Violence has become a law with TV. Fantastic violent shows fill the schedule of TV channels. Psychologists and communication experts have formulated scales to measure the carnage that come to the American families each day.
Sociologists have started discussing on the effect of such violent sickness on the public. And since a few years what has caused much concern is the violence on children’s television. Just give a quick glance at Saturday Morning Cartoon Shows. You will stand aghast to know to how much steady diet of violence that we subject our children every Saturday Morning. The violence on children’s channels or serials is more gruesome than that of the prime time shows that their parents so eagerly watch.
Traditionally, children’s cartoons contain too much violence. We have grown so much acquainted with it that we have accepted violence as a normal thing in children’s cartoons. See the coyote that is chasing a roadrunner and suddenly finds him suspended over a deep chasm.
For a fraction of second his castes a pathetic look at the audience and then plunges to the ground. Elmer Fudd is all bent on to shot Bugs Burry. Chasing Bugs Burry he puts his shotgun into a tree where Bugs Burry is hiding. Bugs Burry flexes the barrel towards Elmer’s face. A dog chases a wood pecker and dashes into the rotating saw of a sawmill and the two halves of the dog thuds on the ground.
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The traditional cartoons depict violence as on isolated occurrence. That for the newer Cartoons violence is a normal condition of life. Every Saturday morning a serial is telecasted which is titled as “Godzilla supper-Ninety show”. In this serial a prehistoric dinosaur appears when called by his human companions to rescue them for the attack of some ferocious monsters. The earth seems to be filled with monsters. Every week the plot remains the same. Only the monsters change Godzilla burns, tears, crushes, drown or stamps his adversaries to death. Godzilla’s violent action against some violent objects restores the normal order for the human being. The human characters remain passive observers. They never take any attempt, or think of any attempt to solve their own problems. And the serial sends a message to our children that “only by violent action can the problem of the world be solved”.
Like “Godzilla Super-Ninety Show”, the “Challenge of the Super friends” is a violence packed ninety minute Cartoon extravaganza. It shows a weekly battle between two super friends, the forces of good and the forces of evil (the hall of Doom). The series shows that violence and evil are ever present.
Evil threatens to overwhelm goodness and mercy. Each weak we see that the Hall of Doom destroys cities, blows up planets and alters the conditions of our world. In one episode it was shown that Let Luthor the arch enemy of Superman, with an especially deligned ray, had released the molten iron core from under the earth’s crest. As the ray penetrated the earth’s crust, New York crumbled, London shook and tidal waves rushed towards. Japan of course the superheroes interfere in time and restored the normally. But in between, much has been destroyed and many must have been killed. Our precious child views must see this heinous effect of violence.
On Saturday Morning Children’s Television, violence has become a rule rather than an exception. Our children are shown that violence is superior to reason. They come to believe that conflict and threats violent death are acceptable conditions for existence. However, government has responded positively to the problem. The government has set up a commission to study violence on TV. But till the government comes out with positive steps to but an end on the screening of gruesome shows on programmes meant for children, parents will have to shudder every time their children sit down in front of the television for a Saturday morning fun.