NCJ Number
167534
Date Published
1995
Length
28 pages
Annotation
Movie advertisements published in newspapers between 1972 and 1992 were studied by means of content analysis to determine the frequency and nature of weapons displayed.
Abstract
The research tested the hypothesis that a significant increase had occurred in the prominence and number of weapons portrayed in newspaper movie advertisements over the past 20 years. Data were collected from the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the New Orleans Picayune for one weekend entertainment edition per month for each newspaper over the 20-year period. The analysis of the 17,199 movie advertisements in the 960 issues focused on the size of each advertisement, the movie rating, the production company, the inclusion of sexual content, the number of people or other subjects depicted, the race and gender of each person, the inclusion of weapons, and the type and size of each weapon. Results did not confirm the hypothesis. The proportion of newspaper movie advertisements portraying weapons, the average number of weapons per advertisement, the number of people with weapons, and the portrayal of weapons in all movie rating categories declined over the 20-year period. In addition, the average relative size of guns portrayed remained constant, the relative size of knives decreased, and the absolute size of all weapons increased slightly. Findings are consistent with the overall slight declines in violence rates in the United States, contrary to the general impression of an increasing rate of gun-related homicides and serious violent acts. Nevertheless, homicide rates are very high compared to other western countries, and the recent sharp increases in youth homicide are of great concern. Figures