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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this study by Potter and Ware was to analyze the manner in which antisocial acts are portrayed in prime time television programs. The focus was on the context of these antisocial portrayals, not the frequency of occurrence.
METHODOLOGY:
A quasi-experimental content analysis design was used to determine the frequency and context of antisocial activity enacted by heroes, villains, and secondary characters on prime time commercial television. All regularly scheduled dramatic programs on ABC, NBC, and CBS were recorded during prime time for two randomly selected weeks during the winter and spring of 1985. Excluded from the sample were non-fiction programs, movies, mini-series, sporting events, award shows, or other special programs. The remaining sample included 88 hours of TV programs: 39 hours of action/adventure-type shows, 22 hours of situation comedies, 14 hours of dramatic episodic series, and 13 hours of continuing dramatic series.
The coding of antisocial acts was taken from Kaplan and Baxter (1982). All anti-social acts were coded. Anti-social was defined as "any attempt by one character to harm another character." For each act, five elements were coded: level of the act, whether the act was rewarded or not, whether the act was portrayed as being justified by the perpetrator or not, motivation for the act, and type of character. The coders were two undergraduates who were given extensive training in coding. Several pilot tests were conducted to analyze the coding scheme and the work of the coders. 18 levels of anti-social action were condensed into six categories: major felonies (murder, rape, kidnapping), assaults (with and without a weapon), property crimes (robbery, burglary, larceny), threats (verbal and non-verbal), insults, and lies. Contextual characteristics were coded as follows: rewarding (yes/no), justification (yes/no), motivation (internal/external), and type of character (hero/villain/secondary character).
A Scott's Pi reliability was computed for each judgement the coders had to make. These coefficients were as follows: level of act .88; justification .85; motivation .84; act rewarding .82; type of character .81. To check reliability of the coders, four additional non-student "outsiders" ranging in age from 46-67 were recruited to complete a test of coding reliability. The Scott's Pi coefficients were as follows: level of act .81; justification .78; motivation .76; act rewarding .74; and type of character .81. Multiway log-linear analysis of categorical data was used as the primary statistical technique using and SPSSX Hiloglinear program.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
Within the 88 hours of prime-time television coded, 1,664 acts were identified as being antisocial. Of the total, 969 (58.2%) were in the symbolic category, and the remaining 695 were in the physical category. The action/adventure shows accounted for the highest amount of antisocial activity as well as the most per hour. The hypothesis that villains should account for more antisocial activity was not supported. The test of partial association for the type of character variable has a low Pearson chi-square correlation. Therefore, heroes and villains were equally likely to feel reward and justification for their antisocial actions. However, villains were much more likely than heroes to be internally motivated when they perform an antisocial act. The hypothesis that heroes and villains should differ in the level of seriousness of antisocial activity was supported. Villains were more likely to commit major felonies and threats, while heroes were much more likely to insult and lie. Higher rates of reward were found with symbolic acts of lies (93.5%), threats (93%), and insults (90%) than with physical acts of assaults (64.4%), major felonies (83.3%), and property crimes(83.8%). Justification was highest for insults (99.5%) and threats (89.6%) and relatively low for property crimes (86.9%). Although most antisocial activity was found to be externally motivated, insults had a very high level (77%) of internal motivation.
Of the total 1,664 antisocial acts identified, secondary characters accounted for a significant number, 45.9%, when compared to heroes and villains. Among secondary characters, there was a very high frequency of insults and a low frequency of major felonies and property crimes. Also, 84.7% of the acts were rewarded and 89.5% were portrayed as being justified. However, there was a balance between internal and external motivation. Secondary characters were more likely to insult someone on a situation comedy or episodic series, and more likely to assault someone on an action/adventure or continuing series. The level of reward was high across all types of shows, but it was highest on situation comedies and actionadventure shows.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors stated that further research was needed to determine how people process the contextual cues within action scenes and to examine the degree to which they integrate the lessons from each scene into a plot-length lesson.
EVALUATION:
This research provides some empirical data for not only how much violence is in television but important detail on who is doing the violence, in what situations, and what kind of violence is being perpetrated. The steps taken to secure reliability in coding were thorough though such concepts as internal/external motivation, rewarding, and justification are potentially more difficult than classifying the crimes. The findings that heroes commit as many anti-social acts gives a clearer picture of the confusion over when violence is appropriate or inappropriate. The implicit connection between social learning and media viewing needs to be made explicit in further research. This study would carry weight in conjunction with further study that link actual effects of this violence and anti-social behavior on television to actual people rather than describing and theoretically linking media to effects. The time of this research, 1985, makes it somewhat dated; further research should take, perhaps, a longer time frame which continues to more recent television. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Television Violence
KW - Television Viewing
KW - Program-Film Popularity
KW - Media Violence Incidence and Prevalence
KW - Program-Film Content
KW - Adult Crime
KW - Adult Violence
KW - Violence Against Women |