Blog 7: Annotated Bibliography of Media Midterm Paper

David Rodriguez Jr.
Louis A. Lucca
HUC 130
5 May 2011

Violent acts, murders, criminal behaviors and the criminal mind, all have been attributed and associated to some type of media. One of the most controversial of them has been the television. For years this addictive phenomenon has been influencing our society; to the point of creating a sort of dependency and or addiction. Whether it is just a local news broadcast or part of a must see TV Monday night lineup, we remain hooked. With the popularity of this source of media and its growing development it has been providing us with maximum exposure to it round the clock in homes, jobs, cars, even now on mobile devices. So with this availability society would naturally become influenced as well. News broadcasts, TV sitcoms, even cartoons can influence us and dramatically change our perspective, thoughts, and emotions. With this immense exposure to such an outlet; this may be the major contributing factor as to why we have higher reports violence within our society.
The 1940’s World War II was the major focal point of the United States, yet at around the same time the Television was beginning to emerge. By the end of the war the Television had become a commercialized product. At first only five thousand units designed with five inch black & white screens and were located in American homes, by 1951 that number had jumped up to an alarming seventeen million units. (Goodwin) America had become engaged. Before then radio broadcasting was the number one source of entertainment. Families would crowd around the radio to listen to these shows throughout the week. However with the increase of televisions popularity and the demand for more television programing, radio had met its new competitor (refer Fig.1 pg.11). A great portion of today’s Television broadcast stations such as NBC and CBS, all started on radio as forms of popular radio broadcasts, which were then adapted for this newer source of media. (Wikimedia) Four years later in 1955, America began to see the development of standard colored television sets. These colored sets however were considered as a premium feature and at that time most of American household could only afford the black & white versions. This really would not make much of a difference since at that point most of the television broadcasts were still in black & white and rarely seen in color till around the 1960’s. (Goodwin)
Television had been in development for a long period of time. The timeline stretched as far back as 1927 to Philo Farnsworth. Farnsworth was the first inventor to transmit a television image made up of 60 horizontal lines. Ironically enough the image transmitted was a dollar sign. His invention of the dissector tube became the basis of all current electronic televisions. After several years of testing it was in the year 1940 which the first television broadcast of The Queens’s Messenger was relayed to WRGB in Schenectady, New York. (Albany) This established the first television network. This became a time of significance with network television on the rise the FCC had to begin issuing licenses to broadcast stations. Now not everyone across the United Stated had received the same programing; however it was in the works. By May 21 1940 Bell Telephone Laboratories began testing the option of coaxial cable from New York to Philadelphia sending signals back and forth. (Wiki: 1940) This again would be another big move in the growth of this phenomenon. The demand for television and more programing is what lead to a greater expansion.
A variety of shows had been introduced in the 1940’s. Shows such as the Ed Wynn Show, the Goldberg’s, the Howdy Doody Show, the Jack Benny Show, the Lone Ranger, and Toast of The Town had emerged. These new shows were the beginnings of a new influence which would affect society for years to come. Variety and comedy talk shows were some of the biggest in not only ratings but also in influence. Imagine yourself a child sitting your living room it is 1949 you turn on your television set and switch it to ABC there in front of you see a man in a blue shirt with a black mask on a white horse galloping along with trumpets blazing his theme song, Yes! It’s the Lone Ranger. You continue watching him closely as he pulls out his gun and fire’s it off. For that very moment or those next thirty minutes he is your hero and you even want to grow up and be just like him. Now move onward to adulthood and you’re now tuned into a variety style of talk show entitled Toast of The Town with host Ed Sullivan. The show not only would host musical acts but also allowed us to gain a glimpse into the lives of stars. This may have been where our society’s infatuation with celebrities first began.
Today we can still see this style with show’s like Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, Jay Leno and so on, all these shows host celebrities and give us a visual of those stars we idolize most. Now with this influence and exposure we could also see how it may have led to violence within our society. Let’s take a child who may see a role model in one of these celebrities growing up whether this celebrity is good or bad, to that child this star may be in fact their hero and they would go to extreme measures to reenact this role model. A child may view a person with a gun on television and say to themselves “Well if they use a gun then so will I” once this idea is implanted into their minds it’s only a matter of time before a violent crime or incident occurs. When we hear of it in the news or read about in article it’s always the same reason “Child was reenacting his/her role model.” Now we can argue that parents need to raise the child not the television or say well parents need to set morals and rules as well as guide their children but let us face reality, television is everywhere and they simply are not. They aren’t alone however; adults are also tossed into the equation. The average adult consumes around 28 hours of television according to research done by A.C. Nielson Co. By the time that adult hits 65 years of age they’ll have be exposed to roughly 9yrs of television this many not seem like an enormous amount but let’s take a closer look at what society is watching today.
Going back to the research done by Nielson Company it states that the numbers of murders seen on television by time the average child finishes elementary school is approximately 8,000, the number of violent acts seen by 18 years of age is 200,000 and the percentage of American’s who believe television violence helps precipitate real life mayhem 79%. The amount of exposure a child has to violence on television may be what is in fact influencing them throughout their lives to perpetuate violence. Some of society has grown up watching public broadcasting programs such as Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers or a replicated modern day version while other may be growing up with violent cartoons or television shows which appeal to a younger audience demographic. This is not the only exposure we have, shows and cartoons are just a portion of the problem the other would have to be the News media; with the News society receives a culture shock which causes different emotions and reactions.
Fear & terror are two big factors which can lead to violence and are conveyed through News broadcasts on television. Looking at recent events that happened not long ago we can see how the News media used this fear and terror to sort of monopolize ratings. However this also led to violence within our very own society. The events of 9/11 were a catalyst for violence within America and the reports were televised with tremendous coverage sparking up a public frenzy. I recall watching reports of American Muslims being beating, shot at, and threaten even though they didn’t have anything to do with the events of that day. Still though the American public was in enraged and the News media fueled this rage even more. Every hour on the hour coverage on the story, followed by video sequence of the planes hitting the towers. The images lived with you throughout the day and would remain with you for the rest of your life. So with this mind television helped push this message of fear and terror which then sparked up violence and you did not even have to have been exposed to it for so many years to feel its affects. Men and Women saw this tragic event and signed up almost immediately for the military, they wanted revenge so now you have even more violence. It was like a trickled down effect everything that was said by the media triggered someone within society. The same way that these people felt passionate and enraged over this event is the same way a child may view his or her programs.
There is certainly a psychological presence that can be assessed between the relationship of television violence and society, and a countless number of studies have been done to help shed light on this very topic. The American Psychological Association did studies on a child’s exposure to media violence throughout a 15-year period. This study was based on 329 youths and was published in an issue of Developmental Psychology, one of the American Psychological Association (APA) journals. According to this studies regardless of a child’s initial aggression levels, intellectual capabilities, social status, or even a parents parenting styles the violence on television would just strengthen this aggressive behavior in a young adult. (APA) So it can be determined that throughout a child’s developmental stage; being exposed to such images and or programing could in fact create a more aggressive behavior. Further studies have shown that such shows as Starsky and Hutch, The Six Million Dollar Man, and even cartoons would hold some identifying characteristic that these children would associate themselves to. According to these studies the results were that men, who were high TV-violence viewers as children were more than likely to have been convicted of a crime or pushed, grabbed or shoved their spouse. Women who were high TV-violence viewers as children were likely to have thrown something at their spouse, shoving, punching, choking the person, and committed criminal act of some type. (APA) With all these images of television violence being presented to children it would only make sense that they would grow up to feel as if this was the correct way to act out in society or be to their loved ones in private. The perception that television programing presents us is a very intimate and personal one. "It is more plausible that exposure to TV violence increases aggression than that aggression increases TV-violence viewing," said Psychologist Dr. L. Rowell Huesmann, Ph.D. (APA)
Not only has television programing created and perpetuated violence, but it has also made society numb to it. Being exposed to violent acts, reports, and shows has made this violence sort of casual or predictable. On March 13, 1964 a murder of a woman by the name of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese occurred. What made this murder so significant was the fact that there were 38 witnesses that heard the screams of Ms. Genovese while she was being attacked and did nothing to help her. The witnesses watched and heard her screams for approximately half an hour. Later the actions of these witnesses would be labeled as the “Bystander effect” or the “Genovese Syndrome” labels which were used to define groups of people whom did not offer any type of means of assistance to a victim in an emergency. This effect may be attributed to violent programing and or news reports seen on television. Programing dictates how society should act or react to certain events. With such constant exposure to violence and it becoming more and more common among society, people may have just simply become apathetic to it.
The events of Ms. Genovese’s death that night could have been viewed by those witnesses as if almost just watching another show on TV or a news report it was not at all shocking. As if this was a common occurrence to hear the screams of a woman throughout the night. This was not the only reason that would cause them to ignore her pleads for help; people just did not want to get involved if it meant a risk of their own personal safety. With television being a tool for the media to dictate society’s views, moods, thoughts, and beliefs, who’s to say that in that time period they didn’t do the same. With this constant presentation of violence or violent acts being given to society round the clock; it could have implanted the idea that this is what happens, so just keep your nose out of what is not your business and you’ll be just fine.
In 2000, a Historian by the name of Joseph De May dug up information about the Genovese murder. With this new information he then critiqued the original article of the New York Times. Joseph believed that there has been 2 attacks and not 3, they were not continuous having 10min. intervals between them while the killer moved his car into a parking place further away. He claims there weren’t 38 witnesses to the attack but rather just 3 who saw the first or second attack. The area of the attack would have made it impossible for anyone to have seen or heard everything in its entirety. (On The Media) This critique and information after careful evaluation would make more sense than what was originally reported. However being that society’s perception of the television media is so high, people simply believe what they hear or see on television rather think and develop a reason onto themselves for the events that occurred. They depend on others to make the first move. It is similar to when you know something isn’t right but wait until someone else stands up first and says “Hey this isn’t right.” To this day we can still see very similar behavior among people in society. I can recall watching reports on several local News stations about a man here in New York that saw a woman getting mugged, he rushed in to save her from this mugger and end up needing saving himself. The mugger wielded a knife and stabbed him a few times leaving him to his death. What was worse were the hours that followed as the hero lied in the middle of the sidewalk bleeding to death people just walked right by him as if he was invisible. Not one of them called for help or assisted him. While watching their reactions you get the sense that to them this was just another day in the big apple.
Television has created a world within our society. The enormous importance society has given to this media outlet throughout the years has given it the power to convey whatever message those in control of it wish to give. The presentation of these messages has been proven to affect our outlooks, moods, beliefs, behaviors, even the development of our personalities. Since it is believed that we contain a certain level of aggressive behavior since birth providing such violent programing could in fact further this aggressive behavior. Even though we grow up and learn new things along the way, we still are learning and adapting to what is being illustrated in front of us. Similar to a child, we may in fact honestly never grow away from that childhood curiosity. Men and Women both being adults still copy one another’s actions. Both watch TV; imitate trends, styles, lives, and even jobs. So with this in our minds the images of violence we see on a day to day basis could in fact be mimicked at a later time or date in our lives.

Works Cited
Albany: History of Schenectady.
Albany.com, 2003-2011. Web. 21 April. 2011.
http://www.albany.com/schenectady/history.cfm
Albany’s main site which lists the history of the city and states that it is the birth place of the first television broadcast network.

Berkowitz, Edward D. Mass appeal: the formative age of the movies, radio, and tv. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print.
In this book: Information on the stars on both radio and television during the 1930s. The culture and trends between the 1930s to the late 1940s.

CSUN: “Television & Health” http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html
California State University, Northridge © 2007 web. 7 April 2011
Site contains information from Nielson Research on the average American household television usage.

Goodwin, Sue. American Cultural History. Lone Star College-
Kingwood Library, 1999. Web. 7 April. 2011. http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/decade40.html
Number of television units across America and at when it increased. A few mentions of popular radio broadcasts at that time which would later move onto becoming television shows.

Nobleman, Marc Tyler. The television, Minn.: Capstone Press, 2005. Print.
In this book it follows televisions popularity throughout the years, and current day.
On The Media: “The Witnesses That Didn’t”
WNYC Radio, 27 March 2009. Web. 21 April. 2011.
http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/03/27/05
Article of an interview between Brooke Gladstone and Joseph De May on the Kitty Genovese murder.

Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. “Television in the United States"
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 7 April. 2011.
This site has a few good articles on the adaptation of radio to television and the birth and growth of major Television broadcasting networks.

Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. “1940 in television"
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 21 April. 2011.
A list of events which took place in 1940. Great links to the numerous companies that developed or were involved in the development of broadcast networks.