Introduction
Television is an important part of our everyday life which has the great impact on forming the public’s opinion on different events. Today people have the opportunity to receive the information and entertain themselves with the help of many TV shows, news, and films. Thus, television influences not only our level of knowledge about this or that phenomenon but also affects our definite considerations, visions of the issues and our emotional state.
Adults have the developed critical and analytical thinking that is why the TV impact is rather limited. However, the significant part of the TV audience is children of different ages who perceive the information emotionally without its evaluating because of the peculiarities of their thinking.
Contemporary TV cartoons are often characterized by researchers and psychologists as violent because they demonstrate the possible aggressive behavior toward the other people. Many researchers state that the examples of the violent children’s behavior are associated with that information which they receive from cartoons.
Nevertheless, TV cartoons are very popular among the children, and it is important to examine the impact which these cartoons can have on the children’s behavior because of their less developed critical thinking. The purpose of the research was to determine the character of the impact of TV cartoons on the children’s behavior.
Children and the Impact of TV Cartoons
The research on the problem question about the impact of TV cartoons on the children’s behavior was started from examining the work Children’s Responses to the Screen: A Media Psychological Approach (2004) written by Valkenburg whose ideas gave the start for the further investigation of the issue. Thus, Valkenburg concentrates on the study of the general psychological impact of TV on children (Valkenburg, 2004).
Discussing the peculiarities of the contemporary cartoons and their possible effect, the author focuses on the gender differences between boys and girls which can influence their choice of the cartoons and their further violent or non-violent behavior. Boys are inclined to choose the cartoons with the main male characters who demonstrate their power with the help of aggressive behavior which can be imitated by children in the real life because of the emotional impact which the heroes have on the boys’ perception.
Girls do not prefer to choose the cartoons with the plots in which the main characters are the brutal and powerful superheroes. That is why the impact of TV cartoons as the provocation for the further violent behavior of children should be also discussed with references to the gender differences between boys and girls.
Gunter, Charlton, Coles, and Panting in their research “The Impact of Television on Children’s Antisocial Behavior in a Novice Television Community” (2000) also emphasized the fact that violence on screen can stimulate the children’s violent behavior in the real life.
However, the results of their research did not support Valkenburg’s idea about the girls’ less violent behavior affected by TV cartoons because girls spend more time in front of the screen, and they are also influenced by the popular cartoons in which examples of the antisocial behavior are presented (Gunter et al., 2000).
The problems of the children’s gender differences and the associated effect of TV cartoons were also actively discussed in Evra’s Television and Child Development (2004). According to Evra, boys and girls are not only affected by the aspect of violence but they also perceive the patterns of their behavior in relation to their gender roles from cartoons where “boys tend to be shown as active and aggressive or violent and girls as domestic and more concerned with appearance” (Evra, 2004, p. 108).
However, why are children so greatly affected by the TV cartoons that they can imitate the violent behavior which they watch on the screen? The material from several sites about the impact of television on the children’s behavior provided the information about the physiological and psychological processes which are connected with the aspects of children’s watching TV cartoons (Effects of cartoons on children, n.d.; How TV affects your child?, n.d.; Kids and TV- effects of television on children, n.d.).
From this point, the most detailed information was presented by the group of researchers who concentrated on all the types of the significant psychological, emotional, and mental effects on the children’s health and behavior. TV influences the children’s work of eyes, brain processes, and the emotional state. That is why the children’s watching TV cartoons should be controlled by their parents (Choma et al., 2004).
To support the information from the sites, I examined the work A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication (2004) written by Harris. The author’s findings supported the material analyzed earlier. Moreover, Harris also states that cartoons can be discussed as the most violent shows on TV, but they are not so influential as the examples of the real violence (Harris, 2004).
To focus on the effect of the TV cartoons on the children’s cognitive and emotional state, I paid attention to the research conducted by Kirkorian, Wartella, and Anderson. According to the researchers’ findings, TV cartoons affect the children’s attention, and violent cartoons influence the level of the children’s self-regulation, obedience, and tolerance (Kirkorian, Wartella, & Anderson, 2008).
If the studies which were examined earlier focused on the fact that the examples of violence presented in the TV cartoons could affect the further children’s aggressive behavior in the real life toward the other children and adults, the research provided by Blumberg, Bierwirth, and Schwartz concentrates on the idea that violent TV cartoons do not influence the children’s aggressive behavior because of the children’s understanding the fringe between the moral and immoral behavior and the high level of moral reasoning (Blumberg, Bierwirth, & Schwartz, 2008).
This argument can be considered as effective with references to the children’s age and the general emotional and moral development, and it did not influence my personal vision of the issue. It is also stated in the work by Palmer and Young that TV is one of the main sources of the information for children that is why it can affect their vision greatly (Palmer & Young, 2003). Shimanovsky and Lewis develop this opinion and indicate that violent TV cartoons can be perceived as the pattern of the possible behavior and problem-solving (Shimanovsky & Lewis, 2006).
Conclusion
Many researchers agree that TV cartoons affect the children’s behavior greatly, especially with references to the fact the major part of cartoons presents the violent actions. These cartoons can provoke the children’s further aggressive behavior in the real life because they are inclined to imitate the behavior of the popular superheroes.
Thus, the stereotype of the possible violent or aggressive behavior can be formed. Moreover, there is also the gender difference between the girls and boys’ perception of the cartoons, but it is not significant in relation to imitating the violent actions. The effect of the violent TV cartoons on the children’s behavior can be discussed as negative because of the general significant impact of TV on children’s physical, mental, and emotional state.
References
Blumberg, F. C., Bierwirth, K. P., & Schwartz, A. J. (2008). Does cartoon violence beget aggressive behavior in real life? An opposing view. Early Childhood Education Journal, 36(2), 101-104.
Choma, C. J., Hossler, S., Leu, R., Nelson, D., Ray, S., Wilcox, B., & Ybarra, B. (2004). Effects of Cartoons on Children. Effects of cartoons on children.
Evra, J. V. (2004). Television and child development. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Gunter, B., Charlton, T., Coles, D., & Panting, C. (2000). The impact of television on children’s antisocial behavior in a Novice television community. Child Study Journal, 30(2), 65-68.
Harris, R. J. (2004). A cognitive psychology of mass communication. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
How TV affects your child? (n.d.). Web.
Kids and TV- effects of television on children. (n.d.). Web.
Kirkorian, H. L., Wartella, E. A., & Anderson, D. R. (2008). Media and young children’s learning. The Future of Children, 18(1), 39-42.
Palmer, E. L. & Young, B. M. (2003). The faces of televisual media: Teaching, violence, selling to children. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Shimanovsky, M. & Lewis, B. (2006). Influences exerted on the child viewer when exposed to violent imagery in television and print advertising. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 29(1-2), 41-45.
Valkenburg, P. M. (2004). Children’s responses to the screen: A media psychological approach. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.