Talk:Graphic violence

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Contents 1 Expansion needed BADLY 2 Visual arts only? 3 History of graphic violence 4 Why is violence so attractive to people?

[edit] Expansion needed BADLY

The amount of information missing here is ridiculous. I'm not too good at writing so I'm not going to make any big contributions, but those who are able and willing need to work big time on this article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.136.156.197 (talk • contribs) 23:08, November 14, 2006

Try this as a foundation for further assessment - you could find more on my own pages.

The debate is almost as old as television.

There has been an intense campaign against sexual expression on television, notably by Mary Whitehouse in Britain, but fewer controls were introduced regarding violence on television.

The BBC and the independent TV channels have introduced watersheds, as times before and after which certain kinds of stories and levels of violence, sexuality and bad language can be used. Again, violence tends not to get the same level of backlash as the sex and abusive language.

Programmes that do incite complaints will often be banned altogether or severely censored before repeat showings, or shifted to later slots in the schedules.

A major problem area is belief that impressionable people will imitate what they see on television. The TV series Kung Fu, staring David Carradine, led to a huge increase in interest in Martial arts. At some schools, children were found to be making and throwing sharp pointed stars similar to those used in the show.

With increasing use of home video and DVD, as as well as computer gams, children who might have been protected from seeing film and TV violence at home get to see it at a friend's house. Parents express shock when a child comes home with nightmares, having watched a violent horror movie like The Evil Dead.

Some TV shows have inspired real life killings. The killers of Jamie Bulger in Liverpool in the 1990's were believed to have been playing a game and reciting lines from the Child's Play movies, about a living, psychotic children's toy doll.

There is a belief that TV violence desensitises people from the real horrors of the world, but critics would say that TV violence could never have prepared us for the shook of an event like 9/11. Nor is there evidence that a diet of wholesome healthy TV will brainwash children into doing good.

People can be violent, with or without TV. Whoever jack The Ripper was he never watched television. The majority of people could watch amount of continuous slasher movies, make Lara Croft gun down a thousand baddies a day and not feel the slightest aggressive urge themselves.

Before TV, literature could be incredibly violent - look at the death count in a Shakespeaeare play like Titus Andronicus. At one time, people watched live public executions and the games and executions of the Roman ampitheatres. These were designed with a 'bread and circuses' policy in mind - excess was believed to keep people from insurrection and revolution. The violence of this entertainment was intended to deter crime. Now social puritans claim that fake TV violence makes us violent. It is a debate that goes in cicles and which is never likely to be settled. (User:arthurchappell)

[edit] Visual arts only?

Depictions of gore are ubiquitous in the lyrics of death metal and to a lesser extent black metal and grindcore. The article should be expanded to include this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.89.144.225 (talk) 00:47, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] History of graphic violence

A section on this would be useful. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.188.210.181 (talk) 00:49, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why is violence so attractive to people?

Perhaps this would be an important topic. 914ian915 (talk) 00:13, 23 April 2008 (UTC)