- WASHINGTON (Variety) - Television programming continues to be dominated
by violence, and the amount of violent programming in primetime has steadily
increased during the past three years, a cable industry-sponsored study
has found. Violent programming on the major broadcast networks has increased
14% in primetime since 1994, according to the study coordinated by the
University of California at Santa Barbara's Center for Communications and
Social Policy. During the same period, violent primetime programming on
basic cable networks increased 10%, it says. The study is slated to be
released officially Thursday. During the past year -- a year during which
a television ratings system was put in effect -- primetime violence continued
to increase, although at a slower rate, the study showed. Primetime network
programming was 4% more violent, according to the study, while basic cable
violence in primetime rose only 1%. The study endorsed the industry's decision
to add content descriptions to the age-based rating system it introduced
last year. The latest installment of the study confirmed its earlier conclusion
that a majority of television programming is violent. ``Across the three
years of the study, a steady 60% of TV programs contains violence,'' the
study states. The three-year, $3.5 million National Television Violence
study was paid for by the National Cable Television Assn (NCTA). Like the
broadcasters who sponsored a study of their own, cable companies hoped
back in 1994 that their promise to finance research into TV violence would
head off V-chip legislation.
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- Of course, that bet did not pay off.
Congress proceeded with the V-chip legislation while herding the television
industry into a ``voluntary'' rating system. Three years later the television
industry not only has a TV ratings system but also two highly detailed
studies on the level of violence in television programming. The two studies,
however, reach very different conclusions -- partly because the two groups
of researchers took very different approaches. The $1 million broadcast
industry study, conducted by UCLA's Center for Communications Policy, focused
on the quality and nature of TV violence, while the cable companies' study
focused on the quantity.
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- Last January, when UCLA released the
last installment of its three-year study, researchers reported that television
producers were doing a better job of portraying the consequences of violence,
UCLA's Jim Reynolds said Wednesday. Reynolds said there was a notable improvement
during the last year. ``There was more attention paid to the consequences
-- both physical and psychological,'' said Reynolds. The cable industry
study also looked at the consequences of the violence depicted, noting
that ``bad characters'' went ``unpunished'' 45% of the time last year compared
to 37% in the first year of the study.
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- NCTA president Decker Anstrom defended
the cable industry against its own study, noting that it was an early supporter
of the content-based TV ratings system, which has been in place since last
October.
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- ``This landmark research will provide
further valuable information as we continue the hard work of addressing
TV violence. Cable companies remain committed to providing families with
a wide range of quality programming and the tools to help parents make
the right viewing choices,'' Anstrom said in a prepared statement to be
released Thursday.
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- The study is based on a review of programming
aired between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. over all seven days of the week. About
2,700 programs were reviewed by the researchers. Over the three years,
researchers reviewed more than 6,000 hours of programming.
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- While primetime programming with violence
on network television increased from 53% to 67% during the last three years,
primetime violence on non-network stations increased from 70% to 77%, the
study found. During the same period, from 1995 to 1996, premium cable violence
rose from 91% to over 95%. But in 1997, primetime violence on premium cable
channels dropped to 87% of programming, according to the cable industry
study.
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- A spokesman for Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)
said Wednesday that the high level of violence in TV programming demonstrates
the need for the V-chip, which may be installed in some TV sets within
a year. ``Despite three years of intense scrutiny, violence on television
still persists,'' said Markey spokesman David Moulton. ``That's why some
intervention is necessary. The only hope for a real change is something
like the V-chip.''
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