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VIOLENCE

Dialogue:______read aloud in pairs

A: What do you think are the causes of the increase in violence in our society?

 

B: Without doubt, television has a lot to answer for.

 

A: In what way?

 

B: You've only got to switch on a film and you'll see a violent incident every

five or ten minutes on average. Even the news bulletins dwell on violence.

 

A: But on the news, that's violence which actually happens, isn't it?

 

B: Yes, but other things happen in the world which aren't violent.

 

A: Well, maybe they don't qualify as news.

 

B: In that case, you're saying that the news isn't representative of what's happening around us.

 

A: Well, neither are Shakespeare's plays. Many of those are centred on wars and

tragedies. Novels too are usually based on conflict. That's what gives them their interest value.

 

B: The problem with television is that the images of violence are highly graphic

and they're shown to us again and again. Some people are easily influenced by visual

images. Young children may come to believe that the world's like that.

 

A: That's highly unlikely. Everybody understands that films and plays contain

drama and that the purpose of the news is to report on what's wrong.

 

B: I think you underestimate the damage that can be done by all this focus on hatred.

You only have to visit a war zone to see how the minds of young children are twisted by

killings, torture and executions. Spend some time in Rwanda and you'll understand what I mean.


A: Come on! The films we see on TV don't go that far. At least there's some censorship.


B: Now you're saying that you want good, clean violence on TV. You want it to

look clinical. I'm beginning to think it would be a good thing if we were shown

genocide... if war correspondents showed us what they meant by collateral damage,

instead of sanitizing violence. Viewers would soon get sick of seeing the real thing.


A: Make up your mind! Do you want more or less violence on TV?

 

B: More of the real world and less sanitized violence.