TV Violence: How Tv shows (Elmo's World, DBZ, and CSI) effect People

Essay by Zapperkhan January 2005

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TV violence plays a big part of our lives whether we realize it or not. The subliminal messages that we receive from everyday television shows are constantly changing our personality every time we watch. As we grow, and move on to more age appropriate shows, more of the graphic material comes through to us. From all the shows combined, we see obscene gestures, profanity, blood, threats, and gratuitous fighting.

The three shows I watched was Elmo's World, Dragon Ball Z, and CSI. These shows had very little in common (beyond the obvious use of characters and plot lines). Elmo's World was more about trying to keep the child's attention by using "interaction", Elmo asks a question to the viewer, pauses, and then says a generalized answer, giving the illusion that Elmo could hear the viewer, changing camera angles semi-frequently, to keep eyes refocusing and keep their head in the show for longer, and having them watch other children speak and share ideas.

The kids that were employed were of all colors and of both genders. The viewer was also stimulated by having to solve puzzles, solve riddles, or find objects hidden in a picture. This keeps the interest as well as helping to develop different perspectives.

Dragon Ball Z is a Saturday morning cartoon about a race of Saiyans, protectors of the future Earth, in their struggle to fight the forces of evil that constantly barrage Earth, and to constantly train and become better guardians. The show had many incidents of violence that may construe the wrong idea to the youth. In the time that I watched a random episode, there were threats of violence, obscene gestures, verbal abuse and sparring for fun. If one was to watch these types of actions for an extended period of time, then...