Quotes on Television Violence

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0><script type="text/javascript" src="http://hb.lycos.com/hb.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ratings.lycos.com/ratings/lycosRating.js.php"></script> <script type="text/javascript"><![CDATA[//><!]]></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://scripts.lycos.com/catman/init.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-start.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-middle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-end.js"></script> <noscript> <img src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/img/common/ot_noscript.gif?rand=667591" alt="" width="1" height="1" />  <iframe frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" width="728" height="90" src="http://ad.yieldmanager.com/st?ad_type=iframe&ad_size=728x90&section=209094"></iframe>  </noscript> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=100 BGCOLOR="#CCCCFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="31800640egdysm.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="6" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Arial" ><B>The Message </b></FONT><B>   |     </b><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Message"><U><B>home</b></U></A></div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=150 BGCOLOR="#0000BF" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>"Television is NOT real life.        In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.  "</b></div> <div> <B>Bill Gates' Message on Life</b></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="16bb89a0.gif" border=0 width="184" height="154" ALT="Metafile Companion Picture (32-bit)" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></b></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=380 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Quotes on Television Violence</I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I>"The instinct to censor is the tragic flaw of utopian minds."  Andrew Klaven, former newspaper and radio reporter, author of Son of Man and Corruption</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>..."Fiction cannot make of people what life has not, good or evil?"  Andrew Klaven</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>"Pleasure that is unknowingly repressed is outwardly condemned.  The censor always attacks the images that secretly appeal to hem or her the most.  The assault on violent fiction is really an attempt to root out the cause of violence -- no one can seriously believe that.  The attempt to censor fictional violence is a guilt-ridden slap at ourselves, in the guise of a mythical them, for taking such pleasure in make-believe acts that, in real life, it would be reprehensible. "  Andrew Klaver</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>"Because fiction and reality are different.  It seems appalling that anyone should have to say it, but it does have to be said.  Fiction is not subject to the same moral restrictions as real life."  Andrew Klaver</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>"By allowing politicians and pundits to turn our attention to ‘the problem of fictional violence’, we are really allowing them to make us turn our backs on the problems of reality."  Andrew Klaver. </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>"In the final analysis, it is still the law of supply and demand on all this stuff," says Norman Leer, "It goes back to the advertisers; they are the people who pay for this stuff.  If they didn't want it, it wouldn't be there.  They are just dealing with a product.  They know from experience that something hard and outrageous will sell faster than something soft. " </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>We collectively can't and should not do anything about it (TV violence).  We can't because we live in a market economy in which blood and lust and other primitive needs of people will be me one way or another, and trying to ban something just makes it more attractive and marketable. We shouldn't because it is the adult's right to flick on whatever they want on the increasingly responsive cable smorgasbord.  And it parents’ responsibility to monitor what kids watch.  The "we" represented by the state should do nothing." Robert Scheer contributing editor or the Los Angeles Times</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Although 72 % of Americans polled by Times Mirror say that we have too much violence on TV and it leads to higher crime rates, many of them must be tuning in, or the television moguls wouldn't e scheduling such fare.  Maybe its time to face the fact that we have all this mayhem in our art and our lives because we like violence.  Or if we don't actually like it, we need it." Robert Scheer</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Many parents allow young children to watch shows like Beavis and Butt-Head. "It is absurd to suggest that the government step in to censor viewing that parents have acquiesced in"  Robert Scheer</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>The demand is there. "If you don't like that because you think it represents the dumbing-down of America and world culture, then vote--by just turning the damn thing off.  Don't beg Big Brother to do it for you. " Robert Scheer</I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I>Too Much Violence on TV</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>"Virtually all independent scholars agree that there is evidence that television can cause aggressive behavior. "--The American Psychological Associations report to congress 1988.</I></div> <div> <I>"More than 200 major studies support the common-sense suspicion that watching endless hours of violence is a public health menace.  .....Another thing those studies show is that the poorer a family is, meaning the more vulnerable and desperate, the more hours they will spend in front of a television set.  Children in poverty are most often left alone with the TV as the only available baby-sitter. </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>It can hardly be a good thing that children's shows two years ago reached an all-time high of thirty two violence incidents per hour and that 9 in 10 children's programs include violence.  An authoritative study by George Gerbner of the University of Pennsylvania indicated that the average 16-year-old has witnessed 200,000 violent acts on TV., including 33,000 murders.  </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>"There is more published research on this topic than on almost any other social issue of our time," University of Kansas Professor, Aletha Huston, chairwoman of the American Psychological Association's Task Force on Television and Society, told congress in 1988.  "Virtually all independent scholars agree that there is evidence that television can cause aggressive behavior."</I></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> Return to : <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" Class Notes"><U> Class Notes</U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>