laboratory to compare the behavior of 24 children watching TV.

Half watched a violent episode of the cartoon Woody Woodpecker, and the other 12 watched the

non-violent cartoon The Little Red Hen. During play afterwards, the researchers observed that

the children who watched the violent cartoon were much more likely to hit other children and

break toys. In his research paper he supported the argument with certain experiments like his

research included the recent research, exploring the effect of new media on children’s behavior.

Craig Anderson and Brad Bushman of Iowa State University reviewed dozens of studies of video

games. In 2001, they reported that children and young people, who play violent video games,

even for short periods, are more likely to behave aggressively in the real world; and that both

aggressive and non-aggressive children are negatively affected by playing. But at the same point

he also pointed out that there are other factors as well leading to the development of aggressive

behavior in children, which includes gender, where boys are more vulnerable in developing

aggressive behavior then the girls. And further he provided certain measures and

recommendations as well.


Data and statisticsWe worked on the cross-sectional data, where we referred to different research paper/ articles around the world, and collected data and worked on it.

Some of the statistics and data on ‘Violence in the Media’ are as follows:

Huston and colleagues have estimated that the average 18-year-old will have viewed 200,000 acts of violence on television (Huston, A.C., Donnerstein, E., Fairchild, H. et al. Big World, Small Screen: The Role of Television in American Society. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.)

41% percent of American households have three or more televisions (Nielsen Media Research, 2000).

56% of children ages 8-16 have a television in their rooms (Annenberg Public Policy Center, 2000. Media in the Home 2000)

Percentage of television-time children ages 2-7 spend watching alone and unsupervised: 81 (Kaiser Family Foundation, 1999. "Kids and Media @ the New Millennium.")

Television alone is responsible for 10% of youth violence. (Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Report, 1999.)

Average time per week that the American child ages 2-17 spends watching television: 19 hours, 40 minutes (Nielsen Media Research, 2000)

Percentage of day care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70 (Tashman, Billy. "Sorry Ernie, TV Isn't Teaching." New York Times. Nov 12, 1994.)

Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 (Barber, Benjamin. Harpers. Nov 1993: 41)

Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1,023 (Nielsen Media Research, 2000)

Graphical statistics of youth violence at school

http://youthviolence.edschool.virginia.edu/violence-in-schools/images/natlstatvict.gif


Hypothesis Testing

After thorough research and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, we have tested our

hypothesis and the results are as follows,

We reject “Null Hypothesis” and accept “Alternate Hypothesis”

Alternative hypothesis: Children who are subjected to media violence are at an increased risk of

aggressive behavior.

Results

The results derived from the through research are that the constant exposure to the

televised/media violence have an adverse effect on the child behavior, stimulating aggression in

the children.

Here we get the answer to all the research questions that we complied for our research paper;

Through our research we came to know that violence portrayed in media has an adverse effect on

the child behavior and it is not justified, this has the consequences like development of

aggression in children if constantly exposed to violent content. After a thorough research we

came to know that the constant exposure to media violence stimulates aggression in children and

these children as more likely to be aggressive as adults. We come to know after the research and

after studying few research papers by the different psychologists that the children cannot identify

between the fantasy and facts, so due to this reason they are more vulnerable to media violence.

Further there are some policy recommendations in order to reduce the impact.

Survey Results

We conducted a survey from 15 mothers and the following are the results of each question, in

form of the percentages.

Question 1

From the survey we conducted, 80% were the mother of boys and 20% were the mothers of girls

Question 2

20% mothers= option a, that is less than 2 hours

50% mothers= option b, that is 2-3 hours

30% mothers = option c , that is more than 3 hours

Question 3


The mothers of the boys that is, 80% of the mothers said that their children watch/play

fighting/arcade cartoons/games. 20% of the mothers said that their children watch/play

comedy/family cartoons/games.

Question 4

70% of the mothers said that their children watches WWF, X-men, transformers etc. out of these

70% mothers of the boys, 60% said yes their child copy them.10% said sometimes.

30% of the mothers (which constitute 20% mothers of girls and 10% boys) said their children

don’t watch such programs.

Question 5

65% answered yes

35 % answered no

Question 6

90% of the mothers answered yes

10% of the mothers answered sometimes

Question 7

100% answered yes

Question 8

The suggestions given by the parents varied, some of the parents said that there should be some

strict regulations in order to limit the display of such content by the media- industries. Some

parents suggested that there should be some time limit imposed on children to watch TV. There

should be some tax imposed on the media-industries displaying violent content, etc. And such

similar suggestions.

Conclusion

Keeping in view the results devised from our research and the survey, we have concluded that

“Children who are subjected to media violence are at an increased risk of aggressive behavior.”

So now as the alternative hypothesis is accepted and through the through research it is proved

that the media violence stimulates aggressive behavior in children and this if prevailed in the

society, then this would further lead to chaos in the society. So for that there are some

recommendation policies suggested.


Recommendations

Keeping the qualitative and quantitative data in view and the analysis that we have deduced, here

are some recommendations to the parents and the government in order to protect the children

rights; the following are some of the recommendations to the children as well as the government

in order to protect children to develop aggressive behaviour.

The list of recommendations in order to address media/televised violence is as follows:

1. Parents should limit television to 1-2 hours daily and watch programs with their children,

enabling them to address any objectionable material seen

2. Physicians should make parents and schools "media literate," meaning they should

understand the risks of exposure to violence and teach children how to interpret what they

see on television and in the movies, including the intent and content of commercials. . In

doing so, children may be increasingly able to discern which media messages are

suitable.

3. Schools and homes should teach children conflict resolution.

4. We should be speaking up to the networks, cable vendors, local stations, federal agencies,

and our political officials to help insure that programming decisions are made with an eye

open to the potential consequences to the viewing audience, and that when violence is

present, there are adequate warnings provided to the public.

5. Television ratings and installation of chips to block certain programs.

6. Encourage your child to watch videos you have already pre-screened and

approved whenever you're not around.

7. Help your children differentiate between reality and unreality, and

make sure they can clearly identify the fake and the fiction.

8. The government should restrict the media-industries showing and impose high-tax


References http://www.pakspectator.com/media-violence-and-the-youth/

Violence in the Media-Effects on Child Behavior

http://www.nation.com.pk The Nation

http://www.dawn.com.pk DAWN

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/violence/effects_media_violence.cfm

http://www.deathreference.com/Ce-Da/Children-and-Media-Violence.html

http://ap.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/28/2/144

http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/developmentor/

the_impact_of_media_violence_on_children_and_adolescents_opportunities_for_clinical

_interventions

http://www.peace.ca/sheet15.htm

http://www.pakspectator.com/media-violence-and-the-youth/

http://www.lionlamb.org/mediaviolencefactsheet.pdfhttp://www.psychology.iastate.edu/

faculty/caa/abstracts/2000-2004/01BA.ap.pdf

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/research_documents/reports/violence/

tv_violence_child.cfm

http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/caa/abstracts/2000-2004/02ab2.pdf

http://www.indiana.edu/~cspc/ressenate.htm

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/articles/violence/toxic_tv.cfm

http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/caa/abstracts/2000-2004/01ba.ap.pdf

https://wiki.uww.edu/other/childdevresource/images/8/85/Publication2.pdf

http://youthviolence.edschool.virginia.edu/violence-in-schools/national-statistics.html

http://www.dawn.com.pk/

http://www.nation.com.pk/


Appendix

Some of the charts which helped in deducing results:


Survey

This survey is conducted in order to observe that if exposure to media violence has an adverse

effect on child behaviour, leading them to develop aggressive behaviour.

We conducted a survey from the parents of children under the age of 13 years, and asked them

the questions in order to analyze the impact of media violence on child behaviour.

Q1. what is the gender of your child?

a. Male

b.Female

Q2. how many hours does your child watch T.V per day?

a. less than 2 hours

b. 2- 3 hours

c. More than 3 hours

Q3.What sort of cartoons/video games does your child like?

Q.4 Does your child watch WWF or cartoons which contains violent content (e.g. X-men) , if so

does he copy those characters?

a. Yes

b. No

c. Sometimes

Q5. Did you ever receive any complain of you child from school for being indulge in some fights

with other children or bullying other children?

a. Yes

b. No

Q6. If Yes, Do you think that the Violence portrayed in media/television is responsible for found

in child behaviour?

a. Yes


b. No

c. Sometimes

Q7. Should there be some regulations in order to limit the amount of televised violence shown in

form of cartoons/video games?

a. Yes

b. No

Q8. What other measures do you suggest in order to reduce the impact of media violence on

child behaviour?

research paper-media voilence

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