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, child’s 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
that 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
systems 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.