VIOLENCE IN THE MEDIA
Violence in Schools: Violence is a learned behaviour
VIOLENCE : LEARNING : MEMORY
Violence in the media educates those who watch it towards violence.
Students, teachers, and parents, know that aggression and violence are increasing in the classroom, the school grounds, and in the community generally. Fear of violence is often a major deterrent to study and effective learning, and undermines a student’s confidence and motivation.
Unless the problem is understood, and steps taken to turn it around, there will be few safe refuges – schools will no longer be able to claim to be ‘Safe Houses’.
If violence is a learned behaviour then someone is teaching children and young adults how to be aggressive and violent. You don’t have to look far for the culprit, but doing something about it is a problem when someone is making big money from the teaching process.
Some years ago, in an essay entitled ‘Kaleidoscope – the Art of Self-Deception’, that applied some ideas from modern Physics to our thinking and actions, I wrote the following:
The personal kaleidoscope, the individual mind, is the furnace where burn the fires that ignite our most emotive actions: creativity, love, compassion, cooperation, sharing. But also, there burn the fires that ignite murder, suicide, greed, violence, war, corporate takeovers, strikes, and litigation. They all originate in someone’s kaleidoscope, someone’s mind. Thought is the motivating force behind all action. While an action may appear spontaneous, it is always the result of a prior thought, conscious or subconscious. Young malleable minds, repeatedly viewing violence, or being indoctrinated with prejudice and hate, create a kaleidoscope that, when projected onto life, gives a distorted, and often anti-social way of seeing and dealing with difficulties. When faced with a problem, their pre-programmed kaleidoscope rotates until the pattern of a perceived solution takes shape – then they deal with it in the way they see as appropriate, but which is often socially inappropriate, even dangerous.
About the same time, I also wrote a Monograph on the Jury System. Chapter 5 was headed, ‘The Community is Brain-washed to Violence’. It starts with a quote from Professor Leonard Eron, of the University of Illinois. Professor Eron and his associates did a 10-year study of boys and girls, following them through from the age of 9 to 19. ‘The more violent the programs watched in childhood, the more combative the young adults become.’
Violence on TV is one major contributing factor. Psychiatrist Frederic Wertham believed that TV is a uniquely effective ‘School for Violence’. Even the good people resort to violence to achieve their goals. Dominick & Greenberg (‘Attitudes towards Violence…’) found that the greater the exposure to TV violence, the more a child was willing to use violence, to suggest it as a solution to conflict, and perceive it as effective.
The then Chairman of the USA-based National Coalition Against Violent Entertainment, Dr Thomas Radecki, was previously a psychiatrist and physician at the University of Illinois Medical School. He claimed that research proved overwhelmingly the link between TV violence and everyday anger, aggressiveness and crime. He was an expert witness in several trials where TV was the spur to a violent crime.
Naturally the media rushed to their own defence, and suggested that they only provided the sort of programs that people wanted. Unfortunately that’s true. Violence is self-perpetuating; it’s like a drug. It sparks excitement, and an adrenaline rush, and so demands a repeat performance, in the same way that a drug becomes addictive. In this way the TV audience can become captive, and encouraged to watch programs that are then sold to advertisers for big money – the larger the audience the more profit they make. Screening feel-good programs will not attract the same number of viewers because there is seldom the excitement and adrenaline rush. Sport on TV, as a gladiatorial contest, is very popular for this psychological reason.
What prompted me to prepare this page was a report released 12 March, 2004. ‘Teen-Rated Video Games Loaded with Violence: Authors Call on Physicians and Parents to Engage Players in Discussions About Media Violence, Its Implications.’ It is based on analysis of Teen-rated Entertainment Software by a combined team of Harvard University researchers, and a researcher from the Centre on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston.
They examined 81 video games, and some of the violence was worse than in R-rated movies. They found that 90% of games rewarded players for destroying property, or injuring or killing characters. They also noted the cross-marketing of R-rated and other mature entertainment to children. The study authors encourage physicians, particularly pediatricians and specialists in adolescent medicine, to be aware that T-rated video games may be a source of exposure to violence and some unexpected content for children and adolescents, and that these games provide incentives to players to commit simulated acts of violence. They urge parents to judge for themselves the appropriateness of game content, by experiencing the game with their child.
How censorship control operates in Australia is an open question – maybe we are more cautious than the USA. But parents should still take the advice of the research team, and monitor each video game and TV program. If a problem does develop, for children under about 12 years of age, then Parents are advised to consult Appendix One of the Study Guide.
It is only through constant vigilance that we will prevent violence becoming endemic in our schools, and then our community.
Video Games & Aggression: A recent study by Iowa State University of 2500 elementary students found that those who preferred to watch video games which included violence were 73% more likely to be highly aggressive than those who's preference was for non-violent video's - and 263% more likely to exhibit hostile behaviour compared with those who only played non-violent games. Video games use sophisticated teaching techniques, and are highly effective teachers.
Updated May 2008
'Cooling off' units aid school discipline
The UK education system is developing a method of controlling unacceptable behaviour in secondary schools - the provision of a separate classroom, or 'cool' room, where a student can be quarantined for up to two days, rather than excluding them from classes altogether, or sending them home. Nearly 400 schools will be participating by January 2006. Teachers and assistants will also be given the legal right to discipline students. (Independent News 20.12.05)
Scroll to the bottom of this page for the index and link to all the other pages in this web.
Links to the 26 pages on this websites, and to other websites that may help you with many needs and problems associated with learning and memory.
Page Two: How to Learn Faster, and Remember More. Energy, Pattern, and Resonance are the Keys to Memory, and Accelerated Learning.
Page Three: The contents of the Accelerated Learning Program Study Guide;
Page Four: Find out about the author of this program of Accelerated Learning,
Page Five: Order your copy of the Guide to Accelerated Learning.
The Manual is comprehensive, nevertheless, new ideas and information, of value to students, and others who want to learn, are always coming to hand. These are added on a regular basis to this web site so you can download them, and keep them with your Accelerated Learning Manual.
Page Six: Should you listen to music while you study?
Page Seven: The sleep you get each night is important for your brain development, and memory – see what medical experts have to say.
Page Eight: Making use of the knowledge you memorize is part of the learning and understanding process. See what the Nobel Prize winning Physicist, Professor Richard Feynman, has to say about his experience.
Page Nine: Some students have trouble working with numbers, which are the basis of mathematics. The numbers game, NUMERO, has proved a winner worldwide in helping people think faster with numbers.
Page Ten: Want a photographic memory?. This page explains how you can improve yours.
Page Eleven: A Memory Pill? Food for Thought - dietary supplements that can boost brain power and memory.
Page Twelve: READING - Fluent reading is essential for Accelerated Learning & Education - Poor Reading explained with exercises to overcome the Problem.
Page Thirteen: STRESS - Its affect on Memory: How stress helps or hinders memory and examinations.
Page Fourteen: JOB SEARCH - CAREER PLANNING - What to consider when planning a career and its future prospects.
A Look inside the Study Guide:
Pages – 15 to 20 – are six ‘windows’ into the Study Guide, how and why it works.
Page Fifteen: Window One: Memory driven by Energy & Resonance
Page Sixteen: Window Two: Brain, Mind & Memory – a ‘Learning Machine’
Page Seventeen: Window Three: Mind Maps & Memory Patterns
Page Nineteen: Window Five: Intuition – a hidden source of learning.
Page Twenty: Window Six: Aging Memory? – You can retrain yours.
Twenty One: News Archive
Page Twenty Two: Training within Industry – Workplace Training – Vocational Training
Page Twenty Three: Truth & Memory - treat everything you see and hear with a healthy scepticism.
Page Twenty Four: Drugs & Memory - Prescription & recreational drugs.
Page Twenty Five: Violence: A growing problem in schools. Violence is Learned Behaviour. Video games and TV can teach violence.
Page Twenty Six: The Evolution of Scientific Thought:
Page Twenty Seven: An e-book on Understanding & Managing Stress
Links Page: Shared links between websites that have common goals and complementary information