Russian TV: Film- repertoire and the Problem of violence on the Screen

Part Three of the research is dedicated to the monitoring of a theme of violence in the Russian television film-repertoire. There are dozens of films and serials (basically from U.S.A., France and Latin America) each week, containing episodes of violence of different kinds. Beyond doubt, majority of the films, containing the naturalistic image of violence, are shown after 10 o’clock p.m., keeping away the children's audience. However quite often similar production occurs " children's time " too, for example, at 8 o'clock in the evening.

  This is the repertoire monitored by me since Monday Jan.10.2000 till Sunday Jan. 16.2000.

As first of all I was interested in the problem of influence of screen violence on the young audience, I consciously have imposed some restrictions on the monitoring. So the content-analysis was made only of that film-repertoire of main Russian TV channels, which is accessible to the junior audience, including preschoolers and younger students: that is from 6 o’clock a.m. till 11 p.m..

Monday.

On the whole the repertoire of the leading Russian TV-companies from 6-00 a.m. till 11-00 p.m. did not contain serials and films with an excessive image of violence. If violence occurred in the course of a plot, it was represented in non- naturalistic way (for example, in a serial "A Murder She Wrote "). The famous hit “Highlander” (ORT, 19-45 - 22-00) is practically completely constructed on a theme of violence (fights of knights and so on). Certainly, the screen violence in TV series of the kind is deprived of a horrifying naturalism. This is violence as at fairy tales and legends. Besides the main hero personifying the Good, is winning in the battle with the EVIL... However, in the USA this film was rated "R" (Restricted)…

Similar “fantasy” serial "Legend about Wilhelm Tell " was shown from Monday till Friday on TV-6. And during the “children’s time” - from 5p.m. till 5-40 p.m. Here too there are a lot of episodes, to some extent connected with violence (battles, duels, fights, murder, etc.), but without naturalistic details...

Tuesday.

At 9-45 p.m. RTR begins the demonstration of the Hong Kong karate-film. There are quite a few fights and violence there, but without naturalistic close-up.

Wednesday.

RTR shows another Hong Kong karate-film from 21-45 till 23-45. Film contain episodes of violence, but without a naturalism.

Thursday.

From 8-45p.m. till 10-00p.m., that is accessible time to children, NTV shows a thriller of Richard Donner “ Assassins” (1995). Of course, this film shows many murders, but it also shows a killer as “a good guy”. Many Stallone’s action-films are “R” rated. However Russian channel NTV presents them open to small children.

Friday.

 Each Friday from 9-45p.m. on ORT goes American detective story serial “Colombo”. The serial contains scenes of violence (murder, victim of murders and attacks, etc.).

Saturday

At 7-50p.m. NTV shows the first part of “bondiana” - " Dr. No ".In the USA films about James Bond, as a rule, go under "PG" (Parental Guidance).

Sunday.

From 12-05 till 2-00 on ORT there is a Russian film on a material Civil war "Winner" (1976). This picture is traditional for the Soviet epoch. The violence against “public enemies” is justified as a “dictatorship of proletariat”.

From 7-00 till 9-00 p.m.  ORT shows the complete author's version of the thriller with much of violence – “The Professional” by Luc Besson. This film went with serious age restrictions in America and Europe. But ORT shows the picture in the most "children's" time. It should be also noted that the leading female character is just a teenage girl...

In the morning (8-15 - 9-00) NTV gives replays of the " night " presentation of Canadian TV-serial "Nikita ".

The same channel from 8-50 till 9-50 p.m. shows the Russian criminal serial

 " Cops-2 ". A close up of a dead woman and a man is included in the opening credits of each part of this popular TV-serial...

CONCLUSIONS

Certainly, as compared to documentary shots on a criminal theme, the violence in a feature cinematograph does not seem so terrible and shocking. For example, we can always say to a child: “Don’t be afraid, it’s just not real, it’s cinema! He is not a gangster, and not a policeman, he is an actor”.

However negative influence on the psychology and mentality of minors is similar. For example, one of recent Russian researches has shown, that “a video and the telemenu of children of school age is rather monotonous: every third film is an action or a thriller, every fifth is an erotic. (...) The film characters’ purposes and motives are rather different from “home & family ”: “libido’s” satisfaction (41 percents), murder (17 %), rescue of their own life (17 %) (...) And such values, as friendship, law, and honor are represented by three percent. (...) The abundance of violence makes one think, that it is the only way to solve conflicts. The research’s authors observed the reaction of children during the demonstration of a criminal film " Art of Death ". The film contains different sorts of murders. (...) Children of younger age have experienced a shock. I think, it is clear: the scenes of violence perform a harmful influence on children. One of features of a child's mentality is that the information received by a child from the screen is perceived as a true one. Both in game, and in real life situations children frequently imitate what they have seen, in particular, violence "acquired" with the help of the screen. As a result seen they can perceive violence as acceptable social model of behavior and a way to solve problems. One may agree or disagree with these conclusions, but one can not deny a really horrifying statistics of children's and teenager's cruelty and criminality, as well as the fact, that an overwhelming majority of minor criminals gave among the motives of their crimes the " screen examples or analogies " they watched. (...) In Germany, Sweden and other countries of Europe the special laws, protecting children from aggression of the screen have appeared. In Russia there are still no protective measures of this kind. " (1, 7).

I think that the content analysis of a week’s TV programs, carried out by me, is quite typical of a present situation. Many Russian sociologists, films historian, journalists share this point of view. I shall quote some of them.

A. Vartanov: "Naturalistic details have not only a depressing impact on millions of spectators. They quite often provoke the thirst for revenge. (...) In one of releases of "Today" (this is a news program on the biggest Russian private telechannel NTV – A.F.) journalist V.Grunsky with the rigid comments has shown the terrible reportage from Chechnya. A Chechen soldier shot a hand of a hostage. In another shot a man asked for help. And in a second the Chechen terrorist chopped off his head. I must confess, it is terrifying for me even to retell it - not to mention to watch it. Nevertheless such a civilized, perfectly aware of the rules of the game telecompany, as NTV, has shown this hard violence episode” (2, 12).

I.Naidenov: " Dead corpse of a Chechen soldier - close up, the body, crushed by a concrete wall, a victim of explosion in Moscow… The programs - " Road patrol ", "Accidents of Week ", " Criminal Russia " and others, - filling domestic telechannels and having, by the way, high rating, speculate on a phenomenon of human subconsciousness, attracting the spectator to violence’s plots. The interactive interrogations show, that the spectator will prefer to watch a collision of trains in India rather than an exhibition of an artist (...). Such TV-programs, as " Road patrol « daily showing details of murders, transport accidents and so on, you will not see on a European channel " (4, 1).

E.Ivanova: " Our TV channels, mildly speaking, at any time demonstrate programs, commercials, feature films that distort, hurt a gentle mentality of a child and form a cold, agressive man" (3, 28).

K.Tarasov: « As a biological creature a man is extremely sensitive to real violence. Therefore many spectators are stung to the quick by episodes of violence, almost instinctive interest rouses (5, 77). Teenager's crime in Russia is becoming a national disaster, and many lawyers name low-standard action films as its catalyst (5, 78). Young spectators can be conventionally divided into three typological groups. "Highly-active" consumers of screen violence make the first group. Half or even a majority of films seen by them during four weeks contained stages of violence.55percent of the new generation make the first group. The second group is formed by 11 percent of young spectators. “Agressive film-diet” makes one third of everything they watch on TV. Young men and women who are characterized by the “moderate” percent of watching screen violence from the total number of hours spent in front of the TV make 24 percent. (...) The number of "highly active" consumers of screen violence among boys makes 62 %, and among girls - 50% (5, 78-79).

What conclusion can be drawn? To forbid TV programs and films on a criminal theme (and at the same time the sale of video-CD, DVD, CD-ROMs’ disks with games based on violence)? Certainly not. An adult audience, probably, has a right to know, what state of affairs concerning crime is in Russia and abroad. But violence on the screen should be not open to children with their gentle and sensitive mentality. Hence, films and TV programs, including violence, accidents, wars and their victims, should be shown at night time and shouldn’t be repeated in the morning and day time.

I agree, Russia of today experiences many problems. And nevertheless it is necessary to spare no effort in order to protect kind and naive illusions of childhood and not to hurt its fragile well-being. Thanks God, our children at least till 10 years of age are usually indifferent to political and economic crisis. And they want to watch animated cartoons and cheerful comedies in "children's" time, instead of criminal horrors...

9.8.4. Video Games: Media Violence & Teenagers’ s Audience

Ten years ago Russian children spent much time with their VCRs. They were crazy about American blockbusters on the pirates’ videocassettes with terrible quality. Today American films are no longer a deficit in Russia. Different television channels from mornings till night show dozens of foreign thrillers, melodramas, comedies and horrors. Today it is a computer game that eats up children’s attention and time. Russian children from low-income families spend hours in computer clubs, where they play video games for comparatively small charge. Children from richer families play games at home.

The question is: what games they play?

We made a content analysis of about 90 video games, which circulate in Russian computer clubs.

This is the result of the analysis:

1) practically all video games, available for visitors of computer clubs (basically all the visitors are teenagers), are about crime, war, fantasy and sport;

2) only 17,24% (15 from 87) of video games did not contain any scenes of violence;

3) 55,17% (48 from 87) of video games had the episodes of varied murders ("Doom", "Young Blood", "Final Doom" and others);

4) 39,08% (34 from 87) of video games had many elements of fights and different degrees of cruelty: "Kensei", "Hercules" and others;

5) 35,63% (31 from 87) of video games included the images of catastrophes ("X-COM", "Resident Evil 1" and others);

6) as a whole 82,75% (72 from 87) of video games contained at least one of the types of screen violence (murders, fights, catastrophes). Many of those games presented the violence in several types (in different combinations);

7) the primitive video games (“shoot”-“fire”) are the basic repertoire of computers’ clubs. The more complex games - so-called "strategies" and "quests" - are more rare.

Secondly, We organized the questionnaires for the 76 visitors of a Taganrog’s computer club - schoolchildren age from 7 to 17 years. The results confirmed my preliminary observation: the majority of visitors are boys (73 persons). The amount of schoolgirls, playing video games in computer clubs is 3,94% only (3 persons). Though, girls’ video games’ preferences on the whole do not differ much from the boys’ preferences.

Tab.1. The age range of schoolchildren who play video games in computer clubs

The analyses of the table1 shows that the teenagers form 12 to 15 years are the main visitors of computer clubs. The younger children (from 7 to 9 years), spend, as a rule, more time with their families (1- 5 %). Practically all visitors of computer club play games, containing scene of violence (83%).

Tab.2. Themes of video games, attracting schoolchildren

The analysis of the table 2 shows that amount of most popular video games, containing elements of violence, more than the amount of the video games without elements of violence in all age groups. Moreover children from 11 to 14 years prefer the video games with murders, fights and other hard elements of violence ("Doom", "Final Doom", "Resident Evil", "Mortal Kombat").

Undoubtedly, the problem of computer games, containing scene of violence and their impact on shaping the consciousness of teenagers can not be solved easily. Unfortunately computer games are not always are rated in Russia. And even it there’s a sign of the age rate on a CDROMbox, many shops and computer clubs still sell these games to children regardless of their age.

Of course the rating and filtering is not enough anyway. The most important method of protection children from the violent content of computer games is media education.

References

1. Abramenkova V. Mom, Daddy and Video // Trud. - 1999. - May 28. - p. 7.

2. Vartanov A.. The People and Anti-People // Trud. - 1999. – Sept. 16 . 1999. - p.12.

3. Ivanova E. Kid at the Screen //Trud. - 1997. – Oct. 17 . - p. 28.

4. Naidenov I. Operation "Provocation" // Kultura.- 1999. - N 35. - p.1.

5. Tarasov K. Violence in Cinema: An Attraction and Pushing Away // Test by Competition. - Moscow: Scientific Institute of Cinema Publ. House, 1997. p.74-97.

9.8.5. Russian Teenagers & Violence on the Screen

(partly published in Media I Skolen (Norway), 1999, n 5, p.37-39)

This is one of the first study on media-screen violence in modern Russia. We have the public debate on the theme of Young People and Violence on the screen in the Russian press because Russian TV channels show the many films and TV-programs with the violence. Age groups were included in my survey: 16-17 (430 students of Taganrog's high schools and the first course of Taganrog State Pedagogical Institute).

A. The ground of the logic of the test.

When making up the test I deliberately chose the so-called closed form (where after a concrete question several variants of answers follow, one or more of which could be chosen). My choice was determined by the fact, that the majority of teens, as a rule, is not able to state its point of view concerning its media-preferences precisely and quickly. So for the clear wording one has to give them the group of most possible variants. Besides, because of the unification the test of a closed type takes less time to be filled out and can be easier worked on. The test was conditionally divided into 3 parts: VIOLENCE ON THE SCREEN: ORIENTATIONS AND PREFERENCES OF TEENAGERS, TEENAGERS' ATTITUDE TO THE VIOLENCE ON THE SCREEN: REASONS AND RESULTS, TEENAGERS AND VIOLENCE ON THE SCREEN: THE RESULTS OF SITUATIONS' TESTS.

The structure of the test was chosen according to the following:

Part 1. VIOLENCE ON THE SCREEN: ORIENTATIONS AND PREFERENCES OF TEENAGERS:

1) at first teenagers are given a list (40 titles) of Russian and foreign films, around a half of them are popular comedies and melodramas, containing no violence, in the others (thrillers, horror films, criminal and war epics) violence, on the contrary, often takes up the big role. Knowing that the films from the list are shown on TV often, are out on the video, we can suggest that teenagers, who are to some extent attracted by the violence on the screen, will point to the movies of such kind;

2) by analogy to this the list of popular among youth computer games is compiled. It's presumed that a teenager, who chose as a favorite the game overfilled with fights and shooting "Doom", doesn't mind seeing violence on the screen;

3) after an indirect clarification of the attitude of teenagers towards showing violence on the screen, further on it's logical to pass on to the direct questions # 3-5. With the help of these questions it's possible to learn films, TV shows and computer games of what countries, genres, themes contain more violence (in the list of 40 countries many African, Asian and South American countries are absent, because the production of their film or TV industry doesn't reach the Russian TV, cinema and video market).

The logic of their consistency is as follows: knowing the country where a film was produced (the USA for instance), chosen by a teenager, and modern Russian audiovisual repertoire, where American production makes up the majority and contain a good deal of violence scenes, we can guess, what genres and themes (most probably, of an entertaining kind) will be called later;

4) having learnt the knowledge of the audience of genre-theme components, which most often go with the scenes of violence, we can pass on to the concrete questions # 6-8 about the most popular movie characters of teenagers. For that purpose, the list is given, completely made up of the films, containing scenes of violence (that is this list is the part of the main list for question n 1). If a teenager is orientated first of all on the American thrillers, horror films, among his favorite characters will be such heroes as Terminator or Rambo;

5) Knowing the type of the chosen character we may suppose that among the most likable character traits of his the strength, courage, self-confidence will be named (n 7) and some number of students who made such choice, would like to resemble their hero in behavior and world outlook (n 8).

Part 2. TEENAGERS' ATTITUDE TO THE VIOLENCE ON THE SCREEN: REASONS AND RESULTS.

1) at first with the help of direct questions we find out the number of students who are attracted /not attracted by the scenes of violence on the screen. Most probable is the hypothesis that if in the first part of the test teenagers chose as their favorites films, computer/video games containing scenes of violence, and as their favorite movie characters - Terminator or Rambo, the answer to this question will be positive;

2) dependent on the answer to this question teenagers are offered to choose the factors that attract or repel them in the scenes of violence. One can presume that the entertainment of the show or recreation can attract, and fear of blood, violence and crime can repel;

3) proceeding from the numerous observations in the cinema theaters one can assume that teenagers aimed at the entertainment with the help of the screen violence, prefer to communicate with the screen together with friends (3 and more), that's why this variant seems to be more probable as the answer to the following question;

4) then follow questions, concerning the reasons of watching violence on the screen, and the psychological state afterwards; proceeding from the peculiarities of the psychology of teenagers (the aspiration to self-affirmation, to look adult and mature, etc.) one can't hope that the majority of such an audience will confess that they become sad or bitter; more likely teenagers will want to emphasize that screen violence doesn't influence their psychology;

5) it's natural that in case of such an answer a teenager will say that he doesn't tend to remember scenes of violence for long, and doesn't care to discuss them with anybody, but in case he does, then it is with friends. The psychology of a teenager doesn't allow him to consider his parents as interlocutors.

Part 3. TEENAGERS AND VIOLENCE ON THE SCREEN: SITUATIONS' TESTS.

The peculiarity of this part of the test is that teenagers find themselves facing some hypothetical game situation of the choice. Some of the questions here may seem not serious, comic (for instance, the question about the names of pets). However it is done for purpose, for a kind of a relaxation between the more serious questions.

1) the question about a videotape with the only movie that a teenager would take with him to a desert island, to some extent duplicates the question n 1, Part 1 (with the list of 40 popular films, containing/not containing violence). However the game situation itself, when a teenager may have, even just in his imagination, just one film at his disposal for a long time, can change somehow his preference: a person who prefers watching violence films will not necessarily want to stay with "Rambo" on a desert island;

2) a comic situation with choice of the name for a pet gives an opportunity to get indirectly an idea of the degree of popularity of movie characters among teenagers;

3) the situation with the type of teenagers' reaction to watching scenes of violence on the screen, undoubtedly, repeats the direct question on their attitude towards the violence in Part 2, but it is done intentionally because it is presumed that if a teenager is attracted to scenes of violence on the screen, then he most probably will not switch off his TV set or turn away from it, when such scenes are shown;

4) it's the same with the situation with the imaginary acting of teenagers in scenes of violence. It's presumed that a person who disapproves violence on the screen will not act in such kind of a film production ;

5) the situation of the discussion of the probable reasons and influence of aggression and violence in the society and the prohibition of violence on the screen is also aimed at the affirmation of the answers to the previous parts of the test (a person who prefers to watch scenes of violence on the screen, most probably wouldn't point at the screen violence as the reason of increasing crimes in real life, wouldn't pay attention to its influence and wouldn't demand the censorship);

6) the last situation asks at to determine the age of his/her future child, since which a kid will be allowed to watch scenes of violence. Teenagers who enjoy violence on the screen chose the lowest age possible or are against any prohibitions whatever.

The Main Aims of Test

Part 1. VIOLENCE ON THE SCREEN: ORIENTATIONS AND PREFERENCES OF TEENAGERS.

1. To find out the degree of popularity of the screen production (films, computer games) containing scenes of violence. The obtained information helped me to take into consideration the real preferences of teenagers, to pay attention to the concrete films, genres, and themes, that are popular, and therefore, have maximum influence (moral, psychological, etc.).

2. To determine, to what extent the screen production of different genres, countries and themes is associated by teenagers with the screen violence; the results obtained showed us the degree of approach of teenagers to the mass media culture and their ability to distinguish between different genres and themes.

3. To reveal the main types and character traits of the movie characters that teenagers like, including those, whom they would like to resemble. It's logical, that when working on the special course for teenagers, concerning violence on the screen, I took into consideration the newly appeared trends, paying attention to the typical favorite films, heroes of which are success with the public.

Part 2. TEENAGERS' ATTITUDE TO THE VIOLENCE ON THE SCREEN: REASONS AND RESULTS.

4. To find out the number of students who are attracted/ disgusted by the scenes of violence on the screen. The number of the first group should to the great extent coincide with the member of students who prefer heroes of bloody thrillers and horror films, the list of which is given in the first part of the test.

5. To reveal the main factors, attracting teenagers to the scenes of violence on the screen (entertaining function, function of identification, compensatory function, function of recreation, professional directorship, outstanding acting, outstanding special effects, etc.). The results are necessary for the comparing them with the written papers, discussions, in order to state the self-evaluation of the audience of its preferences and their real motives, revealed in the course of the whole research.

6. To reveal the main reasons of dislike of scenes of violence on the screen (that is also important for working out the special course for students).

7. To find out with what kind of company teenagers prefer to watch scenes of violence on the screen; reasons and consequences (the psychological state, thoughts, discussions) of such kind of shows. It is important for the comparison of the audience's self-evaluation with the results of the test on the whole.

Part 3. TEENAGERS AND VIOLENCE ON THE SCREEN: SITUATIONS' TESTS.

8. To find out to what degree teenagers that approve of the screen violence, are ready, though in imagination to stay for a long time tête-à-tête with a movie like "Rambo" or "Terminator". The obtained results allow judging as to how stable current screen preferences of students of films containing violence are.

9. To find out the type of reaction of teenagers when watching scenes of violence on the screen. The results are to confirm the answers of students to the main question of Part 2 of the test (about their positive or negative attitude towards screen violence).

10. To learn about the imaginary readiness of teenagers to take part in a movie violence scene. The results must confirm the students' answers concerning their positive or negative attitude towards screen violence.

11. To determine the opinion of teenagers concerning the reasons of violence and aggression in the society, influence of the violence on the screen on the increase of crimes, prohibition of scenes of violence on the screen (also with reference to their future children). The analysis of the results will also allow to confirm the tendencies, revealed in the first two parts of the test.

9.8.7. The Analysis of the Answers to the Test “Russian Teenagers and Violence on the Screen”

(430 people were questioned, age from 16 to 17)

Part 1. VIOLENCE ON THE SCREEN: ORIENTATIONS AND PREFERENCES OF TEENAGERS.

As one can see from the final data, put in the table 1, just 4 out of 10 most favorite films contain some violence (From Dusk Till Down, Speed, Basic Instinct, Twin Peaks). While the 3 leaders are the melodrama (Pretty Woman) and comedies (Diamond Hand, Gentlemen of Good Luck). The number of fans of Robert Rodriguez' film <From Dusk Till Down>, representing a parody mixture of tough gangsters' drama and horror film, didn't exceed 17%, while "Pretty Woman" was chosen by 26% teenagers. Therefore we can make a conclusion: the popularity of screen violence, with the audience is undoubtedly, however it gives up to the popularity of melodramas and comedy super-hits. By the way, Russian comedies "Diamond Hand" and "Gentlemen of Good Luck" got into the number of leaders of hit-films on the whole (among the champions of sold tickets in the history of Russian cinema they occupy the third (76,7% million of people) and twelfth (65 million of people) places. That proves the fact that mass success of a film is determined by the most active and curious audience - the youth. The same situation takes place concerning the attitude of teenagers to computer games (the table 2). The first place is taken by the game-puzzle "Tetris" (around 44,65% like it), it doesn't contain any violence scenes, while, "Doom", based on the scenes of violence has fans, twice less in number (25,11%). By the way, we must point out that in Russia not every family has a computer, therefore the access of teenagers to computer games is rather limited still.

The analysis of Table 4 showed that on the whole teenagers have the right understanding of what countries produce maximum screen production with scenes of violence. In fact, it's the USA and Hong-Kong that were represented on Russian screens by numerous films, stuffed with scenes of violence: fights, shootings, murders and so on. Teenagers pointed out the fact that violence on the screen in the 90's became usual also in the Russian audiovisual production. It's interesting that none of the European countries except Italy (Italy took the 5-th place with 11,39% votes) was named by teenagers as a leader in the sphere of screen violence. No doubt, this fact can be explained not only by the "peaceful" character of European screen production, but also by the absence of contacts of Russian teenagers with films and TV shows of the majority of European countries except Italy and France.

The tables 4 and 5 give an idea that Russian teenagers can distinguish well the genres and themes of screen violence: action, thrillers, horrors films, criminal, war, cosmic, psycho-pathological themes were marked among the basic for the violence to be shown. The analysis of table 6 gives more interesting results. It turned out that Russian teenagers like "good" characters-servants of law in the films "Twin Peaks", "The Silence of the Lambs", and the main characters of films containing scenes of violence as well - "Godfather" (31,86%), "From Dusk Till Down" (26,27%), "Terminator" (24,41%), "Natural Born Killers" (11,39%), that is so called "bad guys" - Mafia murderers, etc. Among the character traits they liked, teenagers wrote "firmness"(41,62%), "intellect"(40,23%), "power" (36,27%), but "cruelty"(19,53%) as well, while "<kindness" was given up (10,46%). To my mind, this is one of the displays of the negative influence of the violence on the screen on the young audience.

The comparative analysis of tables 1 and 6 shows that there's some difference between a teenagers' favorite film and its main character. Thus, 16,97% of students like "From Dusk Till Down" while its main characters - murderers are popular with 26,27% of audience. The same situation is true with the TV series "Twin Peaks": 37,67% like its hero, and 12,32% only the movie itself. Teenagers would like to resemble the movie characters mentioned above in the world outlook (19,76%), behavior (12,32%), in the manner of dressing (9,69%), job (8,60%), attitude to people (7,99%). The low percentage of teenagers who chose to answer this question is reasoned by the fact, that many teenagers considered this question to be childish, "just for kids". On the margins one could come across something like "I'm old enough not to imitate anyone".

PART 2. TEENAGERS' ATTITUDE TO THE VIOLENCE ON THE SCREEN: REASONS AND RESULTS.

The data listed in the table 9 show that the number of teenagers who are attracted by the violence on the screen make a half of the teenagers questioned (48,14%), 28,84% have a negative attitude to it, and the number of teenagers who are not sure about this problem is 23,02%. The comparative analysis of tables 9 and 1, 2, 6 proves that the self-evaluation of teenagers corresponds to their real screen preferences.

None of the films, computer games, containing violence couldn't overcome the limit of 40%, that is screen production of such kind was chosen by 48% of teenagers who are supporters of screen violence according to the statistics of the table 9.

Basing on the results of the test I made the table 10, revealing factors that influence the perception and estimation of the screen work containing scenes of violence. Among the factors that attracted teenagers: in the first place was the entertaining function (33,02%), then acting, professional skill of a director, recreation, informative function, special effects, dynamics of the action. We must also bear in mind that comparatively high rating of the actor's and director's skill to my mind, doesn't demonstrate the fact that all teenagers who made such a choice, are real connoisseurs of the artistic value of a film. Here a typical stereotype comes into power: if one liked a movie or a film (for its entertaining part in the main) then it means that the performance and directors' work was good.

Table 10 shows also that the majority of those teenagers (28,84%) who answered according to table 9, that they are not attracted by the violence on the screen, actually make quite another choice. Just 5,34% of teenagers confirmed in the table 10 that nothing attracts them in the scenes of violence on screen, the rest have told some concrete factors (e.g.: acting or special effects) that can draw them to the TV set. The reasons of disliking of the scenes of violence are shown in the table 11. The first place is taken by the influence on the increase of crimes, the second - by the disgust towards the bloody details of violence, hatred, fear of violence, unwillingness to experience unpleasant emotions. The percent data of table 11 on the whole corresponds to the figures of table 9, so the correctness of the results is confirmed.

Tables 12 and 17 obviously confirm an old truth: teenagers prefer to watch TV and discuss (according to the data of table 16 - 22,79% of the audience discuss it regularly) together with their friends. It's the same with the scenes of screen violence. Parents as interlocutors are chosen in both cases by 17% of the teenagers. Among the reasons of watching screen violence (table 13) teenagers pointed out absence of necessity to do anything else, OK (62,32%), good (26,27%) and bad (11,39%) mood. Table 14 reflects the main types of psychological states in which teenagers find themselves after they watched scenes of violence on the screen . In this case the majority of them (according to the desire of self-expression and mature behavior), characteristic of young people) assures that their psychological state doesn't change, and only the small part of the students (4%-5%) confess that they become aggressive or bitter. The major part of the audience (65%) assuring that their psychological state remains the same, is not inclined to remember the scenes of screen violence (table 15), just 6,27% of teenagers point out that screen violence stays in their memory for a long time.

Part 3. TEENAGERS AND VIOLENCE ON THE SCREEN. THE RESULTS OF THE SITUATIONS' TESTS.

The data of table 18 show that taking into account love for scenes of violence not all of the 48,14% teenagers are ready to go to the desert island with the videotape of "Basic Instinct" or "The Silence of the Lambs". Like in table 1, the first place of screen preferences is taken again by the American melodrama "Pretty Woman" (it was chosen by girls especially) and Russian comedies "Diamond Hand" and "Gentlemen of Good Luck". As for the movies containing violence maximum number of votes was received by "From Dusk Till Dawn" (3,95%), that's 4 times less than "Pretty Woman’s rating. In table 19 the data of a comic situation are given, as some kind of a relaxation for students. The results of table 20 at the same time have major importance for the test. In practice with the help of the analysis of answers to the given imaginary situation (the reaction after the scene of violence on the screen), the data of tables 9 and 11 were checked. It's clear that the number of teenagers who continue to watch a film (including eating in front of TV) during the scenes of violence must correspond to the number of students who answered with "yes" to the question of the attraction of violence in the table 9 (that took place during the comparative analysis of tables 9 and 20).

And on the contrary, the number of teenagers who turn their eyes away from the screen, switching TV off or changing the channel must approximately correspond to the number of teenagers who said "no" to violence on the screen (the comparison of tables 9 and 20 shows that it's precisely how it happened). Like in tables 9, 11 in table 20, as well the number of teenagers who don't appreciate violence on the screen, is 30%.

Table 21 shows the data reflecting the attitude of teenagers towards the acting in a scene of violence. The analysis shows that in this case more than a half of students (59,53%) will neglect thus real attitude to scenes of violence if they will be paid much money. Only 7,67% (out of 28,84% according to the table 9) of the students will remain negative about screen violence and would not act in the scenes of violence in any case. Well, these results are rather explicable with the background of an economic crisis and unemployment in Russia, where many Russian families live from hand to mouth.

As for the reasons of violence and aggression in the society teenagers pointed out (table 22) that violence is in the nature of any man and also psychological diseases. Scenes of violence on the screen were mentioned as one of the reasons of violence in real life only by 3,25% of teenagers. The data of the table 23 confirm this orientation of the audience. 33,58% believe that just psychologically sick people can be possibly influenced by scenes of violence on the screen. 33,02% consider this influence to be unimportant, and 14,18% of teenagers think that showing violence on the screen leads to the increase of violence. Such a scattered spectrum of view points can be explained perhaps by the fact that the attitude of teenagers towards the screen violence is not final yet, that's why some of them sometimes answer differently to questions same in their aim but different in their wording.

The data of table 24 (THE ATTITUDE OF RUSSIAN TEENAGERS TOWARDS THE PROHIBITION OF SCENES OF VIOLENCE ON THE SCREEN) gives also an opportunity to compare it with the results of the analysis of tables 9, 11, 20, 21 and 23. Teenagers who according to table 9, are attracted to the scenes of violence on the screen, no doubt, want no restrictions concerning the screen violence (let it be as it is): 48,14% (table 9), 56,97% (table 20) and 48,60% (table 24). 12,79% of teenagers want violence to be forbidden on the screen and 20,23% think that the most cruel films and TV shows should be forbidden. That is according to the data of table 24, 33,02% of teenagers want some kind of restriction of screen violence, that corresponds to the data of table 9 (28,84%), table 11 (30,46%) and table 20 (28,83%). Just 3,02% of teenagers suppose that on Russian screen there can be more violence. The comparison of table 24 and 25 shows that there's a great difference in the viewpoints concerning limitations for watching scenes of violence in the case when teenagers think about age restrictions on the whole (table 9) and age restrictions for his and her future child (table 25).

Acting as a "censor" teenagers consider it possible to ban to watch screen violence to all the children (11,16%), not let children under 10 watch it (5,11%) and under 15 (3,95%). Acting as parents they become much more strict: 38,37% don't want their future children to watch violence until they are 10; 25,34% - until they are 15. In fact, 35,58% of teenagers are ready (or they think they are) to let their children watch screen violence since they are born. The latter figures correspond to the results of tables 9, 10, 20 and 23. Really, it's hard to imagine that a fan of screen violence would want to keep others from it. And vice versa, a person who's attitude towards it is negative will think of some restrictions.

To sum up the analysis of the test RUSSIAN TEENAGERS AND VIOLENCE ON THE SCREEN one can make a conclusion that the influence of screen violence on Russian teenagers is rather perceptible. About a half of teenagers are positive about its demonstration, they like films, TV shows, computer games containing scenes of violence, their characters (including "bad guys"). One third of the teenagers though they pointed out that they are not attracted by the screen violence, in fact are not sure about their attitude to it. Just 18% of teenagers discuss and share their opinions with parents. Teenagers practically never include teachers in the circle of their interlocutors as for their screen preferences. Therefore the influence of Russian schools on the relationship of teenagers with screen violence is, unfortunately, zero. All that can't but evoke alarm, because since 80's-90's screen violence penetrates into the Russian society more and more. It can be safely said that in Russia the Convention of Child's Rights concerning mass media is not working. There's no effective system of age ratings for watching and selling cinema, video, PC-games production, the system of control of the demonstration of scenes of violence. In spite of the efforts of some teachers-enthusiasts, the media education at schools, colleges and universities remains relatively poor.