Should War be Shown on Television?
The first war to be covered on television was the Vietnam War, which lasted roughly around 20 years. Since then, there has been lots of controversy centered on whether war should be televised or not. I firmly say that war shouldn’t be televised. Many things can (and have) been televised, but I think showing war on television would be crossing the line. In the 1940’s, most people didn’t have their own television, so this was never a problem. War scenes are known to have gory and violent images which can gross people out and on a more extreme scale, traumatize them to some extent. It is also pretty pointless, since news shows already talk about the main events of war and show a few bits and pieces of the war going on. Finally, war shouldn’t be covered on television because it just puts more people’s lives at risk.
First of all, seeing the bloodshed and terror of war on television can traumatize everyone, especially children. An innocent child could be flipping through channels and happen to land on the channel that is covering the war. The result of this unfortunate incident could be nightmares and gory images that are forever imprinted on the child’s brain. Also, seeing war on television can make kids more violent. In fact, according to Debate.org, 63% of people think that the violent war footage could make children more violent or scare them. Adults too, can be affected by war footage. In the book, “Debating War and Peace” by Jonathan Mermin; Mermin talks about the impact that seeing war images could have on people. He says that seeing soldiers dying is sure to affect them in some way. Seeing soldiers dying because of bomb blasts or being shot by a gun could actually mentally or physically hurt the people who are watching. Soldiers who go to war often come back with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In fact, after World War II, at least one out of five soldiers were diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at some point in their lives. After being in the war and seeing the horrors of it, soldiers could be plagued with nightmares and end up not being able to cope with life. The same thing could happen to people who watch war coverage on television. They are basically seeing and hearing the same things a soldier does except through a television screen. So as you can see, war can and will traumatize everyone.
Second of all, showing war coverage on television is completely unnecessary. Most people already watch news shows that cover the main points of what happened during war. They don’t need to watch actual war scenes being shown as it happened. Associate professor and extension specialist of child development at Purdue University, Judith A. Meyers-Wall, states, “Television coverage of war goes completely overboard, as we already get all the information we need to know from news reports.” Television gives us too much information in a way. Knowing the casualty count through the news, and actually watching people die are two different things. In the 1940’s, a lot of people didn’t have television sets, so this wasn’t a problem. Instead, they got all the information they needed to know about the war through radio programs. There was no need for war to be televised in the 1940’s and there shouldn’t be a need now. As you can see, news shows already cover the big events that happen during the war, so there is no need to televise the actual war scenes and footage.
Finally, war should not