Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 9, 1995 TAG: 9501190058
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT WILLIAMS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
``With one exception, there is no evidence that we are more violent today than at other periods in our history,'' Moyers said.
That exception, of course, is violence among juveniles, which is the focus of his two-part, four-hour special, ``What Can We Do About Violence?'' which debuts on WBRA-Channel 15 tonight and concludes Wednesday. His related report, ``Does TV Kill?'' airs Tuesday night on ``Frontline.''
``There is no answer to violence,'' Moyers said. ``There are many answers. We don't fully know yet the causes of violence or how to prevent or control it, but we do know some interventions work.''
His report begins in California, the state which locks up more of its young people than any other, and talks to young criminals at the Ventura School, showcase of the state's 17 juvenile prisons.
It houses about 500 young men and 300 young women arrested for capital crimes. ``Half of them will be back,'' Moyers said, ``but the other side of that story is that half of them won't.''
Ventura School tries to teach the young offenders right from wrong, to feel remorse for their crimes and empathy for their victims, and to give them values they often do not have.
``This is the greatest task we face: the artistic, subjective effort to decide who to lock up and who to gamble on saving. That's what makes this a VERY taxing social, cultural and political challenge,'' Moyers said.
Moyers also visits the Florida prison without walls, a Salt Lake City anti-gang program, and ``Teens on Target,'' a teaching program involving teen-agers who have been victims of violence.
``To me, the interesting question is not why so many people become violent, but why so many people DON'T become violent - given what is intrinsic in human nature,'' he said. ``How have we come to tame that aggression and channel it into work, sex, love, compassion, altruism?
``We need to know a whole lot more about human nature.''
Moyers says he's still not convinced that seeing violence causes us to act violently, even though scientific studies suggest it.
``But I do believe that the larger, anonymous [mass media] culture is teaching children about violence in ways that are contrary to what most parents, schools, churches and synagogues are teaching.
``You can turn off your own television set, but you cannot turn off the environment of television. It goes on without you. It's not just the networks, it's the music video, the movie, the trailer - it's the culture that mediates between us and the world.
``Who first mediated between you and the world? Your parents, your priest, your uncles and aunts, or your neighbors. Your teachers,'' Moyers said. ``They mediated for other human beings.
``Now images are mediating for us: Images created by people whose only interest is in making a profit out of creating that image,'' he said.
``Instead of love, community, caring and nurturing becoming the dominant values in that mediation, ... sensationalism, hype and the appetite for profit become the values that permeate the larger culture,'' he said.
He's not suggesting TV is the dominant influence in violence. That burden falls on culture in its entirety, on poverty - and on the family.
``Children learn violence first at home,'' he said. ``Then they learn violence in their community, and if that community is broken down, and you live in a neighborhood dominated by crack and guns, then violence is the world.''
Moyers notes that it will take time to change that world, just as it has taken 30 years to change attitudes in the United States about tobacco.
``It has taken us 30 years to get to the point where we are unlearning habits that were culturally invested in us, taught to us by television, the movies, the commercials - 30 years!
``It'll take us 30 years to come to grips with this violence issue, because it, too, is a public health issue.''
Elsewhere in television ...
ON-LINE FOCUS: Court TV is bringing a multimedia law ``magazine'' on-line for the general public today.
Focus, the magazine, can be downloaded from Court TV's Law Center on the America Online, CompuServe and Prodigy computer services at no additional cost.
In addition, the magazine will be made available on floppy diskettes for distribution to schools by cable system operators.
``Focus uses graphics, maps, photos, animation and audio clips to create a multimedia environment that encourages and rewards exploration,'' Court TV promises.
by CNB