NCJ Number
160250
Date Published
1995
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Hollywood executives are often characterized as being unconcerned about media violence and unwilling to address it, but many movie and television executives are concerned and are attempting to reduce the amount of violence in their products.
Abstract
Since May 1993, when Congress summoned television executives to testify about TV violence, the entertainment industry has been reducing violent portrayals. Marketing and ratings pressures have abetted the trend. A survey by U.S. News and World Report and the University of California at Los Angeles suggests that many top- level Hollywood executives are acting on their concern about the influence that violence in entertainment is having on American society. Still, the entertainment industry is divided about what steps to take. One reason is that it is difficult to define violence. Another reason is that there are a number of media contexts that are potential targets for regulation, including "reality" shows, local news, feature films, and cable TV. An even more fundamental problem than deciding who and what should be under scrutiny is determining what constitutes "gratuitous" violence. Without a clear definition of the problem, fixing it remains elusive. Although Hollywood continues to argue that the future of programming and films ultimately rests in the tastes of audiences, President Clinton and others emphasize the industry's moral imperative to restrict violent content. Ultimately, Congress may settle for industrywide self-policing. Insiders point out that self-policing has generated dramatic results in the past; there was, for example, a deliberate effort in the mid- 1980's to deglamorize drug use on screen. Hollywood wants to convince outsiders bent on intervention that the problems are being seriously addressed.