NCJ Number
160239
Date Published
1995
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Numerous studies have shown that violence in movies and on television increases violence in society; the entertainment industry has done nothing to address this problem, so the government and the public must work together to reduce violence in the media.
Abstract
There have been some 3,000 studies of the effects of violence portrayed in the media on the behavior and attitudes of those who view it. Of the 85 major studies, the only one that failed to find a causal relationship between television violence and actual violence was sponsored by NBC. When the study was subsequently reviewed by three independent social scientists, all three concluded that the empirical data did show a causal relationship. A strategy to deal with the excessive portrayal of violence in television programming must address first-amendment issues. One proposal, introduced in the summer of 1993 by Massachusetts Democrat Edward Markey, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications, stated that Congress may require manufacturers to build TV sets with a computer chip, so that parents can block violent programs from those their children could select. Others have encouraged television executives to adopt voluntary guidelines that would help reduce the portrayal of violence in television programs. The Federal Government has the power to regulate the air waves through the Federal Communications Commission, and Senator Paul Simon and others believe that this latent power to control the portrayal of violence, although never used, has influenced some television producers to change their approach to the portrayal of violence. It remains to be seen whether television executives will take seriously their responsibility to bring positive behavioral portrayals in television programming.