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Violence, Crime and Justice

Media Violence Project

An Alternate View

I recently read the following article:

Johnson, P. (1997). "The Irrelevant V-Chip: An Alternate theory of TV and violence. UCLA Entertainment Law Review 4 185- 218

Johnson makes the case that the problem is not violence on TV, but TV watching itself. He suggests that the studies linking TV violence exposure to later violence are inconclusive. The only strong data we have link increasing TV availability in countries to increased violence. He argues that TV watching is bad because it is antisocial behavior - the person is not interacting with anyone else. Children, therefore, miss out on socializing activities.

"(1) violence is antisocial behavior; (2) television watching is antisocial behavior; (3) therefore, the more a child watches television, the more likely it is that the child will grow up antisocial and, perhaps, violent, regardless of the contect of what he watches." (p. 189).

 His solution, he suggests, is to make TV more interactive, so that the child gets socialized by the TV. He suggests Congress should not be limiting TV content, rather they should be regulating the amount of hours children can watch.

Just in case you are wondering what's out there.....