The Effects of Violence in the Media

The Mass Media is the key to our present society. We rely upon Mass Media for News, Entertainment, and even social interaction. Yet, with the advent of Motion Pictures and Television there came much debate about what effects violence in the media would have on society. Since the 1960's there have been many studies done to try and determine the answer to this question. My personal opinion on the matter is that violence in the media doesn't influence real world violence; In fact I believe that it is real world violence the leads to violence in the media. However, As a Communication and Film Studies Major I have learned about many theories and studies that support both sides of the issue. For the purpose of this paper I have chosen my favorite study on the effects of Violence in the Media.

In 1970 Seymour Feshbach and Robert Singer conducted a statistical study aimed at discovering the effects of Television Violence on Jr. High and High School aged males. They took a sample of 625 boys from seven residential boarding schools or institutions in the Southern California and New York City areas. These boys were then assigned randomly to either the treatment group or control group.

The 316 boys assigned to the treatment group were subjected to a minimum of six hours a week of only Television programs on a list deemed to be "Aggressive" for a total of six weeks. The programs were chosen from a list of 73 shows deemed aggressive, of which 22 programs were essential to the study and the rest were supplemental. Some of the programs on the "Aggressive" list include: Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Bonanza, Outer Limits, Roy Rogers, and Zorro.

In a similar manner the 309 boys assigned to the control group watched at least six hours of only Television programs on a list deemed to be "Non-Aggressive" for six weeks. These programs were chosen from a list of 152 shows, of which 55 were essential to the study and the rest were supplemental. Some of the programs on the "Non-Aggressive" list included: American Bandstand, Andy Griffith, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, The Flintstones, Lassie, Leave it to Beaver, Mr. Ed, and Woody Woodpecker.

The boys were required to fill out at least one Program Rating Form per day after viewing the television programs. These forms asked how much the participant liked the program as well as questions on what emotional affects the programs had on them. Aside from the individual Program Rating Forms the teachers and administrators at the schools filled out a Behavioral Ratings Scale Forms daily on the behavior of the participants. These forms were used to rate the amount of aggressiveness and particularly the types of aggressive acts observed among the sample group and whether or not the acts were provoked. After the six week study was concluded Feshbach and Singer took the results from these forms to come up with the statistical results of the experiment.

Unfortunately their book, Television and Aggression: An Experimental Field Study, does not give pre-study results or exact figures of all the numbers used to determine the statistical data. However, they do give some of their findings in the text as well as several charts that display statistics from the study and post-study findings. I will use this information to make comparisons.

According to Feshbach and Singer the average difference in peer aggression scores between the treatment and control groups is highly significant. In fact they emphasize the fact that the Control Group mean of 151.6 is nearly double the 81.1 mean attained from the treatment group. They came up with a formula to determine the average aggression toward peers and authority by dividing the total aggression scores for each child by the number of aggression ratings for that child. Using this formula they determined that average amount of peer aggression among the Control Group was 2.81 with a standard deviation of 5.0; as well as the average amount of authority aggression in the Control Group to be 1.30 with a standard deviation of 1.8. In comparison the average amount of peer aggression among the Treatment Group was 1.64 with a standard deviation of 2.2; as well as an average of 1.02 in authority aggression with a standard deviation of 1.4. These numbers show a 1.17 difference in mean between the Control and Treatment Group peer aggression, which to me is fairly significant. In a similar manner Feshbach and Singer totaled the frequency of specific Aggressive Behaviors toward peers and the findings also showed higher levels in the Control Group. For instance in the area of Physical Acts of Aggression the levels of fighting, pushing, throwing objects at other people, and destroying property were all higher among the control group. These differences range from 22% to 55% higher in the Control Group. The only exception among the examples that I chose was hitting inanimate objects in which the Treatment Group elicited 25 responses versus the Control Groups 23, an approximately 9% difference.

In the area of Verbal/Non-Verbal & Other Acts of Aggressive Behaviors toward peers the findings once again showed that levels were higher among the Control Group. For instance the frequency of angry argument, insults, attempted trouble making, and rule breaking were all higher. These differences ranged from 33% to 53% higher among the Control Group. The only exception came in the area of cursing in which the Treatment Group elicited a response of 575 to the Control Groups 457, an approximate 26% difference. Either way the Control group out-rates the Treatment Group in 4 out of 5 areas of both Physical and Other Acts of Aggressive Behavior. These results clearly show that the Treatment Group which was subjected to viewing programs of a violent nature elicit less aggressive response compared to the Control Group which was subjected to non-violent programming.

This study suggests that truth may be found in Aristotle's Cathartic Effects Theory, which states that built-up aggression can be relieved vicariously through the viewing of violence. This is because two groups from similar backgrounds as well as dispositions to act aggressively show very different outcomes after being subjected to different types of Television programming. The interesting and unexpected result is that the Treatment Group, which was subjected to purely aggressive programming for 6 weeks, shows a significant drop in level of aggressive behavior and frequency of both physical and non-physical aggressive acts. Whereas the Control Group, being subjected to purely non-aggressive programming in the exact manner, shows no significant change in the level of aggressive behavior and acts and in fact shows higher proportions of aggressiveness during the study as opposed to the Treatment Group.

In a world where the media is influential in all corners of the globe it is good to know and understand theories on Mass Communication and be able to form an educated opinion. I myself stick to this theory of Cathartic Effects. When 98% of American Homes own Televisions and spend an average of at least 4 hours watching, it is important to determine what to let your children watch. Now I'm not saying that we should let our children watch gratuitous violence, but when we constantly view images of war, murder, rape, and other atrocities that are committed in the real world we need to seriously take a look at our society. We as Americans are becoming greedy, self-centered, capitalistic demons who in some cases put the value of substance, wealth, and carnal desires over the value of human life. We need to stop looking for an easy way out, a media scapegoat if you will, because in actuality the problem is our society.

References

Feshbach, Seymour and Robert D. Singer. Television and Aggression: An Experimental Field Study. California: Jossey-Bass, Inc., 1971.

Vivian, John. The Media of Mass Communication. 6^th Ed. Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon, 2003.

Facts and Figures About Our TV Habit. TV Turnoff Network.