Children and Television Violence.

Author: Murray, John P.
Published: Lawrence, Kansas, 1995
Source: http://www.ksu.edu [17.07.2003]. Reprinted from Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy, Vol. 4, No. 3 (1995).

Abstract

John P. Murray provides a historical survey of American television and presents the concerns about violence that it causes. He claims there can be no doubt about television's influence on children: “Hundreds of studies and numerous national reviews and reports have confirmed the potential harmful effects of televised violence”. In his article, he also puts forward some proposals on how the nature of children’s television could be changed and how the positive role of television in children’s lives could be strengthened.

Murray, John P.

John P. Murray, Ph.D. is a Professor and the Director of the School of Family Studies and Human Services at Kansas State University. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and recent President of its Division of Child Youth and Family Services. Dr. Murray’s interest in television and society is reflected in nearly 30 years of research, teaching and public policy concerning children, youth and families. In the late 1960’s and early 70’s, Dr. Murray served as Research Coordinator for the Surgeon General’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior at the National Institute of Mental Health resulting in the first Surgeon General’s report on television violence in 1972. Subsequently, he taught in the School of Behavioural Sciences at Macquarie University in Sydney where he conducted research on the effects of the introduction of television in the Australian „outback.“ His concern about the impact of television has continued during appointments at the University of Michigan, the Boys Town Center for the Study of Youth Development, and Kansas State University.

Over the years, Dr. Murray has produced 10 books and more than 80 articles on children’s television, including a 1980 reference book, Television and Youth: 25 Years of Research and Controversy, and the 1992 American Psychological Association Report, Big World, Small Screen: The Role of Television in American Society.