28 days later essay

The teenagers raped a nine-year old girl with a beer bottle. It is evident with these situations that television must have some effect on behavior. .
             Scientifically, researchers have been looking for a specific type of violence caused by violent television. They usually define violence as physical behavior with intent to harm others. Using this example of violence, the boy imitating a Power Ranger cannot be used as an example of how television provokes intent to harm, for the boy clearly did not mean to harm his sister. However, television perhaps was responsible for altering his views of reality. Many researchers claim that there is a direct correlation effect with the amount of violence seen on TV and the amount of violent behavior one commits. However, an unrealistic approach and inconsistency of the studies often flaw the research in this area. .
             Firstly, researchers in laboratories can, with out knowing it, affect the behavior of the subjects being used. When a researcher shows a violent television show or a movie to a subject, the subject can often make speculations about how the researcher views the violence portrayed. If a subject sub-consciously thinks that perhaps the researcher is in support of the violence in the movie then he might in turn be more comfortable expressing himself violently. In laboratory research studies, this fails to isolate the cause of the violent act. Did the television show or the researcher's acceptance of the violence cause the subject's violent behavior? .
             To get away from this problem many scientists have taken their studies out of the laboratories. These studies have reported fairly inconsistent results. Studies described in Richard B. Felson's Mass Media Effects on Violent Behavior, which was published in the Annual Review of Sociology journal, describes some of these inconsistent results. A researcher named Woods, observed children and teenagers without them knowing.