The Impact of Watching Violent Television Programs on Secondary School Children in Tanzania

Masiba

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781498286282
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Violent television programs are highly preferred by children. They stimulate their emotions and increase curiosity about violence-related issues. This means that watching violent television programs has an impact upon their way of perceiving the world around them and acting in response to it. This study investigated the impacts of watching violent television programs on secondary school children in Tanzania. The specific objectives were: to examine children's accessibility to the TV, ascertain the types of violent TV programs and the time children spend watching them, determine the ways in which watching violent TV programs affects their academic performance, find out the impact of watching violent TV programs on their discipline, and examine the role of parents in addressing the impacts of watching violent TV programs upon their children.Results indicate that most secondary school children watch violent TV programs at home in the sitting rooms. They spend an average of three hours per day on weekdays, and seven-and-half hours on weekends, watching movies, music, drama, and informational programs that were identified as the most violent ones. Obviously, spending lots of time watching violent TV programs decreases children's academic performance and discipline. This book is important because it discusses the parents' role in discouraging and limiting children from watching violent TV programs, and choosing appropriate TV programs for them.

chapter 1

Introduction: The Problem and its Context

Introduction

This book is about the impact of watching violent television programs to secondary school children in Tanzania. It focuses on the effects which secondary school children get from watching violent television programs under the following subheadings: background to the problem, statement of the problem, purpose of the book, specific objectives, research questions, significance of the book, limitation and delimitation of the book, theoretical framework and operational definitions of the key terms as well as organization and synopsis of the book. I introduce these aspects because they not only set the context of what is going to be covered in this book but also they disclose the rationale and prerequisites of the book. For example, research questions predict the kind of approach and methods of data collection employed to obtain information, as well as the way analysis of data will be done. Furthermore, organization of the book gives the content of this book sequentially, that is, in outline form. Hence, the aspects of this introductory chapter play part as the vital foundation of all material covered in this book.

Background to the Problem

Television violence and Global overview

Advancement in technology led to the introduction of television (TV) in 1939 at the New York World’s Fair, in United States.1 Since then, while experiencing its own development and spreading, TV has maintained a stable existence and become an important part of our culture.2 Today, TV is everywhere and has become a central part of modern life as it often serves as a common thread between people. Hence, without a television means missing worldwide information and not living in a modern world.

During the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s research began to reassess whether mass media had a great influence on the viewers. The research publications revealed that youngsters would learn behavioral patterns from persuasive media messages which then would be replicated in the immediate future.3 Another research confirms that more than 3500 research studies except 18 carried out worldwide have examined the association between media violence and youngsters’ violent behavior.4 It also links the exposure to media violence with a number of physical and mental health problems among children and young people such as violent behavior, less sensitive to violence, fear, depression, nightmares, and sleep disturbance.5 Therefore, the presence of violent programs on television and other media suggests the exact nature of the violence represented and the vulnerable social group of people.

The influence of media violence on teenagers also has been associated with time spent on watching them. Spencer indicates that the American children watch television for an average of three to five hours every day.6 Another study reveals that American children between six to 18 years old will have viewed 16,000 hours of television, and viewed more thousands of movie programs.7 It is noted that the average child of 18 years old in Britain, Asia, and Australia spent 20 to 25 hours per week as an average rate whereas heavy viewers spend 40 hours per week or more watching television.8 Moreover, it is estimated that the average American child would have watched 8,000 simulated murders and over 200,000 violent acts on television by the time she/he graduates from high school.9 In this case, there is a great possibility for secondary school children who spend many hours watching violent television programs to behave antisocially.

The duration of time young people spent on watching media violence was part of their research. Myers confirms that “high exposure to media violence is a major contributing cause of the high rate of violence in modern U.S. society.”10 In addition, Messner points out that constant watching of violent programs has impact on the behavior of children and youths in the United Kingdom.11 American parents complained that consistent watching of violent television programs influence secondary school children to behave aggressively.12 It is also argued that watching thousands of acts of cruelty, brutal, boxing match, sexual violence, and extreme violent criminal acts on television leads to distress and pains.13 In addition, youth who watch violent television programs constantly develop aggressive thought, aggressive behavior and aggressive emotion.14 A research done in some regions of the world such as Europe, Canada, Asia, Africa and Latin America disclosed that secondary school children and youths who watch violence on television most of their time were attacking others physically and verbally as a means of solving problems.15 The same sentiments were observed by other authors who point out that growing up in highly mediated TV violence culture breeds violence in some and desensitization, insecurity, mistrust, and anger in most youngsters.16 Therefore, constant watching of violent television programs lead children and youths to behave antisocially and this demands adults to protect them from these adverse effects.

Television violence and African overview

In Africa, Television was introduced for the first time in 1943 in South Africa.17 As a result, there was significant television violence. As a result, TV broadcasting was banned. When television broadcasting was resumed in 1975, television violence was also significant. This marked the increase of homicide rate from 2.5 percent to 5.8 percent per 100,000 in 1987, which was an increase of 130 percent.18 However, the causes of homicide in South Africa by then were of multifaceted in nature including live violent societal scenes based on political violence and watching of violent television programs merely accelerated the situation.

Pretorius conducted a study on the violence in South African children’s television programs, and found that South African Saturday morning television programs have a high violent content. In addition, the study also found that South Africa TV violence caused children to become aggressive, fearful, and less sensitive to real world violence and understand media world as similar to real world.19 Therefore, the presence of violent tele...

Table of contents

• Tables
• Figures
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Introduction: The Problem and its Context
• Chapter 2: Television Violence Watching and Related Literatures
• Chapter 3: Methodological Perspectives
• Chapter 4: Hearing Research Data
• Chapter 5: Concluding Remarks
• Bibliography