Communication Exam #2
Readings
Smith et al. (1998) NTVS
1. FOUR FOUNDATIONS OF STUDY
a. 1- TV violence contributes to harmful effects on viewers
b. 2- Three types of harmful effects can occur from viewing TV violence
i. Learning aggressive attitudes and behaviors
ii. Desensitization to viole...
communication exam 2 readings smith et al 1998 ntvs 1 four foundations of study a 1 tv violence contributes to harmful effects on viewers b 2 three types of harmful effects can occur from view
Smith et al. (1998) NTVS
1. FOUR FOUNDATIONS OF STUDY
a. 1- TV violence contributes to harmful effects on viewers
b. 2- Three types of harmful effects can occur from viewing TV violence
i. Learning aggressive attitudes and behaviors
ii. Desensitization to violence
iii. Increased fear of being victimized by violence
c. 3- Not all violence poses the same degree of risk of these harmful effects
i. Attractive perpetrator: increases aggression
ii. Attractive victim: increases fear
iii. Justified violence: increases aggression
iv. Unjustified violence: decreases aggression, increases fear
v. Conventional weapons: increases aggression
vi. Extensive/graphic violence: increases aggression, fear,
desensitization
vii. Rewards: increases aggression, fear
viii. Punishments: decreases aggression, fear
ix. Pain/harm cues: decreases aggression
x. Humor: increases aggression, desensitization
d. 4- Not all viewers are affected by violence in the same way
i. Younger more likely to perceive fantasy/cartoon as realistic, also
less capable of linking scenes together to make sense of events that
occur at different points in a program (below 7 is vulnerable)
2. KNOW TABLE 1
3. KEY ASPECTS OF DEFINITION
a. Violence is defined as any overt depiction of a credible threat of physical
force or the actual use of such force intended to physically harm an
animate being or group of beings. Violence also includes certain
depictions of physically harmful consequences against an animate being or
group that occur as a result of unseen violent means
b. Three Forms
i. Credible threats
ii. Behavioral acts
iii. Harmful consequences of unseen violence
c. Talk about Violence – reality TV – verbal recounting of threats, acts
and/or harmful consequences by a person or person-like character
appearing on screen or heard from off- screen
4. SAMPLE
a. 9 month period each year from Oct 1994 to Nov 1997
b. 23 TV channels to create a composite week of content for each source
c. 6 am to 11 pm
d. Five categories
, i. Broadcast networks
ii. Independent broadcast
iii. Public broadcast
iv. Basic cable
v. Premium cable
5. MEASURES: INCIDENTS, SCENES, AND PROGRAMS
a. Violent Incident: interaction between a perpetrator and a victim
b. Violent Scene: instance of ongoing, uninterrupted violence
c. Violent Program: evaluated to determine if there is an overall theme of
violence or anti-violence
6. FINDINGS
a. Much of TV violence is still glamorized
i. Perpetrators are attractive
ii. No punishment or remorse
b. Most violence of TV continues to be sanitized
i. ½ no physical harm or pain
ii. Most don’t show long-term damage of violence
c. Much of the serious physical aggression on TV is still trivialized
i. Physical aggression would be lethal in real life
ii. TV includes humor
d. Very few programs emphasize an anti-violence theme
e. 60% of TV programs contain violence
7. HIGH-RISK DEPICTION
a. When several plot elements that encourage aggressive attitudes and
behaviors are all featured in one scene
i. A perpetrator who is an attractive role model
ii. Violence that seems justified
iii. Violence that goes unpunished
iv. Minimal consequences to the victims
v. Violence that seems realistic to the viewer
b. Most often found in cartoons
c. High risk for average preschooler; little risk for older viewers who know
it’s unrealistic
Signorelli (1990)
1. WHAT IS MESSAGE SYSTEM ANALYSIS
a. Examines data relating to violence in annual week-long samples of
primetime and weekend-daytime (children’s)
b. Violence is defined in a simple and straightforward way as the overt
expression of physical force against self or other on pain of being hurt or
killed, or actually hurting or killing.
c. Not coded: idle threats, verbal abuse, or gestures without credible violent
consequences
d. Accidental violence and acts of nature are recorded
e. Observations measure the extent to which violence occurs at all the
programs sampled, the rate of violent actions per program and per hour,
, and the involvement of major characters in violence- either as characters
who commit violence, characters who are victimized, or both
2. SIMILAR OR DIFFERENT TO NTVS?
3. CULTIVATION ANALYSIS
a. Hypotheses: there should be a relationship between TV viewing and
expressing views reflecting a “mean world” (interpersonal mistrust) and
alienation and gloom
i. Heavy viewers will espouse these views more than light ones
ii. Tested using general social surveys
b. Two types of analyses
i. FIRST: relationship by calculating zero-, first-, and sixth- or
seventh order partial correlation coefficients controlling for sex,
age, education, race, income, subjective social class, and political
orientation
ii. SECOND: respondents divided into two groups- those who had
high scores and those who had low scores, and those classified as
light, medium and heavy viewers
4. FINDINGS/DISCUSSION (on violence on TV)
a. Basic structure has been stable
b. Violence on TV
i. Cartoons saturated with mostly non lethal violence
ii. Violence is used in programming to demonstrate who can get away
with what against whom, and who should submit to whom. It tells
us who matters and who doesn’t
iii. Victims: more women than men, minority and foreign highest
price
c. What viewers learn about violence and the world
i. Women, young and old people, and some minorities most
vulnerable, cultivation of real world fear
ii. Heavy viewers more likely to live in a self-reinforcing cycle of a
mean and gloomy world
Smith & Donnerstein (1998)
5. CONTRIBUTIONS OF NTVS
a. Two assumptions
i. Exposure to TV violence contributes to a range of antisocial effects
on viewers
ii. Not all violent portrayals pose the same risk of harm to viewers
b. Reason for key components of definition
i. Intentionality: if excluded then many behaviors not considered
aggressive would qualify as violence
ii. Physical harm: center of conceptualizations, be assured the
findings are conservative in nature
iii. Animate being: other things don’t contribute to the learning of
aggressive thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors
c. Reason for multiple units of analysis
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