TV Violence Study Flawed, Misleading

There’s reason to worry about the latest study condemning violence on television.

Not just because of the danger of TV violence, but because of how the study - flawed at best, misleading at worst - was misread and distorted by politicians and the press.

It’s a textbook case of what can happen to a complicated subject when it lands in the midst of a Washington debate over a hot-button political issue, as the National Television Violence Study did last week.

The issue is so hot, in fact, that pressure from Congress and the White House is driving the broadcast networks to adopt a voluntary ratings system to label programs with sexual or violent content.

ABC, CBS and NBC made it the lead story on the evening news. Clinton cited the study when he signed the telecommunications bill. Even Jay Leno joked about it on the “Tonight” show.

Everywhere, the message was the same: There’s too much violence on television, violent behavior too often goes unpunished, and TV violence can harm viewers.

But a closer look at the study reveals that its conclusions are questionable, its methods are debatable, and the data behind its findings are being kept secret.

The confusion over the study is partly the fault of the researchers, who presented a jumble of numbers, some slanted, others poorly explained. Partly it’s the fault of the sound-bite media culture, which steamrolls complexity. And partly it’s the fault of politicians who, rather than trying to learn from new research, opt to exploit it.

A highlight of the study was featured prominently in news reports: Violence was found in the majority (57 percent) of all TV programs.

But the count includes every program that depicts violence, which is defined broadly as “the use of physical forces - or the credible threat of such force - intended to physically harm an animate being or group of beings.”

That includes cartoons, which, depending on how they’re tallied, account for either 31 percent or 46 percent of all the violent shows a fact ignored by most news reports. The count also includes violence by good characters and violence used to support an anti-violence theme, as in an episode of NBC’s “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” where Will Smith’s character urges his cousin not to retaliate after a violent incident.

In other words, violent shows aren’t necessarily bad for you - a distinction made by the study, but glossed over by media reports and political reaction.