Research suggests that it is probably impossible to establish a direct causal connection between specific acts of violence as seen on television and similar acts performed by individuals On the other hand nobody would deny that TV affects people. What is not clear is what is the nature of the effect of TV and how does it work. In media education we talk about codes and conventions. Please bear with me if this seems overly simplistic to you. We know this works.
Children know it works too, but, it is unlikely that they have ever considered why.
This is but one small example of a convention employed by cinematographers and directors. Understanding why we feel certain emotions allows us to control them. We believe that this knowledge and understanding can be taught and we further believe that school is the appropriate place to do it. Our lives are saturated with media images. Much of our understanding of the world comes to us through television.