NCJ Number
79871
Date Published
1980
Length
154 pages
Annotation
Trends in network television drama from 1967 through 1979 are reported, and conceptions of social reality that television tends to cultivate in different groups of viewers are presented.
Abstract
Data are drawn from an analysis of 1,674 programs and 4,785 major dramatic characters. Viewer response data came from surveys conducted expressly for this project (Cultural Indicators) and from surveys conducted for other primary purposes. The program observations focus primarily on clear, unambiguous, overt physical violence (hurting or killing a person or the credible threat of hurting or killing in any context). Violence in the portrayal of characters is isolated by two measures: the percent of characters involved in violence and the measure of risk-ratios, which reveal how different types of characters fare once they are involved in violence. Television programming from 1967 through 1979 was found to have a stable structure of themes, characterizations, action, and fate in dramatic presentations from year to year. The overall prevalence, rates, and roles represented in the 1979 Violence Index (174) show some decline over 1978 (183) and the 13-year average (178); however, violence rose in the 1979 'family viewing' time (8:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time) from 116 to 156 and dropped in late evening prime time (9:00 to 11:00 p.m.) from 180 to 150. Also declining, although still way above the level of prime time, was violence in weekend-daytime children's programming, from 249 in 1978 to 210 in 1979. Findings of cultivation analysis show that television viewing cultivates homogeneous outlooks and orientations, especially in expressions of interpersonal mistrust and alienation. Heavy viewing may bring into the mainstream of beliefs those disparate and divergent groups who would otherwise be apart from it; for example, as a group, non-whites are more likely to be mistrustful, but those who watch more television express less mistrust. Whites, on the other hand, are less mistrustful, but those who watch more television express more mistrust. Television viewing also tends to increase fear of crime victimization among the elderly and adolescents. Tabulations of the message analysis findings are appended, and a bibliography of publications on cultural indicators contains 37 listings. (Author summary modified)