International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences

Violence and Media

Psychological Effects of War and Violence on Children. is a recurring public policy issue. Further, much of this
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 281–301 literature concerns impacts of media violence on
Snyder H N, Sickmund M Ju
enile Offender and Victims: A children and adolescents, for the inter-related reasons
National Report. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
that young audiences are considered the most im-
Prevention, Washington, DC
Perry B D, Pollard R A, Blakley T L, Baker W L, Vigilante D pressionable and most vulnerable. Adults are generally
1995 Childhood trauma, the neurobiology of adaptation, and viewed to be more resistant to the deleterious in-
‘‘use-dependent’’ development of the brain: How ‘‘states’’ fluences of violence, and, as some would argue (cf.
become ‘‘traits’’. Infant Mental Health Journal 16(4): 271–91 Huesmann 1997), violent behaviors in adulthood may
Richters J E, Martinez P 1993 The NIMH Community Violence be traced to media use during childhood.
Project: I. Children as victims of and witnesses to violence.
Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes 56(1): 7–21
Sameroff A, Seifer R, Barocas R, Zax M 1987 Intelligence 1. Theories of Effect
Quotient scores of 4-year-old children: Social environment
Three models have been proposed to describe the
risk factors. Pediatrics 79: 343–50
Shepherd R 1997 Ju
enile Justice Update. Office of Juvenile process by which such learning and imitation of media
Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Washington, DC violence occurs: social learning theory, priming effects
Snyder H N, Sickmund M 1999 Ju
enile Offenders and Victims: theory, and a social developmental model of learning
1999 National Report. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delin- (Wartella et al. 1998).
quency Prevention, Washington, DC First proposed by Albert Bandura in the 1960s,
Taylor L, Zuckerman B, Harik V, Groves B M 1994 Witnessing social learning theory is the best known theoretical
violence by young children and their mothers. Journal of account of violence effects. Bandura asserts that
De
elopmental and Beha
ioral Pediatrics 15(2): 120–23 through observing television models, viewers come to
Tolan P H 1996 How resilient is the concept of resilience?
learn behaviors which are appropriate, that is, which
Community Psychologist 29(4): 12–15
behaviors will be rewarded and which punished. In
J. Garbarino this way, viewers seek to attain rewards and therefore
imitate these media models. When both children and
adults are shown an aggressive model who is either
rewarded or punished for their aggressive behavior,
models who are positively reinforced influence imi-
Violence and Media tation among the viewers. Even research in the field
has demonstrated that aggression is learned at a young
Public and academic concern about media’s con- age and becomes more impervious to change as the
tribution to real world violence are about as old as the child grows older. In a longitudinal study to examine
mass media and the social sciences themselves the long-term effects of television violence on ag-
(Wartella and Reeves 1985). Despite frequent framing gression and criminal behavior, Huesmann et al.
of the matter as ‘controversial,’ extensive research—an (1984) studied a group of youth across 22 years, at ages
estimated 3,000 (Donnerstein et al. 1994) to 3,500 8, 18, and 30. For boys (and to a lesser, though still
(Wartella et al. 1998) studies in the United States significant extent for girls), early television violence
alone—have examined the impact of media violence, viewing correlated with self-reported aggression at age
and a number of recent major reviews (Huston et al. 30 and added significantly to the prediction of serious
1992, Murray 1994, see also Potter 1999, Paik and criminal arrests accumulated by age 30. These re-
Comstock 1994, Comstock and Paik 1991), have searchers find a longitudinal relationship between
concluded that media violence plays a measurable role habitual childhood exposure to television violence and
in real-world violence. A variety of US agencies, adult crime and suggest that approximately 10 percent
including the Centers for Disease Control of the US of the variability in later criminal behavior can be
Public Health Service (1991), and medical and public attributed to television violence.
interest organizations, including the American Medi- Priming effects theory serves to augment the more
cal Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, traditional social learning theory account of television
and the National Conference of Parent-Teacher As- violence effects. In the work of Leonard Berkowitz
sociations, have identified media violence as a public and his colleagues, this theoretical account asserts that
health problem. The review below focuses most many media effects are immediate, transitory, and
heavily on US research and US media, most notably short-term (Berkowitz 1984). Berkowitz suggests that
American television, primarily because a large ma- when people watch television violence, it activates or
jority of the published social science research on media ‘primes’ other semantically related thoughts which
and violence is US research on American audiovisual may influence how the person responds to the violence
media. Potter (1999, pp. 44–5), for example, reports 42 on television. Viewers who identify with the actors on
published content analyses of US television since 1954, television may imagine themselves like that character
and just 19 from the rest of the world. Moreover, carrying out the aggressive actions of the character on
American media are among the world’s most television, and research evidence suggests that ex-
violent—and most exported—and real-world violence posure to media aggression does indeed ‘prime’ other

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aggressive thoughts, evaluations, and even behaviors others, all interact to affect antisocial behavior. As
such that violence viewers report a greater willingness Huesmann has argued, aggression is a syndrome, an
to use violence in interpersonal situations. enduring pattern of behavior that can persist through
Only Rowell Huesmann’s (1986; see also Huesmann childhood into adulthood. The impact of media
1997) theoretical formulation of the social develop- violence appears strongest as a predictor of real-world
mental model of violence effects offers a true reciprocal antisocial behavior as one facet of a ‘culture of
theoretical account of how viewers’ interest in media violence.’
violence, attention to such violence, and individual
viewer characteristics may interact in a theory of
media violence effects. Using ideas from social cog-
nition theory he develops an elaborate cognitive
2. Types of Effects
mapping or script model. He argues that social As Potter (1999, Chap. 9) notes, media-violence effects
behavior is controlled by ‘programs’ for behavior fall into five categories—physiological, emotional,
which are established during childhood. These ‘pro- cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral—and both im-
grams’ or ‘scripts’ are stored in memory and are used mediate or short- and long-term effects have been
as guides to social behavior and problem solving. studied. While some attention has focused on direct,
Huesmann and Miller (1994, p. 161) submit that ‘a short-term imitative or modeling effects (cf. Phillips
script suggests what events are to happen in the 1980, 1982, but see Hessler and Stipp 1985), more
environment, how the person should behave in re- attention and public policy concern has focused on the
sponse to these events, and what the likely outcome to long-term impact of repeated exposure to violence.
those behaviors would be.’ Violence from television is More generally, three overarching categories of effect
‘encoded’ in the cognitive map of viewers, and sub- receive most attention: learning of aggression, desensi-
sequent viewing of television violence helps to main- tization to real-world violence, and the cultivation of
tain these aggressive thoughts, ideas, and behaviors. fear in repeated exposure to media violence (Wilson et
Over time such continuing attention to television al. 1997).
violence can thus influence people’s attitudes toward Clearly, not all violent depictions should be treated
violence and their maintenance and elaboration of equally, nor all viewers. The (US) National Television
aggressive scripts. Violence Study (Wilson et al. 1997) identified several
This theory suggests that while viewing violence contextual factors within a representation that may
may not cause aggressive behavior, it certainly has an influence audience reactions to media violence which
impact on the formation of cognitive scripts for include the following.
mapping how to behave in response to a violent event
and what the outcome is most likely to be. Television
portrayals, then, are among the media and personal
sources that provide the text for the script which is 2.1 The Nature of the Perpetrator
maintained and expanded upon by continued ex- Where individuals perceive perpetrators of violence as
posure to scripts of violence. attractive, as heroes, and\or as similar to themselves,
Huesmann has demonstrated that there are key the likelihood of stimulating attention (Bandura 1986)
factors which are particularly important in main- and aggression (Paik and Comstock 1994) increases.
taining the television viewing–aggression relationship
for children: the child’s intellectual achievement level,
social popularity, identification with television charac-
ters, belief in the realism of the TV violence, and the 2.2 The Nature of the Victim
amount of fantasizing about aggression. According to While the commission of violence on an attractive
Huesmann, a heavy diet of television violence sets into character with which an audience member identifies
motion a sequence of processes, based on these might serve to inhibit aggressive behavior, its principal
personal and interpersonal factors, that results in impact would seem to be in arousing fear among the
many viewers becoming not only more aggressive but audience members.
also developing increased interest in seeing more
television violence.
It must be emphasized that all serious scholars of
2.3 The Reason for the Violence
the impacts of media on violence are careful to note
that media are not the only, nor perhaps among the Wilson et al. (1997, p. 24) note that violence viewed as
most important, contributors to real-world violence. justified likely heightens aggression, while violence
Violent behavior is a complex, multivariable problem, viewed as unjustified arouses fear. The impact of
formed of many influences. Racism, poverty, drug justification has been documented with fictional as
abuse, child abuse, alcoholism, illiteracy, gangs, guns, well as realistic programming (Meyer 1972), and with
mental illness, a decline in family cohesion, a lack of adult as well as child viewers (Liss et al. 1983). In fact,
deterrents, the failure of positive role models, among a recent meta-analysis of 217 media studies documents

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that a justified portrayal of violence can enhance even in the absence of explicit reward (Bandura 1965,
aggressive behavior among viewers (Paik and Walters and Parke 1964). Paik and Comstock’s meta-
Comstock 1994). analysis (1994) suggests that rewarded violence stimu-
lates aggression among both child and adult audiences.
One study suggests that punishment of criminal
2.4 The Presence of Weapons
violence decreases fear (Bryant et al. 1981).
A number of studies, including a meta-analysis of 56
published experiments (Carlson et al. 1990) have
2.8 Consequences of Violence
demonstrated that the presence of weapons, either
pictorally or in the natural environment, can enhance In general (and exceptions are noted in Wilson et al.
aggression among subjects. While, for ethical reasons, 1997, p. 30), mediated depictions of violence which
the large majority of such research involves adult show either pain cues or other short- or longer-term
subjects, in at least one study (Frodi 1975) the presence negative effects or consequences of violence are likely
of weapons enhanced aggression among adolescents. to depress the learning of aggression. There is little
‘Conventional’ weapons such as guns and knives are research on the effects of pain cues or violence
more likely than unconventional means for priming consequences on desensitization and the cultivation of
the effect, social learning theory would suggest, be- fear.
cause their use as a means of aggression are stored in
memory (Berkowitz 1990, Leyens and Parke 1975).
2.9 Presence of Humor
As the National TV Violence Study review also noted,
2.5 The Extent and Graphicness of the Violence
further research is needed here as well, but the present
A review (Wilson et al. 1997) for the National state of knowledge suggests, other things being equal,
Television Violence Study suggested that more re- that violence coupled with humor is more likely to
search is needed, but several tentative conclusions heighten aggression, and to increase desensitization,
about extent and graphicness could be reached: (a) than violence without the presence of humor:
extensiveness of violence within media presentations Several mechanisms can be used to explain such a facilitative
should be associated with increased desensitization to effect of humor on aggression. Humor might elevate a viewer’s
violence, at least in the short- to medium-term; (b) arousal level over that attained by violence alone, and
graphicness of violence should be associated with increased arousal has been shown to facilitate aggression.
increased cultivation of fear; (c) longitudinal studies … Humor could serve as a reinforcement or reward for
clearly suggest that extensiveness of
iewingviolent violence, especially if the perpetrator is funny or admired or
media presentations heightens the likelihood of en- his or her wit. And humor may diminish the seriousness of the
gaging in aggressive behavior. violence and therefore undermine the inhibiting effects of
harm and pain cues in a scene. … However, we should
underscore that our conclusion about the facilitative effect of
2.6 The Degree of Realism of the Violence humor on aggression is tentative until more systematic
research … is undertaken (Wilson et al. 1997, p. 32).
In brief, realistic violence has been found to induce
aggressive behavior, and to induce fear, more than
violence believed to be less realistic or more fantastic.
An extremely important qualification deals with 3. Young Viewers
younger children, who may be unable to distinguish
realistic from fantastic characters, behaviors, and As noted, research indicates that certain factors may
situations. In one study, however, where percei
ed be processed differently by young viewers. First,
realism was manipulated for older children (9 to 11 in children below about age 8 have more difficulty
Feshbach 1972; 10 to 13 in Atkin 1983), those subjects distinguishing reality from fantasy and often imitate
who were led to believe that footage was realistic news superheros with magical powers such as the Power
were more likely subsequently to behave aggressively Rangers (Boyatzis et al. 1995). Second, young children
than those led to believe it was taken from an may have difficulty connecting scenes and drawing
entertainment program. inferences from the plot. Timing of punishments and
rewards becomes important in this instance. In many
programs, the crime or violent behavior may go
2.7 Whether Violence is Rewarded or Punished
unpunished until the end of the program. Young
Rewarded violence is more likely to be imitated than children may have difficulty connecting the ending
violence which is punished. Significantly, and par- punishment with the initial violent act and may,
ticularly for children (since, as we will show below, therefore, believe that the violence went unpunished
television programming most frequently presents vi- (Wilson et al. 1997). Thus, learning of aggressive
olent actions that are neither rewarded nor punished), attitudes and behaviors from television varies by both
the absence of punishment may enhance imitation, the nature of the portrayals and the nature of the

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viewers. The presence of contextual factors in the about half depict no pain cues in victims of violence);
portrayals which may inhibit young children’s social and unsanctioned (in a majority of scenes, violence
learning of aggression decreases the negative conse- perpetrators were neither rewarded nor punished
quences of such portrayals and should be encouraged. [‘punishment’ was considered any noticeable sanction,
Not all violent portrayals are the same and the context including a perpetrator’s oral expression of remorse],
of violence is clearly quite important. Similarly, young and among other scenes, rewards and punishments
children, those under the age of seven or eight, may be were about equally likely; in three-quarters of cases,
particularly susceptible to learning from exposure to characters perpetrating violence were either never
television violence because of differences in how they punished, or were punished only at the program’s
make sense of television compared to adults. conclusion). Moreover, only three percent of pro-
grams with violence had any antiviolence theme
4. The Media En
ironment (Center for Communication and Social Policy 1998,
Chaps. 3–4). Potter (1999) has an extensive discussion
Television’s role as the central mass medium in much of definitions of media violence and the results of
of the world for the past half-century, and its ubiquity content analyses from a variety of studies.
and ability to enter almost every home, often without
parental supervision, has meant that more public and 5. Media Violence and Public Policy
scholarly concern has focused on its contents than on
any other medium’s, and this concern has accom- As noted, the consensus in the social scientific com-
panied its diffusion into every corner of the earth. munity regarding media violence is that it serves as a
Unfortunately, cumulative and comparative re- contributor to aggression in the real world, and
search on television’s violent content is hampered by a virtually all public opinion surveys confirm that wider
lack of consistency in defining violence and especially publics believe this as well. Nonetheless, such findings
defining the population and sampling frame in studies are ‘controversial’ in the media industries, and among
of television. a minority of academics (see, e.g. Fowles 1999 and
The most extensive single content study of US sources cited therein). In the United States in par-
television was the 1994–7 National Television Violence ticular, since the 1950s the media industries—tele-
Study (National Television Violence Study 1997, vision in particular, but also recorded music, motion
Center for Communication and Social Policy 1997, pictures, pictorial comic books, and video games—
1998). Examined were the 6 a.m.–11 p.m. contents of have responded to public and governmental outcries
a multistage probability sample constructed sample against violent content by promises to reform under
week of programming on 23 network-station, indepen- self-regulation. Motion pictures, video-games, and
dent-station, and basic-cable and premium-cable recorded music all list ‘ratings’ for their products
channels; thus about 8,000 programs were analyzed which suggest age-groups for which the industry self-
over the 1994–5, 1995–6, and 1996–7 television regulatory groups think the content for these products
‘seasons.’ Certain programs, including ‘hard news,’ is appropriate. The US Telecommunications Act of
religious shows, sporting events, quiz shows, and 1996 mandated that the television networks create a
educational shows, were sampled but not analyzed. ‘voluntary’ ratings system or face creation of one by
About three-fifths of the remaining programs con- the federal government. The system the broadcast
tained some visual violence, a figure that like most industry has created suggests appropriate age cate-
summary statistics remained stable over the three gories and levels of sex, language, and violence to
years of the study. In descending order, premium allow consumers and parents to make program
cable, basic cable, independent-station, broadcast choices. The same act mandated a ‘v-chip’ in newly
network station, and public broadcast stations’ pro- manufactured television sets to allow parents to screen
gramming were likely to contain violence. By content or filter out violent programs. There is to date
genre, in decreasing order, movies, dramas, children’s insufficient research to indicate whether and what
shows, music videos, and reality-based and comedy sorts of parents and other viewers are using either the
programs were likely to contain violence. Violence was ratings or the v-chip technology to screen violence.
far more prevalent during prime-time than during However, experimental research by Cantor and her
daytime hours. colleagues (Cantor and Nathanson 1998, Cantor et al.
Of signal concern to the NTVS researchers was the 1997) suggests that young children may use aged-
context of televised violence; it was often glamorized based ratings systems to shield themselves from violent
(more than a quarter of all violence was perpetrated by content while for older children and adolescents, there
‘good’ or attractive characters, and some 40 percent by may be a boomerang or ‘forbidden fruit’ effect
characters with at least some good qualities); sanitized whereby ratings attract them to more ‘adult’ violent or
(about 7\8 of violent scenes show no blood and gore; sexually explicit material. In the United States Con-
almost half show no harm to victims of violence, gress, a moratorium on discussion of television vi-
although more than half of violent interactions show olence is in effect, pending further information on the
infliction of harm that would be lethal in ‘real life,’ and effects of ratings and the v-chip, but the legislature is

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focusing its attention on violent video-games, the Barbara (ed.) National Tele
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6. Conclusion Carlson M, Marcus-Newhall A, Miller N 1990 Effects of
It is clear that where children and television violence situational aggression cues: A quantitative review. Journal of
are concerned, the question that remains is not Personality and Social Psychology 58: 622–33
whether media violence has an effect, but rather how Center for Communication and Social Policy, University of
California, Santa Barbara 1997b National Tele
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important that effect is in comparison with other Study. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, Vol. 2
factors in bringing about the current level of crime in Center for Communication and Social Policy, University of
the United States and other industrialized nations. California, Santa Barbara 1998 National Tele
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Future research should also aim to establish who Study. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, Vol. 3
precisely is most susceptible to media violence, and, Centers for Disease Control 1991 Position Papers from the Third
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Frodi A 1975 The effects of exposure to weapons on behavior
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C. Whitney and E. Wartella

1. Definition of Terms
Copyright # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd.
All rights reserved. As one reviews the growing PCV literature, the need
for defining relevant terms becomes apparent. Violence
refers to both acts and consequences of the intentional
Violence as a Problem of Health use or threat of use of force to cause injury, harm, or
death to another. The qualifier ‘intentional’ excludes
In the early 1990s, many policy makers and social unintended or accidental acts and consequences.
scientists related the problem of community violence Determining intent represents an as yet unresolved
to neighborhoods trapped in struggles among gangs methodological challenge. For PCV, the consequences
competing to sell and distribute illegal drugs, especially of
iolent acts refer to the rippling health and mental
cocaine and crack cocaine. From this perspective, the health effects experienced by: (a) individuals directly
challenge for communities was to locate and restrain victimized by an act or threat of violence; (b) indivi-

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International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences ISBN: 0-08-043076-7