Vijaya Chalise:

We are living in a violence-prone world. Experts tell us that as many as 3.6 million people have been consumed by incidents of violence in different parts of the world over the past decade. These incidents have been variously described by social scientists, political activists and journalists as civic strife, civil war, ethnic cleansing, holocaust, communal riot and so on. While some experts see violence in its local texture informed by the fundamentals of its interpersonal relationship, others describe it as a spectre of the global shaping and transmitting the local.

Arthur Kleinman in an article published in the book “Violence and Subjectivity” explores how the appropriation of the images of violence by the media performs social violence — moral, aesthetic and experimental. Passive TV-watchers witness the sufferings of people at a distance without any ‘moral engagement’ and as an object of ‘consumer experience’.

The face and character of journalism has been changing over the centuries. Almost six decades back, the radio influenced and shaped public opinion during World War II. Then television arrived and changed the understanding of the the Vietnam War. Its impact is still being studied in the mass communication schools. The recent wars on Iraq and Afghanistan have repeated the phenomenon of the Vietnam War. Cable television brought the vivid images of the Iraq war live in 2003. Now web sites are at the forefront of covering the war live for the world but with different edge and characters.

The radio has its characteristic intimate appeal, which is hard to define but which has been enduring over the decades. TV is delivering events live, if not from the forefront, and this medium is not gifted with memory. This new generation of journalism comes alongside the fastest growing phenomenon on the internet. This has created new terminology called ‘nano publishers’, a brand of journalism that is being more effective in getting instant information.

Many researchers in many countries, except Nepal, have conducted research studies to assess the effects of the electronic media. A viewer survey, conducted for Nepal Television (NTV) by the Centre for Economic Development and Administration (CEDA) on July 2003, did not give any attention to the effects of the media on their viewers. The objectives of the “Nepal Television Viewer Survey” were: assessing the viewers’ interest and choices concerning the television programmes, assessing the popularity of the Nepal Television programmes, identifying the ten most popular programmes of Nepal Television and ranking them and making recommendations to NTV. India, too, has conducted many studies. And these findings may be applied to us too, as many social, economic and religious traits are almost the same in these two countries.

A medical study conducted between July 1996 and January 1997 by a leading Indian paediatrician, Dr Ashok Gupta, with the SMS Medical College Jaipur, showed that TV viewing for more than two hours daily causes abnormal behaviour in children and affects their physical health. Dispelling the myth that children become more intelligent by exposure to the electronic media, the study found the TV programmes “seriously distorting” the spoken language of children.

The study found that more than 52 per cent of the total number of children viewed television for more than 20 hours a week; 60 per cent of them belonged to higher and lower income group families. However, the majority of the children from the middle income group were found to be viewing TV for less than 15 hours a week. Going to bed late was observed in 53 per cent of the children and this habit led to inadequate rest, with 42 per cent of the parents holding television viewing by their wards till late into night responsible for non-completion of homework. About 32 per cent parents felt that TV viewing was responsible for their children’s irritability and abnormal behaviours.

The study found quite a large number of children (73 per cent) cutting down their outdoor sports activities, thus blunting their physical development and healthy mental state. As many as 70 per cent of the children had a serious distortion in their spoken language, both in terms of content and grammar in conformity with the kind of language used in TV programmes. It was also found that several illnesses were associated with TV viewing which included obesity, found to be prevalent in 14 per cent of the children. Other illnesses reported were epilepsy, apathy and general weakness. The long period of TV viewing had also affected eating habits of children as 83 per cent of them demanded television advertised food for their meal. This behaviour was in more than 96 per cent children from the middle class families. It also found 76 per cent children demanded all possible advertised products. This desire was seen more, 92 per cent, in low income group families compared to high and middle income group families (68 per cent). These findings clearly show how over-exposure to the electronic media affects children.

Not long ago, Internet chatting in Kathmandu led a boy to kill the woman he loved, afterwards he attempted suicide. This is an example of how these modern media might affect the teenagers.

Chalise is executive editor, Gorkhapatra daily