Violence in Children's Popular Television Programs
Bramwell, Victoria; Herr, Ashley; Sickles, Christine; Kugath, Jessica; Draper, Thomas
Abstract
Previous research done on violence in the media has primarily focused on the effects it has on children. Researchers have tried to prove that children’s viewing of television violence is linked to negative side effects such as encouraging children to imitate their violent acts in social settings (Simmons, Stalsworth and Wentzel, 1999), it’s effects can lead to psychological trauma (Singer, et al., 2004), and even that it can have an impact on a child’s moral reasoning (Krcmar, Viera, 2005). However, little research has been done on how much violence is portrayed in popular television shows and if it increases with a show’s targeted age group. In our study we explore this issue and hypothesize that as a target age for a show increases the amount of violent acts will increase up until shows are directed at a pre-teen audience where the amount of violent acts will begin to decrease.