all the difference in profit? Could it be that the artificial death spectacles and mass slaughter of insignificant characters desensitizes us to the finality and reality of what death is actually like? Or could it be that the ultimate human demise in the movies is now more like a choreographed dance number with intricate moves and creative turns than a dramatic conclusiveness of life? When will Americans do something about this horrid and grotesque tragedy and take steps towards curing this vicious social plague? Each person who monitors the inlet of violent television his or her child watches or who stands up against the flourishing climate of extravagant violence makes a difference. A starting point may only be a little beginning, but all great reforms found their origin here. UNESCO’S GLOBAL MEDIA VIOLENCE SURVEY The range of media to which children have access has grown rapidly in this generation. Take the books, newspapers, magazines, films, radio, tapes, records, and broadcast television familiar to children of the previous generation, then add dozens of cable t.v. channels, thousands of videos and video games, and millions of Internet sites. The result is a dense electronic bath in which children are immersed daily. This is true not only in the industrialized countries but increasingly in all societies of the world. What is the impact of this new environment on children, and what is the particular effect of images of violence in the media? To address this question, in i996 and i997 UNESCO conducted the Global Media Violence Survey. More than 5,000 12-year-old students in 93 countries participated, representing all regions of the world and a broad variety of cultural, social, and economic conditions, from countries like Canada andjapan to high-crime neighbourhoods in Brazil and war-ravaged countries like Angola and Tajikistan. Under the supervision of Drjo Groebel of Utrecht University, the study aimed to understand t...
