“There are dozens of well-designed studies that show that TV, movies and other media affect what viewers believe and how they behave. This is true of many different kinds of attitudes and behaviors
— positive and negative— but many studies conclusively show a statistical link between watching violent programs and behaving aggressively. And, of course, billions of dollars have been spent on media advertising because it is well established that even brief messages can be powerful in shaping behavior. However, there are very few studies of whether exposure to media violence causes criminal behavior.” Diana Zuckerman —What is to Blame for Youth Violence?: The Media, Guns, Parenting, Poverty, Bad Programs, Or? (Nat’l Center for Policy)
I found this link on Donna Hibbs’s Media Issues Weblog,” which looks like it will be worth watching.
There is no one factor to blame on youth violence. Although, the glorification of violence in American culture is blatant and deliberate, there are many other factors in a child’s life that influence the lens from which they’ll view the world.If the childs parents, teachers, community servants and spiritual leaders portray an opposite view of what they watch on television, there would be a smaller likehood of them imitating what they see on T.V.