Television is an important part of people’s everyday life. Today, to imagine a day without watching TV is almost an impossible task. Popular TV shows, series, and movies can affect not only the public’s attitudes to the definite problems and situations but also influence their behavior. Many sociologists, psychologists and even politicians agree that modern television programs and shows demonstrate a lot of violent actions and can be discussed as influential for provoking the violent behavior in the real life. The connection between violence on TV and violence in society is not direct because the progress of social violence depends on many factors when violence on TV is only the reflection of the situation in society.
Children are often discussed as the category of the TV audience which is influenced by demonstrating violence on TV, but there are no connections between the children’ aggressive behaviour and TV violence. The issue of children’s aggressive behavior is the question of parents’ impact on them which is connected with the peculiarities of upbringing and the atmosphere at home. In spite of the fact children perceive TV situations and images as the reflection of the reality and can imitate definite behavioral patterns, violence on TV cannot be discussed as a single cause for children’s violent behavior in society because it predominantly depends on the development of social skills.
It is impossible to state that violence in society is a result of watching definite programs or series because the development of the socially aggressive behavior and brutal actions is based more on social controversies than on TV images. TV images of wars cannot provoke war actions in streets, they only evoke people’s certain emotions and responses to events which are regulated with the help of psychological mechanisms. Thus, TV impact can be examined with references to psychological, cultural, and social aspects, but violence in society cannot be directly provoked by violence on TV.
Violence as a form of aggression depends on definite social tensions which cannot be associated with the process of watching TV. Being the most popular variant of the passive leisure activity, television has a significant impact on the persons’ emotional state, on their considerations about definite events and phenomena, on opinions and visions of the most controversial social issues. However, programs, shows, and news do not include the direction to perform violent actions. Aggressive behaviours are based on extrinsic stimuli, but TV program cannot be such a factor.
Violence in the streets is a result of the unhealthy situation in society, and the reflection of this violence is usually presented on screens. The progression in depicting violence on screens is a sign for paying much attention to the real situation in society because violence as a form of behaviour existed when there were no TV sets. That is why, violence on TV is not the real cause for stimulating the violent behavior as the ‘appropriate’ variant of personal interactions, but it can be perceived as the reflection of the reality.
The impact of violence presented on TV on the real life and peculiarities of the persons’ interactions with each other is significantly exaggerated by the sociologists and psychologists because stating that violence on TV provokes the violent behavior in society, people do not concentrate on the other important social factors. Thus, they are inclined to limit the problem with determining only one aspect without references to the other factors. Furthermore, the aspect of violence on TV can be discussed not only as the cause for the process but also as the result of the presence of violence and aggression in society.