European Researcher, 2014, Vol. 73, № 4-2, pp. 781-804.
The influence of media violence upon Russian teenagers is rather significant.
About half the teenagers were positive about its demonstration: they enjoyed films, television shows, and computer games containing on-screen violence and they admired the characters – including “bad guys”. A third of the teenagers were not sure about their opinion of on-screen violence, although they claimed to not be attracted by it. Just 18% of teenagers discuss and share their opinions with their parents. The influence of Russian schools upon the teenage relationship with on-screen violence is minimal.
The findings of our analysis:
– on the whole students are more tolerant than the teachers to screen violence (men outnumber women).
– entertainment is the leading factor attracting audiences to violent scenes in both groups;
– watching violent programs in high spirits is for students three times oftener than for teachers;
– both students and teachers are most likely to watch and discuss violent scenes together with friends;
– students do not like watching violent programs alone;
– 1 out of 5 teachers is eager to watch violent content media with their students, 1 out of 3 teachers is ready to discuss it with the students;
– on the average, 1 in 10 students would like to share this activity with the teacher;
– students talk about violence on the screen twice as much as teachers;
– 3 times more students than teachers reported that their aggressiveness increases after the
violence seen on the screen;
– images of the screen violence linger in girls‘/women‘ mind longer than in boys‘/ men‘;
– about half of the respondents reported that they remember scenes of violence for a long time;
– both the majority of students and teachers tend to believe that screen violence affects the increase of crime in society;
– one third of teachers and students agree that most violent media texts should be banned;
– quarter of teachers and students think it is necessary to prohibit all violence on the screen;
– 5 times more students (vs. teachers) think things should remain like they are now, and 1 in 10 pupils consider that even more violence can be shown