In New York, a sixteen-year-old boy broke into a cellar. When the police caught him and asked why he was wearing gloves, he replied that he had learned from watching television, if you wear gloves you won't leave any fingerprints. In Alabama, a nine-year-old boy received a bad report card from his teacher. He suggested sending the teacher poisoned candy as revenge as he had seen on television the night before. In California, a seven-year-old boy sprinkled ground-up glass into the lamb stew his family was about to eat for dinner. When asked why, he replied that he wanted to see if the results would be the same in real life as they were on television. (Ledingham)
             In many people's living rooms sits an outlet for violence that often goes unnoticed. It is the television. The children who view it are often pulled in to its realistic world of violent scenes with sometimes devastating results. Today, over three thousand studies show violence on TV affects not only childhood aggression but also adulthood violence. (Szaflik)
             Since television was introduced in 1952, it has become so much a part of our existence that many people cannot imagine life without it. Americans love TV and love to watch a great deal of it, yet their pleasure is tainted by a profound unease. How does mass media influence people? Why and how does it cause aggression, if indeed it does?
             Violence in America is influenced by the media due to the fact that it arouses, teaches, desensitizes, and psychologically involves the viewer.
             P.H. Tannebaum is the leading promoter of the arousal theory, which states that exposure to television violence increases aggression because it arouses the viewer. The hypothesis is supported by multiple studies demonstrating that when college-age students watched arousing visual portrayals it led to greater consequent aggression. Shortly after the 1993 movie, The Program, was released, in which college students l...