Television is a phenomenon that affects children and adolescents in almost every industrialized country in the world, particularly the United States and Western Europe. Some studies have indicated that children spend more time watching television than in school, and by the time they graduate from high school, are more socialized by advertising, depictions of reality, and the way they perceive violence. In fact, most of the research on children and television has centered around the question regarding children and the perception and action of violent self-behavior, or suicide (Palmer, 1980). Suicide and suicidal attempts are, contrary to popular wisdom, quite frequent in childhood and adolescence. Even in the 1970s, suicidal death was shown to be one of the fastest growing childhood and adolescent problems, ranking fourth as the leading cause of death in the fifteen-to nineteen-year age group (Toolan, 1987, p.339). This view is echoed in the more current literature in the field, and also emphasizes that 59 to 71 percent of surveyed adolescents and children believe suicide to be a potential for most within that age group (Domino, et al., 1988-89, p. 359). Similarly, attitudes toward death within the fabric of American society have significantly changed in post World-War II society, primarily because of the pervasive influence of television and the rapid rise in the importance of the media. Prior to the advent of the media age, most Americans lived in smaller, more tightly-knit communities. Both suicide and accidental death were thus experienced at a more personal level - members of the community facing the situation locally (Fulton and Owen, 1988).
As television and motion pictures grew in popularity, however, images of violence, death, and suicide formed more of a cognitive pattern within the framework of popular culture. Films such as "Halloween," "The Road Warrior," and "Rambo" depict death in vivid color and often in sl...