Television effects

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MEDIA AND FEAR OF CRIME

The mass media constantly surrounds us, frequently informs us and just as well misinforms us and mainstreams us into a common reality (Gerbner, 176). With newspapers and magazines, the mass media entered our homes. With radios and television, the mass media became accessible from cradle to grave. With VCRs, cable, and satellite access, the sheer volume of programming available at any one time exploded. The real world increase in the occurrence of stranger crimes and mass attacks could make the media image even more potent because of the prevalence of random crimes reported by the media. This paper looks at mass media research and it's effects on perception of crime danger, personal fear of crime, and reactions to crime risk. Sections describing the effects of television, newspapers, and the new technologies on fear of crime are all covered.

TELEVISION EFFECTS

From the earliest days of television there has been concern about the depiction of crime and violence in programs. For a long time anxieties centered on whether examples set by television characters shown as using violence to overcome obstacles and achieve personal goals, encouraged the development and display of delinquent and antisocial behaviors among viewers, especially the young and impressionable. More recently, there has been fresh concern that through its repeated portrayal of criminal and violent behavior, TV can cultivate distorted perceptions of the incidence of violence in the real world and produce exaggerated fears for personal safety (Gerbner, 176).

Gerbner suggest that, TV is the central cultural arm of American society. It is an agency of the established order and as such serves primarily to extend and maintain rather than to alter, threaten, or weaken conventional conceptions, beliefs, and behaviors…Its function is, in a word, enculturation. In regard to fear of crime, the fear and heightened perceived risk that television may enculture leads to increased acquiescence to and dependence upon established authority (Gerbner, 176, p. 175).

The TV world contains much more violence than the real world (Gerbner, 176). Measuring television violence can be done through obtain ratings and opinions from viewers about which programs are violent and how seriously so. This can be done by asking individuals to indicate from a list of program titles which are violent and which are not (Gomme, 186). One problem with this kind of measure is that it cannot indicate how much violence there is in specific episodes (Gomme, 186).

There is also failed attempts to find a link between TV viewing and fear of crime after controlling for variables like age, education, and income (Gomme, 186). When looking at ratings of crime seriousness related to amount of television news viewing, suggesting an anchoring effect caused by the more serious crimes usually targeted by TV news (Potter, 186). TV viewing, fear of crime relationship held only for those respondents who expressed a belief in the truth of television drama (Potter, 186). It is termed as magic window dimension, reflecting a belief that TV shows the world as it really is (Potter, 186).

It can be seen that a process of influence in which greater amounts of TV viewing can produce biased or distorted beliefs about the world that are consistent with TV's stereotyped portrayals (Gerbner, 176). Viewers absorb information, often inadvertently, from TV programs, which may influence the way they think about the world around them (Gerbner, 176). Continuous exposure to TV may cultivate public beliefs about various social entities that are consistent with images of these entities portrayed on TV (Gerbner, 176).

Typically, the violence of a program is assessed in terms of the number of incidents it contains that match what the researchers themselves decide is violent. All incidents that match an a priori of violence are given equal weighting for intensity and seriousness, irrespective of the dramatic context in which they occur (Gerbner, 176).

A related study looked at respondents' fear of victimization and then assigned them to view a film about killing and murder (Wakshlag, 18). The relationship between TV viewing and fear of crime was considered complex. Factors such as the type of programming (e.g., drama vs. news), the credulity of the viewer, the extent of justice displayed at the program's end, and the level of apprehension about crime before the viewing all lead to patterns rather then effects (Wakshlag, 18).

Although it may be impossible to define exactly what the audience in general means by violence, there is evidence to suggest that viewers' perceptions do not accord strongly with objective counts of program incidents (Halloran, 17). A British TV output, using a fixed definition of violence, showed that the rate of violent incidents per hour was four times as great for cartoon shows as for any other type of program (Halloran, 17). Meanwhile another study of the audience's perceptions of TV violence indicated that cartoons were not ruled as violent (Halloran, 17).

In a field study conducted by the audience researchers at the British Broadcasting Corporation, viewers were asked to fill out a questionnaire about programs shortly after they were seen on TV. Reactions to violence and other aspects of program content were probed in this study. It was found that perceptions of programs as violent didn't depend on the actual number of violent incidents (B.B.C., 17). There also wasn't a strong relationship between perceiving a program as violent and verbally reported emotional arousal (B.B.C., 17). Most respondents also claimed that realism was an essential element in their perceptions of televised violence, with violent real life events reported on news bulletins or shown in documentaries generally rated as more violent than violence portrayed in fictional settings (B.B.C., 17). This indicates that viewers' personal assessment of TV programs are determined by many different factors, of which violence is the most important.

Adults' perceptions of TV violence

A report of twelve experimental studies in which people were shown scenes from British crime series, American crime series, sci-fi series, and cartoons (Gunter, 185). Viewers were invited to make a variety of personal judgements about each scene along a set of qualitative rating scales. Some factors that came into effect were the types of programs the scenes came from, the types of weapons or instruments of violence used, physical setting, and the degree of observable harm the violence caused to victims in each scene. The results showed that viewers may be influenced in their opinions about TV violence by many different attributes of TV portrayals (Gunter, 185).

Familiarity of surroundings is one of the most powerful factors influencing viewers' perception of TV violence (Gunter, 185). The closer to home the violence is portrayed in terms of place and time, the more serious it is judged to be (Gunter, 185). In the British crime series it was rated more violent when compared to the US series. Portrayals of violent behavior in cartoons or sci-fi programs, were seen as essentially nonviolent. Of the different physical forms of violence, shootings were the most often, but stabbings, were perceived as most frightening and disturbing (Gunter, 185).

Children's perceptions of TV violence

Similarly, in Holland 14 children were shown full-length episodes of eight TV scenes (Van der Voot, 186). The episodes varied from realistic crime drama to adventure series and fantasy cartoons. Right after the shooting scenes in each show, a questionnaire was filled out. Some area's questioned were readiness, approval, enjoyment, evaluation, absorption, identification, and comprehension of the content. Results showed that law enforcement programs as well as children's adventure programs were rated as realistic (Van der Voot, 186). Realistic shows were watched with more involvement, more emotion and less detachment (Van der Voot, 186). Although cartoons are seen as being the most violent of TV shows in terms of incidents per hour or per show, such shows tend to be seen by children as having little violence at all (Van der Voot, 186).

NEWSPAPER EFFECTS

Newspaper readers tend, to be better educated, to have higher incomes, and to live in neighborhoods that have less crime, which has been found to be the mirror image of TV viewing (Heath, 184). Research on newspaper reading differs form research on TV effects because newspapers contain only news and not the fictionalized crime drama has on TV (Heath, 184). Newspaper readers select which article to read in detail and which to scan or skip, whereas the selectivity of TV viewing is less clearly established. Newspaper reports of crime are accessible only to people who can read, eliminating concerns about direct effects on children.

Moreover, newspapers show many of the same patterns as TV programming. Sex and violence are staples in newspapers, violent crimes are much more likely to be reported than less violent ones, and with important details, like motive.

Heath(184) content analyzed crime articles form 6 newspapers in 4 us cities. She looked at sensationalism, randomness, and location of the crime. She then used phone interviews of people in those cities concerning their media habits and fear of crime. Results indicate that location of crime interacted significantly with crime sensationalism and randomness (Heath, 184). Which means, reports of local crimes that were sensational or random were associated with higher levels of fear of crime, whereas reports of nonlocal random or sensational crimes were associated with lower levels of fear of crime.

A similar pattern was demonstrated in Great Britain (Williams, 1). They also found a significant relationship between readership and fear of crime (Williams, 1). Reading about bizarre, violent crimes resulted in more fear if the crimes occurred in one's neighborhood than if the crimes occurred elsewhere (Williams, 1). Reading about nonsensational crimes, was less frightening for local crimes than for nonlocal crimes (Williams, 1).

NEW TECHNOLOGY EFFECTS

No longer does the number of local newspapers equal or exceed the number of TV channels in most areas. Newspaper choice is decreasing at the same time TV choice is increasing wildly (Fergson, 14).

A study examined the effects of VCR ownership, cable access, and channel changers on fear of crime (Fergson, 14). He hypothesized that cable subscription would be related to lower fear of crime and less mistrust because cable subscribers have more choice about viewing options, many of which present scenes not related to the high crime diet of regular broadcast TV (Fergson, 14). He also hypothesized that greater viewing of broadcast channels would be related to high fear of crime. Regarding VCR ownership and use, he hypothesized that VR ownership and tape rentals would be negatively related to fear and mistrust. Finally, he hypothesized that ownership and use of remote control devices would be negatively related to fear and mistrust, because of the greater control these devices offer over TV offerings.

The results from this study were mixed. Broadcast viewing was positively related to fear of crime and specialized cable channel viewing was negatively related to fear of crime (Fergson, 14). VCR ownership was negatively related to fear of crime, but the other hypotheses about time shifting and tape rental was not supported. Even thought mixed results happened, this study represents an important step in examining the effects of these new technologies.

CONCLUSION

Media effects are not simple effects but they involve many judges. Researchers trying to understand the relationships between media and fear of crime need to attend to characteristics of the message, and of the audience.

Regarding the characteristics of the message, factors such as sensationalism or randomness of the crime, proportion of the entire newspaper devoted to crime rather then to the raw number of articles about crime, and the drama or news content all affect the relationship with fear of crime.

Regarding the characteristics of the audience, belief in the reality of TV drama and viewer apprehension about crime victimization affect the relationship with fear of crime.

By all means, continuing to count violent incidents in programs to produce TV violence profiles is good, but the definitions of violence or violent acts on screen should be determined or at least guided by audience opinions. It would be wrong to assume that all such incidents have the same meaning for, are perceived in the same way by, or generate the same level of response from viewers. The meaning of the event will be affected by the type of program in which it occurs, characters involved, reason and consequences, and other factor, as well.

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