We*re living in a violent age. We are a violent race. But century
                         after century we struggle to bypass violence and live by rules that
                         should avoid violent ways of 'problemsolving'. We decided that
                         rational action, like a discussion should rule over violence. This
                         is not always resulting in succes.
Recently and not recently acts of random violence have been
happening. Some [more recently than not recently] getting loads of
media coverage. Others hardly any. When I was 15, a boy I knew died
as a result of random violence. His story has hardly been exposed
in the media. In fact the whole media-hype of random-violence
exposure hadn*t started yet and this wasn*t getting the attention
it should have gotten.
                         But I*ve been looking into, studying and critisizing cases of
                         random violence and their media-coverage ever since. The recent
                         international media-hyped act of random-violence has been the
                         Columbine High School killings. I noticed the way the finger got
                         pointed to violent lyrics. In other cases the finger has been
                         pointed at violence on tv. This fingerpointing at eighter violence
                         in media (esp. tv) or violence in music seems to be happening more
                         and more. Discussions about decoders and other means of censorship
                         are all over the media.
I*ve experienced the influence violent tv-immages can have on small
children and I can honoustly say that these children definitely
copy the violence they*ve seen. As they don*t know the line between
reality and tv-reality they often mis-judge the situation and hurt
others whithout having the intention to do so. They cannot foresee
the consequence of their actions. They*ve only seen it happening on
tv and are surprised when the other starts to cry [that simulair
action didn*t result into crying on tv, so they feel upset because
the other isn*t playing along. They feel rejected by the crying
person which could result into an intentional fight in which they
copy the meanest thing they remember seeing on tv. This really
happened recently.]
                         Bigger children do recognise the line between reality and tv-
                         reality more often. They don*t misjudge real situations as badly as
                         small children do. However they do use the violent moves they*ve
                         seen when they are in a fight.
                         I noticed that in both cases violent children express their
                         violence by copying violence they*ve seen on tv. I*ve also noticed
                         that children who watch violence on tv are less impressed/shocked
                         by acts of violence when they see them in real live.
Children don*t know the consequence of acts of violence. They copy
what they see on tv. Censorship seems the easy sollution , but tv
isn*t only to blame for negative results. Let*s look into the
possibilities of the good effect tv has/could have. We are living
in a violent world. Tv reflects that. Children can learn a lot by
first-hand and second-hand experience. Tv is a very influential
medium regarding secondhand experience. Instead of fighting it, we
should use it to our advantage. What better way is there to prepare
a child to live in this violent world, then by watching tv? Tv is
the most effective way I know to enrich a child with second-hand
experience. But it only works if you do it correctly.
                         Tv for children is made by adults. Although it*s made for children,
                         that is no garantee all children will understand what they see.
                         Like adults, children can watch tv actively or passively. When
                         children are tired or not challenged, they stare passively at the
                         tv screen. When what they see challenges or excites them, they
                         watch actively for the time the challenge/excitement lasts. What*s
                         seen actively is remembered best resulting in remembering
                         challenging and exciting tv-clips totally out of their context.
This will leave the child with a very distorted conception.
This can be prevented. A child will not slumber into watching
passively if it*s watching tv actively e.g. with a grown up.
Describing and explaining situations, asking questions and making
jokes will raise the positive effect watching tv can have. When
children watch tv with grown-ups together their image will not be
as distorted as when the child is left to make it*s own conception.
This way you know what the child has seen and you have a better
handle on weather the child understands what it sees.
                         An awareness program of watching tv together could be a partial
                         sollution for the violence the media 'illegidly' encites (there
                         will always be people who think of tv as a cheap babysitter.) But
                         what about the lyrical violence? I often go to shows where violent
                         lyrics and violent dancing are very regular. The lyrics are mostly
                         on how frustrating it is to live in a capitalistic system, when you
                         disagree with every aspect of it*s fundamental structure. These
                         shows help a lot of people express their violent feelings in a
                         positive way by violent dancing, with people who feel the same way.
Violently dancing with people who share the same feelings is a
great outlet of rage and violence and is at the same time giving
hope to the involved. Having expressed your rage it*s less hard to
channel your rage and think of more rational ways to work on trying
to change the system.
                         The concerts I attend are mostly organised by and attended by
                         people who want to change the world for the better. I have never
                         been to shows where this wasn*t the case, but eventhough my vision
                         isn*t covering the whole picture, I realise that by banning music
                         with violent lyrics would rather make people more violent than
                         less.
I have a lot of problem deciding what I think of blaming the media
for the violence that*s happening. It seems like the finger is
pointed too easily to escape from having to deal with the real
problems. The positive and negative influence of violent tv-immages
and lyrics on behaviour hasn*t been studied properly. That makes it
an easy target to blame. This scapegoat-reaction is a convenient
handle that allows the media to lack the action of searching
further to the real reason behind the violence. What makes young
and old people behave this violent? Where does the rage and sense
of having no controll that a lot of violent people experience come
from? Why don*t these people foresee the consequence of their
violence? And if they do foresee the consequence, then why don*t
they manage to stop themselves from their violent actions. These
are some of the questions that really matter. These are the
questions that are hard to answer partly because these questions
can*t  be answered by an easy-fit over-generalisation. These
questions are difficult, and so it*s easier to blame the media. The
media is being used as a scapegoat and instead of ignoring this I
cooperate and repeat this action, by writing about the violence-
copying that happens in schools. I have no proof that supports my
beliefs. I don*t know if these children would be just as violent if
they didn*t watch tv. But for some reason I am worried by the
broadcasting of violence and sex before 21:00 o*clock. I even agree
with the woman who critizises tv-channels for this. I am uncertain
weather this populair easy-sollution-line-of-thinking has
contagously intoxicated my opinionated mind or weather the
violence-copying I*ve experienced in young children has been reason
enough for me to support this line of thinking.
                         I am very worried about the calling for censorship, because that*s
                         not a sollution but an execution. It shouldn*t be banned from tv or
                         decoderised. However I am concerned about the programmes young
                         children watch by themselves. I realise the 21:00-rule is just a
                         sugar-coated problem-shifter. But as long as a lot of parents keep
                         on leaving children to cope with tv on their own, I think it could
                         be having some positive effect. And if it doesn*t, we can always
                         change it back knowing we tried to actively change.