Nearly forty years after Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton Minow referred to television as a “vast wasteland,” the effect of television’s influence on society continues to be of great concern. Many people believe that television has a corrosive effect on the nation’s moral fabric and contributes to social problems—especially violence. For example, the American Psychological Association reports that American children witness 8,000 murders and 100,000 violent acts on television before they graduate from elementary school. Numerous studies have been done in an attempt to confirm that viewing television violence leads to violent behavior among children as well as adults. According to psychologist Madeline Levine, more than 1,000 studies have been conducted on the link between media violence and societal violence among children. Of these studies, 996 have confirmed “that media violence encourages aggression.”

Other people reject...