Violence is a concept that has been in existence since time immemorial. However, in today's society, violence has taken a new dimension due to the attention that violent activities such as murder, assault, and rape receive in the media, especially TV (Coyne, 2016). The media has worked to sensitize violent acts to get people to watch their channels. Media stations broadcast violent content to grow their brand and get advertisers to promote their endeavors. Therefore, there is a relationship between television violence and aggression among people who consume violent content.
First, according to Fikkers, Piotrowski, and Valkenburg (2017), there exists a positive relationship between TV violence and aggression in real life. Research shows that common the causes of violence include factors such as substance abuse, poverty, child abuse, family psychopathology, and other mental disorders. However, further research shows that exposure to media violence plays a crucial role in the etiology of aggression and violent behavior. Further, Fikkers, Piotrowski, and Valkenburg (2017) note that studies from the past 30 years have found a relationship between aggression and exposure to violent TV content. In the study, they add that the typical American teenager watches over 200 thousand acts of violent content, including murder, before they attain the age of 18. The study found that TV programs display about 815 violent activities every hour.
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Similarly, Bender, Plante, and Gentile (2018) agree with the existence of a positive relationship between television violence and aggression. They opine that it is frightening to see how youths victimized in one way or another resort to violence as a solution to their frustrations. This situation becomes even more real when children and teenagers see their favorite characters in movies resorting to violence as a method of combating evil or seeking revenge ( Bender, Plante, & Gentile, 2018) . Before engaging in acts of violence, children may feel like the heroes and perceive others who bully them as villains. They resort to violence and aggression with the thought that they are the good guys, just like their heroes on TV.
However, opponents argue that there is no correlation between exposure to television violence and aggression. In his study, Coyne (2016) asserts that violence in movies only causes catharsis and enjoyment as long as the viewer’s morality is not soiled or corrupted. Hinson believes that violence is different in art than in real life. Gibson et al. (2016) also think that there is no relationship between exposure to media violence and aggression or deviant behavior. They support their idea with examples from Ancient Greek mythologies. They assert that Ancient Greek recognized that real-life violence was destructive and immoral, whereas violence expressed through art helps to cleanse aggression and anger through catharsis.
In essence, evidence exists to show both a positive and negative correlation between television violence and aggression. Some argue that violent content broadcasted in TV acts as a catharsis to eliminate anger and aggression. They also emphasize that TV violence only provides enjoyment and interest unless the audience has pre-existing corrupted morals. However, the contrary opinion presents stronger evidence to show that violent TV content results in aggression in real life. These studies equally provide sufficient evidence to prove that violent content displayed by the media leads to aggression. It is, therefore, crucial for parents and guardians to monitor television content that their children watch for them to be able to reduce the negative impacts of violent content on their children.
References
Coyne, S. M. (2016). Effects of Viewing Relational Aggression on Television on Aggressive Behavior in Adolescents: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study. Developmental Psychology , 52(2), 284–295.
Bender, P. K., Plante, C., & Gentile, D. A. (2018). The effects of violent media content on aggression. Current opinion in psychology , 19 , 104-108.
Fikkers, K. M., Piotrowski, J. T., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2017). Assessing the reliability and validity of television and game violence exposure measures. Communication Research , 44 (1), 117-143.
Gibson, B., Thompson, J., Hou, B., & Bushman, B. J. (2016). Just “harmless entertainment”? Effects of surveillance reality TV on physical aggression. Psychology of Popular Media Culture , 5 (1), 66.
