Media Violence

3 Pages 790 Words

“The average child watches 21 to 23 hours of television per week...the average person has viewed around 200,000 acts of violence by the time he reaches 18 years of age” (Steele). Lights, camera, action! “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry” is the chant heard from the audience as The Jerry Springer Show begins each day at 2:00pm on the Fox television network. In a recent episode titled “Sexy Stories”, which aired on July 11, 2 women stripped down to their undergarments and were romantically involved in a kitty pool filled with whip cream. They poured chocolate syrup all over each other and ate strawberries and bananas while the Springer crew poured nuts all over them. They basically became human sundaes while the audience chanted “we love lesbians!” While this ridiculous banana split session was going on, the husband of one of the women in the pool was trying to fight the other woman, but was restrained by Springer security. Undoubtedly, there were children home alone watching the sho!
w, viewing the violent and distasteful behavior that always dominates The Jerry Springer Show.
Television networks should not air violent and inappropriate shows such as The Jerry Springer Show at times when unsupervised children are likely to be watching.
Violent behavior is prevalent on The Jerry Springer Show. Fistfights are normally broken up quickly, but the hatred and anger shown by the guests is not something children should be witnesses to. Benjamin Spock, M.D., in his book titled “Problems of Parents” writes, [A certain number of judges, prosecutors, and psychiatrists have been impressed with the frequency with which a severe delinquent, asked in court where he ever got the idea for his crime, has promptly answered, “On a television program”] (Spock 253). Violent behavior definitely has a negative effect on children. It may even affect the way their young brains perceive behavior. Robert Steele writes, “children repea...