MASS MEDIA
,
A STAFF REPORT
NOT A REPORT
OF THE
COMMISSION
A STAFF REPOFRT TO THE -NATIONAL
COMMISSION ON THE CAUSES AND
PREVENTION OF VIOLENCE
PREPARED BY
Robert K. Baker & Dr. Sandra J. Ball
^
The White House
June 10, 1968
EXECUTIVE ORDER #11412
ESTABLISHING A NATIONAL COMMISSION ON
THE CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF VIOLENCE
By virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, it
is ordered as follows:
SECTION 1. Establishment- of the Commission, (a) There is hereby
established a National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence
(hereinafter referred to as the "Commission"),
(b) The Commission shall be composed of:
Dr. Milton Eisenhower, Chairman
Congressman Hale Boggs Senator Roman Hniska
Archbishop Terence J. Cooke Albert E. Jenner, Jr.
Ambassador Patricia Harris Congressman William M. McCuIloch
Senator Philip A. Hart *Dr. W. Walter Menninger
Judge A. Leon Higginbotham 'Judge Ernest William McFarland
EricHoffer *Leon Jaworski
SECTION 2. Functions of the Commission. The Commission shall
investigate and make recommendations with respect to:
(a) The causes and prevention of lawless acts of violence in our society,
including assassination, murder and assault,
(b) The causes and prevention of disrespect for law and order, of
disrespect for public officials, and of violent disruptions of public order by
individuals and groups; and
(c) Such other matters as the President may place before the Commis-
sion.
SECTION 4. Staff of the Commission.
SECTION 5 . Cooperation by Executive Departments and Agencies.
(a) The Commission, acting through its Chairman, is authorized to
request from any executive department or agency any information and
assistance deemed necessary to carry out its functions under this Order. Each
department or agency is directed, to the extent permitted by law and within
the limits of available funds, to furnish information and assistance to the
Commission.
SECTION 6. Report and Termination. The Commission shall present its
report and recommendations as soon as practicable, but not later than one
year from the date of this Order. The Commission shall terminate thirty days
following the submission of its final report or one year from the date of this
Order, whichever is earlier.
S/Lyndon B. Johnson
*Added by an Executive Order June 21 , 1968
The White House
May 23, 1969
EXECUTIVE ORDER #11469
EXTENDING THE LIFE OF THE NATIONAL COMMISSION
ON THE CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF VIOLENCE
By virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States,
Executive Order No. 1 1412 of June 10, 1968, entitled "Establishing a National
Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence," is hereby amended
by substituting for the last sentence thereof the following: "The Commission
shall terminate thrity days following the submission of its final report or on
December 10, 1969, whichever is earlier."
S/ Richard Nixon
MASS MEDIA
AND
VIOLENCE
VOL. IX
A Report to the
National Commission on
the- Causes and Prevention of
Violence
by
Robert K. Baker
Sandra J. Ball
November 1969
Official editions of publications of the National Commission on the Causes
and Prevention of Violence may be freely used, duplicated or published, in
whole or in part, except to the extent that, where expressly noted in the
publications, they contain copyrighted materials reprinted by permission of
the copyright holders. Photographs may have been copyrighted by the
owners, and permission to reproduce may be required.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 72-604084
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price $2.50
STATEMENT ON THE STAFF STUDIES
The Commission was directed to "go as far as man's
knowledge takes" it in searching for the causes of violence
and the means of prevention. These studies are reports to
the Commission by independent scholars and lawyers who
have served as directors of our staff task forces and study
teams; they are not reports by the Commission itself. Pub-
lication of any of the reports should not be taken to imply
endorsement of their contents by the Commission, or by
any member of the Commission's staff, including the Execu-
tive Director and other staff officers, not directly responsi-
ble for the preparation of the particular report. Both the
credit and the responsibility for the reports lie in each case
with the directors of the task forces and study teams. The
Commission is making the reports available at this time as
works of scholarship to be judged on their merits, so that
the Commission as well as the public may have the benefit
of both the reports and informed criticism and comment on
their contents.
Dr. Milton S. Eisenhower, Chairman
From the collection of the
z n
z _ m
o Prelinger
i a
v Uibrary
San Francisco, California
2006
TASK FORCE ON MASS MEDIA AND VIOLENCE
Co-Directors
Robert K . Baker Sandra J . Ball
General Counsel Research Associate
David L. Lange F. Clifton Berry, Jr.
Special Counsel Research Assistants
Phillip Tone Deborah N. Cutler
Carolyn M. McClelland
Linda J. Schacht
Office Staff Editors
Jewel I. Boyd Anthony F. Abell
Jean C. Peterson Paul L. Briand, Jr.
Steffen W. Graae
Staff Consultants
Leonard Berkowitz Jack Haskins
Monica Blumenthal Jay Jensen
Leo Bogart Harry Kalven
William R. Catton, Jr. Otto N. Larsen
Peter Clarke Jack Lyle
I. William Cole Eleanor Maccoby
Seymour Feshbach Marsha O'Bannon
George Gerbner William L. Rivers
Bradley Greenberg Arline H. Sakuma
Richard Goranson Alberta E. Siegal
Commission Staff Officers
Lloyd N. Cutler, Executive Director*
Thomas D. ^n, Deputy Director*
James F. Short, Jr., Marvin E. Wolfgang, Co-Directors of Research
James S. Campbell, General Counsel
William G. McDonald, Administrative Officer
Ronald A. Wolk, Special Assistant to the Chairman
National Commission of the Causes and Prevention of Violence
Dr. Milton S. Eisenhower, Chairman
*The Executive Director and the Deputy Director did not participate in the work of the
Media Task Force.
iv
PREFACE
When a government commission undertakes to evaluate any aspect of
media performance, it is properly a delicate inquiry in a society which prizes
free expression. There is no room for polemics when media performance is
called into question, for the ultimate issue may become whether free
expression is feasible. There was, however, no point during our investigation
when the resolution of this issue was in serious doubt.
We are not sufficiently arrogant to essay an answer to all of the questions
subsumed under the title of this volume. Particularly in the news area,
there are few answers and many questions of judgment. While we have
attempted to provide the kind of information and analysis relevant to these
judgments, we can suggest neither that our list of considerations is complete
nor that any rigid formula will be satisfactory for all occasions. In the context
of our concern with the media and violence, however, while continuing to
believe fully in the concept of free expression, it is clear that the
media -including their educational and professional organizations-have
shown an apalling lack of concern about the effects of particular media
practices and little interest in research to determine how, under any
reasonable standard, they might do better.
From the outset many people asserted, sometimes quite vituperatively,
that it was not only improper but unconstitutional for a governmental body
even to study the media. We reject this position. Government, as any other
group in our society, is as entitled to speak out on all issues and this includes
commenting on media performance. If the government's statements are to
rise above the level of diatribes or platitudes, they must be based on research
and reasoned deliberation of the issues. This is what we have attempted to
accomplish. This Commission has no sanctions to impose, and we do not
believe that studies of this kind have any chilling effect upon the exercise of
First Amendment rights. Indeed, uninformed comment by government
officials is more likely to chill, if only because the irrational tends to be
frightening.
A new era in communications is very near. Technological developments,
presently being adopted, make possible twenty broadband channels to each
home. If competing forms of communication do not develop simultaneously,
plenary control over access to such a system by one or two, even three
corporations is unacceptable in a society which values free expression. If the
ultimate in concentration of media control ever arrives, there is no reason to
believe that government control would not be better. At least the government
is apt to be more responsive than a self-perpetuating corporate management
with such tremendous power. Today we are moving in that direction and one
I thing seems clear: the policies of the First Amendment can no longer be
I! secured simply by keeping the government out.
Part I of the Task Force Report begins with a summary of the
philosophical and historical antecedents which underlie our First Amendment
tradition. It then proceeds to discuss the development, structure, and
functions of the contemporary media. This overview of the media is essential
not only to an understanding of what the media are today, but also to an
intelligent formulation of what they might be tomorrow.
Part II of the report, addressed to the news media, does not focus on the
pathology of American journalism. There are, to be sure, a number of
well-documented cases of news suppression, and the occasional rudeness,
pomposity, and simplemindedness of some newsmen is well known. There is
little those outside the professional and news organizations can do to improve
manners, and there is no point in admonishing against what even the least
principled members of the profession recognize is wrong.
We have tried to address problems which we regard as inherent in what
are relatively broadly accepted practices and values of American journalism.
But, just as the general quality of American journalism cannot be assessed by
examining only The New York Times, The Louisville Courier Journal, The
Bend Oregon Bulletin, or the network news department, our report will not
be equally applicable to all news organizations.
Our analysis is not value-free. Although there is a place in American
journalism for advocacy, the major news media view themselves as a source of
unbiased information. It is this news function on which we focus our
concern. We strongly endorse the view that the journalist reporting hard news
is obligated not to take sides on the many issues which confront and
sometimes divide our society. The continued viability of the First
Amendment depends mostly on a credible presentation of the kind of
information which will enable our citizens to discharge their democratic
responsibilities and to provide the news in a format likely to produce the
minimum amount of audience distortion during assimilation. This is the
journalist's most important obligation. Similarly, news values and practices
which consistently distort information in a direction likely to exacerbate
intergroup tensions which the tendency to equate news with emotional
impact clearly does are a liability to a society which should be committed to
the orderly resolution of their differences.
In a speech to the Overseas Press Club, William Wirtz observed that
criticism of the press by anyone even remotely associated with government is
a notably unrewarding occupation. In part this is no doubt due to the belief
of some journalists that, as Mr. Wirtz went on to describe, "an essential
balance against the power of government to corrupt absolutely is the power
of the press to be critical beyond criticism." Throughout this report we have
offered our views on the many issues which confront American newsmen and
suggested the ways in which journalists' values and practices should be
changed. As our comments are not equally applicable to all news
organizations, our solutions will not be equally persuasive to all newsmen,
publishers, and broadcasters. As we will repeat in the conclusion of the News
Section of this report, we can only recommend their implementation where
they are found both applicable and persuasive. The government can no more
legislate good journalism than it can legislate good manners. More important
than the adoption of specific suggestions is that each news organization make
an independent determination of the efficacy of its own policies and
practices. There will never be agreement among the many news organizations
or other institutions, including the government. Yet, such diversity is what
the First Amendment is all about, and that is the great strength of American
journalism.
Public concern for violence in entertainment television programming has
been with us since at least 1954. This is the focus of Part III of our Report.
From 1954 to the present day, the networks and the National Association
of Broadcasters the trade association representing a majority of local
commercial stations have answered public concern with three principal
arguments:
First, they have asserted that there is no conclusive evidence that violence
on television causes viewers to behave violently. Even a nodding acquaintance
with the research literature on the causes of violent behavior teaches that
violent behavior is usually the result of interacting social forces of which
television program content may be one. It is unlikely that anyone can show,
except in the unusual cases, that television or any other single factor is
anything more than a contributing cause among the nexus of forces which act
on the human personality. Surely there are other factors which contribute to I
violent behavior, some of them undoubtedly more important than television.
Others, such as weak parental influence or bad schools, may increase the
potential of television to do harm. Just as important is the implicit suggestion
in the industry response that before any action is taken to reduce the amount
or kind of violence to which our children are exposed, the harmful
relationship must be conclusively demonstrated. Again, any familiarity with
research on human behavior teaches that such propositions are rarely, if ever,
capable of proof of the kind we have come to expect in determining the guilt
of an accused felon. The decision must rest, as do other business decisions
made by the industry and decisions in other areas of social policy, on the
basis of the weight of the evidence and the potential risk of harm.
The second principal response has been that the industry will sponsor the
research to determine the relationship between viewing violence and violent
behavior. It is sufficient to note that although such promises were made first
in 1954 and continued through 1964, by October 1967 the amount of
research sponsored by the industry on this issue was so small as to be
insignificant and that which was supported by the industry was, from the
outset, clearly undertaken as a defensive move. By the time of our first set of
hearings, the industry had shifted to the position that the reason they had
undertaken no research is that it was not a researchable problem. Yet, within
a matter of weeks after the second set of hearings in December, the networks
had met and agreed to promote new research, and NBC had authorized the
expenditure of $500,000 over the next five years.
The third major response of the industry over the years has been that they
are going to reduce the amount of violence on television. Such promises were
made in hearings before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in
1954, 1961 , and 1963. Some studies in the files of the subcommittee indicate
that the quantity of violent programs increased as much as 300 percent
between 1954 and 1961 . In 1961 , the networks told the subcommittee that it
takes eighteen months to two years to effect program changes capable of
reducing violence. Two years later another set of hearings discovered that,
with the exception of CBS, there had been no statistically significant
reduction in the amount of violence.
After the tragic assassinations in the spring of 1968, there was much
publicity in the trade and regular press about how the networks were
reducing violence on television. Content analysis contracted by the Media
Task Force indicate there was no such reduction by October 1968.
As before Senator Dodd's subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, in
testifying "before the Commission, the industry again asked for more time. We
hope they will put it to better use than they have in the past.
viii
Acknowledgments
The Media Task Force Report is the product of a group effort. While it is
impossible to identify separately individual contributions, it is both necessary
and desirable to identify major areas of responsibility, major contributors,
and those to whom we are most heavily indebted for both their time and
patience.
The most difficult task was faced by our consultants who were asked to
set aside the many pressing demands on their time to prepare under
impossible deadlines papers on which to base this report. Without their
generous cooperation no report would have been feasible.
Our requests for information and access to personnel placed the greatest
burden on the three commercial television networks. Each cooperated fully
and promptly in assisting us to secure the information and material we
needed. Special thanks is owed to Elmer Lower of ABC News and Richard
Wald of NBC News for informally discussing news practices with us early in
the formulation of this study. Similarly, special thanks is owed to the lawyers
for the respective networks, Robert Evans and Ralph Goldberg at CBS,
Corydon Dunham at NBC and Mark Roth at ABC, for handling our requests
for information and tapes of entertainment programming promptly and
efficiently. Aid was also received from Jack Valenti and Edward Cooper of
the Motion Picture Association of America and from Douglas Anello of the
National Association of Broadcasters.
In December of 1968 we invited about 50 journalists and six or seven
representatives with minority perspectives to Washington for a three-day
conference and we appreciate their insights to the news profession and how it
works.
With regard to the news section of our report, three individuals must be
singled out for extraordinary contributions: Ben H. Bagdikian of the Rand
Corporation, Norman Isaacs of the Louisville Courier- Journal, and William L.
Rivers of the Stanford School of Communication. Where their contribution is
taken from a published source it is footnoted, but our borrowing from their
unpublished work and oral comments is quite extensive in several chapters.
Moreover, they frequently provided important leads to other source
materials.
It is somewhat easier to assign final responsibility for analysis and con-
clusions within the Media Task Force staff. David Lange wrote Part I,
"An Historical Perspective," on the basis of papers submitted by
consultants.
Part II, "The News Media," was written by Robert K. Baker. Significant
portions of this section drew heavily on staff papers prepared by F. Clifton
Berry, Jr., Steffen W. Graae, and David Lange. In addition, Linda J.
Schacht made several essential research contributions to the formulation
of the news section.
Part III on "Television Entertainment and Violence" was under the
direction of Sandra J. Ball. Assisting her on research were Carolyn McClel-
land, Linda J. Schacht, and Deborah Cutler.
As one might expect, the weaknesses and fallacies of the report must
be credited to the Co-Director responsible for the relevant section Robert
K. Baker for "The News Media" and Sandra J. Ball for "Television Enter-
tainment and Violence."
RKB
Bangkok, Thailand
20 November, 1969
I would like particularly to thank the social scientists who participated
directly and indirectly in Part HI. Their ideas, and counsel contained in
papers submitted to the Media Task Force or in conversation were invaluable.
In this respect, I am particularly indebted to Dr. Arline H. Sakuma.
S.J.B.
CONTENTS
Page
Preface viii
Acknowledgments xiii
PART I: AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Chapter 1 -The Printed Medium 1
*J A. History of the American Press 3
v^ 1 . England 3
v 2. Early America 6
7 3. Philosophical Antecedents 7
- 4. The Philosophy As Law 11
^ 5 . The Historical Role of the Press 15
"' 6. Sensationalism 18
- Chapter 2 From Medium To Media 25
/ A. Newspapers 25
^/ B. Magazines 25
/ C. Movies 26
^D. Radio 27
^ E. Television 28
^ ' F. The Media in Contemporary American Life _ . 29
1. Media Con tent: A Brief Overview . 29
2. The Media and the Professionals 30
PART II: THE NEWS MEDIA
^/Chapter 3 Functions and Credibility 33
^ A. Functions of the News Media 36
v B. Credibility of the News Media 37
J C. The Importance of Being Credible 39
J D. Credibility and Audience Bias 40
Page
Chapter 4 Intergroup Communication .............. 43
A. Communication Between Blacks and Whites:
A Case Study ...................... 44
1 . Nineteenth Century Coverage of Blacks ......... 46
2. The Twentieth Century: The First Fifty Years ..... 47
3. Progress in Black Coverage: The 1950's ......... 49
B. Communication Between Blacks and Whites ....... 52
1. The Need for a Black Perspective ............ 52
2. There Can Be Progress ................... 54
3. The Black Community and the White Press ....... 56
4. Integrated Newsrooms ................... 58
5. What Facts Are Significant? ............... 61
Chapter 5 The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media . 67
A. Access: The News Media Audience ............. 69
Access: The Newsman's Perspective ............ 72
* C. Access: News Media Structure and Competitive Practices 78
1. The News Business ..................... 78
2. News Media Concentration ................ 82
3. Acquisition of Suburban Newspapers .......... 84
4. Syndicated Features .................... 85
, 5. Joint Publishing Agreements ............... 85
^ D. Access: Coverage of Protest ................. 87
1 . Influence of Media Presence ............... 89
2. Media Incitement to Violence .............. 91
3. Coverage of Demonstrations ............... 93
Chapter 6 Coverage of Civil Disorders ............. 1 03
A. Watts ............................. 105
B. The 1967 Disturbances ................... 106
C. 1968 ............................. Ill
D. Reporting Civil Disorders ................. 113
Chapter 7 Journalism Education ................ 121
A. The Curricula ........................ 124
B. Continuing Education Programs ............. 129
Chapter 8 Media Practices and Values ............. 135
A. The Newsman's Concept of News ............ 137
J B. Objective Versus Interpretive Reporting ......... 143
Chapter 9 Conclusions and Recommendation ......... 151
A. Action By Government .................. 156
B. Action By the News Media ................ 159
Page
APPENDICES
Appendix II-A How the Mass Media Work in America
By Leo Bogart 165
^/A. The Mass Media Experience 165
/B. The Economics of Media 169
Operating the Media 172
The Influence of Advertisers 176
\/'E. Media: Model or Mirror? 179
/Appendix II-B Contemporary Functions of the Mass Media
ByJackLyle 187
/A. Mass Media As Institutions 187
>/ 1 . The Information Function 187
a. Implications for Democratic Society 188
* 2. The Entertainment Function 190
/3. The Information Entertainment Mix 190
^4. Leader or Reflector of Society? 191
B. Survey of General Media Content and Audience .... 192
1. Books 192
'2. Libraries 194
3. The Book Public 194
4. Magazines 196
5. Comic Books 199
6. Newspapers 200
7. The Underground Press 203
8. Movies 204
9. Radio 205
10. Phonograph Recordings 206
11. Television 206
12. Education Television 209
C. Different Patterns of Media Selection and Use 210
1. Demographic and Ecological Factors 210
2. Sociopsychological Factors 212
D. Some Problems Related to the Mass Media's Nature . . 214
Appendix II-C Media Codes, Guidelines, and Policies for News
Coverage 217
A. Need for Guidelines 217
1 . Characteristics of Guidelines 218
2. Effectiveness of Guidelines 219
3. Operation of Guidelines 219
B. Specific Media Guidelines 219
1. The Networks 219
xiii
Page
2. Television Stations 222
3. Radio 223
4. Newspapers 224
5. Wire Services 224
Appendix II-D The Canons of Journalism 225
Appendix II-E Code of Broadcast News Ethics 227
Appendix II-F Broadcast Guidelines for Coverage of Civil
Disorders 229
A. Guidelines 230
Appendix II-G Employment Data 233
PART III: TELEVISION ENTERTAINMENT AND
VIOLENCE 235
Chapter 1 0-Posing the Problem of Effects 237
Present Approach 240
A. Menu and Diet Communicator Intent versus Audience
Use 241
B. What is the Message? Medium or Content as the Basis
For Social Learning 242
C. Stimulating versus Cathartic Effects of Media Violence 242
D. Mass Media Effects on Norms, Attitudes, and Values . 245
Chapter 1 1 Mass Media as Producers of Effects: An Overview of
Research Trends 247
A. Decline and Fall of the "Hypodermic "Image 247
B. Contemporary Assumptions and Theoretical Views . . 249
C. Contemporary Classification of Effects 252
D. Mass Media Incompletely Exonerated 253
Chapter 12-The Effects of Media Violence on Social
Learning . . 261
A. The Media, the Senses, and Information Transmission . 261
B. Fidelity, Vividness, Credibility, and Authenticity . . . 266
C. Media Content and Social Learning 270
D. Conclusions 279
Chapter 13 Value Modification by Mass Media 285
A. Acquisition of Values 286
B. Crime and Violence 290
C. Family and Sex 293
D. Occupational Values 294
Page
E. Gratification Deferment 295
F. "Sleeper" Effects 296
Chapter 14 Mass Media as Activators of Latent Tendencies . 301
A. Changing Behavior Without Changing Values 302
B. Communication and Social Contagion 304
C. Identities, Reference Groups, Information, and Action 306
Chapter 15-The Television World of Violence 311
A. Dimensions of Violence in Television Drama: Summary 3 1 3
1. Challenge and Difficulties 313
2. Accomplishments 314
B. ABird's-Eye View of the Results 314
1 . The Extent of Violence 315
2. The Nature of Violence 315
3. The People of Violence 316
4. The World of Violence 316
C. Dimensions of Violence 317
1 . The Extent of Violence 318
a. Prevalence 318
b. Significance to the Story 318
c. Rates of Violent Episodes and Acts 319
d. The "Seriousness" of Violence 319
2. The Nature of Violence 320
a. Means and Personal Aspects 320
b. Group Aspects 321
c. Witnesses to Violence 321
d. Physical Consequences 322
e. "Good" vs. "Bad" and "Winner" vs. "Loser" ... 322
3. The People of Violence 322
a. "Violents," Killers, and their Victims 323
b. Males and Females 323
c. Age and Marriage 323
d. Forces of Law and of Lawlessness 324
e. Outcome: "Happies" and "Unhappies" 324
4. The World of Violence 325
a. Time of Action 325
b. Places and People 325
c. Law and Its Enforcement . 326
D. The World of Television Entertainment: 1967 and 1968 327
1. Extent of Violent Programs 327
2. The Incidence of Violence for Different Types
of Programs 328
a. Programs with a Comedy Tone 328
XV
Page
b. Crime-Western Action-Adventure Style Programs . 329
c. Programs with a Cartoon Format 329
3. Do Television Audiences Get What They Want? ... 330
a. Manifold Functions of Television 331
b. Habitual Nature of Television Viewing 331
c. The TV Public's Choices 331
d. The Public's Views on TV Violence 332
e. Summary 333
4. Messages for Violence Contained in TV Entertainment
Programming 333
5. Research Implications 336
E. Summary 338
Chapter 16-The Actual World of Violence 341
A. Norms for Violence 341
1 . Survey of Adult and Teenage Americans 342
2. Norms for Violence: Adult and Teenage Americans 342
a. Description of Findings 342
b. Norms for the Use of Violence by Policemen . . . 344
c. An Overview of Adult and Teenage Norms for
Violence 347
d. Adult and Teenage Norms for Violence:
Comparison and Summary 350
3. Black and Non-Black Comparisons 351
4. The Approvers of Violence: Low-Level Violence . . 351
5. The Approvers of Violence: High-Level Violence . . 352
6. Summary ' 353
B. Actual Experience with Violence: Adults and Teens . . 354
C. The "Violents" in the Actual World of Violence .... 357
D. The Context of Violence 358
E. Summary 358
Chapter 17 The Two Worlds of Violence: Television and Reality
Reality 363
A. The Two Worlds of Violence: A Comparison 363
B. The Relationship of the Two Worlds of Violence .... 364
1 . Users of TV for Entertainment 364
2. The Approvers of Television Violence 365
3. Persons with a Strong Preference for Media
Violence 365
C. Limitations of Demographic Comparison and Survey
Data 366
D. Implications of Demographic Comparisons 367
1. Adult and Teen Differences . 368
Page
2. Identification and Learning 368
3. Socialization of the Non-Violents 368
Chapter 18 Discussions and Conclusions 371
A. The Nature of Mass Communication 371
1. The Unique Properties of Television 373
2. The Organization and Institutional Role of the
Mass Media 373
B. Orientation to the Study of the Effects of Mass
Media Presentations 374
C. Conclusions: Effects of Mass Media Portrayals of
Violence 375
1. General Conclusions 375
a. Short-Run Effects 376
b. Long-Run Effects 376
2. Television and Violence 378
Chapter 19 Recommendations 381
A. Effects and Effects Research 381
B. General Recommendations 383
C. A Center for Media Study 384
1. Earlier Proposals 385
2. The Task Force Proposal 386
3. Tasks for the Center 388
a. The Analysis and Evaluation of Media Standards . 388
b. Collection of Data Concerning the Media 388
c. The Monitoring and Evaluation of Media
Performance 388
d. The Evaluation of Media Grievance Machinery . . 389
e. Analysis of the Institutional and Economic
Structure, Trends within, and Practices of
the Media 389
f. Analysis of Media Employment Practices 389
g. The Evaluation of the Effectiveness of
Government Agencies Charged with Media-Related
Responsibilities 389
h. Development of Standards and Programs for
Ameliorating Community-Press Relations 389
i. The Conduct or Funding of Journalism Training
in Areas of Critical Social Significance 389
j. The Stimulation of Public Interest Coverage
Through Grants and Awards 390
k, Long-Term Study of the Social Effects of Media
Entertainment and News Practices . , 390
Page
1. The Conduct and Funding of Research 390
4. Powers 390
a. Authority to Publicize Findings and Conclusions . 391
b. Authority to Request Data and Reports Through
Government Agencies 391
5. Summary . 391
6. The Boards 392
a. General 392
b. Governing Board 392
c. Media Advisory Board 392
d. Research Board 393
Appendix III-A A Review of Recent Literature on Psychological
Effects of Media Portrayals of Violence
By Richard E. Goranson 395
A. The Issues 395
B. The Relevance of Psychological Research 396
1 . The Definition of Aggression 396
a. Harm Intent Measures 396
b. Response Form Measures 396
2. Individual Differences 397
3. The Generality of Research Findings 397
a. The Representativeness of the Subjects 397
b. The Representativeness of the Research Setting . . 397
C. Learning Aggression Through Observation 398
1 . Conditions Affecting the Learning of Aggressive
Behavior Through Observation 398
a. Acquisition 398
b. Retention 399
2. Post-Observational Conditions Affecting the
Performance of Aggressive Behavior 400
a. The Similarity Factor 400
b. The Effects of Observed Rewards or Punishments
to the Aggressor 401
c. Effects of the Social Context 403
d. Other Factors 403
D. Emotional Effects 404
1 . The Blunting of Emotional Responses 404
a. The Habituation of Emotional Responses to
Observed Violence 404
b. Some Possible Implications of Emotional
Habituation 405
E. The Inhibition and Facilitation of Impulsive Aggression 406
1 . The Inhibition of Impulsive Aggression 407
Page
2. The Facilitation of Impulsive Aggression 407
a. The Cue Properties of Available Targets 407
b. The General State of Arousal of the Aggressor . .. 408
F. Summary 409
1 . Learning Effects 409
2. Emotional Effects 410
3. Impulsive Aggression 410
G. Bibliography 411
Appendix III-B Outline of Research Required on Effects
By William R. Cation, Jr 415
A. Need for Long-Term Studies 416
B. Experimental Studies 417
C. Epidemiological Studies 419
D. Mixed Studies 421
Appendix III-C The Content and Context of Violence in the
Mass Media
By Bradley S. Greenberg 423
A. Introduction 423
B. Magazines, Comic Books, and Paperbacks . 426
C. Newspapers 430
D. Television 436
E. Correlates of Exposure to Violent Content 442
1 . Among Young People 442
2. Among Adults 443
3. Some Reasons for Violent Content in the Mass Media 443
4. What Makes for Interesting Drama 444
5. How Society Has Changed 446
F What We Can Expect From Television 449
Appendix III-D The Catharsis Effect: Two Opposing Views
By Richard E. Goranson 453
A. Research on the Original Catharsis Formulation .... 453
B. Research on a Revised Catharsis Formulation 456
C. The Status of the Symbolic Aggression Catharsis
Hypothesis 458
Appendix III-E- The Catharsis Effect: Research and Another View
By Seymour Feshbach 461
A. Hypotheses 461
B. Methods 463
1. Subjects 463
2. Sample Size 464
3. Procedure . . 464
Page
4. The Television Programs 466
5. Measures 467
C. Discussion and Conclusion 467
Appendix III-F The Worldview Presented by Mass Media
By William R. Catton, Jr 473
A. Anomie 473
B. Dominance of Television 476
C. Degradation of Values 477
D. Undermining Directive Language 482
Appendix III-G- Conscience Formation and the Mass Media
By Monica D. Blumenthal 487
Appendix III-H The Effects of Violence in the Printed Media
By Jack B, Haskins 493
A. Background 493
B. Summary of Evidence 494
1 . Evidence Regarding Violence Content in Print Media . 494
2. Evidence Regarding Audiences and Exposure to
Violence in the Print Media 496
C. Evidence Regarding Effects of Violence in Print Media 498
D. Conclusions 499
1. Violent Content in the Print Media 499
2. Audiences for and Exposure to Violence in the Print
Media 500
3. The Effects of Violence in the Print Media 501
Appendix III-I Sampling Procedures Used in the Harris Poll 503
Appendix III-J Content Analysis Procedures and Results ..519
A. The Recording Instrument As a Whole 519
1. Recording Unit 519
2. Recording Procedure 519
B. The Recording Instrument for Major Characters .... 524
1. Recording Unit 524
2. Recording Procedure 524
3. Variables and Categories 526
4. Reliability of Variables 529
5. Current Form of Primary Data 530
C. The Recording Instrument for Violent Episodes .... 534
1. Recording Unit 534
2. Recording Procedure 534
3. Variables and Categories 537
4. Reliability of Variables 538
XX
Page
D. The Recording Instrument for Violent Encounters and
Acts and Their Justification 539
1. Recording Unit 539
2. Recording Procedure 541
3. Variables and Categories 542
4. Reliability of Variables 548
5. Current Form of Primary Data 548
Appendix III-K The Views, Standards, and Practices of
The Television Industry
By Robert K. Baker and the Media Task Force Staff . . 593
A. The Television Industry's View of the Research on
Effects of Violent Portrayals 593
B. Industry Standards and Practices on the Portrayal
of Violence 599
1. Enforcement of the NAB Code 599
2. Enforcement of Network Standards 601
a. American Broadcasting Company 602
b. National Broadcasting Company 604
c. Columbia Broadcasting Company 607
C. Conclusion . . .613
XXI
Witnesses
October 16,17,1969
Bradley Greenberg, Department of Communication, Michigan State
University.
Joseph T. Klapper, Director, Office of Social Research, Columbia
Broadcasting Systems, Inc.
Leonard Berkowitz, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin at
Madison.
Percy Tannenbaum, Annenberg School of Communication, University of
Pennsylvania.
George Gerbner, Dean of the Annenberg School of Communication,
University of Pennsylvania.
Otto N. Larsen, Department of Sociology, University of Washington at
Seattle.
Alfred R. Schneider, Vice President and Assistant to the Executive Vice
President, American Broadcasting Company.
Robert D. Kasmire, Vice President, National Broadcasting Company.
Leo Bogart, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Bureau of
Advertising of the American Newspaper Publishers Association.
December 18, 19, and 20, 1969
Robert MacNeil, British Broadcasting Company.
Ben. * H. Bagdikian, Journalist and Press Critic, currently at the Rand
Corporation.
Norman E. Isaacs, Executive Editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal and the
Louisville Times.
John F. Dille, Jr., President of the Communicana Group.
Jack Valenti, President, Motion Picture Association of America.
The Honorable Rosel Hyde, Chairman of the Federal Communications
Commission.
Dr. Lawrence Kubie, Psychiatrist.
The Honorable Nicholas Johnson, Federal Communications Commission.
James Casey, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Northern District of Illinois.
Thomas A. Foran, United States Attorney for the Northern District of
Illinois.
Leonard H. Goldenson, President, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
Elmer W. Lower, President of ABC News.
Frank Stanton, President, Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.
Richard S. Salant, President of CBS News.
Julian Goodman, President of National Broadcasting Company, Inc.
Reuven Frank, President of NBC News.
XXII
Chapter 1
THE PRINTED MEDIUM
The mass media in the United States are a blend of journalism and
showmanship, information and entertainment, and professional altruism and
marketplace opportunism. These are obviously qualities which, if not entirely
antithetical, at least cannot be relied upon to coexist in perfect harmony.
When they clash, the discord is important, for, if one thing is clear about the
American media, it is that they touch our lives in ways far too intimate and
complex to ignore .
Traditionally, of course, the media, and more particularly the news media,
have given us our perceptions of the world around us. It is one of our richer,
if less solidly grounded, beliefs that the media provide a "marketplace" in
which one man's ideas and opinions can be compared with or joined to those
of another. We expect the media to take an active role in the processes of
government through criticism, through interpretation, even through the
advocacy of action, and we encourage all these functions by according to the
press as an institution essentially the same freedom of speech that we enjoy as
individuals.
Beyond all this, however, we have become a nation of the entertained, and
it is the mejiia, for the most part, who provide our entertainment. Indeed, our
appetites for entertainment, far more than our quest for knowledge, have
brought the media from the economic position represented by the individual
printer of two centuries ago to the status of a major business industry. In the
process, the media themselves have changed in ways that invite attention.
The media today pervade our culture to a degree unmatched by any other
social institution. From the tens of thousands of available titles, theoretically,
an adult can choose from among some 1,750 daily newspapers; 578 Sunday
papers; more than 8,000 weekly newspapers; more than 22,000 periodicals,
including nearly 150 magazines of "general editorial" content; or from among
tens of thousands of new books put out by the nation's more than 1 ,700
publishing houses. 1 Listeners with radios can choose from among more than
4,200 AM and 2,200 FM radio stations, and those with phonographs can
select from the 35,000 phonograph records, including 10,000 new releases
ihe market provides annually. For those who prefer to watch, there are some
840 television stations and more than 13,700 motion picture theatres and
2 Mass Media and Violence
/ Some media are available to nearly everyone, and nearly everyone makes
/ some use of them. Most (95 percent) American homes include at least one TV
set; nearly all (99 percent) own at least one radio. In a typical weekday, 82
/ percent of adults watch television; the average time invested is more than two
I hours. Two-thirds of America's adults listen to the radio, on the average more
I than an hour a day. More than nine out of every ten adults read a magazine
I sometime during the month and approximately three-fourths of the adult
population read one or more newspapers on a typical weekday. Although
i movie-going is less universal, a third of the adult population sees at least one
\ film in a typical month.
\ If these figures indicate that the media do indeed play an important role in
the lives of American adults, it is no less true that the nation's children are
heavily exposed to media influences for better or worse. In particular, young
people spend even more time with television than do their elders. Substantial
evidence indicates that children from low-income families children in the
ghettos, for example spend even more time watching television than do their
counterparts in more priviledged classes. One study found that while middle
class teenagers watch television on Sunday for an average of four hours; black
teenagers, however, devoted six hours to their sets. 2 For most of these
children, as for most Americans generally, television provides more than
entertainment: it also provides Americans with the single most important and
credible source of news about the world around them.^
Statistics as to media use vary, to be sure, and we have included here a
composite of figures cited in several sources. Nonetheless, from any
standpoint, the media clearly play an important, and perhaps critical, role in
I daily American living. The media, and television in particular, have gradually
! assumed more and more of the role formerly occupied by schools, churches,
and family groups in providing a nation with its values, its goals, and its
1 standards of conduct.
It becomes a matter of no small importance, then, to inquire into the
content and effects of the media with regard to violence. It is equally
important to know what forces shape the media. On the one hand, the media
are a multi-billion dollar business, which makes them susceptible to the
competitive pressures that influence all major business enterprises. With the
exception of motion pictures and books, the media are sustained by
advertising revenues. In the typical case, therefore, the pressures of
competition become an urgent, literal, life-or-death need to attract audiences
sufficiently large to earn the advertising revenues necessary to sustain them.
Where advertisements do not provide the source of income, direct sales to
consumers do, and the urgent need for mass acceptability remains much the
same. These pressures do not insure that the public interest will always be
served.
In the past these pressures have led to the familiar excesses of newspaper
circulation wars in which sex, violence, and sensationalism have been served
up in generous portions by publishers hungry for audiences. Today, they
contribute to the selection of television programming aimed for the most part
at the broadest possible audiences. Because media entertainment more than
media information can attract audiences, these pressures also explain the
growing influence of entertainment values-the "show-business ethic," as it
The Printed Medium 3
has been called upon the whole spectrum of media content.
In short, any study of the relationship between violence and the media
must take into account the conflicting nature of the media as institutions.
We must, on the one hand, appreciate the heritage of free expression that
has come to us in large part because of the struggle of the press against
censorship and regulation. No clearer evidence can sustain the high value
Americans place upon a free press than the fact that the press is the only
private institution specifically protected by the Constitution. All media today
directly descend from the American press and they have naturally come to
share in the hard-won freedom of the press.
Yet, as we have said, the media today comprise institutions far different
from the press of two centuries ago. The forms have changed. Circulation has
increased beyond anything then dreamed of. Competitive pressures have
increased and in response the media have learned from sheer necessity the art
of manipulating vast audiences for economic gain. In the process of this
growth and change, the ability of any single man to gain access to the
"marketplace of ideas" has become all but extinct.
Clearly, then, the media merit study by anyone who would know more
about the structure of American society. But when violence becomes the
issue, the study is obligatory. For much of what we know of violence in all its
forms we understand as observers and students of the mass media, not as
participants.
A. History of the American Press*
The way to get at the nature of an institution, as of
anything else that is alive, is to see how it has grown.
-A. G. Keller
1 . England
When, in 1476, William Caxton established his printing press at
Westminster and began to publish books and pamphlets, he brought to
England a craft already well established on the Continent. The impact was
enormous. Knowledge of the world beyond the experience of the individual
was no longer limited by the occasional tales of travelling minstrels or
messengers from afar. Knowledge was no longer the exclusive province of the
few who could afford the one or two hand-lettered manuscripts that one
artisan could produce in an entire year. In unprecedented numbers, people
could now question, doubt, criticize, explore, suggest, persuade, and teach. In 1
short, development of the press brought the power to manipulate the
environment and affect people's thoughts well beyond the range of the
human voice. By 1620, Francis Bacon could regard its "force, effects and
consequences," on a par with gunpowder and the compass for having
"changed the appearance and state of the world." 4 In retrospect, his claim
*Much of the material in this portion of this report is from a paper, "Historical
Development of the Media in American Life," prepared for the Task Force by Dr. Jay W.
Jensen, head of the department of journalism, and Dr. Theodore Peterson, dean, College
of Communications, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
4 Mass Media and Violence
was no hyperbole. Printing in fact did play an impressive part in shaping
intellectual life and in the diffusion of culture, in the development of the
nation -state and the rise of capitalism, and in transforming the nature of
religion and politics.
From the ranks of anonymous artisans and minstrels, printing elevated
men of letters to personages famous in their own lifetimes and sometimes
long after their deaths. By standardizing language, printing fostered the
development of national literatures. Although it did not immediately
revolutionize scientific thought, printing led ultimately to the dissemination
of scientific ideas and to the formation of a scientific community. The press
provided the means for spreading scientific thought across national borders.
Equally significant was printing's contribution to growth in the spirit of
rationality. As Herbert Muller has observed, "In thought generally it both
fortified and supplemented the classifical tradition of rationalism by more
empirical sense, or concern with fact. Accordingly, it had much to do with
the revolutionary developments to come, notably the rise of science and of
democracy." 5
Printing undoubtedly did contribute to the rise of democracy. Early
empires, although essentially loose confederations, extended over vast
expanses of territory. Printing aided centralization of political allegiances by
spreading common beliefs, common values, and common goals over wide
geographic areas.
In religion, too, printing served both as a force for maintaining the
established order and as a force for change. But change dominated. Printing
broke the Church's monopoly over knowledge. Although he berated printers
for their money-mindedness, Martin Luther called printing "God's highest
act of Grace."
Established institutions became threatened. Andrew Fletcher, the Scot
patriot, recognized the importance of controlling communication when he
noted in 1704, "I believe that if a man were permitted the right to write all
the ballads he need not care who should make the laws of a nation." The
phenomenon was also recognized by established authorities on the Continent
and in England. They responded with attempts to control the source of the
threat. Although all had some effect, none could either silence or control the
press completely. The tension between the government and the press has been
as old as the press itself.
The struggle for press freedom in England became a part of the larger
struggle of the people to achieve a responsive constitutional government.
Since that slow movement of power from crown to nobility to people had
profound implications for the extent and kinds of repression, one needs a
grasp of its broad outlines to understand the development of freedom of the
press in England.
When the infant printing industry started to develop, the Tudors Henry
VII, Henry VIII, Edward, Mary, Elizabeth I sat on the throne. Though
generally popular for bringing stability after the sanguinary civil wars of
feudal times, the Tudors, both powerful and arbitrary, governed efficiently in
an era of national expansion, consolidation, and the revival of classical
learning, an era when challenge to the wealth and power of the Catholic
Church was inevitable.
The Printed Medium 5
As printing developed, the King, rather than put it under the jurisdiction
of courts or Parliament, assumed control as an inherent royal prerogative. He
had unlimited authority to regulate and to control. So long as printing
remained a mere adjunct of letters, however, neither King not Parliament
showed much interest in interfering with it. But as the number of books
increased, and particularly as their authors engaged in religious and political
controversy, the Tudors concentrated control of the press in the hands of the
King and his council. This system of controls established by the tight-ruling
Tudors set the pattern for succeeding periods.
One of the earliest control devices was the grant of patents of monopoly
to printers. In exchange for good behavior, printers were given permits to
publish selected categories of books, such as school books, religious books,
law books, histories, and plays. The system was so effective it flourished for
two centuries, reaching its culmination in the monopolistic Stationers
Company, an exclusive organization of privileged printers chartered by the
Crown to admit and expel members to the printing trades, to penalize
offending printers, and to regulate the press in the interest of the Crown.
From patents, the Tudors moved to a second type of control licensing.
Although licensing took various forms, its essential purpose remained the
same: to require the printer to submit manuscripts for Oificial review and
approval prior to publication.
The most comprehensive regulation of the Tudor period evolved from
Elizabeth's Star Chamber decree. Promulgated in 1586, it remained in effect
until 1637. The decree limited the number of printers, apprentices, and
presses, gave the Stationers Company power of search and seizure, and
required the licensing of all books. Law books were licensed by the justices,
and all others by the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of London.
Administration and enforcement became the responsibility of the Stationers
Company and of ecclesiastical officials.
The early Stuarts made the courts and Parliament the instruments for
controlling discussion. The gradually eroding power of the monarch made an
efficient new means for controlling thought and discussion necessary. In this
setting, the law of seditious libel developed to deal more effectively with
ideas that challenged the existing order. The old law of treason, which had
been adequate to put down armed rebellion, was too cumbersome to invoke
against controversial pamphleteers. The Star Chamber provided precedent for
subsequent prosecutions of seditious libel by laying down four propositions
in 1606: (1) Libel against an ordinary person was a criminal offense; (2) libel
against a deceased person was an offense; (3) the prosecution could be either
in court or before the Star Chamber; and (4) truth was no defense. By
implication, a fifth soon emerged: It was as criminal to publish libelous or
seditious material as to create it.
During the Puritan Revolution and the Cromwellian interregnum, the press
was, at times, almost entirely free, and at times under restrictions nearly as
stringent as those of Elizabeth's reign. The powerful Stationers Company was
undermined, and the Star Chamber's enforcement powers were abolished.
With the Restoration in 1660, the Stuarts shared power to control the
press with Parliament. Charles II, late in his reign, ended the Crown's long
alliance with the Stationers Company. Under William of Orange, after the
6 Mass Media and Violence
Bloodless Revolution, restrictions on the press reached a low point. Licensing
became too cumbersome and ineffective a method under a two-party system
of Parliamentary governmeiit and it was allowed to lapse. Only seditious libel
and a ban on reporting the activities of Parliament remained.
Although government control of the press had not disappeared by the
18th century, new techniques seemed necessary. The propertied middle class
recognized the crude, direct methods of the Tudors as anachronistic, and
those means of control gradually vanished. In their place emerged the more
subtle but no less effective control by taxation, by subsidy, and by
prosecution under due process.
Usually, taxation and subsidy worked in tandem. Taxes aimed at
eliminating marginal publications and undermining the financial health of the
survivors in order to make them susceptible to subsidy. Meanwhile, however,
political leaders, political parties, and the government itself secretly paid
writers and editors to give them editorial support.
By the American Revolution, England had come a long way. It was, in the
judgment of H.J.Muller,the freest country in Europe, with the most vigorous
press, the most open debate and the most influential public opinion. 6
2. Early America
During this same period, the American press had begun to grow. Its nature
and practices heavily influenced by its English and continental forebears, the
early colonial press repeated the struggle of the British press for
independence. As in England, the press was viewed as a threat to both church
and state; the authorities responded with licensing, direct censorship, sedition
laws, legislative privilege, and patronage. As in England, the efforts met with
only partial success, for powerful newspapers started to grow in the principal
American cities.
After the mid-1 7th century, the demand for information in the growing
Colonies exceeded the supply provided by gossip in the coffeehouse, letters
from abroad, and packets of English newspapers delivered by accommodating
sea captains. The growth of periodicals, however, was retarded by the firm
control exercised by church authorities, colonial governors and their
councils, because these authorities, like their English counterparts, regarded a
controlled press as useful and a free press as dangerous.
Philadelphia was two years old in 1685 when William Bradford set up his
printing shop there. His first publication, an almanac, was censored in
advance and he was warned not to print without a license. In 1690. Bradford
has trouble again. This time the authorities seized his press and subjected him
to trial, the first in the Colonies with freedom of the press at issue. He was
jailed for seditious libel. That same year, Benjamin Harris published the first
newspaper in America, Publick Occurrences. It did not survive the first day.
The first issue carried an account of the French and Indian wars that could be
construed as critical of colonial policy; therefore, the governor and council of
Massachusetts invqked their licensing power to shop further publication.
Licensing survived in the Colonies at least through 1722, when Andrew
Bradford, son of William, was brought before the authorities for offensive
publications. The younger Bradford, after making abject apologies, was
The Printed Medium 7
ordered not "to publish anything relating to or concerning the Affairs of this
Government, or the Government of any other of his Majesty's Colonies"
without prior permission.^
A more sophisticated remedy for controlling the press soon found official
favor and eventually displaced licensing as the preferred control. The law of
seditious libel was accepted in the Colonies, even by libertarians, until the end
of the 18th century.
The 18th century libertarians believed that the press would be free if there
were no prior censorship, if the defendant could plead truth as a defense to a
charge of seditious libel, and if juries rather than judges would resolve the
issue of whether the material was libelous. Such powers for the jury secured
in England by Fox's Libel Act of 1792, took longer to gain acceptance in
America.
Courts served as the forum for some seditious libel prosecutions. Truth as
a defense emerged as the principal issue. John Peter Zenger was charged with
sedition for publishing articles criticizing New York's Governor Cosby in
1735. The jury accepted his defense of truth and concluded the material was
not seditious. He was acquitted. The verdict, as popular as Governor Cosby
was unpopular, however, had no practical effect in New York or elsewhere in
the Colonies. Over 60 years later, a Jeffersonian chief justice of New York
still contended that truth served as no defense to a charge of seditious libel.
Although the Zenger case is sometimes taken as a milestone in the march to
freedom of the press, it was little more than an incident that received an
inordinate amount of publicity.
The courts may have been a threat and a deterrent to colonial publishers,
but, as in England in the 18th century, the legislature zealously and
effectively restricted the press. The popularly elected colonial assemblies,
which needed no jury to indict or to convict, used their power to punish
"breaches of parliamentary privilege" to try individuals for spoken or written
words that had angered their members. Turning to the House of Commons
for precedent, the assemblies punished as seditious almost any utterance that
they thought questioned their authority, conduct, or reputation.
Despite these controls, the press managed a slow growth in the 18th
century. In the first quarter, five newspapers began in Colonial seaports
which were centers of commercial, cultural, and political activity. By
midcentury, the Colonies had more than a dozen papers. More important
than their number, though, they had changed from weak, inconsequential
organs with circulations of a few hundred into significant propaganda voices
with circulations as high as 3,000. As the conflict between Tories and Patriots
deepened, the papers grew rapidly in number and in circulation. Publishing,
even without political subsidy, became a profitable business. The publisher,
with his access to an important tool for molding public opinion, became a
significant public figure, and the press started to play an important role in the
process of social change.
3. Philosophical Antecedents
The constructive role of the press in the growth of this nation would not
have been possible without a strong philosophy of free expression. But that
8 Mass Media and Violence
philosophy developed even more slowly than the press. Most colonists simply
did not comprehend the utility of a doctrine that allowed freedom to express
views and opinions different from their own and they accepted with little
opposition the early controls that the government imposed on the press.
Most of the early English libertarians offered only limited or self-serving
defenses of free expression. John Milton's Areopagitica, written in 1644, is
often quoted as a classic defense of press freedom. In fact, however, Milton
regarded freedom of the press as no more than the abolition of licensing, and
he proposed to deny freedom to anyone who questioned the fundamental
political and religious order. The freedom he wanted was for those of his own
persuasion or with "neighboring differences."
Other libertarians John Locke and Roger Williams, for example-
conceived freedom of the press as the abolition of prior censorship and of
licensing. The Levellers, who in the 1640's were at the forefront of the
libertarian movement in England, shared this limited view; many of them
would return to prosecution for sedition, according to historian Leonard W.
Levy, and even John Lilburne on occasion favored the enforcement of the
licensing procedure so long as he was exempt.
Although well reasoned and comprehensive statements about free
expression seemed rare, Americans could read one early in the 18th century
in Cato's Letters, which went through a half-dozen editions in book form
between 1733 and 1755, and were widely and extensively printed in the
colonial papers. "Cato," the pseudonym of Whig journalists Thomas Gordon
and John Trenchard, wrote three-quarters of a century after Milton and the
Levellers, and had a broader concept of free expression. He contended that
the government shoufd conduct itself in the interests of the people; that the
people had the responsibility of making sure that the public business was
transacted in their interest; and that only a free press could subject the
government to public scrutiny. He conceded the necessary of some: laws to
curb seditious utterances, provided they were reasonable and rarely imposed.
But, he believed, truth should be a defense against seditious libel. In short,
Cato was that rare creature, a libertarian who would tolerate opinions that
offended him. 8 For the most part, however, from Cato's time until the end of
the 18th century, there was no genuinely original philosophical writing about
free expression in the Colonies.
When the American tradition of a free press did begin to emerge, it came
from the bitter interaction of contending interests, each working for its
self-interest; first in the controversy over the adoption of a Bill of Rights,
later in the furor over the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. As it turned out,
the tradition went far beyond the conventional thinking of the 18th century,
and it had respectable philosophical arguments to sustain it.
Persuasive evidence supports the view that the framers of the Constitution
were not quite the practicing libertarians that conventional history has
sometimes painted them. Delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787
met with the press excluded, and not one of them protested the rule of
secrecy. Some 55 years ago, Charles Beard, in An Economic Interpretation of
the Constitution, 9 wrote that the Constitution owed far less to abstract
concern about rights than to the self-interest of the men who drafted it. More
recently, Professor Levy, in his Legacy of Suppression, has cogently
The Printed Medium 9
developed the thesis that the generation that adopted the Constitution, the
Bill of Rights, and the various state constitutions, did not believe in a broad
scope for freedom of expression, especially in political matters. The Bill of
Rights, he concluded, was more the chance product of expediency than the
happy product of principle. 10
The Bill of Rights resulted from the contest between the Federalists, who
favored a strong national government, and the Antifederalists, who preferred
a league of more or less independent states. One view held that, since the
national government had only enumerated powers, it had no authority to
regulate the press. The Anti-federalists, however, regarded the Bill of Rights
as essential in order to protect the state's interests. It would prevent the
central government from imposing any restrictions on speech and the press,
and it would reserve the power to regulate the press to the states. 1 1
In 1798, war with France was imminent. The Federalists in power passed
the Alien and Sedition Acts to deport troublesome aliens and curb seditious
utterances. One of the four measures provided punishments of up to two
years in prison and a fine of $2,000 for writing, printing, or uttering any
"false, scandalous and malicious" statement against the government of
Congress "with intent to defame ... or to bring them . . . into contempt or
disrepute." The act embodied the principles for which libertarians had
fought: criminal intent had to be demonstrated, truth was a defense, and the
jury decided whether the words were libelous. 1 2
When the act was used to intimidate printers and publishers, when juries
were quick to convict, the Republicans saw it as a Federalist attempt to
create a one-party press and one-party government. Their attack on the
sedition laws broke with the conventional doctrines of free expression.
There were many contributors to the attack, but one of the most eloquent
and philosophical was Tunis Wortman, a New York lawyer. Calm, persuasive,
free from polemics, Wortman urged that governments exist to protect the
liberties of their citizens, that the citizen has the right to dissolve the
government, and that free expression is indispensable to the preservation of
the citizen's rights. He rejected criminal libel as incompatible with a
democratic society, and asked, in effect, "Of what use is liberty of doing that
for which I am punishable afterwards?" 1 3
Most commonly associated with the classical libertarian view, however, are
John Milton, Thomas Jefferson, and John Stuart Mill. They argued
eloquently, and their reputations have overshadowed others who wrote with
no less brilliance or intellectual vigor. Separately, none of the three expressed
a comprehensive philosophy; but together, their writings embody a set of
unified principles.
Although Milton is invariably cited as an early champion of free
expression, he in fact scarcely qualifies as a libertarian by modern standards.
His conception of freedom of the press was narrow: it was an end to
licensing, and no more. Once an offensive work was published, the
government could punish, and for Milton the categories of offensive works
were many. Milton's main contribution to the classical tradition was his idea
of the self-righting process in which truth emerges from the unfettered
competition of ideas in the marketplace. Coming before the widespread
acceptance of the natural rights doctrine, he also provided a religious base for
10 Mass Media and Violence
free expression. He saw freedom of expression as God's will; man could not
be virtuous without it. 14
Jefferson, on the othei hand, regarded free expression as one of man's
inalienable natural rights; a child of the Enlightenment, he accepted its
optimistic assumptions. He saw man as essentially good unless corrupted by
ignorance or bad institutions, and he put strong faith in man's rationality and
perfectability. Like I ocke, Jefferson believed that men entered into
governments of their own volition to protect their natural rights and that,
therefore, the best government had only a light hand on its citizens. But to be
capable of self-government, the individual citizen had to be educated and
well-informed. Although individuals might be mistaken in their application of
reason, the majority would invariably reach sound decisions. Thus social
change would result from unrestricted discussion.
The press, Jefferson believed, had r important part to play in making
government function effectively. Besides promoting the grand search for
ultimate truth, it could perform such utilitarian tasks as enlightening the
citizenry, expediting the political process, and safeguarding personal liberties.
To Jefferson, the press remained the best means of "enlightening the mind of
man, and improving him as a rational, moral and social being." It was the
channel for providing the citizen with the facts and opinions needed for
self-government, and the watchdog to sound a warning when individual rights
were threatened. 1 5
While Jefferson's defense of free expression was only partially posited on
its political utility, John Stuart Mill rested his entire case on individual and
social utility, rejecting any claim to free expression as a natural right. For
Mill, the good society was one in which an individual was free to think and
act as he chose. He feared most a tyranny of the majority. In his view, each
individual must accord to others the same wide latitutde of freedom he
claimed for himself.
Mill's defense of free expression centered on four propositions: first, as
opinion is silenced, truth may be silenced as well; second, even a wrong
opinion may contain an element of truth necessary to discovery of the whole
truth; third, even if the commonly accepted opinion is the whole truth,
people will hold it not as rational belief but as a prejudice if they have not
had to defend it ; fourth,, the commonly held opinion loses its vitality and its
effect on character and conduct if it is not contested. 1 6
With Mill, Americans arrived at a multi-faceted libertarian philosophy of
freedom of expression and freedom of the press. It rested on a concept of
negative liberty freedom from any external restraint. Under this libertarian
view, the press should be free to publish without prior restraint and without
affirmative responsibility. Men needed this wide latitude of freedom in their
quest for truth, to bring about social change through the peaceable means of
discussion, conversion, and consensus, and to check the excesses of
government.
The people need not fear the vast freedom granted the press, according to
classical libertarian theory, for free expression carried built-in safeguards.
Most men, as moral beings, would use their freedom responsibly. For every
man who abused his freedom, there were many others to expose or correct
him. And the greatest safeguard of all was the preeminent good sense of the
The Printed Medium 1 1
majority, which would arrive at sound judgment if the channels of
communication were left unrestricted. In short, the press would function as a
vast marketplace of ideas.
The tradition did condone libel laws, which provided recourse in the
courts for defamation. It did condone obscenity laws, although what
constituted obscenity was a perennial matter of dispute. And it did condone
mild sedition laws. But even with those limitations, the theory offered
unprecedented freedom to speak and to write.
4. The Philosophy as Law*
The legal structure of free speech and press has grown as slowly as the
philosophy of free expression. England's well-known scholar of jurisprudence,
William Blackstone, supposed that freedom of the press meant simply no
prior censorship. But Blackstone and other legal scholars who followed him
found no fault with the idea of imposing sanctions for "abuse" of that
freedom. As we have seen, even some philosophers were willing to accept this
concept. Early state court decisions in the United States, as well as many
later state constitutions, reflected the principle that the press was "free" but
responsible for abuses of the freedom.
The adoption of the first amendment itself did little to affect these early
interpretations of the legal content of free speech and press. The first
amendment was resolved as a compromise during the hectic negotiations
between Federalists and Antifederalists. The language of the amendment
reflects this compromise in its vagueness:
Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion,
or prohibiting free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,
or press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to
petition government for a redress of grievances.
Attempts to construe the language literally in order to resolve specific
controversies almost certainly result in failure. Nowhere does the amendment
define either free speech or freedom of the press. This understanding does not
ignore whatever sense of direction or policy the language suggests, one cannot
read the amendment without taking into account the "gloss" which the
circumstances of its enactment provided, and the subsequent judicial
interpretations in the context of specific controversies.
To a surprising degree, the gloss is recent; much of it, immediate. Not until
1919, in Schenck v. United States, 11 did the U.S. Supreme Court begin
seriously to define the legal boundaries of freedom of expression in the
United States. Even more starting is the fact that more than half of the cases
which legal scholars might agree deserve particular study have been decided
within the past fifteen years. In short, despite the age of the first amendment,
the precise content of freedom of speech and press under the amendment has
only recently begun to be defined.
The emerging definitions are not entirely clear. But the obscenity cases
*Much of the discussion in this section is based upon a paper prepared for the Media
Task Force by Professor Harry Kalven of the University of Chicago Law School. The
conclusions suggested here are the responsibility of the Task Force, however, and do not
necessarily represent Professor Kalven's conclusions.
12 Mass Media and Violence
make it relatively clear that ideas and speech may not be suppressed merely
because they are heretical or contrary to the prevailing moral climate. It also
seems clear that the doctrine of seditious libel, once the great instrument for
controlling freedom of expression in England and the Colonies, can find no
room in contemporary American life. Finally, it seems clear that freedom of
speech and press means more than freedom from prior censorship. Indeed,
prior censorship itself may not always be forbidden; instead, the relevant
question asks the extent to which expression, including speech and press, is
protected at all stages of publication.
Some aspects of speech and press yield to regulation; for example, the
right to regulate matters which do not affect what is said, but rather when,
where, and how it is said. The regulatory powers of the Federal
Communications Commission provide an excellent example, both because
they illustrate an important, practical application of this principle and
because they illustrate the difficulties inherent in deciding when regulation of
speech "traffic" becomes unacceptable regulation of speech content. The
FCC, on the one hand, must observe the first amendment's prohibition
against Congressional abridgement of freedom of the press and, more
specifically, the prohibition against censorship imposed by sectio.i 326 of the
Communications Act of 1934. At the same time, the act requires broadcasters
to employ their franchise in the "public interest, convenience and necessity."
Rather clearly, whether broadcasters serve the public interest depends at least
partly upon what is said.
When does permissible regulation become impermissible abridgement?
That has occupied most of the attention of courts that have considered the
limits of the first amendment. A number of tests have been suggested for
determining the validity of efforts to control the content of publications; but
no single, integrated theory of first amendment freedoms has been stated in
any case.
The theory that has enjoyed perhaps the longest run in the courts and the
widest popular understanding is the so-called "clear and present danger"
test. It stems from an opinion written by Mr. Justice Holmes in the U.S.
Supreme Court's 1919 decision in Schenck v. United States. Schenck widely
disseminated literature condemning World War I and its supposed Wall Street
sponsors, and he urged draftees to resist induction. He and his comrades were
charged with having violated the Espionage Act. The Supreme Court affirmed
their conviction and sentence. Holmes wrote:
We admit that in many places and in ordinary times the defendants
in saying all that was said in the circular would have been within their
constitutional rights. But the character of every act depends upon the
circumstances in which it is done . . . The most stringent protection of
free speech should not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater,
and causing a panic. It does not even protect a man from an injunction
against uttering words that may have all the effect of force . . . The
question in every case is whether the words used are used in such
circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present
danger that they will bring about the substantive evils Congress has a
right to prevent. It is a question of proximity and degree. 1 8
The Printed Medium 13
The clear and present danger test amounts to a rule that the content of
speech will not be subject to government regulation unless what one says or
writes may contribute immediately and proximately to the occurrence of
some activity which itself is subject to government regulation. The test,
obviously, does not lend itself to certainty. Instead, it requires an individual
assessment of a questioned utterance in the context of a given situation.
Whether the clear and present danger test remains a valid prescription for
determining the amenability of content to regulation is itself uncertain. In
cases before the Supreme Court dealing with the Smith Act, which aimed at
Communists in the early years of the last decade, a majority of the justices
appeared to find the Holmes formula unmanageably vague. In particular, it
seemed inadequate to measure publications that, although involving
substantial issues conceivably affected in some important way by the
utterance in question, do not present a clear cause-and-effect relationship.
Similarly, the Holmes formula, it would seem, has little evident applicability
to the regulation of violence as it appears in media content.
Yet in our concern with violence and the media, two highly significant
lessons do appear in the first amendment cases. First, the courts will probably
not draw any substantial distinction between news or information and
entertainment content in the media. The point may appear somewhat
surprising at first, because entertainment, as we know it popularly in the
media, is commonly believed not to result in substantial contributions to
truth or knowledge. Yet important ideas can clothe themselves in fiction or
other forms of entertainment as surely as in the evening newscast or editorial
page. Because we cannot readily draw a line between the worthwhile and
unworth while, a rule that generally accords to all communications, the
protection of the first amendment, without an effort to distinguish between
entertainment and nonentertainment content, would undoubtedly be
desirable.
The second lesson, however, teaches that, although neither entertainment
nor news may be regulated generally, possibly one or the other or both may
be subject to minimal restraints that may have a direct or indirect bearing
upon violence in the society. To the extent that the advocacy of violence may
be regulated in individuals under the clear and present danger or some other
test, the media will necessarily feel the restraint, if only indirectly. Beyond
that, an analogy between violence and obscenity can conceivably provide a
rationale for regulating violence in the media.
In the most general terms, obscenity now yields to regulation when the
questionable matter appeals primarily to the reader's prurient interest,
patently offends, has utterly no redeeming social value, or it is disseminated
with the cynical attitude of the panderer. It is fashionable to speak of these
elements as defining "hard-core" obscenity or pornography. There is also
evidence in recent cases indicating that the Supreme Court may be willing to
permit a somewhat more stringent regulation in the dissemination of material
to minors.
Conceivably, as Professor Kalven suggests, an area of "hard core violence"
might be established within which the first amendment might permit
regulation of media content. He is quick to point out, however, that the
analogy between violence and obscenity strains belief, and the obscenity cases
14 Mass Media and Violence
themselves have been less than satisfactory. In particular, the concept of
obscenity carries with it our traditional acceptance of prurience as a topic
subject to regulation. From the stocks to public whippings to The Scarlet
Letter, we know about sex and dark urges, and we readily understand efforts
to regulate here, whether or not we agree with them. Not so with violence.
Much of our culture accepts violence as a normal occurrence without real
definition or without much thought about the forms of violence; to try to
separate unacceptable violence from the acceptable would require initially an
exploration into concepts hitherto largely ignored, and likely to be of little
use.
The U.S. Supreme Court has considered the regulation of violence only
once in 1948, in Winters v.New York. 19 In that case, a statute purporting
to regulate printed matter "devoted to the publication and principally made
up of criminal news, police reports, or accounts of criminal deeds, or pictures
or stories of deeds of bloodshed, lust or crime" was overturned by six
members of the Court after three arguments. The majority opinion rested
upon the vagueness of the statute; it did not reach the underlying issues. Yet
the writer of the opinion tried at some pains to avoid suggesting that no such
statute could succeed. At the beginning of his opinion, Justice Reed wrote:
We recognize the importance of the exercise of a state's police power to
minimize all incentives to crime, particularly in the field of sanguinary
or salacious publications with their stimulation of juvenile
delinquency. 20
And again at the conclusion he stated:
To say that a state may not punish by such a vague statute carries no
implication that it may not punish circulation of objectionable printed
matter, assuming that it is not protected by the principles of the First
Amendment, by the use of apt words to describe the prohibited
publi cations. 2 1
Since 1947, when it decided Winters, the Court has considered numerous
obscenity cases but no other case directly involving violence as a principal
issue. And so the amenability of violence in media content to regulation
remains a matter for speculation. Within this area for speculation a few
general predictions may be advanced.
First, it seems clear, any effort to control the appearance of violence in
media content should be supported by clear evidence of its effects upon the
audience. If, indeed, a balance can be struck against first amendment
protection and in favor of regulation, the need for that balance will almost
certainly help determine the success or failure of the proposal to regulate.
Second, the proposal itself will demand clear, specific, arid precise
draftsmanship, both in the subject matter of the regulation, as well as in the
end to be realized. The Winters case makes it clear that nothing less can
suffice. Third, greater regulation on behalf of children than adults can
probably the sustained under the first amendment.
These are, as we have said, speculations. They are not blueprints for
The Printed Medium 15
action. Indeed, as our conclusions and recommendations will point out, what
we have learned to date about the relationship between the media and
violence makes the case for legislative "solutions" less than clear. There is
virtually no evidence to support any legislative action regulating the content
of violence in news reporting, with the possible exception of information
likely to aid rioters during periods of civil disorder. And on this latter point,
the drafting difficulties are apt to be so great as to make constitutional
regulation impossible.
The speculations here do suggest the outlines of some possible ways in
which the philosophy of free expression, hard won after three centuries of
conflict and not yet fully defined after two centuries of protection under the
first amendment, might be reconciled at some future date with this country's
concern for the effects of the constant barrage of violence in the
entertainment media. This is particularly true with regard to regulation aimed
at limiting access by children without parental consent.
5 . The Historical Role of the Press*
The emergence of the press as an institution essentially free from
government interference or regulation yet possessed of powerful means for
influencing the society in which it functions has resulted inevitably in an
important role for the press in the process of social change within this
country. We have explored the struggle of the press to gain its freedom. We
turn now to an examination of the ways in which the press has contributed to
the development of a nation while gaining its own independence. To
understand the role the press might take in the resolution of today's divisive
issues, we must know what role it has played in past crises.
The press has never been a monolith. At no point in its history could we
say that all the elements of the American press promoted this change or
anchored that stability. When one newspaper has advocated an action, many
others have opposed it. Trends and centers of gravity exist, but no concerted
action. The press has distinctively changed even as it has served as an
instrument of change.
The attitudes of the American press of the Revolutionary period are
significant. To oppose the tax controls imposed by the Stamp Act, some
editors suspended publication, which aroused citizens who had come to
depend upon them. Others published without the stamp, or without a title or
masthead to identify them as newspapers. Several issued wild satires among
them, skull and crossbone decorations on the Stamp Act itself.
Of course, not all the editors and pamphleteers of the Revolutionary
period wanted war, or even separation from England. But as the Colonies
moved closer to war with England, the "radical" editors, who had been quite
the weakest group, gathered numbers and strength. When the Revolutionary
War began, many Whigs who had argued for the middle course were drawn
into the ranks of the radicals.
*The material in this section and the next is from a paper prepared for the Task Force
by Prof. William L. Rivers of the department of communications, Stanford University,
Stanford, Calif.
16 Mass Media and Violence
Revolutionary newspapers went to 40 thousand homes and were widely
distributed among friends and neighbors. In all, considering the level of
literacy and the makeshift communications facilities, Revolutionary
sentiment was widely dispersed by the press of the period. It became an
effective lesson in the power of the press, a lesson not lost on others who
understood the use of power. So convinced was General Washington of its
value, he issued a plea to patriot women asking them to save all available
material for conversion into paper for printing.
The relationship between the press and the government, however, has not
always been warm, as the initial efforts by authorities to control the press
have made clear. From the first, officials have had to adapt to the anomaly of
an information system that is of, but not in, the government, which
produced a natural struggle between the press and government. The "strong
Presidents," revered by many historians and political scientists Washington,
Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Wilson, and Franklin
Roosevelt understood and used the press most adroitly. Much of the history
of American government pivots on the use of the press as an instrument of
political power. Our founding fathers, eminently practical, knew how to use
the press. The stern figure of George Washington becomes less austere when
viewed through the prism of his worried statement to Alexander Hamilton
regarding the farewell address:
The doubt that occurs at first view is the length of it for a News
Paper publication .... All the columns of a large Gazette would
scarcely, I conceive, contain the present draught. 22
Nowhere did this pragmatism find clearer expression than in the
establishment of the "party press" newspapers and journals that served as the
official organs of polemics and politics. Both Jefferson and Washington had
revealed their usefulness while Jefferson served in Washington's cabinet.
Alexander Hamilton, Washington's chief lieutenant, established The Gazette
of the United States to trumpet the cause of Washington's Federalists. Eager
to develop an editorial voice for anti-Federalism, Jefferson enlisted Philip
Freneau, a talented poet-journalist who had become famous as "The Poet of
the Revolution" to act as paid "translator" in Jefferson's office and also to
publish a party newspaper.
Freneau moved to Philadelphia and established The National Gazette,
which soon became the loudest anti-Federalist voice. It also became President
Washington's strongest critic. The President protested the attacks as "outrages
on common decency," and he questioned Jefferson closely regarding
Freneau's reason for coming to Philadelphia. He had simply lost his
translating clerk, Jefferson replied, and had hired Freneau to replace him. "I
cannot recollect," Jefferson told Washington, "whether it was at the same
time, or afterwards, that I was told he had a thought of setting up a
newspaper . . . . " 2 3
When Jefferson was elected President, he found that none of the
Washington and New York newspapers had sent reporters to chronicle the
move of the Capital from Philadelphia to Washington. He persuaded a young
printer named Samuel Harrison Smith to set up shop on the mudflats of the
The Printed Medium 17
Potomac, luring him with printing-contract patronage. Smith's National
Intelligencer was the preeminent newspaper for more than a decade, and
served Jefferson well. 24
When Andrew Jackson became President, he established The Washington
Globe. Its editor, Amos Kendall, was so significant a member of the famed
"Kitchen Cabinet" that a Congressman of the time declared, "He was the
President's thinking machine, his writing machine aye, and his lying
machine." Jackson was not content, however, to have a single organ grinding
his tune. At one point, fifty-seven journalists were reported to have been on
the government payroll. 2 5
The party press began to wane after Jackson, but the period continued to
be far from tranquil. American newspapers, which had always aimed at the
highly literate, now began to direct their appeal to the masses. Other editors
had tried to establish "penny papers," but none succeeded until Benjamin H.
Day brought out his New York Sun in 1833. Before the Sun, editors had been
charging six to ten dollars a year in advance for subscriptions more than
many a skilled worker could earn in a week. Day's Sun was not only
inexpensive, it emphasized local news and, at least initially, gave special play
to human interest, crime, and violence. The Sun soon had a circulation of
8,000.
The Sun and the other penny papers were certainly sensational, and they
are often remembered chiefly for that quality. But perhaps they deserve a
better memory. Beyond sensationalism, they achieved what more sober
journals had largely failed to do: they appealed to the common man and
helped to make him literate. More important, they made him believe that he,
too, had a voice in the leading affairs of his time, for they mixed in with the
sensationalism readable reports on domestic and foreign government.
During this same period of Jacksonian Democracy, the abolitionists began
the fierce agitation that marked three decades. Though not the first time that
the press had embarked upon crusade and counter-crusade, it set the stage for
the press to assume the on-going roles of accuser and champion which they
could still fill today.
The party press had all but died in I860, when the Government Printing
Office was established, thus cutting off many of the lucrative printing
contracts that Washington papers had enjoyed. The party press declined, too,
because of the growth of Washington bureaus of the strong New York
newspapers. A President or a Congressional leader could benefit only
moderately from establishing a party organ when alert reporters for James
Gorden Bennet's New York Herald or Horace Greeley's New York Tribune
were covering Washington more ably than any Washington newspaper. By this
time, the Associated Press started to distribute dispassionate reports to a
variety of papers, ushering in the period of "objective reporting." Thus began
an era of independence that shaped a concept of self that the press has never
relinquished.
From the end of the Civil War to the end of the 19th century, power was
atomized in the world of the American press. Editors discovered that their
influence did not depend on party affiliation. Instead of seeking support from
party leaders, they sought to build their own centers of strength among
readers.
18 Mass Media and Violence
It resulted in a series of experiments somewhat like the "penny press" era
of the early 19th century. The difference was that America itself was
changing radically during the latter part of the century. Arthur M.
Schlesinger's Rise of the City, 1878-1898, analyzes the exploding
urbanization of the period. During the decade from 1880 to 1890, more than
five million immigrants came to the United States, and nearly four million in
the next decade. 26
The press changed to meet the new conditions of American life. The
number of newspapers increased from 850 in 1880 to 1,967 in 1900. More
important, whereas ten percent of all adults subscribed in 1880, twenty-six
percent did in 1900. This change came about, not only because of increased
educational opportunities and because of revolution in printing technology,
but especially because of the promotion of a new journalism of the common
man. Led by Joseph Pulitzer and pushed too far by William Randolph Hearst
(whose contests with Pulitzer brought on yellow journalism), metropolitan
newspapers invited the immigrants into the American community with
splashy crusades and stunts. Himself an immigrant, Pulitzer set forth his
essential aims in a signed statement in the first issue of his New York World:
There is room in this great and growing city for a journal that is not
only cheap but bright, not only bright but large, not only large but
truly Democratic dedicated to the cause of the people rather than that
of the purse potentates devoted more to the news of the New than the
Old World that will expose all fraud and sham, fight all public evils and
abuses that will serve and battle for the people with earnest
sincerity. 27
Pulitzer allowed Hearst to push him too far into sensationalism, and Hearst
carried journalism into outrageous fiction. Other editors similarly exceeded
rational bounds. That they were also deeply involved in affairs of great
moment is generally agreed upon by historians of the period. A few argue, for
example, that Hearst promoted the Spanish-American War with relentless
propaganda. He sent a famous illustrator, Frederic Remington to Cuba.
Remington cabled: "Everything is quiet. There is no trouble here. There will
be no war. Wish to return." Hearst responded: "Please remain. You furnish
the pictures and I'll furnish the war." 2 8
6. Sensationalism
To the early American journalist, "news" was primarily something on
which to base editorial opinion. He felt no obligation to inform the public
about matters which did not support his view. As Robert Park has suggested:
"He refused to take the responsibility of letting his readers learn about things
that he knew ought not to have happened." 29 Some straight, factual
reporting appeared, but it was primarily limited to noncontroversial subjects.
Horace Greeley best described the range when he advised a friend about to
start a country paper:
[The] subject of deepest interest to a human being is himself; next to
that, he is most concerned about his neighbors. ... Do not let a new
The Printed Medium 19
church be organized, or a new member be added to one already
existing, a farm be sold, a new house be raised, a mill be set in motion,
a store be opened, nor anything of interest to a dozen families occur,
without having the fact duly though briefly chronicled in your
columns. 30
A combination of circumstances led to the reporting of facts, untainted by
opinion, as news: The breakdown of the relationship between the press and
political parties; the development of large Washington staffs by the New York
papers; the growth of urban populations and the consequent inability of the
press to build circulation by covering each barn raising; the development of
advertising support; the invention of the steam press; the growth of the
Associated Press and its need to serve editors of all political hues; and the
attempts to expand circulation by appealing to the semiliterate, with
emphasis on sex and violence, preferably in combination.
When the first penny press was established by Benjamin Day on Sept. 3,
1833, he recognized that, if he was to expand circulation, he would have to
appeal to the semiliterate, non-newspaper reader. And this meant emphasis
upon emotion for its own sake sensationalism.
Mr. Day put very little emphasis on editorial opinion; his focus was on
local happenings and violence. Six months after the New York Sun was
founded, it reached a circulation of 8,000, nearly twice that of its nearest
rival. Once the Sun's new readers had the habit of reading newspapers, the
Sun began to offer more significant information. Simultaneously, the recently
franchised laboring class showed more interest in the operations of
government.
Day's format was similar to that of other penny papers founded during the
1830's. James Gordon Bennett's New York Morning Herald concentrated on
crime news. During the 1830's, a total of 35 penny papers were founded in
New York. None survived except the Sun and the Herald. Nevertheless, in
other cities penny papers succeeded with similar formats and news policies a
great deal of local news, human interest stories, and substantial doses of
entertainment.
During the 1850's, however, the trend was away from this kind of
sensationalism. The New York Tribune., founded in 1841 by Horace Greeley,
typified this tiend. The Tribune sold for a penny, but rather than make
unabashed appeals to emotionalism, the Tribune reported facts and serious
discussions of the issues of the day. It could rival its competitors when it
came to sensational crime stories, but this was not its main appeal. The
Tribune was read by all classes farmers, the workingman, educators, and
politicians. Greeley had raised the press of the masses from the vulgar level of
sensationalism to a force for stimulating thought. More important, the
Tribune was a financial success.
Greeley's assistant, Charles Dana, eventually took over the New York Sun.
By this time, even the Sun and Herald were offering more substantial
material. The increasing literacy and interest of their readers required it.
As late as 1889, even in the large cities, a good deal of emphasis was still
placed on brief accounts of events of interest primarily to the individuals
involved. It was also about this time that Charles Dana discovered that, by
20 Mass Media and Violence
making literature out of the news, circulation could be greatly enhanced. But
the appeal was limited. Manton Marble, editor of theTVew York World before
its takeover by Joseph Pulitzer, said there were not 18,000 people in New
York to whom a well-conducted newspaper could appeal.
As in 1833, this left a large, semi-literate group ripe to be tapped. This
time it was Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst who employed
sensationalism to expand circulation by appealing to large masses of
theretofore non-newspaper readers.
In the past, the function of disseminating information had been
overshadowed by efforts to entertain; but the yellow journalism that now
began in the 1890's went well beyond any reasonable standard. Edwin Emery
has described it thusly:
It seized upon the techniques of writing, illustrating, -and printing which
were the prize of the new journalism and turned them to perverted
uses. It made the high drama of life a cheap melodrama, and it twisted
the facts of each day into whatever form seemed best suited to produce
sales for the hallowing news boy. Worst of all, instead of giving its
readers effective leadership, it offered a palliative of sin, sex, and
violence. The process was begun by Joseph Pulitzer in the mid-1880's,
but when the young William Randolph Hearst entered the New York
market he was able to put Pulitzer to shame when it came to appealing
to the emotions of the public. 3 1
Typical of these practices were the headlines carried in the New York Journal
in the fall of 1896, a period during which its circulation jumped by 125,000
in a single month:
"Real American Monsters and Dragons" over a story of the
discovery of fossil remains by an archeological expedition. "A
Marvelous New Way of Giving Medicine: Wonderful Results From
Merely Holding Tubes of Drugs Near Entranced Patients" a headline
which horrifieH medical researchers. "Henry James New Novel of
Immorality and Crime; The Surprising Plunge of the Great Novelist in
the Field of Sensational Fiction" the journals way of announcing the
publication of The Other House. Other headlines included: "The
Mysterious Murder of Bessie Little," "One Mad Blow Kills Child,"
"What Made Him a Burglar? A Story of Real Life in New York by
Edgar Saltus," "Startling Confession of a Wholesale Murderer Who Begs
to be Hanged." 32
In the election of 1900, Hearst opposed McKinlev's campaign for the
Presidency. And the opposition did not cease after McKimey and Theodore
Roosevelt won the election. In April 1901, in an editorial in the New York
Journal, he declared "if bad institutions and bad men can be got rid of only
by killing, then the killing must be done." Two months before that, a
quatrain had appeared in the Journal which read:
The bullet that pierced Goeble's breast,
Cannot be found in all the West.
The Printed Medium 21
Good reason, it is speeding here
To stretch McKinley on his bier. 33
Goelbe, the governor of Kentucky, had recently been shot. In
September 1901, President McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist.
Shortly thereafter, Hearst's Journal changed its name to the American.
The last round of sensationalism began with birth of the Illustrated Daily
News on June 26, 1919. In the next 6 years, together with two other
tabloids, it would build a combined circulation of a million and a half readers
who were attracted to the tabloid-style format and the extensive use of
photography. Again the target of the sensational newspapers was the
theretofore non-reading public. The circulation balance of the existing dailies
was not unduly affected. The Illustrated Daily News' initial circulation of
200,000 the first month dropped to 26,000 the second month. At this point,
it was discovered that its appeal was not among the readers of the New York
Times, but among the immigrant and poorly educated American-born
population. Its publishers made sure that it was placed on news stands where
only foreign language newspapers were sold. Pictures sold the paper. 34
The second of the three newspapers was William Randolph Hearst's
tabloid, the Daily Mirror. The third was the Daily Graphic. The Mirror
originally challenged the News on relatively straight, journalistic standaids,
but the Graphic was as lurid and sensational as possible. The Graphic made a
practice of writing first person stories, signed by persons in the news, which
were in turn headlined, "I Know Who Killed My Brother," "He beat Me-I
Love Him," or "For 36 Hours I Lived Another Woman's Love Life." 35
For those who think that today's press at times goes to excess, consider
the following paragraphs from Edwin Emery's The Press in America:
Climax year of the war of the tabloids was 1926. First the Broadway
producer, Earl Carroll, gave a party at which a nude dancing girl sat in a
bathtub full of champagne. Before the furor had died down, the
tabloids discovered a wealthy real estate man, Edward Browning, and
his 15-year-old shopgirl bride. This was "hot" romance indeed and the
pair became Daddy and Peaches to all of America. The Graphic
portrayed them frolicking on a bed with Daddy saying "Woof! Woof!
I'm a Goof!" Gauvreau decided to thrill his shopgirl audience with the
details of Peaches' intimate diary, but at that point the law stepped in.
Next into the spotlight stepped wealthy socialite Kip Rhinelander,
who charged in court that his bride of a few months had Negro blood, a
fact he had not known at the time of the marriage. The
sensational-hungry reporters balked at the climax of the trial when the
judge ousted them before the attractive Mrs. Rhinelander was partially
disrobed to prove a point for the defense. But Gauvreau hastily posed a
bare-backed chorus girl among some of his reporters, pasted likenesses
of court participants in place of the reporters' faces, and hit the street
with a sell-out edition. The Graphic said in small type that its
sensational picture was a "composograph" but most of its readers
assumed that it was the real thing.
Meanwhile the desperate editors of the Mirror had dug up a
four-year-old murder story in New Jersey. In 1922 a New Brunswick,
22 Mass Media and Violence
New Jersey, minister named Edward Hall and his choirsinger
sweetheart, Eleanor Mills, were found dead, apparently suicides. The
Minor succeeded in having the minister's widow brought to trial and
for months the New Jersey town became one of the most important
filing points for press associations and big newspapers in America. One
witness became "the pig woman" to the 200 reporters at the trial.
Unfortunately for the Mirror, Mrs. Hall was acquitted and sued the
paper for libel.
While the Hall-Mills story was running, Gertrude Ederle swam the
English Channel to become America's heroine for a day. In late August
of 1926 former President Charles Eliot of Harvard, and "the Sheik" of
motion pictures, Rudolph Valentino died. The Daily News gave
Valentino six pages of space and Eliot one paragraph, thereby setting
off more irate complaints from serious-minded folk. But "Valentino
Dies With Smile as Lips Touch Priest's Crucifix" and "Rudy Leaped
from Rags to World Hero" were tabloid copy, and the death of an
educator was not. In most of the press, too, Valentino rated the most
attention.
A second sensational murder trial was drummed up in the spring of
1926. A corset salesman named Judd 'Gray and his sweetheart, Mrs.
Ruth Snyder, had collaborated in disposing of the unwanted Mr.
Snyder. When it came time for Mrs. Snyder's execution in the electric
chair at Sing Sing the Graphic blared to its readers:
"Don't fail to read tomorrow's Graphic. An installment that thrills
and stuns! A story that fairly pierces the heart and reveals Ruth
Snyder's last thoughts on earth; that pulses the blood as it discloses her
final letters. Think of it! A woman's final thoughts just before she is
clutched in the deadly snare that sears and burns and FRIES AND
KILLS! Her very last words! Exclusively in tomorrow's Graphic."
It was the photography-minded News which had the last word,
however. The Graphic might have its "confession" but the News
proposed to take its readers inside the execution chamber. Pictures
were forbidden, but a photographer, Tom Howard, strapped a tiny
camera to his ankle and took his picture just after the current was
turned. The News put the gruesome shot on its front page, sold
250,000 extra copies, and then had to run off 750,000 additional pages
later. 36
Sensationalism began a general decline in 1926. After 1930, the Mirror
was never profitable. The Graphic went out of business in 1932. The
newspapers of the 1930's devoted more space to politics and economics and
foreign affairs; yet they maintained their yen for crime, violence, and sex. In
the late 1930's and early 1940's interpretive reporting, which began during
World War I, became more widely accepted. It provided perspective and
background for news of important human activities that were far from
sensational. The "why" received some recognition as, now more than ever
before, people needed to understand the events, due in part to the complex
social legislation introduced during the Roosevelt administration.
The Printed Medium 23
REFERENCES
1. The figures cited in this paragraph and the next are based upon statistics appearing
prepared for the Task Force by Dr. Leo Bogart, excutive vice president of the
Bureau of Advertising, American Newspaper Publishers Association, and Prof. Jack
Lyle of the Department of Journalism, University of California at Los Angles. Both
Dr. Bogart's paper, "How the Mass Media Work in America," and Professor Lyle's
paper, "Contemporary Functions of the Media," appear in the Appendix.
2. Testimony of Dr. Bradley Greenberg Before the NCCPV, Oct. 16, 1968.
3. Ibid.
4. Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, Aphorism 129.
5. Herbert J. Muller, Freedom in the Western World (New York: Harper & Row,
1963), p. 192.
6. Ibid., p. 313.
7. Levy, Freedom of Speech and Press in Early American History (Harper & Row, Inc.,
Torchbook ed. 1963). p. 50.
8. Ibid., pp. 119-120.
9. Charles A. Beard, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution (New York:
Macmillan Co., 1913). p.
10. Leonard W. Levy, Legacy of Suppression, (Cambridge, Belknap Press, 1960).
11. Levy, op. cit., Footnote 5, pp. 274-275.
12. Frank Luther Mitt. American Journalism, 1690-1960 (New York: The Macmillan
Co., 3d ed., 1962), p. 148.
13. Levy, op. cit., Footnote 5, pp. 283-289.
14. John Milton, Areopagitica (New York Crofts; Classics, 1967). See also Peterson,
Jenson, and Rivers, Mass Media and Modern Society, (New York: Holt, Rinehart &
Winston, 1965), pp. 89-91, and Siebert, Peterson, and Schramm, Four theories of
the Press (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1956), pp. 46-47.
15. Thomas Jefferson, Life & Selected Writings, ed. by A. Koch & W. Peden (New York:
The Modern Library, 1944). See also Peterson et al., Mass Media, pp. 95-97; and
Siebert et al., Four Theories, pp. 45-46.
16. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (New York: Crofts Classics, 1947. See also Peterson et
al., Mass Media, pp. 98-98; and Siebert et al., Four Theories, pp. 45-46.
17. 249 U.S. 47.
18. 249 U.S. at 52 (1919).
19. 333 U.S. 507.
20. Ibid., p. 510.
21. Ibid.,p.52Q.
22. James E. Pollard, The Presidents and the Press (New York: The Macmillan Co.,
1947), p. 23.
23. Ibid., p. 12.
24. Douglass Cater, The Fourth Branch of Government (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin,
1959), p. 76.
25. Ibid., p.77.
26. Arthur M. Schlesinger, The Rise of the City, 1878-1898 (New York: The Macmillan
Co., 1933).
27. New York World, May 11, 1883.
28. Mott,op. cit., p. 529.
29. Robert E. Park, "The Natural History of the Newspaper," in M<m Communications,
Wilbur Schramm, Ed. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1964), p. 12.
30. Ibid., p. 18.
31. Edwin Emery, The Press and America: Aninter pretative History of Journalism
(New York: Prentice-Hall, 2d ed., 1965), pp. 514-516.
32. Ibid., pp. 424-524.
33. Ibid.,
34. Ibid.,
35. Ibid., pp. 627-628.
36. Ibid., p.
Chapter 2
FROM MEDIUM TO MEDIA
By the end of the 19th century, both the nation and the press had
changed drastically from the 18th century environment that had contributed
and shaped their values. A colony of Englishmen was becoming a nation of
immigrants. The press stood at the threshold of revolutionary new technology
that would change the medium of the printed, the spoken, and the seen. And
in the meantime, a new status for the press loomed on the economic horizon.
A. Newspapers
Lincoln Steffens took a long look at newspaper journalism across the
United States in 1897 and shared his findings with the readers of Scribner's
magazine. Talking shop the previous spring, the executive heads of twoscore
great newspapers had spoken of their properties as factories, he reported, and
had likened the management of their editorial departments to that of
department stores. "Journalism today is a business," he wrote, somewhat in
awe at his discovery.
Indeed, with the beginning of the new century, journalism had become a
very big business. The personal journals of colonial days and the party organs
of the first half of the 19th century had fallen far behind. Education,
industrialization, mass production of newspapers all had combined with
shrewd editorial judgment to turn the craft of journalism into a business.
Pulitzer's World, which he had bought for $346,000 in 1883, was deemed to
be worth $10 million little more than a decade later, and it employed 1,300
people. 1 Many other newspapers, especially those that promoted themselves
as "people's champions," similarly grew large. Circulations in the hundreds of
thousands became common.
B. Magazines
As the 20th century began, magazines, too, started to become giants.
Although Andrew Bradford had published the first American magazine in
1741 (a few days before Benjamin Franklin had founded the second), for
more than a century the magazines suffered from small circulation, from too
little advertising, and from limited editorial vision. Not until the 1890's were
25
26 Mass Media and Violence
S. S. McClure, Frank Munsey, and Cyrus H. K. Curtis able to bring magazine
content into harmony with the tastes and interests of the great middle class.
Munsey put Munsey 's Magazine on sale at ten cents in 1893, and Curtis began
to sell his Saturday Evening Post at five cents a short time later. Both began
to teach other magazine publishers what they had learned from newspapers:
By appealing to the masses, they could sell their publications at less than cost,
draw huge lists of readers, and lure advertising dollars. Shortly after the turn
of the century, the Ladies Home Journal became the first magazine to reach a
circulation of one million. Edward W. Bok, the editor, built circulation by
giving women readers practical advice on running a home and on rearing a
family, by trying to elevate their standards in art and architecture, and by
crusading against public drinking cups and patent medicines.
This was the period, too, when the muckrakers Lincoln Steffens, Ida
Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker, and the others were exerting a stunning impact
on government with their exposes.
Newspapers and magazines have not been static in the decades since the
1890's and early 1900's, but many of the ingredients that went into the
success of the newspapers and magazines of that period are staples today.
C. Movies
Even as newspapers and magazines were sprinkling their columns with
entertaining items, a medium that was almost entirely entertainment was
beginning in the cities the nickelodeon, forerunner of the giant film
industry. It was born at a time when the democratic movement was fullblown
and urbanization had brought the multitudes to the cities. Motion pictures
had wide audience appeal from the start. Originally little more than
peepshows in the penny arcades of the 1890's, the early movies offered
vaudeville bits, slapstick routines, and jerky scenes of boxing matches. 2
The movies went from the penny arcades to vaudeville shows, then
traveling carnivals and amusement parks. The first movie with a solid story
line, Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery, was a distinct success in a
Pittsburgh theater that featured only movies. Within a year, five thousand
other small theaters were built. Most of these nickelodeons were in the largest
cities, especially those with high concentrations of foreign born. Film was a
form of entertainment that even recent arrivals could afford and enjoy.
Admission was usually five cents.
In these early days, movies had not become respectable enough for the
upper classes. The movies had trouble developing at first when so many who
sponsored film making believed that long features would only bore audiences.
D.W. Griffith was impatient to make full-length movies, but his backers
would allow him to go no further than two reels (about twenty minutes'
playing time). Then Adolph Zukor, an independent operator, imported a
four-reel French Play, Queen Elizabeth, starring Sarah Bernhardt in the title
role. It played before a fashionable audience in New York in 1912, and Zukor
became convinced that audiences could enjoy a full evening's entertainment
at the movies. He began to produce long films. Griffith then broke away from
his cautious backers to film The Birth of a Nation, which opened at the
Liberty Theater in New York in March 1915, with an admission charge of
From Medium to Media 27
two dollars. But a step from this success came the burgeoning of film-making
companies, especially when theaters moved from laboring-class districts into
middle-class neighborhoods. First, novelty brought new audiences, then the
big production converted them to move going. Paul Rotha, a film producer
and critic, has written:
During this period, therefore, from about L912 until 1920, the very
marvelling of the general public, watching every new film with mouth
agape, was sufficient for the studios to become established on a
practical basis capable of mass production. 3
By the time that novelty had gone, the studios had built the "star"
system, and names like Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks,
Francis X. Bushman, and Beverly Bayne attracted movie-goers across the
nation.
As the industry grew, the costs of production went up as well. The star
system, which did so much to attract audiences, made the stars valuable
properties. Their high salaries and the necessity for established studios
rocketed the costs of moviemaking. The motion picture became
institutionalized. Studios chose locations other than the rooftops and city
streets that had served the early shoestring operations. Artificial lighting
replaced the sun. Scripts replaced the improvisations of directors and
cameramen. Equipment became refined and therefore more expensive.
Producers needed more and more money to complete feature films. And to
bring the greatest return on their money, moviemakers tried to turn out a
product that would attract the widest possible public. Like newspapers but
in a much shorter time span movies became big business.
D. Radio
The business of radio began as inauspiciously as had the motion picture
industry. Broadcasting had been a free-for-all in its earliest days. No effective
regulation prevailed: government power was limited to a 1912 act concerned
only with radio telegraphy. Eventually government regulation came at the
request of the industry itself, and as protection for an instrument of
communication that pioneer broadcasters thought would be useful primarily
in the dissemination of culture. Many thought that owners of receiving
sets would have to support radio by paying an annual license fee. They only
profit would come from the sale of sets and other radio equipment. David
Sarnoff of the Radio Corporation of America argued at the time that radio
deserved an endowment "similar to that enjoyed by libraries, museums, and
educational institutions." He believed, Gleason Archer wrote in Big Business
and Radio, that "philanthropists would eventually come to the rescue of a
hard-pressed industry." 4
Almost all the pioneers rejected the notion that advertising would support
radio. Herbert Hoover, who was then Secretary of Commerce, declared at the
First Annual Radio Conference in Washington: "It is inconceivable that so
great a possibility for service ... be drowned in advertising matters." Even :
Printer's Ink, the advertising trade weekly, stated in 1922 that radiof
s 28 Mass Media and Violence
advertising would be offensive: "The family circle is not a public place, and
advertising has no business intruding there unless it is invited." Radio
Broadcasting magazine complained about advertising that had begun to
invade radio:
Concerts are seasoned here and there with a dash of advertising
paprika. You can't miss it; every little classic number has a slogan all its
own, if it is only the mention of the name and the shrill address, and
the phone number of the music house which arranged the program.
More of this sort of thing may be expected. And once the avalanche
gets a good start, nothing short of an Act of Congress or a repetition of
Noah's excitement will suffice to stop it. 5
The rise of radio as a major disseminator of news and entertainment had
begun with the broadcasting of the 1920 presidential election by KDKA. It
took on major impetus when sponsored programs were broadcast
experimentally on WEAF in 1922. Three million radio sets were available to
listeners by the time of the 1924 presidential election. By then, 556
broadcasting stations were on the air, and the Radio Corp. of America was
growing rapidly.
Throughout the early years, despite the growth of advertising, radio sets
and equipment sales formed by far the most lucrative aspect of broadcasting.
Then the Radio Corp. of America formed a broadcasting subsidiary, the
National Broadcasting Co., in 1925. The following year, another network
began, first as the Judson Radio Program Corp., then as United Independent
Broadcasters. It finally began its broadcasting operations in 1927 and changed
its name to the Columbia Broadcasting System. With 19 stations in its Red
and Blue Networks in 1926, NBC had 48 by the end of 1927; CBS had 16 in
1927 and 28 in the following year. Thus, little more than three decades after
Guglielmo Marconi had succeeded in transmitting a message by wireless across
his father's Bolognese estate, the vast structure of broadcasting was taking
shape. In 1934, powerful independent stations that had been seeking
advertising together formed the Mutual Broadcasting System.
Meanwhile, Congress had finally recognized the confusion over the use and
allocation of wavelengths and had passed the Radio Act of 1927. That act
was followed by the Communications Act of 1934, which created the Federal
Communications Commission to regulate broadcasting in "the public interest,
convenience, and necessity." Congress gave the FCC the power to license
broadcasting stations, to assign wavelengths, and to suspend or revoke the
licenses of stations not serving the public interest.
By 1934, radio had firmly established itself as an advertising medium. The
star system became readily adaptable to the increasingly popular
entertainment programs and broadcasting executives quickly exploited it.
E. Television
In a sense, television has no history. Radio provided for television a
station structure, a network structure, an advertising support structure, even a
time structure that divided programs into 15-minute, half-hour, and hour
From Medium to Media 29
segments. Given these facts, the novelty and visual impact of the new
medium, and the growing leisure time, television became established without
having to struggle. Television took over the motion picture-radio star system;
and specialization, which had grown slowly in the newspaper world and only
a little faster in movies and radio, was almost instantaneous in television.
Even government control was ready made in the FCC.
In essence, then, television provided for itself only the technical
competence that allowed telecasting. It became a primitive reality in the
1920's and so near refinement by 1938 that David Sarnoff announced that
home television "is now technically feasible." World War II interrupted
television development; but by January, 1948, the nation had 102,000
television sets two-thirds of them in New York. By April, the number of sets
had more than doubled. T^n years later, four out of five American homes had
television sets. As television operations demanded more and more of the
national networks' time, attention, and money, national radio began to
wither. Soon, national broadcasting, except for brief news reports and
scattershot programs, became telecasting, and radio stations began to find
their reason for being in local broadcasting. Television had won the day. s
F. The Media in Contemporary American Life
In the final sections of this background inquiry, we will consider the
content of the media so that we may better understand the role that violence
occupies and the role of the media operators, in particular, the journalist or
communications professional.
1. Media Content: A Brief Overview
The American mass media provide something for nearly everyone at one
time or another. But the usual appeal is to the broadest possible audience.
The result, for the most part, is a fairly predictable blend of information and
entertainment, distinguished chiefly by its efforts neither to demand nor
offend.
Typically, the broadcast media prefer entertainment while the print media
favor news and information. Newspapers, on the other hand, devote from as
little as six percent to as much as twenty-five percent of their news and
editorial space to "popular amusements." The rest of their content appears to
be slightly more serious. 6 Obviously, however, television can offer serious
programs containing hard information, while newspapers often afford light
entertainment.
Television network entertainment programming tends to run in cycles, and
TV news programs emphasize the photogenic. Radio stations, once the source
of numerous dramatic programs long since eclipsed by television, now tend to
offer music, news, and sports and, more recently, "open-mike"
programs with an occasional leftover transcription of "Boston Blackie."
Newspapers, too, provide a familiar format with "hard" news of the world,
national, and local events blended with lighter, brighter features, sports, and
business coverage and, of course, the ubiquitous comics. More recently, a
so-called "underground press" has begun to flourish in larger cities across the
30 Mass Media and Violence
country. Previously a protest organ, it now shows increasing signs of falling
into the "establishment" patterns which its editorials and, for that matter, its
news items, rail against; and underground news syndicates provide features in
much the way AP and DPI do. Magazines, books, and motion pictures provide
perhaps the greatest variety of content; among these media, there is almost
literally something for everyone.
No reasonably literate American today is apt to be unaware of these
general outlines of media content. But for those who wish to go beyond the
level of common knowledge to a seriously sophisticated understanding of
media content, the way is not easy. Many studies have been conducted to
determine the content of relatively isolated examples of the media or to
determine the content within a specific area of concern. Some advertising and
marketing enterprises perform continuing analyses for specific
purposes generally to assist media buyers in selecting vehicles for advertising
purposes. These and similarly limited sources provide some useful data, but
the data are limited by the scope of the researcher's interest and absence of
general availability.
Americans use their media in a variety of ways and for enormous amounts
of time. As we have seen, 95 percent of American homes have at least one TV
set, and during a typical weekday, 82 percent of adults watch television for
an average of more than two hours. Those in lower-income homes watch
more TV than those with a higher income. Bogart reports, for example, that
the "average" person in a home with less than $5,000 income occupies
himself with television for 2 hours 27 minutes daily; viewers in homes over
$10,000 income watch television about 1 hour 45 minutes. 7
2. The Media and the Professionals
As Bogart and others have suggested, 8 the media owners and operators
offer one of the most direct means of resolving the problems posed by
violence in media content.
The media require the diverse talents of many types of men. At the top of
the media structure, the owners and managers of the major media businesses,
the newspaper publishers, broadcast station operators, and network
presidents or vice presidents, for example, are often little distinguishable from
their counterparts in other business organizations. Yet they are the men who
establish the basic policies of their enterprises, and typically represent most
of the good as well as bad in American business. Motivated by the prospect of
profit, at least as much as by the opportunities for public service, they have
brought the media into the poorest American home as well as the richest. But
they have largely produced media designed more to sell products than to
enlighten or to inform.
The media owners and managers may establish basic policy, including
policy as to content, but others must translate policy into action. Throughout
the middle levels of the media, the media "gatekeepers" perform these
functions. The gatekeepers' role is most critical, for they ultimately decide
what is published or broadcast. Newspaper editors and broadcasting news
directors decide what events to cover, what stories and photos or newsreel
footage to run, how to report the selected stories, and where to place the
From Medium to Media 31
story in the context of the day's or week's events. In much the same way,
producers, program directors and feature editors determine the media's
entertainment content.
To fulfill these functions, the media need a diversity of talent and a talent
for diversity. Few major business enterprises tolerate as wide a range of
colorful personalities as the metropolitan daily newspaper, for example. Yet
the gatekeepers tend almost inevitably to reflect the values of the American
middle class, from which most of them have come and which sustains their
professional status. Numerous studies of the gatekeepers demonstrate that
much of what we read or see or hear in the media reflects the gatekeepers'
own background. Thus, the media tend to offer all Americans black or
white, rich or poor the kind of fare that a white, middle-cjass background
finds acceptable. Although much that is worthwhile exists in the middle-class
background, those who do not share this background must often see an
inviting but unattainable life, with consequent frustration and alienation.
The professional status of the media operators, although often asserted
and generally acknowledged, remains dubious. For many, the question of
professional status is relatively unimportant. Television entertainment
program producers, it would seem, probably spend little time wondering
about the matter; their business, as they see it, is essentially show business.
But the journalist's claim to professionalism is a different proposition;
traditionally, they have regarded themselves as professionals and they
jealously guard their privileges, though not always their obligations.
Despite their incalculable influence upon the lives of most Americans, and
despite the claims of the press to professional status, the gatekeepers and
other journalists subject themselves to few, if any, professional standards that
are not self-imposed and self-enforced. Journalists are not licensed, of course;
the history of the press's struggle with censors suggests that licensing would
unacceptable, even without the first amendment. Although a number of
professional associations and societies have promulgated codes of ethics, the
codes are usually vague and general and are rarely, if ever, enforced against
violators. Compliance is voluntary. For the same reasons that prevent
licensing, no state board is empowered to bar journalists from practice on
grounds of failure to adhere to even the barest minimum professional
standards.
In a profession without readily enforceable codes of ethics and without
standards for admission to practice or for disbarment, the professional
education of its practitioners is of more than ordinary importance. Yet the
would-be journalist or other media operators must meet no minimum
educational level. Whether the press today realizes the professional
importance of journalism education and continuing education programs for
practicing journalists remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is this* The
press must base its claim to professionalism upon something firmer than
outworn tradition and blind reliance on the first amendment. The journalism
and communications schools can do much to provide that support.
Meanwhile, however, the media and the gatekeepers are subject to little in
the way of organized, continuing evaluation and criticism. Although
professional organizations sponsor some exercises in self-examination, those
efforts tend to produce few substantial changes. Rare is the case, for example,
32 Mass Media and Violence
in which a journalist is subjected to punishment or to other sanction for
transgressions. Are there no transgressors, or does one who sews his own hair
shirt make sure that it fits loosely?
When a threat of criticism from outside the media appears, media
operators can be counted on, in the main, to meet the threat with portentous
warnings against the undoing of our free press, coupled with promises of
increased attention to self-regulation.
No one would deny that the first amendment should not be subverted.
Ironically, however, the media themselves may ultimately bring about their
undoing and, in the process, the undoing of much that makes sense in the
philosophy of free expression.
Increasingly, the people have been asking, directly and through their
government, if the media have not abused their freedom. If the media
continue to put off a serious answer to that question if they block even the
means to find an answer possibly those critics who believe that they know
the answer without need for further inquiry and who are prepared to take
drastic "corrective" action may prevail. To avoid that possibility, the media
themselves may be required to take equally drastic steps to restore their right
to the people's confidence.
The challenge is, in a real sense then, to the professionalism of the media;
the job is for the professionals. Their success or failure in' meeting the
challenge looms as an important test as to how long freedom of expression
remains feasible in our society.
REFERENCES
1 . Edwin Emery, The Press and America: An Interpretative History of Journalism (New
York: Prentice-Hall, 2d. ed., 1965), p. 98.
2. Theodore Peterson, Jay W. Jensen, and William Rivers, The Mass Media and Modern
society (New York: Holt, Rinchart & Winston, 1965), p. 49.
3. Ibid., pp. 50-51.
4. Ibid., p. 27.
5. Ibid., p. 55.
6. Lyle, Appendix II B
7. Bogart, Appendix II A
8. Ibid.
Chapter 3
FUNCTIONS AND CREDIBILITY
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible
will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy
All social progress is laid
to discontent.
Abraham Lincoln
Conflict is part of the crucible of change. It may yield progress or
repression. But conflict is not a state of social equilibrium. Whether conflict is
resolved by violence or cooperation will depend in part upon the actors'
perceptions of the world about them. ^Providing an ac^uiat^^ejcrjtionj3f 1
that world is the media's most important responsibility. Conflict may be 1
rSoTv^^nor^ennit, in^eTeT3rc^ntlict7therFlTTl5o1ntshort of the use of
force that would be to the mutual advantage of the participants and society.
Violence takes its toll on the victor, the vanquished, and the nation.
Conflict cannot be resolved rationally unless each participant has an
accurate perception of the intentions and goals of others. Mutual trust must
exist. Confidence must exist in the desire of each person to reach a
nonviolent and mutually satisfactory accommodation of divergent interests.
And a rough equivalency must exist in the conflicting groups' perceptions of
reality. The media cannot make the unwilling seek mutual accommodation,
but they can make an extremist of the moderate. Regardless of their
performance, the media will never be able to assure the non-violent resolution
of conflict, but they can assure the violent resolution of conflict.
In our increasingly complex and urban society, interdependence has
increased greatly and the need for cooperation between various groups has
grown in direct proportion. The rate of change has grown geometricaDy and
the requirement for information about this changing environment has
expanded in a similar progression. At the same time, the individual's capacity
to acquire knowledge through personal experience has increased only
marginally, if at all. Similarly, his ability to communicate with others
informally has increased only slightly, and is totally inadequate. Rational and
non-violent readjustment to a changing society requires accurate information
about our shifting environment.
The news media are the central institutions in the process of intergroup \
communication in this country. While face-to-face communication has an )
33
34 Mass Media and Violence
[ important role in intergroup communication and may serve a mediating role
I in the process of persuasion, to the extent that the news media are regarded
V as credible, they are the primary source of information.
Never before have the American news media been so defensive while being
so successful. Today, more information is disseminated faster and more
accurately than ever before. The standards of reporting and the sense of
responsibility have improved measurably since the beginning of this century.
But the changes in American society have been more than measurable; they
have been radical. The issues, more numerous and complex, require greater
sophistication and time to report adequately. The need for more and
different kinds of information has mushroomed. The broadening of the
political base and the growth of direct citizen participation in politics and
institutional decisionmaking require not so much a larger flow of words as a
more sophisticated treatment of information.
An apparent unwillingness by the journalism profession to analyze its
utility in a rapidly evolving democratic society has resulted in a sometimes
blind adherence to values developed in the latter half of the 19th century.
Old practices have been abandoned only when the most contorted
rationalizations have been unable to provide any support. Energy has been
wasted on mischievous attempts to justify practices of the past and to explain
why they are serviceable for the present. Little attention has been given to
what will be needed in the next two decades.
When the layman inquires about today's practices, he is frequently told
that "news is what I say it is and journalism is best left to journalists." This
kind of arrogance does not lead to understanding between the public and the
news media. If the media cannot communicate their own problems to the
American people, there is little hope that they can function as a medium of
communication among the several groups in society.
Have the media failed to achieve perfection or to perform the impossible?
Walter Lippman has written:
As social truth is organized today, the press is not constituted to
furnish from one edition to the next the amount of knowledge which
the democratic theory of public opinion demands .... When we expect
it to supply such a body of truth, we employ a misleading standard of
judgment. We misunderstand the limited nature of news, the illimitable
complexity of society; we over-estimate our own endurance, public
spirit, and all-round competence. We suppose an appetite for
uninteresting truths which is not discovered by any honest analysis of
our own tastes . . . Unconsciously the theory sets up the single reader as
theoretically incompetent, and puts upon the press the burden of
accomplishing whatever representative government, industrial
organization, and diplomacy have failed to accomplish. Acting upon
everybody for thirty minutes in twenty -four hours, the press is asked to
create a mystical force called "public opinion" that wih 1 take up the
slack in public institutions. 1
To suggest that the media cannot compensate for the defects of other
institutions is quite different from urging that all is well.
The journalists do not have principal roles in making the news and have
Functions and Credibility 35
only limited power to determine what will be read, watched, or believed. But
they do have the power to determine the relative availability, and
non-availability, of millions of daily transactions, their mode of presentation,
and the context in which they will be cast. While this view suggests that the
responsibility for disaffection with the media should not be placed entirely
on the profession and their employers, it also suggests that they stand in the
best position to do something about it.
The inadequacy of traditional journalistic values is clearest in the case of
television. It has not yet defined its role in the news communication system.
A desire to be first with the news, linked with the logistical problems of
providing pictures and action, plus an inherited show-business ethic, have
imposed serious limitations on the medium. The heavy reliance of a majority
of Americans for their news on a medium that is unwilling or unequipped to
provide no more information than the front page of a newspaper has resulted
in additional stress. The limited number of channels, television's relatively
greater impact, and a preoccupation with pictures substantially increase the
burdens of the medium. Finally, the requirement that television serve a truly
mass audience and that it be licensed and subject to regulation by a
Congressional agency has made it both more timid and more responsible than
other media. ^
Although the development and growth of radio and television news have
generated some thought among the print media about their changing role,
reorientation has been painful and slow.
As a result of changes in technology, financial and political organization,
the educational level of the public and its shifting information needs, the
forces of dislocation continue to operate on the news media. Technological
developments could, within the next two decades, radically reconstitute the
media.
The news media have vigorously urged the government to recognize the
people's right to know. Harold Cross, a newspaper attorney, has summed up
the argument:
Public business is the public's business. The people have a right to
know. Freedom of information is their just heritage. Without that the
citizens of a democracy have but changed their Kings. 2
Lately, a similar argument has been used to meet a perceived threat of
government intervention. Said Walter Cronkite:
When we fight for freedom of the press, we're not fighting for our
rights to do something, we're fighting for the people's right to know.
That's what freedom of the press is. It's not license to the press. It's
freedom of the people to know. How do they think they're going to
know? By putting television news or newspapers or any other news
source under government control? 3
The press vigorously asserts its right to the access to government information
and defends the first amendment on the ground that the people have a right
to know. Rightly so. But if the people have a right to know, somebody has
the obligation to inform them: an obligation to provide the accurate
36 Mass Media and Violence
information necessary to rational decision-making and a rational response to a
changing environment. That obligation devolves upon the news media.
A. Functions of the News Media
Again Walter Lippman has said it best:
If the country is to be governed with the consent of the governed,
then the government must arrive at opinions about what their governors
want them to consent to. How do they do this? They do it by hearing
the radio and reading in the newspapers what the corps of
correspondents tell them is going on in Washington and in the country
at large and in the world. Here we perform an essential service ... we
do what every sovereign citizen is supposed to do, but has not the time
or the interest to do for himself. This is our job. It is no mean calling,
and we have a right to be proud of it and to be glad that it is our
y-\ work. 4
/ The purpose of communicating news should be to reduce uncertainty and
/ to increase the probability that the audience will respond to conflict and
I change in a rational manner.
Harold D. Lasswell suggested the media have three functions:
("(1) Surveillance of the environment, disclosing threats and
opportunities affecting the value position of the community and the
component parts within it; (2) correlation of the components of society
in making a response to the environment; and (3) transmission of the
social inheritance." 5
TDo WQ/ow ^r*
These are primary functions of the ews media today.
Surveillance of the environment describes the collection and distribution
of information about events both inside and outside a particular society.
Roughly, it corresponds to what is popularly called "news." Correlation of
the components of society to respond to the environment includes news
analysis, news interpretation and editorials, and prescriptions for collective
response to changing events in the environment. Transmission of culture
includes messages designed to communicate the attitudes, norms, and values
of the past and the information which is an integral part of these traditions.
This third category is the educational function of the media.
In 1947, the Commission for a Free and Responsible Press set forth five
goals for the press so it could discharge its obligation to provide the
information the public has the right to know:
f 1 . A truthful, comprehensive, and intelligent account of the day's events in
/ a context which gives them meaning.
/ 2. A forum for the exchange of comment and criticism.
/ 3. A means of projecting the opinions and attitudes of the groups in the
( society to one another.
i 4. A method of presenting and clarifying the goals and values of society.
\ 5. Full access to the day's intelligence. 6
Is
Functions and Credibility 37
Although most of these suggestions drew on recommendations or ideas
generated by editors and publishers, the media greeted the Commission's
report with hostility and it received a rather general denunciation in columns
and editorials and at professional meetings.
Perhaps most important to the non-violent resolution of social conflict are
two much more specific objectives: 1) The news media should accurately
communicate information between various conflicting groups within society
and the circumstances surrounding the conflict; and 2) they must make the
"marketplace of ideas," a fundamental rationale for the first amendment, a
reality.
The news media cannot perform their important functions unless they'
have the public's confidence. Any decline in the credibility of formal
channels of communication will invariably result in the development of
informal channels of communication. Under conditions of mild stress, such
channels may serve moderately well to provide accurate intelligence on the
surrounding environment, but it is impossible for such informal channels to
serve the needs of the people in a democratic society as effectively as a free
and responsible news media. Moreover, during periods of great stress,
complete reliance on informal channels of communication can result, and has
resulted, in a completed breakdown of social norms, and has produced
irrational responses. The credibility of the media is a function of the
perceptions of its audience, not "truthfulness" in some abstract, Olympian
sense. The basic issue of media credibility today is whether the media are
presenting a biased or distorted picture of the world through selective
reporting, rather than a concern for fabrication of facts. Nevertheless, if the
audience does not believe that the media are providing all relevant facts, it
will rely on informal channels of communication and its own imagination to
supply the perceived omissions, creating a substantial potential for distortion.
It therefore matters little whether the news media have favored one
particular point of view over another. What does matter is the effect of media
practices and values on the public's perception of the media's credibility, on
the public's perception of reality, and the manner in which these practices
and values might be changed to facilitate more effective communication of
the information the public has a right to know. In some instances, an
allegation of bias will be the result of deviation from some abstract concept
of "truth;" as frequently, however, it will be the result of the media's failure
to tell its audience what it would like to hear.
B. Credibility of the News Media
A crisis in confidence exists today between the American people and their
news media. The magnitude of the problem is open to debate; its existence is
not. Concern ranges from a high-level official at the New York Times, who
believes that readers see the editorial policy of the Times controlling the
content of news, to a western newspaper editor, committed to improving race
relations, who believes his paper's standing and credibility in the white
community have declined as a result of his commitment. It extends from the
network news commentators, who hypothesize the public chose not to
believe the scenes of disorder broadcast during the 1 968 Democratic National
38 Mass Media and Violence
Convention in Chicago, to the general manager of a midwestern metropolitan
television station who has run over one hundred five -minute spots dealing
with race relations and speculates that his station has alienated a significant
part of its white audience.
The concern is not totally unfounded. In a recent issue of the
International Press Institute Bulletin it was reported:
In the United States, where journalists have long enjoyed a special
position compared with colleagues elsewhere, a disquieting
development has been noted. . . . Newspapers, it appeared in surveys,
were no longer trusted by their readers, who felt that they lie,
manufacture news and sensationalize what they do report For the
press of America and elsewhere, its own communication problem of
reestablishing the trust of the readers may prove harder to solve than
the technical and economic problems which beset it. 7
There is evidence that the news media have been developing a credibility
problem, at least since the early 1960's. One study of a medium-sized
California city found that respondents discounted, on the average, a third of
what they read in the newspapers and a fifth of what they saw on television. 8
A 1963 study-two years before the Watts riots-showed that, among Los
Angeles Negroes, only 32 percent felt the metropolitan dailies would give a*
black candidate coverage equal to that given a white opponent; only 25
percent felt Negro churches and organizations had a chance equal to that of
white organizations of getting publicity in the daily press; and 54 percent felt
the daily press was not fair in treatment of race relations issues. 9
Yet there is little hard evidence of any widespread public belief that the
facts provided by the media are false. The primary objection seems to be that
the news media either omit important facts or slant the presentation of the
facts they do report. In Chicago, for example, the evidence suggests that the
objection was to the media's failure to provide adequate coverage of the
provocations by the demonstrators toward the police, and some objection to
network personnel who were perceived as critical of the police. 10
For example, a survey in a large midwestern city conducted while the
events of Chicago were still fresh in the public conscience found that among
viewers interested in civil disorders: "Foremost, viewers desire more 'honest'
coverage." Approximately 49 percent of the Negroes and 41 percent of the
whites believed that television stations are hiding the "truth" in their
coverage of rioting;
they desire that the coverage of rioting be more candid and the "truth"
be told. In terms of specifics, one-half (52 percent) of the whites and
one-third (36 percent) of Negroes request more "balanced" or "fair"
news coverage. ... In addition, some viewers maintain that stations are
unfair in their coverage of riot situations because they focus solely on
the sensational rather than balance it with the mundane. Thus, both
Negroes and whites believe that stations should de-emphasize the
sensational aspects of riot coverage or, in some cases, eliminate it
entirely. 1 1
Functions and Credibility 39
C. The Importance of Being Credible
When the public does not believe the information they receive from the
news media or think the media are omitting important facts, there will be
increased reliance on less formal sources for information. Ordinarily, this
means they ask their friends and neighbors, or worse, they supply the
information from their own imaginations. The consequences of such a
breakdown of formal channels of communication can be very serious.
Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, for example, the credibility of
the media was seriously questioned by a large number of Americans, because,
in part, they did not trust the source of much of the pertinent
information the Roosevelt administration and because, in part, of the
adoption of wartime censorship.
In their pioneer study of rumor, Allport and Postman analyzed more than
1,000 rumors from all parts of the country during World War II. Of these,
almost 67 percent were categorized as "hostility (wedge-driving) rumors."
These included such "news" as the Jews were evading the draft in massive
numbers, American minority groups were impairing the war effort, and Negro
servicemen were saving ice picks in preparation for revolt against the white
community after their return home. Another 25 percent of the rumors were
classified as "fear (bogy) rumors," e.g., the government is not telling the
truth about the destruction of our fleet at Pearl Harbor or, in another
instance, a collier was accidentally sunk near Cape Cod Canal and New
Englanders believed that an American ship filled with Army nurses had been
torpedoed, killing thousands of nurses. * 2
Similarly, almost any after-action report on the recent civil disorders will
confirm that rumors run rampant during periods of great stress and almost
invariably involve gross exaggerations. The direction of the exaggeration
depends upon the community in which the rumors circulate. In the black
community, for instance, rumors prevail about extreme police brutality or
about camps like the concentration camps in Germany during World War II.
In the white community, it is not uncommon to hear that Negroes are arming
themselves to invade the white section of town.
The direction of distortion of information received through informal
communication is almost invariably toward the group's preconceptions. In
one series of experiments reported by Allport and Postman, they first showed
one of twenty subjects a picture of people in a subway car. One person in the
group was black and the rest were white. There appeared to be some dispute
among them. A white man held a razor in his hand. The subject of the
experiment viewed the picture and was asked to describe it to the next
person; the second, to repeat the description to the third, and so on. In over
half the experiments using white subjects, the final version had the Negro
(instead of the white man) brandishing the razor. Among the possible
explanations for this distortion, all were related to the subject's
preconceptions about blacks:
Whether this ominous distortion reflects hatred and fear of Negroes we
cannot definitely say. In some cases, these deeper emotions may be the
assimilative factor at work. And yet the distortion may occur even in
subjects who have no anti-Negro bias. It is an unthinking cultural
40 Mass Media and Violence
stereotype that the Negro is hot tempered and addicted to the use of
razors as weapons. The rumor, though mischievous, may reflect chiefly
an assimilation of the story to verbal-cliches and conventional
expectation. 13
S A review of the literature on rumor indicates that at least two conditions
/ are prerequisite to their circulation: an event that generates anxiety an
/ event about which people feel some need to know and a state of ambiguity
I concerning the facts surrounding than event. 14 The extreme case for these
two conditions is a major event, such as the assassination of prominent public
figure, and non-coverage by any of the news media. These conditions can also
exist where the event is reported and anxiety aroused but the message is
characterized by a high degree of uncertainty. Such uncertainty can result
either from the omission of significant facts or the lack of credibility of the
communicating medium. Under these circumstances, the message recipient
has considerable latitude to supply the missing information from his own
imagination or adopt the speculations of others he receives through informal
channels of communication. Such informal communications are popularly
referred taas rumor.
At the very least, rumors tend to reinforce present positions, and in most
cases the recipient will move further toward one of the attitudinal extremes
than if he had received the kind of full and fair account of significant facts a
skilled journalist can provide.
In an era that demands the subjugation of our emotional attitudes about
race, either a decline in credibility of the media or the failure of the media to
meet the demand for information on issues of race relations will solidify
rather than dissolve prejudice. The same is true in varying degrees on other
issues, depending upon the strength of audience predispositions.
.,-- A full and credible presentation of the news also serves the interests of the
/ news organization. The eventual impact of increasing polarization will reduce
the media's ability to hold a mass audience. Through the process of selective
exposure, people will tend to listen to those voices that agree with their
special point of view. 1 5 Where the society is highly polarized, it will become
increasingly difficult for the media to communicate effectively except by
tailoring their presentation to the predisposition of particular audiences. What
will develop is a series of media, each appealing to a small section on the
continuum with strongly held and relatively homogeneous views. Under such
circumstances, intergroup communication substantially decreases.
D. Credibility and Audience Bias
Accusations that the news media are biased are frequently the result of
strong political, attitudinal, or behavioral convictions. Many of the same
charges of bias, for example, are raised against the media from both extremes
of the political spectrum. The charges made by the conservatives at the 1 964
Republican convention, for instance, remind many observers of those made
by liberal Democrats throughout the years. 1 6
A 1960 study showed a much greater perception of political bias in the
Dallas News among Catholic priests than among Baptist ministers. More
significant, it found that, among all clergy, the perception of political bias
Functions and Credibility 41
increased if the individual thought the paper unfair to his religious group. 1 7
If the reader gives the newspaper low marks for accuracy or fairness on one
subject, he is likely to apply it to others. 1 '
Further, experimental studies on attitude change also suggest this situation
is general. Hovland and Sherif reported that respondents tended to distort the
location of other points of view as a function of their own position on the
continuum. Thus, those at either extreme tend to shift the midpoint toward
themselves, thereby exaggerating the extremity of other positions as well as
putting the objective neutral position "on the other side." 19 A member of
the John Birch society, for example, may perceive former Chief Justice Earl
Warren as a Communist, while students on the far left may regard Hubert
Humphrey as an arch-conservative at best and a Fascist at worst. Clearly,
strongly committed persons at either end of the spectrum will regard a
newspaper that follows an objective and neutral course as biased and lacking
in credibility.
The news media are inevitably bound by this paradox. Traditionally, they
have attempted to extricate themselves by distinguishing between "news" and
"editorial comment." More recently, a third category, "news analysis," has
been added. Newsmen are increasingly recognizing that some degree of
interpretation inheres in the very act of reporting, regardless of the medium.
At a minimum, interpretation results from individual differences in physical
perception and social and cultural background.
The news media will not be able to meet the communications needs of the
country in the coming decades until they acknowledge at least to
themselves that the old distinction between "news" and "editorial
comment" is inadequate.
REFERENCES
Quoted by Robert E. Park, "The Natural History of the Newspaper," in Mass
Communications, Wilbur Schramm, Ed), (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1960),
p. 13.
2. Harold Cross, The People's Right to Know (New York: Columbia University Press,
1956), p. xiii.
3. Walter Cronkite, "The Whole World is Watching," Public Broadcast Laboratory,
Broadcast Dec. 22, 1968, script p. 56.
4. Walter Lippmann, "The Job of the Washington Correspondent," Atlantic, January,
1960, p. 49.
5. Harold D. Lasswell, "The Structure and Function of Communication in Society," in
Schramm, op. cit., footnote 1, p. 130.
6. Robert M. Hutchins, Chairman, A Free and Responsible Press, Commission on
Freedom of the Press (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1947), pp. 20-21.
7. International Press Institute Bulletin, January 1969, p. 4. See also Norman Isaacs,
"The New Credibility Gap- Readers vs. The Press," American Society of Newspaper
Editors Bulletin, February 1969, p. 1.
8. Jack Lyle, The News in Megalopolis (San Francisco: Chandler, 1967), pp. 39-42.
9. Ibid., p. 171.
10. Thomas Whiteside, "Corridor of Mirrors: The Television Editorial Process, Chicago,"
Columbia Journalism Review (Winter 1968/69), p. 35-54.
Commenting on his involvement in the events in Chicago, Walter Cronkite said,
"I am ashamed of having become emotionally involved, if we are talking about
on-air involvement, when our own man was beat up before our eyes on the floor of
the convention. I became indignant, said there were a bunch of thugs out there I
42 Mass Media and Violence
think on the floor. I shouldn't have. I think that's wrong." Broadcast Dec. 22, 1968,
8:30 p.m. edt, by the Public Broadcast Laboratory, script p. 43.
11. The Survey was commissioned by WFBM-TV at the direction of Eldon Campbell
shortly after the assassination of Senator Kennedy and was performed by Frank N.
Magid Associates. We appreciate the generosity and cooperation of Messrs. Campbell
and Magid in making it available to us and discussing it with us. Unfortunately it was
not completed in time for us to make more extensive use of it. pp. 1 30-1 31.
12 Gordon Allport and Leo Postman, The Psychology of Rumor, (New York: Holt,
Rinehart & Winston, 1947).
13. Gordon Allport and Leo Postman, "The Basic Psychology of Rumor," in The
?? Process and Effects of Mass Communication (Wilbur Schramm, Ed.) (Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 1955), p. 153.
14. Tamotsu Shibutani, Improvised News: A Sociological Study of Rumor
(Bobbs-Merrill 1966).
15. Lazarsfeld, Berelson, Gaudet, The People's Choice, New York: Columbia University
Press, (1948);Cartwright, "Some Principles of Mass Persuasion: Selected Findings of
Research on the Sale of United States War Bonds," Human Relations, II (1949), pp.
253-67; Starr & Hughes, "Report on an Educational Campaign: The Cincinnati Plan
for the United Nations," American Journal of Sociology (1950), pp. 389-400;
Cannel & MacDonald, "The Impact of Health News on Attitudes and Behavior,"
Journalism Quarterly (1956), pp. 315-23.
16. Lyle, op. cit., footnote 8, p. 171.
17. Ibid., pp. 44-45.
18. James E. Brinton, et al. The Newspaper and Its Public, (Stanford University,
Institute for Communications Research, undated).
19. Carl Hovland and Muzafer Sherif, Social Judgment (New Haven: Yale University,
Press, 1961).
Chapter 4
INTERGROUP COMMUNICATION
You can't write a terribly exciting story
about a boring football game. What . . . that
again has nothing to do with ideology; it's
simply that the newspapers this one
included hold up a mirror to the world.
If what they see is a boring picture, I'm afraid
that what the readers get is a boring story
quite often.
Clifton Daniel, Former Managing Editor,
New York Times
So long as the news media rely on the mirror of society theory of
journalism as their main defense, their critics will have a monopoly on both
facts and logic. Fortunately, some journalists have rejected the mirror theory.
Bill Moyers, publisher ofNewsday, has said:
For a long time, there's been a myth about journalism, a myth
shared by people who read us and view us, and a myth shared by those
of us who are in the profession. That myth has been that newspapers
are sort of, simply, mirrors of the world, as someone has said, that we
simply reflect what is happening .... I think part of the cure for this
exaggerated myth is simply if journalism admits that objectivity's a
myth; we will diffuse the great expectations people have which we can
never fulfill, and that is that we can look down from Olympus and tell
people, "what is true."
Once the fetish for objectivity is set aside, journalists should begin to
examine their craft in terms of the information requirements of a democratic
society. Even if objectivity is a myth, fair and balanced surveillance are goals
worth pursuing.
Accuracy, balance, and fairness are important in the resolution of conflict
for several related reasons. Most important is that individual and collective
responses to a changing environment, regardless of how carefully thought out,
will be irrational if based on misinformation. All irrational responses do not
necessarily fail, but success with them is purely coincidental. Failure not only
breeds frustration, it also generates mistrust among groups. To the extent that
43
44 Mass Media and Violence
the synthetic world of news does not square with the experience of large
numbers of citizens, the credibility of the news media will be impaired. As a
result, increased reliance on informal channels of communication will prevail.
Finally, unbalanced surveillance will produce disparity in the perception of
important underlying facts among the several groups in conflict in our
society. Disagreements more easily resolve when the views of the underlying
facts are approximately the same. Nowhere is the importance of the mass
media in intergroup communication more apparent than between blacks and
whites.
A. Communication Between Blacks and Whites: A Case Study
We believe that the greatest single need
in America today is for communication
between blacks and whites.
-NBC News, "Summer 1967:
What We Learned."
A communication gap stretches wide between the black and white
communities. Insulated from each other geographically, socially, and
politically, they have primarily the mass media as a medium of intergroup
communication. The news media did not request this job, but when the need
for communication became critical, they were the one institution in society
equipped to do the most about it.
By the middle 1960's, the gap had not been bridged. For example, a 1967
survey by the Louis Harris organization on the causes of Negro rioting is
shown in table 1 .
Table l.-The understanding gap: Causes of Negro noting
Cause Whites' Belief Negroes' Belief
(percent) (percent)
Outside agitation 45 10
Police brutality 8 49
Joblessness 34 67
Inadequate housing 39 68
Inadequate education 46 61
Forty -five percent of whites, but only 10 percent of Negroes, consider
"outside agitation" a major cause of riots. What do the whites know that
Negroes don't? How can two groups of people, living in the same country, in
the same cities, have such different pictures of reality? Do the Negroes,
conversely, know something that the white community does not?
If blacks and whites cannot agree even on the basic facts underlying the
racial crisis in this country, there is little likelihood that we will be able to
make any significant progress toward a joint resolution of the American
dilemma, and any resolution unilaterally imposed will most probably be
violent.
Intergioup Communication 45
The Louis Harris poll makes clear the great disparity between the black
and white man's view of the racial crisis. Take the issue of police brutality,
for example. A bureau chief of one of the national news magazines had beer
assigned to Chicago several years prior to the convention disorders. While
there, he had heard complaints from ghetto residents about police brutality;
his practice, typically, was to dismiss them as imagined slights or, at worst,
verbal abuse. He never paid much attention. Later he returned to Chicago for
the Democratic national convention. After his experiences this time and those
of the reporters under him, he was solidly convinced that there was such a
thing as police brutality in Chicago. One thing seems clear: the failure of the
press to report on police brutality is one factor that contributes to the notion
by whites that it is not a major factor in Negro discontent. The failure to
report in this case was mainly the product of ignorance and indifference.
The Kerner Report emphasized that this country is rapidly moving toward
two societies. Just as important is the fact that America has always been two
societies, one black and one white, separate and unequal. The pervasiveness of
segregation, both North and South, has resulted in very little candid two-way
communication between blacks and whites. Until the early 1960's, the
personal experience of most whites with Negroes was largely in the Negroes'
rendering of menial services to the white community. The remainder of any
communication was through the media.
The CBS documentary, "Black History: Lost, Stolen or Strayed," * has
brilliantly documented the manner in which blacks were portrayed in motion
pictures and radio. An analysis of 100 motion pictures involving Negro
characters, made during the 1940's, found that in 75 cases the portrayal
was a disparaging stereotype. In only 12 cases was the Negro favorably
presented as an individual human being. 2 Large-circulation magazines were
indifferent toward the Negro. While there were exceptions among the journals
of opinion and magazines with a cause, "During the 1930's both Collier's and
the Saturday Evening Post ran a number of fiction pieces about the Negro, all
of them in a quaint dialect that today seems almost incomprehensible. Roark
Bradford wrote of the Widow Duck and Uncle Charlie and life at Little Bee
Bend Plantation, and Octavus Roy Cohen chronicled the misadventures of his
most endurable character, Florian Slappey. But their characters were
stereotypes, and the life of the Negro wasn't really like that, even then." 3
Until the late fifties, most news coverage of blacks was limited to Negroes
involved in crime, sports, or entertainment.
Until recently, what most white Americans knew about blacks was that
some of them were pretty good athletes, they had lots of rhythm, a lot of
them were criminals possibly by instinct and they could be very good
entertainers. Many Americans, to be sure, had either met or heard of people
like Ralph Bunche, but the mere fact that such Negroes were regarded as
exceptions, of course, proves the rule. Southern whites, some quite sincerely,
were convinced that their Negroes were happy; and the only way trouble
could come would be through outside agitation.
Omitting the black press, no medium of communication was reporting the
Negro struggle for equality. Were this owing solely to ignorance, perhaps it
could be ignored. The great paradox however, is that when Gunner Myrdal
was writing his now-classic "American Dilemma" 25 years ago, one of his
most important sources of information about the state of race relations was
46 Mass Media and Violence
Southern newspaper reporters they knew the story but could not write it. 4
This fact can only be attributed to the parochial attitudes, ignorance, and, in
some cases, venality of Southern publishers.
Typically, publishers both North and South have been allies of the black
man only when he was in conflict with elements outside the publishers' own
community. The strong editorial views exchanged between Northern and
Southern newspapers prior to the Civil War, for example, is well known.
1 . Nineteenth Century Coverage of Blacks
The Northern papers criticized the South for not reporting slave
insurrections, thus allowing many of their readers to continue in their illusion
that the Negro was content with slavery. The Northern papers played up the
Carolina slave revolts of the 1 800's with sensational stories of destruction and
havoc, but North Carolina papers practically ignored them. Although the
Northern papers probably overplayed the extent of the revolts, they had at
least acknowledged their existence.
On Jan. 31, 1831, William Lloyd Garrison brought out the first issue of
the Liberator, a four-page paper entirely devoted to the abolition of slavery.
Garrison had total dedication:
He who oppugns the public liberty overthrows his own . . . There is no
safety where there is no strength; no strength without union; no union
without justice; no justice where faith and truth are wanting. The right
to be free is a truth planted in the hearts of men . . . 6
Garrison was the prototype of the combatant editor. Although there were
other abolitionists, he was so vehement and self-righteous that he made as
many enemies in the North as he made in the South. It was a prosperous
time, and many Northerners who had no stake in slavery wanted to preserve
their comfort by compromising the differences between North and South.
Garrison wrote:
These are your men of "caution" and "prudence" and "judiciousness."
Sir, I have learned to hate those words. Whenever we attempt to imitate
the Great Exemplar, and press the truth of God in all its plainness upon
the conscience, why, we are imprudent; because, forsooth, a great
excitement will ensue. Sir, slavery will not be overthrown without
excitement a most tremendous excitement. 7
Garrison was opposed not only by many of the leading newspapers of the
day, but also by Postmaster General Amos Kendall, who argued that each
issue of the Liberator circulated in a Southern state was a threat to the public
peace, and therefore allowed southern committees to remove the Liberator
from the mails. Even the state of Massachusetts conspired against the
Liberator, which was published in Boston; officials tried to forbid its export.
Not until 1850 did American opinion shaped in part by the pressure of
world opinion begin to square with the views of the abolitionist. By then,
many abolitionists had suffered physically at the hands of mobs. One, Elijah
Lovejoy, had been killed by a mob in Alton, 111. Such action helped to make
Intergroup Communication 47
abolitionists of the greatest editors. By 1854, Horace Greeley of the New
York Tribune was publishing editorial attacks on slavery that were so
vehement that his critics accused him of brutality. Samual Bowles of the
Springfield Republican, William Cullen Bryant of the New York Evening
Post, Joseph Medill of the Chicago Tribune all thundered against slavery.
Greeley's New York Tribune responded to the Emancipation Proclamation
with the headline "GOD BLESS ABRAHAM LINCOLN." But the Natchez,
Mississippi, Courier editorialized ''A monkey with his tail off is a monkey
still." In 1865, the Jackson, Mississippi Daily News urged, "We must keep the
ex-slave in a position of inferiority. We must pass such laws as will make him
feel his inferiority." The Chicago Tribune answered; "We tell the white men
of Mississippi that the men of the North will convert the State of Mississippi
into a frog pond before they will allow any such laws to disgrace one foot of
soil in which the bones of our soldiers sleep and over which the flag of
freedom waves." 8
After Reconstruction, Jim Crow began to sweep the South. In 1898, the
Charleston, S. C.,News and Courier, satirized:
As we have got on fairly well for a third of a century, we can probably
get on as well hereafter without [Jim Crow] .... If there must be Jim
Crow cars on the street railways .... And if there are to be Jim Crow
cars, moreover there should be Jim Crow waiting saloons at all stations,
and Jim Crow eating houses. There should be Jim Crow sections of the
jury box and a separate Jim Crow dock and witness stand in every
court and a Jim Crow Bible for colored witnesses to kiss. 9
But satire became reality: 8 years later the same paper was urging that "only
mass deportation could solve as grave a problem as the presence of
Negroes." 10
During the 19th century, discrimination was not limited to the Southern
press. Over a hundred years ago, Willie A. Hodges, a Negro, sought to have his
opinions published in Benjamin Day's New York Sun, Hodges was told that
the Sun did not shine for black men. This provided the impetus for the birth
of the Rams Horn in January 1847, one of the earliest of approximately
3,000 Negro newspapers that have been published in this country, and that
have kept alive the hopes and strengthened the discontent of the Black
community. 1 1
2. The Twentieth Century: The First Fifty Years
Until the mid-fifties, the Northern press almost completely ignored blacks
and black protest, but not without notable exceptions: The Sweet trial in
Detroit in 1926; the successful campaign to bar Judge John J. Parker's
confirmation to the U. S. Supreme Court; the Scottsboro trials in the early
1930's. Yet, in 1944,Gunnar Myrdal concluded:
"No feasible widening of the reporting of Negro activities in the white
press will substitute for the Negro press. What happens to Negroes will
continue to have relatively low 'news value' to white people, and even
the most well-meaning editor will have to stop far short of what
Negroes demand if he wants to satisfy his white public . . . Whether or
not this forecast of an increasing circulation for Negro papers comes
true, the Negro press is of tremendous importance." 1 2
48 Mass Media and Violence
Another exception, at least for a time, was the Montgomery, Ala.,
Advertiser. When the Klan was run out of Alabama during the 1920's, it was
in part the result of the efforts of the Advertiser's publisher, Grover Hall. Hall
had castigated and ridiculed the nightriders and met their threats by wearing
his pistol to the office. He mobilized community opinion against the Klan by
emphasizing the threat of such organizations to lawful government.
Although during the Scottsboro trials Hall did characterize the nine
defendants as "beasts" and "apes," after the court testimony in the third trial
proved that the boys had been framed, he changed his editorial position, went
to a Negro meeting, and then publicly apologized for his earlier remarks. 1 3
When the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education in 1954,
Hall's son had assumed control of the paper. Shortly after the desegregation
decision, the younger Hall took an editorial position opposing the White
Citizen's Council describing them as "manicured Ku Klux Klansmen." That
was until an address by Senator James 0. Eastland drew a crowd of 15,000
active or potential Citizen's Council members to a meeting in Montgomery.
Then the Advertiser did an about face. Even small meetings of the Council
began to be front-page news. The White Citizen's Council frequently
dominated the "letters to the editor" column. When Martin Luther King, Jr.,
addressed 12,000 people in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in New
York, the story was given three paragraphs and placed at the bottom of one
of five stories appearing in that issue on the White Citizen's Council. 1 4
Asked about this shift in policy by Ted Poston, a reporter for the New
York Post, Hall responded:
"Well, what the hell would Jimmy Wechsler [editor of the New York
Post] have done in a small community like this when most of the
important people in town had joined the White Citizens Council and
when it had mustered a fifteen-thousand membership." 1 5
At least two other Southern newspapers have made a serious effort toward
balance in reporting race relations over the years: The Greenville, Miss. .Delta
Democrat, under the direction of Hodding Carter III, and prior to that under
his father; and the Atlanta Constitution, whose policies were largely the result
of the influence of its publisher, the late Ralph McGill, and its former
managing editor, Eugene Patterson, now in the same position at The
Washington Post Whether the Constitution will continue its traditionally
balanced approach after the departure of these two fine journalists remains to
be seen.
The Southern press was not the only medium subject to outside pressures.
During both World Wars, evidence abounded of official concern about the
exposure of Negroes in the press and reports of the mistreatment of Negro
troops. Threats of clamping special censorship on the Crisis, the Messenger,
the Chicago Defender were made by Attorney General Mitchell Palmer during
World War I. In some Mississippi cities, whole shipments of the Defender were
confiscated or destroyed. 1 6
Yet ignoring black Americans was not totally the result of antiblack
attitudes by media personnel. Poor people do not make news, black or white.
The American press has traditionally been aristocratic, not democratic, and
an important factor in determining newsworthiness of any story is
Intergroup Communication 49
prominence. American society simply did not produce many prominent
Negroes or black institutions. The American press discriminated against the
poor, both black and white. 1 7
Nevertheless, the performance of the Southern press up through the earlier
fifties won no medals from integrationists, North or South. Southern
newspapers and Southern radio and TV stations carried very little news about
Negroes and gave scant or little attention to news involving racial issues.
Negroes were not referred to as "Mr." or "Mrs." There was, in fact, no
effective communication between the white and Negro communities on any
level in the mass media. 1 8
Hodding Carter has summarized the performance of the Southern press:
The obvious errors, the obvious omissions, the obvious commissions by
the Southern press are monumental. In the past it has been said that the
church is the most segregated aspect of contemporary American life. I
could say that for years the Southern press was as segregated as the
church ever dreamed of being. 1 9
3. Progress in Black Coverage: The 1950s
The first consistent progress toward balance in the coverage of race
relations began a short time after the Supreme Court's 1954 decision to strike
down the doctrine of "separate but equal." That decision gave the Negro
struggle for equality legitimacy within the white community, and its potential
impact was enormous; but it did not assure broad-based coverage by the
white media.
On Dec. 1, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks, formerly an officer of the local
NAACP, boarded a bus on Cleveland Avenue, in Montgomery, Alabama. A
short time later, a white man boarded the bus and the driver ordered Mrs.
Parks to get up and give the white man her seat. Mrs. Parks said, "No." She
was arrested. The news spread quickly through the Negro community. Within
24 hours, there was a mass gathering. It was decided that the following
Monday, Negroes 75 percent of Montgomery's bus riders would walk to
work. The clergymen would spread the word from their pulpits on Sunday
morning. A young Baptist minister, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., accepted
responsibility for circulating printed notices to Montgomery's 50,000 Negro
residents. 20
The bus boycotts, the freedom rides, the sit-ins, the parades, and the
picketing that followed this incident caught the attention of Northern
newsmen. These events were unusual, they represented conflict, they had a
potentially wide impact, there was action, and the response of the official and
nonofficial white South sometimes provided violence. In short, these
reactions fitted almost any reporter's definition of "news." Most important,
they provided material uniquely suited to the new medium, television.
If only the leaders such as Dr. King had simply called a press conference,
briefed the reporters present, and instructed them to go out and report on the
deplorable state of race relations in America! If they had, of course, very few
if any, of the white media would have written the story; in many instances,
they could not because they did not know how. Even if they had, few people
in the white community would have read it. And if whites had read it, few
would have perceived the urgency of the situation. Some still don't. The
50 Mass Media and Violence
Negro community not only had to get the attention of the white media, they
also had to get the attention of the white audience.
The campaign of sit-ins, parades, and picketing at least provided some
news coverage of black problems. White Americans, for the first time, were
learning that blacks existed as humans, not chattels, and were unhappy about
something. Whites also learned that the Negro proposed to do something
about his discontent.
Northern audiences responded and, although blind to their own more
subtle forms of discrimination, they sympathized with the plight of the
Southern Negro. The manifestations of racism in the South were infinitely
less subtle than those in the North. Separate public facilities, separate schools,
separate restaurants, the sometimes blatant police brutality which surfaced
for the television cameras during non-violent demonstrations all were
practices that Northern audiences found easy to deplore. The television
media, presented with action, brought the human aspect of the story to the
American home with unprecedented impact and directness.
The national television networks also brought the message to the South.
Little wonder, therefore, that many white southerners became irritated and
upset. For the first time in their lives, they saw Southern Negroes asserting
their rights on national television. Initially, many refused to believe it. They
wondered where the networks found these unbelievable Negroes. Threaten
men's cherished illusions, and frequently they become angry and respond
with disbelief sometimes with violence.
The Southern news media were not quick to change old habits. In 1961,
the American Broadcasting Co. released a documentary titled "Walk in My
Shoes," The story suggested that white people take a long hard look at what
it meant to be black. Only one of the five ABC affiliates in the state of
Florida carried the program. 2 1
During the riots in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963 , the Birmingham News
devoted most of its prime space to the bloody riots in Cyprus. The disorders
in Birmingham were given only a brief space at the bottom of page four to
make passing mention without many details, of course of the local rioting
then going on between Birmingham's Negroes and Bull Connor, with his
police dogs and fire hoses." 22
When Medgar Evers was murdered, the Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion Ledger
discovered that the accused killer had been taken as a very young child to
California for a brief period. Most of the rest of his life had been spent in the
Mississippi Delta. The newspaper headline said "CALIFORNIAN ARRESTED
IN EVERS CASE." 23
Unbalanced coverage in the South was not always the result of unfettered
choice. In many instances, it was to avoid the consequences of perceived
economic threats and of community opinion. William B. Monroe, Jr. former
chief of NBC News in Washington, D.C., tells of his experience when he was
chief editorial writer for the New Orleans Item. The newspaper had been
liberal enough to support Adlai Stevenson; but when it received a letter to the
editor on a racial subject from a Negro man, it did not print it. The Negro had
been an electrician in the Navy during World War II; when he returned to
New Orleans, the white electricians union would not admit him. The letter
"was couched in entirely reasonable language, but its viewpoint was that of
resentment against discrimination. The newspaper did not publish the man's
Inteigroup Communication 51
letter because the opposition newspaper was already using the Item 's relative
liberalism as a sales tool with advertisers, and the publisher felt that the Item
could not afford a too pro-Negro image." 24 The problem had been made
particularity acute for Southern newspapers because the target of many civil
rights demonstrations became what could ordinarily be relied upon as one of
the more liberal allies of the press by Southern standards the business
community. Outside of voting, one of the chief problems was segregated
business facilities. In Greenville, Miss., the Delta Democrat covered the
boycott of a local shop and give it extensive publicity. The next day, the
owner met his friends from the newspaper in the coffee shop as they did
every day, and screamed "Why are you doing this to me?"
Northern reporters who covered the civil rights movement in the South
were frequently harassed. Richard Valeriani was clubbed on the back of the
head at the courthouse in Marion, Alabama, while working for NBC. The
Haleyville Alabamian editorialized that Mr. Valeriani was a "propagandist"
and a "carpetbagger" and suggested that much of the racial demonstrating
was the result of collusion between Negroes and television photographers.
Under these circumstances, the newspaper felt, it was too much to expect
southerners to be friendly and hospitable. The editorial was reprinted with
approval in Jackson, Mississippi. 2S
Karl Fleming, Newsweek's Los Angeles Bureau chief, relates a similar
experience in which he and Claude Sitton, now National Affairs Editor for
the New York Times, were involved shortly after the slaying of three young
civil rights workers in Mississippi. They had gone to the courthouse to
question the sheriff and his deputy. When they left, they were approached by
some of the local residents, "who proceeded to tell us in no uncertain terms
that if we didn't get the hell out of town, they were going to kill us. Their
Negroes were really happy; they ate a lot of watermelon and picked cotton
and everything was fine until we damn Yankee newspapermen came around
to stir up trouble." 26 That night some men came to their motel accompanied
by a half-gallon of corn whiskey and two, double-barreled, 10-gauge shotguns.
Sitton and Fleming were convinced to spend the night in another town. 2
Many Southern reporters, however, sympathized with Northern brethren.
Ted Poston, a black reporter for the New York Post, has observed:
Nowhere else have I met a more knowledgeable, decent, and frustrated
group of newspapermen than those with whom I worked down South. I
can say truthfully that I owe my life to several of these men. Without
their warnings and assistance, I could have been lynched on any of
three occasions when I was chased out of town by mobs the last one
led by three sheriffs deputies. 28
Today, the number of Southern publishers and broadcasters who
consciously engage in distortion of the news is diminishing, but a hard core
will always not allow their readers and viewers "to know what ought not to
have happened." Yet the problem of unconscious distortion, of viewing the
news from a perspective that makes unbalanced surveillance inevitable, is
substantial and will continue:
52 Mass Media and Violence
... A North Carolina publisher . . . complained to United Press
International: "As a new subscriber to U.P.I., I am beginning to realize
why newspapers are so loaded with nothing but racial news centered
around such people as Martin Luther King. In trying to get some items
worthy of reading last night, I found long and constant harangues
coming over the wire about this questionable person during his visit
with an even more questionable organization in North Carolina."
Checking up, a U.P.I. executive discovered that only one story on
Martin Luther King had been dispatched that night, that it reported
that King was entering a retreat of the Southern Christian Leadership
Council, and that the story was only 150 words long. 29
B. Communication Between Blacks and Whites
In October 1963, Turner Catledge of the New York Times noted the
disparity in coverage between North and South:
We've had open season on the south here now for some time, and it
seems to me that, especially when you read the editorial pages in the
North some people are too much concerned about what's going on
somewhere else and too little concerned about what's going on right at
their own door . . . There seems to be a disposition, especially on our
editorial pages, to demand that the southerners accept some sort of an
emotional change in this matter, which they're not going to do.
Integration is coming to the south. It's coming very slowly, but it's not
wanted. Is it wanted any more in Minnesota or in New York? I think
this is the question our readers are entitled to have us explore. 30
The expansion of coverage of the black community by the Northern press,
conceived in crisis, remains crisis-oriented. Almost all publishers and
broadcast owners, most editors, and the majority of reporters do not know
their black communities well enough to perform the function of surveillance
on any basis other than traditional news values and practices. These,
unfortunately, are not adequate.
1 . The Need for a Black Perspective
When a story breaks in the black community, the white news media are
sufficiently competent at reporting how many people were hurt, how much
property was damaged, the number of police used, who said what. Most are
not, however, very competent at doing the kind of analysis necessary to place
the event in context and give it significance.
Until recently, and the exceptions remain few, the news organizations have
not regularly covered the black community. Few news "beats" existed in the
ghetto. 31 The reporters did not know its aspirations. Today, enough
reporters, both North and South, are capable, qualified, and willing to learn
the skills necessary to provide adequate coverage. Too few publishers and
broadcast owners, however, are willing to let them do it.
The essential requirement for any individual or organization to function as
a medium of communication between two groups as diverse as blacks and
whites is an understanding of both communities. The reporter must see
problems from the perspective of both groups and he must be able to speak in
Intergroup Communication 53
terms that both will understand. The only way the white media can hope to
understand the black community is by becoming involved in the black
community. This involvement includes hiring blacks in professional positions.
Most of the intergroup communication in this country has been from the
white community to the black community; very little has been in the other
direction. The white community cannot listen unless someone carries the
message, a message based on understanding the black man.
Unfortunately, the evidence suggests, not many editors care to acquire the
basic knowledge necessary to survey the black community adequately.
Approximately 500 newspaper editors were present in 1965 when Floyd
McKissick, then director of CORE, offered to have each editor's local CORE
chapter take the editor on a personal insider's tour of the ghetto in their city.
Six months later, Norman Isaacs of the Louisville Courier-Journal asked Mr.
McKissick how many had accepted the offer. "Two" he answered; the
Louisville Courier-Journal and the Oakland Tribune.
Had these editors gone into the ghettos, they might have begun to learn
the answers to some of the questions put by Benjamin Holman, formerly with
the Justice Department's Community Relations Service and now with NBC
news:
Have you ever wondered what it's like to be seven years old, and black,
in a slum school? Have you ever tried to find out how a young,
unskilled Negro husband tries to provide for his family? Have you ever
thought about the aspirations of a Negro teenager? Do you know what
soul food is? What do you know about the myriad of block clubs and
organizations in the ghetto community? What really goes on in ghetto
pool rooms? Do attitudes of Negro youngsters about sex differ from
those of whites? What is the meaning of the ritual of those store- front
churches? What does a young Negro father tell his son about being
Black in America? Why are there seemingly so many taverns in Negro
neighborhoods? What are the latest in-group jokes in the ghetto? There
is a fascinating world of humor, pathos, aspirations, frustrations, toil,
heartbreak, violence, and joy right under your nose.
The news organization that does not know the answers to these questions
cannot possibly do a balanced job of surveillance.
It is not the editor or publisher who writes the story, some may argue, and
accordingly it does not really matter whether he knows the black community.
He does, however, set the standards and policies that determine the allocation
of reporting resources, the amount of time or space alloted, the style in which
material shall be prepared, the policies toward coverage of the black
community, and the system of rewards and punishments. During the 1930's
and 1940's. even white reporters in the South could have done a better job of
covering the Negro community.
It the publisher, broadcaster, or editor refuses to know his community
beyond what he can learn at the country club or his wife can relate from her
bridge club, then he must rely on reporters who are willing to accept the
responsibility; and in turn, must relinquish some of the control he has
traditionally exercised. To trust the reporter's discretion was done long ago in
some news organizations for foreign correspondents and more recently for
54 Mass Media and Violence
the Washington correspondents. The news executive who neither learns nor
delegates his authority, infringes the people's right to know. He denies them
important information. He contributes to simplistic, inaccurate, and
stereotyped illusions of the reality of the black community and, worse, he
impairs his credibility and allows a condition to persist that promotes rumors.
2. There Can Be Progress
Progress is being made by those who seek to know their community and
are concerned. In Connecticut, for example, several of the media have begun
to establish lists of black leaders in each community, in order to learn the
organizational structure of the community, to know who has influence, how
many followers they have, and what their goals are. From this approach
comes an appreciation of the spectrum of views in the black community.
Just as important, again in Connecticut, some of the news organizations
are not only finding out who the leaders and organizations are, but they are also
establishing personal communication with them. One television station assigns
reporters to cover these organizations on a regular basis. Such a policy can
involve something as simple as calling the organization every week or two and
inquiring what they are doing, what plans they have, what programs they are
thinking about adopting, or what shifts in policy have occurred, and in
discussing current events. To make sure that the reporters are doing their job
and to assist management, the news director of the station can require the
reporters to file weekly reports on the coverage of their "beats."
White media operators make much of the fact that they cannot find out
who speaks for the black community. No one speaks for it, no more than
anyone speaks for the white community. George Wallace, John Lindsay,
Ronald Reagan, Edward Kennedy, James Eastland, John Gardner, Richard
Nixon, or Ralph Nader: none speaks for the white community; each speaks
for his own constituency, and that constituency may shift depending on the
issue. So it is with the black community. A range of organizations and leaders
has varying influence and shifting constituencies. Only by meeting with the
black leaders and the black organizations can the media begin to get an
accurate notion of how important each is to the black community, how many
followers or adherents they have, what views they have on a variety of
problems, and how they would react to fast-breaking news stories. Armed
with this kind of knowledge, the white media can begin to put fast-breaking
stories involving blacks in perspective. To achieve balance, they will not have
to go to the nearest street corner and ask whomever happens along for the
view of the black community. Nor will they have to rely on traditional news
standards which usually dictate a selection of the most vocal spokesman.
They will know who are the leaders.
There is another advantage to knowing the black community. People both
within and without the media have pointed out that some news media,
usually classified as liberal, are overly timid about criticizing black leaders or
about taking an editorial position opposed to a program of a black
organization. As one observer put it: "If a white man came in and proposed
that the Government do so and so, the news organization would say it was
ridiculous. But let a black man propose it and they take it seriously."
Intergroup Communication 55
It is not necessary to embrace the doctrines of Stokely Carmichael,
Malcolm X, or other advocates of black power to conclude that they were
never able to get their views across to the vast majority of white people. It is
sufficient to simply read some of their books 34 or speeches.
On an issue such as black power, the major responsibility for distortion
rests with the media. The issue, relatively new, was one in which the media
can be most effective. With Malcolm X or the Nation of Islam, the public had
little or no actual experience, a condition where media influence is greatest.
And, because whites were barred from Muslim meetings, no white could learn
information that might contradict what the media reported. Here is an
example in which approximately the same conditions existed:
Tiring of his routine on Saturdays during the football season, a New
York sports writer began writing fictitious stories about the spectacular
exploits of Sammy Chang, a whirlwind halfback for Plainfield New
Jersey Tech. There is no Plainfield Tech. Chang does not exist. But the
writer had presented the fictitious facts so vividly that in the balloting
for the Little All America team, Chang received the greatest number of
votes. 35
Most of the distortion is not the result of any conscious effort on the part
of the media to give black power a bad name. The major causes, rather, are
the media's indifference toward and lack of perspective on the black
community, the resultant relatively greater dominance of the media's
traditional high value on conflict, and the inadequacy of objective formula
reporting.
Life magazine, for example, has editorially committed itself to integration,
and it has great sympathy for the Negro cause. In a study of all integration
crisis photographs that appeared in Life during 1962 and 1963, 36 however,
more than half of those photographs show violence rather than passive
resistance; in addition, more than ten percent of these photographs portrayed
Black Muslims. Ebony, roughly the black press equivalent of Life, during the
same period, showed violence in only twenty percent of its photographs and
only one percent were of Black Muslims.
Similarly, what has the press done to distinguish between rejecting black
inferiority and a philosophy of white hate? If the Negro is to reject the
notion that white is right, that straight hair, thin lips, and light skin are
inherently more beautiful than knappy hair, wide lips, and black skin, he is
being taught to admire whites less. This, however, is something quite different
from teaching that whites are to be hated. Similarly, it is impossible to
explain to the black man the reason he has been cast in a subordinate position
for three hundred years, without recounting the offenses of the white
community against him. Finally, there are a good many blacks who believe
that today's institutions do not meet the needs of the nation or of the black
community. These institutions were built and are operated by whites. It does
not follow, however, that to advocate radical changes in these white
institutions necessarily betrays a racist position. Many white students today
advocate the same. The Crime Commission recommended radical changes in
the institutions that administer criminal justice. The Kerner Commission
recommended radical changes in white institutions. Many prominent white
politicians have advocated radical change in white institutions. No one has
56 Mass Media and Violence
suggested these men are racists, however, even though they attack white
institutions.
3. The Black Community and the White Press
Much of the antipathy of militant blacks toward the white news media
centers on the unwillingness of the press to explore the nature of black power
in depth. In reporting on the advocates of black pride or black power, the
news organizations have shown a greater willingness to accept the radical
statements and simply to repeat them than to explore their significance and
to place them in proper perspective. Karl Fleming, Los Angeles Bureau Chief
for Newsweek, has said:
The advocates of Black Power and the treatment they have received
by the press are undoubtedly one of the factors behind this situation.
Perhaps no better example can be put forth than the way we've treated
Stokely Carmichael. Let me make it clear that this is no polemical
defense of Carmichael; I know him and I know how erratic he can be at
times. He is sort of a hysterical Barry Goldwater, but the difference is
that the press was almost uniformly defensive of Goldwater. They
would go to interminable lengths to give him a second chance, going
back and saying Well, did you really mean this, Senator, or would you
like to clarify this? Exactly the reverse is true of Carmichael. The press
has uniformly, and I think deliberately, set out to distort what this guy
was trying to say about Black Power. 3 7
The press functions not only to survey, but also to criticize, and
responsible criticism has understanding as its prerequisite. If the media do not
first make the effort to understand the black community, they cannot
intelligently criticize it. If they do not criticize, they are abdicating another
of their obligations to the people. But criticism without understanding
becomes a hit-or-miss proposition and leads to black animosity toward the
media and a consequent drying up of news sources. Yet, much of the sting
from critical editorials lessens if the subject of the editorial believes he has
had at least a fair opportunity to be understood.
Similarly, the media cannot do an adequate in-depth report without
understanding. Consider the following account of the Nation of Islam's first
major encounter with the news media. In the spring of 1959, Louis Lomax
asked Malcolm X whether the Nation of Islam, of which he was then one of
the leaders, would cooperate in being filmed as a television documentary
program for the Mike Wallace show, known for featuring controversial
subjects. Late that year the program was broadcast.
The documentary began with a recording of a play presented by the Black
Muslims. Titled, The Trial, it depicts the white man being tried by the rest of
the world for crimes against blacks. The prosecutor's summation characterizes
the nature of the charges:
I charge the white man with being the greatest liar on earth. I charge
the white man with being the greatest drunkard on earth. I charge the
white man with being the greatest swine-eater on earth. Yet the Bible
forbids it. I charge the white man with being the greatest gambler on
earth. I charge the white man, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, with
Intergroup Communication 57
being the greatest murderer on earth. I charge the white man with being
the greatest peacebreaker on earth. I charge the white man with being
the greatest adulterer on earth. I charge the white man with being the
greatest deceiver on earth. I charge the white man with being the
greatest trouble-maker on earth. So therefore, ladies and gentlemen of
the jury, I ask you, bring back a verdict of guilty as charged.
The jury brought in a verdict of guilty and the applause of the audience
was so thunderous it drowned out the judge's voice as he sentenced the white
man to death. 32
Commenting on this broadcast in his autobiography, Malcolm X said:
"The Hate That Hate Produced"-the title-was edited tightly into a
kaleidoscope of "shocker" images . . . Mr. Muhammad, me, and others
speaking . . . strong-looking, set-faced black men, our Fruit of
Islam . . . white-scarved, white-gowned Muslim sisters of all
ages . . . Muslims in our restaurants, and other businesses . . . Muslims
and other black people entering and leaving our mosques . . .
Every phrase was edited to increase the shock mood. As the
producers intended, I think people sat just about limp when the
program went off.
In a way, the public reaction was like what happened back in the
1930's when Orson Welles frightened America with a radio program
describing, as though it was actually happening, an invasion by "men
from Mars."
No one jumped from any windows, but in New York City there was
an instant avalanche of public reaction. It's my personal opinion that
the "Hate . . . Hate . . ." title was primarily responsible for the reaction.
Hundreds of thousand of New Yorkers, black and white were
exclaiming "Did you hear it? Did you see it? Preaching hate of white
people!" 33
Contrast the treatment of Carmichael with Douglass Cater's observation on
the coverage of Congress:
Members of the press often apply a deliberate censorship. One
neophyte reporter who unwittingly quoted in print a rash remark
revealing bigotry on the part of a leading Congressman told me he was
afterward chastised by several of his press colleagues for his
indiscretion. 38
Under such circumstances, alienation of many black militants should
surprise no one. More and more, as a result, newsmen are being barred from
the meetings of black organizations and blacks are refusing to be news
sources. During the first week of the news program, Martin Agronsky's
"Washington," WTOP-TV sought a filmed interview with students at Howard
Law School who had recently been involved in a protest movement. The
students refused to take part in filmed interviews because the station would
have an opportunity to edit their remarks. They agreed, however, to appear at
the studio that evening for a live broadcast and did. Other Negro
organizations have permitted only black newsmen to be present at meetings,
58 Mass Media and Violence
presumably because they then have an even chance of having the proceedings
fairly reported.
Nevertheless, some of the blacks' objections to the media are imagined
slights. In view of the history of past transgressions and the lack of
understanding on the part of many blacks about how the media work, any
mistreatment is apt to be regarded as evidence of discrimination.
But the impact of the imagined slights can be reduced if the media initiate,
and the black community responds to, a closer association between the
reporters and their black news sources. Many organizations, both political and
private, exploit the news media to achieve their particular ends. More white
organizations than black know how to prepare and distribute a press release,
know whom to contact if they have a story they want told, know how to
present a story to the news organization, know what deadlines must be met,
and know the terms on which they can deal with the news media. Because of
the heritage of segregation and the past practice of the white press to ignore
blacks, however, this kind of public relations capability has not developed in
the black community to the same extent that it has in the white community.
Yet the media rely on such efforts by non-media organizations. Black coverage
deserves the same advantages.
At least two things can be done. First, there must be a conscious
recognition of this condition by the media. To achieve balanced surveillance,
they must compensate for this lack of public relations know-how among
black organizations in their own community by inviting representatives of the
organizations to attend seminars designed to instruct them in the methods of
obtaining publicity: Whom do you call when you have something you think is
newsworthy? How do you present if? How far in advance must the particular
media organization be notified? What kinds of things make news?
At the same seminar, the media should advise the Negroes candidly about
the problems of the news organization. The media should: (1) explain why
only a small part of the information or material gathered can be printed or
broadcast each day; (2) invite them to inquire about reports which they
believe treated them unfairly and be prepared to offer explanations; (3)
indicate that they cannot promise everything reported about the Negroes will
be good, but that they will make a sincere effort to be fair; (4) instruct them
in the methods by which they can provide information to the media without
fear of being quoted, e.g., background briefings, off-the-record statements,
not for direct-attribution statements. In short, the media should instruct
Negroes in the methods of using the media to that extent necessary to place
them on an equal footing with other organizations and news sources in the
community.
Such an approach would help establish an integrated perspective on
society. Integrated employment in news organizations would also help.
4. Integrated Newsrooms
Most city rooms and broadcast studios a decade ago were almost totally
white, and it has caused apprehension on the part of the Negro community.
In the mid-1950's, it was very difficult to find a black face in the American
press corps. Progress did not begin until the approach of the sixties, although
the motive was more a desire for integration by progressive editors than a
Intergroup Communication 59
desire to develop pipelines into the Negro community. Blacks were hired as
reporters, not as black reporters. 39
By 1964, not much progress had been achieved. The American Newspaper
Guild could name only 45 Negroes working as reporters, copyreaders, or
deskmen on metropolitan daily newspapers in the United States. At best, not
more than 100 Negroes had such jobs, yet the U. S. Bureau of Census
estimated 50,000 jobs of the kind described. 40
In 1967, the Kerner Commission found that fewer than five percent of the
news editorial employees in the United States were Negroes. Fewer than one
percent of the editors and supervisors were Negroes, and most of those
worked for Negro-owned organizations. A poll in 1968, sponsored by
Columbia University and B'nai B'rith, found that Negroes who represent
over 1 1 percent of the nation's population constitute 4.2 percent of all news
media editorial employees. The highest percentage of Negro employees were
reported by magazines an average of 5.1 percent, and the lowest by radio
and television stations and network respondents 2.7 percent.
C. Sumner Stone, the first Negro television news commentator, began in
1965 with a daily news-analysis program. Today, according to a. Newsweek
survey: "The 5 to 7 p.m. time slot hardly looks like an NAACP convention,
but nearly every metropolitan area outside the South is kept informed by at
least one Negro newsman." 4
The major networks declined to give their statistics to the Columbia study
group; but their replies to the Violence Commission showed their
employment of Negroes to be considerably higher than this 2.7 percent figure
for industry, generally. 42 The employment by the three commercial
networks is:
Professional Nonprofessional
Negroes (percent) non-white (percent 3.9)
ABC 3.9 10.2
CBS 4.5 15.7
NBC 4.0 8.6
Many of the non-white professionals have been hired during the last year. For
example, of the 29 professional Negroes employed by NBC in both their
network radio and TV news operations, seventeen have been hired within the
last year, 25 within the last two years only four have been with the network
for more than two years.
In addition, the networks have made an effort to improve the number of
their representatives from minority groups. NBC has a news-writing program
in which twelve nonwhites have been enrolled, and has made a commitment
to train a total of 21 minority group members at a total cost of $127,551
annually. ABC's professional and technical trainee programs for Negroes
began on July 1, 1968, with four Negroes enrolled by September 1968. The
unions primarily involved in television work AFTRA, SAG, Writer's Guild,
and Director's Guild have stated their complete willingness to cooperate.
CBS initiated its first training program last year.
Several individual stations surveyed by the Mass Media Task Force of the
Violence Commission have either started special training programs for
60 Mass Media and Violence
Negroes or have emphasized Negro recruitment for regular employment or
management training programs. These efforts include WLWT's (Cincinnati)
training program for "hard-core" unemployed, KFMB's (San Diego)
on-the-job training program for minority group members, and its junior year
internship for a student from Hampton Institute in Virginia.
A number of stations have cooperated with local schools and universities
by offering use of staff and equipment for Radio-TV courses. WSAV-TV
(Savannah) took the initiative in requesting the state Department of
Education to establish Radio-TV vocational training programs and offered to
donate $100,000 in equipment to encourage the program. Two stations,
KAKE-TV (both Wichita), cooperate in an explorer scout TV training
program in which young men produce, sell time, and air six variety programs.
Twenty -nine Negro employees work at WRC-TV and radio, an NBC owned
and operated station in Washington, D.C., and contrary to the findings of the
survey reported in the Columbia Journalism Review, a number of stations
employ seven to twenty Negroes with a number of these in editorial
positions.
However, stations in two cities with high concentrations of
minorities Mexican-Americans in San Diego and Negroes in
Savannah showed practically no representation from these groups among
their station personnel. In Savannah, WTOC-TV employed one Negro,
WSAV-TV four. In San Diego, the record was a little better; two stations,
KOGO-TV and KEBS-TV, employed one Mexican- American each; KFMB-TV
had two, and KCST-TV kept no records. By contrast, television and radio
stations in Washington, D.C. reported high employment of minority group
members, including Spanish-Americans and Orientals.
The Columbia University survey of the news media showed that
newspapers reporting in their nationwide survey had an average of 4.7 percent
Negro editorial employees. The Washington Post, one of the Commission's
survey papers, listed the largest proportion of Negro employees among
newspapers: 388 Negroes, including 50 editorial employees, out of a total of
1850 employees 20.9 percent. At the other end of the spectrum, the
Evening Tribune of San Diego and the Cincinnati Enquirer each reported only
one professional Negro on its staff.
One constant theme expressed by the journalists is that the media do not
need journalists on welfare to cover poverty, segregationists to cover the
Klan, policemen to cover the police beat, or black journalists to cover black
news. Some news organizations, such as the ABC network, have integrated
crews and refuse to cover an event if being black is a prerequisite for
admission. What these journalists suggest is that the media need educated,
sophisticated, imaginative, and aware journalists to cover the whole of
society.
But this does not mean that there is no need to make a special effort to
recruit Negroes and members of other minority groups. It should be done
because it is right, and also because it is beneficial to the news organization,
which will then be better able to achieve perspective on their community if
they are in daily contact with peers who are black. In the process of
associating on the job with members of the black community, news staffs will
become more sensitive to minority issues and take one more step toward
balanced reporting. Like many Americans traveling to Southeast Asia who
Intergroup Communication 61
cannot distinguish between Vietnamese, Thais, Chinese, and Cambodians,
many white American newsmen cannot distinguish between the various
shades of militancy and philosophy of the blacks. Only by prolonged
association can they begin to achieve the necessary skill and insight.
Moreover, the very presence of black reporters in a news organization
helps allay the antipathy of some blacks toward the media. This aversion is
approaching serious proportions. Recently Karl Fleming observed:
Personally, I feel a kind of despair because I see the day coming
when it may become impossible for the white press and for me as an
agent thereof to cover this story. The last time around was bad enough.
But I think this hostility has reached the point where in some places
and certainly in some organizations, it has become absolutely
impossible for a white reporter to even get in and find out what's going
on. 43
Greater use may have to be made of black reporters to cover some black
stories than their numbers would dictate. But it is an undesirable practice.
The sooner the news media succeed in gaining the perspective required to
cover the ghetto the way they do the rest of the community, and the sooner
they establish the same close relationship with their black news sources as
they have with white institutions, the sooner the reporter's color will not
matter. The media cannot complain about restrictions on white reporters
until they have developed reporters capable of covering the black community
as well as they do the white community.
Reporting black news should not be the only assignment of the black
reporter, however. Equally important is to have him cover events in which
whites or mixed groups are involved. If the black reporter's perspective is
limited only to those experiences gained in the black community, the
reporting he produces is just as likely to be distorted as that of the white
reporter ignorant of the black community.
In one respect black reporters are probably clearly more qualified to serve
as a conduit for intergroup communication than their white counterparts.
The essential requirement of the reporter who is to serve this function is
familiarity with both communities. Blacks are more knowledgeable about the
white community than whites are about the black community.
5. What Facts Are Significant?
Beyond integrating their news staffs and their perspective on the
community, news organizations can do much individually or collectively to
expand their awareness of the communication needs of the community they
serve. The first step would be to study the communication gap between the
various groups in the community. Useful lessons can be drawn from a study,
such as recently commissioned by WFBM-TV in Indianapolis, Indiana. 44
Taking a representative sample of 400 Negro and 400 white households, the
survey explored a wide range of subjects and issues: the social and economic
characteristics of the black and white communities, black militancy; the
relative concern with the quality of municipal services, neighborhood
62 Mass Media and Violence
conditions, housing, employment, education, police relations; attitudes
toward civil rights and civil unrest; and finally, the role of television in the
community. Not surprisingly, white and black perceptions of the same issues
differed widely in several instances.
In another example noted earlier, the Louis Harris survey found that 49
percent of Negroes and only eight percent of whites thought police brutality
was a significant factor in Negro rioting. The two groups obviously have
somewhat different perceptions of the problem probably because, until
relatively recently, the white press largely ignored instances of police
brutality. This suggests why, on the one hand, the white community does not
see police brutality as significant, and why, on the other hand because many
of the targets of police brutality have been Negroes and the vehicle for
communicating such "news" within the black community has been word of
mouth the black community will tend to exaggerate the extent and ferocity
of police brutality. The solution to this disparity in perception is for the
media to cover, regularly and systematically, incidents that may involve
police misconduct in the black community. This approach will increase the
awareness of the white community, and, as the media become credible with
the black community, it will provide through formal channels of
communication a more accurate portrayal of the extent of the problem, and
thus displace rumors as the main source of information.
Consider also the following example of what can be done with a straight
news story reported by Martin Hay den, editor-in-chief of the Detroit News:
. . . [A] few years ago, a police sergeant in the traffic division was
murdered by a Negro at one of the exit ramps of the Edsel Ford
Expressway. This occurred during one of those summer periods of
tension, and thoughtful community leaders were severely troubled by
the possibility of racial explosion. Two exacerbating factors were at
work on the community. On the one hand, there was a conviction
among too many whites that a largely "criminal" Negro population was
carrying its war against the police to the point where all Negroes
condoned Negro lawlessness and where no Negro would cooperate with
police efforts to catch a Negro ciminal. At the opposite pole, there was
the too general opinion among Negroes that brutality was the rule of
the Detroit Police Department, that any Negro in police hands was
lucky to emerge alive and whole. The tragic death of the police sergeant
was to disprove both points.
The officer had chased a reckless driver up the ramp from the
expressway. As he was being questioned, the driver suddenly lunged at
the officer, pulled his service revolver from its holster, knocked the
policeman down with one shot, shot him several more times as he lay
on the ground, and then fled.
Officers answering radio calls in the largely Negro neighborhood
found an abundance of Negro witnesses, who described the killer and
gave the license number of his car. Within an hour, officers were at the
killer's house. At the door, they were met by the killer's wife, whose
initial question was, "Is the policeman dead?" The police found the
dead officer's service revolver under the killer's bed.
Intergroup Communication 63
Here was a "cop killer" caught immediately after the event by the
dead officer's friends and colleagues. In another era, he might have been
taken away in a morgue wagon, his peremptory execution masked by a
claim that he resisted arrest. But it didn't happen. He was delivered to
the station unmarked, and at no time thereafter was there any defense
claim that he was mistreated.
All these details were reported in the following morning's
newspaper. The key facts that Negro witnesses brought about the
quick arrest and that all the civil rights of the accused were protected
by the arresting officers stood as editorial contradiction of the
preachments of racial extremists, both white and black. 45
The Detroit News has also tried to deal with Negro concern over police
brutality by reporting the number of cases in which police officers have killed
people: Three in 1962; four in 1963; six in 1964; and, at that time, eight in
1965-six of the men killed were white and two were Negroes. 46 Addressing
themselves to the concern of the white community and their frequent
indictment of Negroes as criminals and fear that the streets are unsafe, the
Detroit News emphasized other statistics:
. . . that most crimes are non racial that is, Negroes commit crimes
against Negroes, and whites against whites and that an even greater
percentage of killings result from family quarrels or arguments, usually
drunken, between people who know each other. We point out that such
crimes are beyond preventive action by the police and could not be
averted if there were an officer on permanent station in every block. 47
Another major concern of many middle-class whites is that the integration
of their neighborhood will have a depressing effect on home property values;
this concern intensifies when a black attempts to move into a white
neighborhood. At least three newspapers around the country have assigned
reporters to do an in-depth investigation of the effect of integration on
property values. Juanita Green of the Miami Herald went to the county
records to find out what had happened to the price level of homes in newly
integrated neighborhoods. She found that they had either remained stable or
risen. 48 Such reporting won't make the bigot welcome a newly arrived black
neighbor, but the elimination of such myths should make it easier for some
and force others to confront their own consciences.
For newspapers and broadcasting, as for other segments of society, it
was clear that, however the racial crisis would be handled, it would not
be unbiased. In fact, because the mass media catch the society in A
magnified and concentrated form, the editor who bemuses himself with
the notion he is unbiased can only contribute to the confusion. If we
have learned nothing else in the last ten years, certainly we have seen
that the man who says, "I treat everybody alike, regardless of race,
creed, or color, on a first-come, first-serve basis," is either a fool or a
knave. The differences between people and what we do about
them are what this racial crisis is all about. 49
Reporting which values and those facts which dispel illusions contrasts
64 Mass Media and Violence
radically with the "we are-mirrors-of-society" theory of journalism. It is a
conscious selection of the information that enables the people to function
more knowledgeably and more rationally in discharging their obligations as
citizens in a democracy.
REFERENCES
l."Of Black America: CBS News Special" Broadcast Tuesday, July 2, 1968, 10-11
p.m., e.d.t.
2. Gordon Allport, The Nature of Prejudice. (Cambridge, Mass: Wesley Pub. Co., 1954)
3. Theodore Peterson, "Magazine Content: The Nude in 'Jubilee' and Other Pleasures,"
Speech at School of Journalism, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, April 16,
1968, p. 4.
4. Ralph McGill, The Black American and the Press, Jack Lyle, ed. (Los Angeles: Ward
Ritchie Press: 1968), p. 29.
5. George P. Hunt, Managing Editor of Life, 'The Racial Crisis and the News Media:
An Overview," in Race and The News Media Paul L. Fisher and Ralph Lowenstein,
ed., (New York: Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, 1067), p. 12.
6. Wendell Philips Garrison and Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison: The
Story of His Life Told by His Children, Vol. 1 (New York: The Century Co., 1885),
p. 200.
7. Vernon L. Parrington, "The Romantic Revolution in America," Main Currents in
American Thought, II (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co. 1927), p. 356.
8. George P. Hunt, op. cit. footnote 5, p. 13.
9. Ibid, pp. 13-14.
10. Ibid, p. 14.
11. Armistead S. Pride, in Lyleop.c/Y. footnote 4 pp.3-4.
12. Henry Lee Moon, "Beyond Objectivity: The Fighting Press," in Fisher and
Lowenstein, op. cit. footnote 5 pp.137.
13. Ted Poston, 'The American Negro and Newspaper Myths," Ibid. p. 65.
14. Ibid. pp. 64-65.
15. Ibid. p. 66.
16. Moon, op. cit. footnote 12, pp. 135-36.
17. Lyle, op. cit. footnote 4, p. xii-xiv.
18. William B. Monroe, Jr. "Television: The Chosen Instrument of the Revolution," in
Lyle, op. cit. footnote 5, p. 85.
19. Hodding Carter, in Lyle, op. cit. footnote 4, p. 38.
20. Louis E. Lomax, The Negro Revolt (New York: Signet, 1963), pp. 92-93.
21. Joseph L. Brechner, "Were Broadcasters Color Blind," in Lyle, op. cit. footnote 5,
p. 99.
22. Poston, op. cit., footnote 13, p. 66.
23. Carter, op. cit. footnote 19, p. 49.
24. Monroe, op. cit. footnote 18, p. 84.
25. Ibid. p. 86.
26. Karl Fleming, in Lyle, op. cit. footnote 4, p. 30.
27. Ibid.
28. Poston, op. cit. footnote 13, pp. 66-67.
29. William Rivers and Wilbur Schramm, Responsibility in Mass Communication, rev.
ed. (New York: Harper and Row), p. 185.
30. Quoted by Hunt, op. cit. footnote 5, p. 15.
31. New York city ghetto News science project. 32.
32. Lomax, op. cit. footnote 20, pp. 181-182.
33. The Autobiography of Malcolm X (New York: The Grove Press, 1964) pp. 236-238.
34. Ibid; Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton, Black Power: The Politics of
Liberation in America (New York: Vintage Books 1967).
35. Rivers and Schramm, op. cit. footnote 29, p. 149.
Intergroup Communication 55
36. Leslie Sargent, Wiley Carr, and Elizabeth McDonald, "Significant Coverage of
Integration by Minority Group Magazines," Journal of Human Relations, Vol. 14,
No. 4 (Fourth Quarter, 1965).
37. Fleming op. cit. footnote 4, p. 31.
38. Douglass Cater, The Fourth Branch of Government (New York: Vintage Books,
1959) p. 55. The passages which follow indicate that the self-censorship may cover a
range of subjects: "Senators have been seen to stagger drunkenly onto the Senate
floor and deliver unintelligible harangues without creating* a ripple in the press.
Considering the great glare of publicity that beats down on Congress, the
unillumined corners are the more curious.
This protectionism even covers some of the collective activities of Congress.
Year in and year out minor frauds on the public understanding are committed
without being duly noted by the press. Each year, for example, the House
Appropriation Committee or one of its subcommittees virtuously makes deep cuts
in appropriations bills for funds already contractually obligated. Each year this
action is duly rewarded by newspaper accounts that the Committee has 'slashed' the
budget by such and such an amount. And later each year the Committee quietly
restores the cut in its 'supplemental' appropriations. Yet, one reporter told me,
though tempted he wouldn't dare lead his story with the fact that the congressmen
have made this cut with the full expectation, as in former years, of restoring it later
in the Session when the public isn't looking.' pp. 55-56.
39. Martin S. Hayden, Editor in Chief, The Detroit News, "A View From Detroit," The
Media and the Cities (Charles N. Daly, Ed.) (Chicago: Chicago University Press,
1968), p. 64.
40. Fisher and Lowenstein, op. cit., footnote 5, p. 8.
41. Quoted by Woody Klein, 'The New Revolution: A Postscript," in Fisher and
Lowenstein, op. cit. footnote 5, p. 158.
42. Additional data are provided in Appendix II-G
43. Fleming in Lyle, op. cit., footnote 4.
44. Preliminary survey report sponsored by WFBM-TV Indianapolis, and performed by
Frank Magjd and Associates.
45. Hayden, op. cit. footnote 39, pp. 28-29. 46.
46. Ibid. p. 31. 47.
47. Ibid.
48. See testimony of Norman Isaacs at NCCPV hearings, Dec. 18, 1968, transcript, p.
184.
49. Lawrence S. Fanning, "The Media: Observer or Participant?" in Fisher and
Lowenstein, op. cit. footnote 5, pp. 107-108.
Chapter 5
THE MARKETPLACE MYTH:
ACCESS TO THE MASS MEDIA
To give the news impartially, without
fear or favor, regardless of any party,
sect or interest involved.
Credo of New York Times,
August 19, 1896
The First Amendment presupposes that right
conclusions are more likely to be gathered
out of a multitude of tongues than through
any kind of authoritative selection. To
many this is, and always will be, folly; but
we have staked upon it our all.
-Judge Learned Hand,
United States v. Associated Press,
52 F. Supp. 362 (S.D. N.Y.) (1943)
It is the purpose of the First Amendment to
preserve an uninhibited marketplace of ideas
in which truth will ultimately prevail,
rather than to countenance monopolization
of that market, whether it be by the Government
itself or a private licensee.
-Mr. Justice White,
Red Lion Broadcasting Co. Inc.,
v. Federal Communications
Commission, 89S. Ct. 1794
(1969).
Unbalanced and inaccurate surveillance of minority groups is not
solely the product of the nation's segregationist heritage. Negroes,
Mexican- Americans, Japanese, Chinese- Americans, and Indians have more
difficulty securing media access than white Americans; yet another barrier
exists, this one more from an ideological than from a racist heritage. The
67
68 Mass Media and Violence
outstanding characteristics of ideas that have difficulty gaining access are that
they are new, that their proponents lack prominence by traditional media
standards, and that they threaten the values of the social group to which the
broadcaster or publisher belongs. In the last fifteen years, substantial progress
has been made toward providing more coverage of the activities demon-
strations and protests of minority groups and marginal progress in coverage
of their ideas. What is needed, however, is more attention to minority views
and less attention to the physical dramatization of conflicting ideas.
Much of the American first amendment tradition and philosophy is
founded, as we have seen, on the 18th century libertarian's assumption of
how the press would function in the search for truth and reason. A press
unfettered by government, the libertarian believed, would create a
marketplace of ideas similar to the classical economist's marketplace for
goods and services. This kind of marketplace, the theory ran, would produce
truth in much the same way Adam Smith's classical economics market
assured the optimum allocation of goods and services. So long as men were
reasonable, and a majority honest, the speculations and abuses of the few
would be more than offset by the majority. Truth, justice, and a rational
world would inevitably emerge.
Like Adam Smith's marketplace for products, however, certain conditions
must be met before the marketplace of ideas can function according to
theory. In Smith's marketplace, there had to be a sufficient number of sellers
and purchasers that none could affect price; as a corollary, Smith's theory
abhors monopolies or conspiracies in restraint of trade. Similarly, one of the
underlying assumptions of a smoothly functioning marketplace of ideas is the
equal opportunity to take ideas to the public. No control should prevail over
access to the marketplace. The government has dealt with monopolization of
goods and services through the antitrust laws. There is some evidence the
courts are moving toward a theory of the first amendment that will allow the
government to act to prevent monopolization in the distribution of ideas.
Whether the government acts and how much it does will depend largely on
how serious the problem becomes.
In 1790, The United States had a total of eight daily newspapers and 83
weeklies. When the Constitution was adopted, 97 percent of the population
lived in places so small that they were not even called towns. Of the
remaining three percent, most lived in towns whose populations were under
25,000 most only a few thousand. Under these conditions, the individual
could make his opinions known by giving a speech on Sunday outside the
local church or by getting a printer to put up a broadside and by posting it in
taverns and in other public gathering spots around town. With relative ease he
could have an impact.
Today, unless the individual has access to formal channels of
communication, it is almost impossible for him to have an impact. His ability
to communicate widely is extremely limited. As a minimum, an effective
marketplace requires access on approximately equal terms by all those with
messages. Long ago, perhaps, a newspaper might have been started with
relatively little capital by one whose views were strong enough to demand
that they be aired. Even today, it is probably possible to blanket a city the
size of Washington, D.C., with a four-page broadside for about $1,500.
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 69
Sometimes, television, radio, and newspaper advertising space can be
purchased to carry a non-commercial message. These are communication
outlets, but obviously they are not available to all; for many, they would be
less than adequate.
Access to the American public for the message bearer is limited by both
mechanical and human constraints. Present mechanical limitations of the
media make it impossible for more than a fraction of the potential
communications to be carried to society at large. Existing newspapers,
magazines, radio and television stations, and other media in this country
could not possibly simultaneously accommodate the individual views of the
125 million Americans over the age of eighteen. Obviously, there is neither
sufficient space nor time.
Mechanical limitations lead to human limitations. Because the media
cannot carry all of the messages, someone must select and reject. The process
of selection thus becomes a limitation of critical importance, and the media
owners and gatekeepers are the first barriers to media access.
Under the traditional view of the first amendment, the role of the
gatekeeper and the right of the owner to choose, are plenary. It makes no
difference whether the choice is representative or honest, or whether it meets
the public's requirements for information.
The nation's broadcasters, publishers, and editors decide who shall have
the opportunity to be heard an understandable and pragmatically necessary
process. But, with the present structure of the communication business, it
results in a marketplace far different from the 18th century concept of a
marketplace for ideas. The ultimate barrier to communication is, of course,
the audience. The significance of that barrier depends in part on how media
operators choose to present the news. That the media print or broadcast a
message does not guarantee that the audience will pay attention or will retain
the message. Yet here, too, the media have some control.
A. Access: The News Media Audience
Although the audience is at the end of the communication process, its
role as a barrier to new ideas is more conveniently discussed first because
audience characteristics that impede communication are also operative, in
varying degrees, on newsmen.
There has always been a tendency among journalists to regard the bulk of
their audience as not very bright. 3 This makes it relatively easy to excuse
themselves of all responsibility when the message is garbled. In theory, the
journalist is a professional and the audience is his client. In fact, most
newsmen know very little about their audience except that it includes their
editors and publishers, their friends and neighbors, and their peers. Moreover,
few seem to have any serious desire to learn much about their larger audience.
If they devoted more attention to the needs of their real clients, the public, it
would become clear that to an important degree journalists must share
responsibility when messages don't get through.
Audiences tend to expose themselves to media messages that support their |
predispositions. A study by Wilbur Schramm and Richard Carter, for
example, found that Republicans are approximately twice as likely as
70 Mass Media and Violence
Democrats to watch a Republican-sponsored telecast. While those opposed
to a particular view have a tendency to avoid such material, the great bulk of
what passes for "news" in the modern media is not labeled pro-Republican,
pro-Democrat, nor is it attached to any other ideology. The opportunity for
selection is far less in the case of news. Moreover, in such media as radio and
television, which are linear and fugitive, the opportunity for selective
exposure on hard news programs is practically nil. If a viewer watches the
news and two-thirds of Americans regard television as their most important
news source it is difficult for him to avoid a particular segment; his choice is
limited to turning the set off. Regular viewers of news programs can be
expected, therefore, to receive exposure to almost everything that is
broadcast. The decision whether or not to watch a particular documentary
program is more likely to be made on the basis of the issue, than on the point
of view presented. Again, the opportunity for selective exposure is very low.
In contrast to television hard news programs, a newspaper story is regarded
as highly successful if it is read by 30 percent of the audience. Newspaper
stories presented without any predictable slant, however, cannot be sorted on
the basis of the reader's predispositions. Selection, like the documentary, will
be subject oriented. On the editorial page, when the reader is familiar with
the publisher's position on various issues, selective exposure will be operative.
The second characteristic that may distort the media's message is selective
perception. Some people go to incredible lengths to assimilate information in
a manner that supports their personal prejudices. 6 A group of subjects shown
a subway poster portraying a Caucasian, a Negro, and an Oriental, and
labeled, "It Takes All Kinds of People to Make a City Run," will tend to
interpret the poster to fit their attitudes on racial equality. Those believing in
equality tend to see the poster as a strong appeal for racial tolerance; those
not supporting equality more frequently interpreted the poster as suggesting a
city needs Negro garbage men, maids, and Chinese laundries. To prejudiced
subjects, it is obvious that by performing these functions, members of these
minority groups could be good citizens.
It does not follow, of course, that it is pointless to report facts that do not
support public preconceptions. That, in any given instance, part of the
audience may misinterpret the message only suggests that the media cannot
change attitudes instantly. A member of the National Mobilization
Committee has stated; that the amazing aspect of the audience response to
television coverage of the Chicago disorders at the Democratic convention
was not that 70 percent of the American people were sympathetic toward the
police; rather it was that 20 percent thought the police were wrong. Changing
attitudes to conform with changes in reality is a slower process that some
believe, but the news media must continue to report reality, regardless of how
comfortably it fits audience illusions or desires. Every idea begins as a
minority point of view.
Like selective exposure and perception, selective retention is also governed
by audience predispositions. 7 In one instance, shortly after President
Kennedy was elected, two groups of college students were asked to read an
article favorable to the President-elect. The pro-Kennedy students learned the
material sooner than the anti-Kennedy students.
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 71
A third characteristic of audience communication behavior suggesting
limitations on the ability of the media to change opinions was well
documented for the first time during an investigation of voting behavior in
the 1940 election. 8 Many voters who had changed their positions indicated
the change was primarily influenced by other people, not the mass media.
An attempt was made to identify such people and they were labeled "opinion
leaders." 9 Additional studies, involving drug buying by doctors 10 and
adaption of new agricultural techniques, 1 1 have been made on the interplay
between media, opinion leaders, and their followers. Many of these studies
also found that opinion leaders paid far more attention to the mass media I
than did their followers. People who are not influenced directly by the media
are influenced by those who are. A second consideration, which indicates that
this phenomenon is not as limiting a factor as some seem to believe, 12 is that
in most of the studies, relatively immediate action was sought on the issue
involved. Under such circumstances, the role of opinion leaders will be
substantially greater. 1 3 This finding is consistent with Shibutani's conclusion
that rumors are more carefully scrutinized when immediate action is
required. 1 4 The implication is that, where no immediate action is required, as
in the vast majority of news reports, the cause-and-effect relationship is more
likely to be direct and, concomitantly, the mediating role of opinion leaders
is less. 1 5 It also suggests that laboratory experiments that require immediate
action e.g., answering questions would tend to have an inherent bias toward
findings that the influence of the media is less than it would be in a more
natural setting.
Another relevant fact is that there are not merely two classes of
people those who support a particular point of view and those who oppose
it. Ordinarily, on any issue, opinion ranges from strong supporters to strong
opponents, and somewhere in the middle are those who have not made up
their minds. Evidence also exists that the processes of selective exposure, "ft
perception, and retention do not operate on "new" issues. 1 6 Thus, the media I)
have more effect on whether to deploy ABM's than on the desirability of
prohibition legislation.
Similarly, media messages are more likely to influence audience opinions
on such issues as student disorders where people have few preconceptions
than they are on such issues as national elections, where audiences already
may have developed strong opinions. To be sure, audiences may have some
general predispositions about young people, about how an educational
institution should be run, and about the role of faculty, administration, and
students in the decisionmaking process. But on a new issue, these broader
attitudes may conflict. For example, a person could believe that university
faculties and administrators are eggheads in an ivory tower who do not
prepare young people to function in the outside world, and the same person
could simultaneously believe that law, order, and property are sacred values.
If, on the one hand, the information presented in the media emphasizes the
students' desire for courses more closely related to their needs after
graduation e.g., at Howard Law School recently, students thought that more
emphasis should be put on poverty law than international law then the
reader or viewer might very well sympathize with the students. If, however,
the emphasis is placed upon conflict, violence, and destruction of property,
72 Mass Media and Violence
an individual holding these conflicting views might oppose the students
because, even when there is some small mention in the news account of the
inadequacy of the curriculum, he would be opposed to violence. Among
audience members who rank order and obedience to the law high in their
system of values, media emphasis on the disruptive and unlawful aspects of
dissent impedes the communication of minority views. In addition, at least
one study suggests that messages that produce a high level of anxiety as
messages with a high quantum of violence are apt to do tend to
communicate less effectively. 17 Messages that disturb the audience and offer
no solution may be ignored altogether.
Neither the studies referred to in this chapter, nor, indeed, all the audience
studies available are likely to provide complete answers to the question of
how the journalist can overcome audience bias and get his message through
the way he intended it. Most of these studies are unrelated to this issue. They
were attempts to study voting behavior, or the effectiveness of propaganda,
or training films, etc. There is, however, remarkably little evidence that
practicing journalists are even interested in what information is available. At
the least, schools of communication and journalism, as the repository of
intellectual talent, could contribute by exploring the problem more fully and
preparing a generation of journalists who regard distorting audience
characteristics as a barrier to the effective communication that can be
lowered through the reasoned application of research findings.
B. Access: The Newsman 's Perspective
The ability to present news objectively and to
interpret it realistically is not a native
instinct in the human species; it is a product of
culture which comes with the knowledge of the past
and acute awareness of how deceptive is our
normal observation and how wishful our thinking.
Walter Lippmann
The audience is neither the first nor the most important barrier to access.
The newsman's perspective is relevant in at least two respects. First, to the
extent that it is responsible for not reporting or biased reporting of the events
that frequently give rise to dissent, it creates the need for access. Second, it is
an obstacle to the presentation of views by those who are unhappy with the
status quo, and when dissidents do secure media coverage, it is only a partial
cure because the technique for gaining access (demonstrations and other
forms of protest) is frequently emphasized at the expense of the ideas for
which access is sought.
Consider the following accounts of the same event:
STUDENT PICKETS
MARCH IN CAPITAL
Washington (AP) Students picketing for peace marched four abreast in
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 73
spring-like weather to Arlington National Cemetery Saturday, demonstrating
their hopes for disarmament and an end to nuclear testing.
STUDENT MARCH ON CAPITAL
TINGED BY BEARDED BEATNICKS
By Robert E. Baskin, Washington Bureau of the News. Washington Left-
wing student peace marchers with a definite beatnik tinge marched through
the streets of the capital Saturday on a pilgrimage to the Tomb of the
Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.
The first story was written by the Associated Press, the second by Robert E.
Baskin, Washington bureau chief of the Dallas News. 1 9 In each case, it appears
the reporters were simply holding up Clifton Daniel's mirror.
Selective exposure, perception, and retention not only affect the audience;
they also affect the newsman. Like their audience, journalists bring their own
set of preconceptions to their craft, preconceptions produced by their
environment, their position in the community, their business relationships,
and the requirement that they earn a profit. The biases are both conscious
and unconscious. In both cases, however, the remedies are the same:
acknowledge the problem exists and, through a combination of conscious
effort, changed perspective, and new institutional arrangements, work toward
the elimination of systematic distortion.
A gatekeeper is any person who is so situated in the news gathering and]
disseminating process that he has control over the content and form of the I
news. Although the term has been applied to news sources, in this chapter itf
is used exclusively to refer to media personnel.
One of the earliest gatekeeper studies was performed by David Manning
White and reported in 1950. 20 It was the examination of the editor of a
newspaper with about 30,000 circulation in a midwestern community of
about 100,000 population, whose job was to select material from the wire
services for the front page. During the week analyzed, Mr. Gates (a
pseudonymn) used approximately 10 percent of the 12,400 column inches
received from the three wire services.
The 56 phrases he used in justifying rejection of material divided into two
main categories: the story was unworthy of being reported (423 rejections),
and the selection from many reports of the same event (910 rejections).
One rejected story had the notation, "he's too red." Another was marked,
"Never use this"; it dealt with Townsend Plan, which Mr. Gates felt was of
doubtful desirability. Another story was marked, "don't care for suicides."
One story on the trial of Cardinal Mindzenty was rejected with the
notation "propaganda," it dealt with this statement by Samuel Cardinal
Striech:
It is very unfortunate that our news agencies are not giving their
sources of information in their day by day reports on the trial of
Cardinal Mindzenty. It should be made clear that restrictions have been
made on a few American correspondents who have been present at the
trial. 20a
74 Mass Media and Violence
Mr. Gates, of course, had no way of knowing whether the story was true or
false, but apparently resented the obvious implications of the quote, and
decided his readers should not have the opportunity to exercise their
independent judgment. The story was also rejected when received from the
other two wire services.
These were isolated instances, but they do indicate this particular editor
had some definite opinions on what news was fit to print based on something
other than a neutral standard. In sum, approximately 16 pieces were rejected
as "propaganda," the remainder were apparently rejected for reasons
unrelated to content. Gates was found to be conservative both in his politics
and his style. He consistently avoided sensationalism and insinuations.
Professor White summarized:
It is a well-known fact in individual psychology that people tend to
perceive as true only those happenings which fit into their own beliefs
concerning what is likely to happen. It begins to appear (if Mr. Gates is
a fair representative of his class) that in his position as "gatekeeper"
the newspaper editor sees to it (even though he may never be
consciously aware of it) that the community shall hear as a fact only
those events which the newsman, as a representative of his culture,
believes to be true. 20b
Louis Donohew approached the effect of publisher's opinions on news
content from a different direction. 21 He attempted to measure publishers'
attitudes, their perceptions of community opinion, and objective data on
community conditions, on the content of the newspaper. He chose to
examine Medicare, a subject of some salience in 1962, when it was debated
before the Congress. He examined the issue during January, May, June, and
July of 1962 in all the afternoon newspapers that subscribed to Associated
Press in the State of Kentucky.
Beginning with the hypothesis that publishers would follow the journalist's
credo that the publishers' opinions should be on the editorial page but not in
the news columns, 22 Donohew examined the ratio of favorable to
unfavorable paragraphs on Medicare carried by each paper, the total number
of paragraphs on the issue, and the display of the Medicare stories both on
page one and in other sections of the newspaper. If the hypothesis that the
publishers' attitudes, perceptions of community opinion, or the actual
economic conditions within the community had no effect upon the play of
the story, then there would only be random correlations between the
coverage and these three factors. At least two of these factors, it was found,
were strongly correlated to the treatment of the story at a level well beyond
coincidence.
The greatest single factor operating in the process of news selection was
the publishers' attitudes toward Medicare. The publishers' perceptions of
community opinion, e.g., how the community would have voted on the issue,
were not significantly related to the coverage. In those communities that
would apparently be in the greatest need of Medicare, the publishers seemed
to be opposed to it. Newspapers that were more favorable to Medicare in
most instances had publishers who favored Medicare and they usually
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 75
supported it editorially. Generally, these were the papers with relatively
greater circulation. They tended to serve urban communities with larger white
collar populations, with fewer people receiving old age assistance, and with
fewer people in the $3,000 or less income bracket, but with more doctors per
thousand population. The contrary was found in papers that were less
favorable to Medicare. Little or no relationship existed between coverage by
the papers and the percentage of readers over the age of 65, the percentage of
the vote given John F. Kennedy, the level of unemployment, or the level of
education.
Systematic exclusion was approached from a third direction by Professor
Warren Breed. 2 3 He compared the content of newspapers with community
studies, by examining a book of cartoons rejected by popular publications
and by interviewing newsmen.
The subject matter from the community studies was selected on the basis
of Professor Breed's opinion of material that might be suppressed. Typically,
Professor Breed's study shows that the media have a tendency not to report
such items as: elite individuals or groups, usually business, gaining advantage
in a privileged manner; negative aspects of religion, such as lack of piety or
respect, by parishioners, discontent shown by the clergy, or "human
weakness" in church relationships; doctors acting in a selfish, rather than a
professional, fashion; national or community pride or integrity in question;
shortcomings in mothers, judges, or other institutions which middle-class
white society regards highly.
The power and class of favored individuals do not provide a complete
explanation, however, because mothers, overseas GI's, members of churches,
and unknown soldiers are not normally regarded as elite groups. The
dominant cultural patterns and values also provide protection from media
exposure. Values such as capitalism, the home, religion, health, justice, the
nation, and the community, also receive favored treatment. Similarly, the
media's reluctance to discuss social class or social inequality, as the antithesis
of the American creed, indicates another bias favoring established values.
News may also be given play more or less depending upon its position in
the newspaper. The front page is the prime time of daily newspapers. During
the 1952 presidential campaign, Richard M. Nixon was charged with
accepting $18,235 from some 76 California supporters. A study by Arthur
Rowse indicates that many Republican papers placed the story on the back
burner:
Any review of the way thirteen evening papers displayed the Nixon
story makes it clear that editors were in no hurry to get the news into
the paper. They were even less enthusiastic about getting it onto the
front page. Of the thirteen evening papers studied, only four put the
story on the front page at the first opportunity on Thursday
afternoon . . . The four papers using the report on the front page
included only one pro-Eisenhower paper, the Chicago Daily News,
which spotted the newsworthiness of Peter Edson's column and played
it up with a three-column headline on the first page . . . Three other
evening papers used the story the first day but buried it inside the
paper. . . . Five evening papers apparently did not use the Nixon story
76 Mass Media and Violence
in their editions of record until the next day . . . One paper, the New
York Journal American, could not find room on the front page for the
story until Sunday, the fourth day the news was available.
Of the eighteen morning papers studied all pro-Eisenhower on their
editorial pages only eight allowed the Nixon affair on the front page of
their Friday editions of record. Of the remaining ten morning papers,
seven used the story somewhere in their editions of record on Friday.
But three omitted it entirely from the issues studied. 24
Relations with the business community and the process of
self-examination indicate a somewhat more conscious form of distortion. Ben
Bagdikian has described it thus:
[Newspapers] are part of a Geneva Convention of Newspaper Warfare
which provides that whatever else the parties may do, they shall not
escalate their competition to the point where they shall first, expose
each other's errors and omissions; second, write about the other's front
office problems even if these affect the public welfare; and third, never
disturb the business establishment. 2 5
In 1966, the Bell-McClure syndicate offered serialization of Ralph Nader's
book, Unsafe at Any Speed, to over 700 newspapers. None of them
accepted. 26
The Jackson Clarion-Ledger and News jointly owned newspapers in
Jackson, Mississippi, were brought before the U.S. District Court on charges
alleging violation of the federal laws barring overtime pay. A permanent
injunction was issued barring continuation of the offending practices.
Reporters from the Jackson papers were ordered to stay away from the court
and they did. Not a single word appeared in any of the Jackson papers. 27
Reporters Hank Messick and Jim Savage, of the Boston Herald, were told
to stop inquiries concerning complicated stock transactions in Universal
Marion Corporation in which Joseph Linsey had an interest. Mr. Linsey, a
well-known Boston businessman and philanthropist, was president of a
company that owned stock in the Herald-Traveler Corporation. Mr. Messick
was subsequently dismissed and Mr. Savage quit after his request for
"permission" from the Herald to interview Mr. Linsey was ignored. 28
Frequently, distortion is the product of sloth and indifference. Provided
the opportunity to get something for nothing, many newspapers take it. One
editorial from the Industrial News Review in Portland, Oregon, was published
in 59 newspapers. Distributed during the reign of Latin Dictator Trujillo, it
began: "Today the Dominican Republic is a bulwark of strength against
communism and has been widely cited as one of the cleanest, healthiest,
happiest countries on the globe. The guiding spirit of this transformation has
been Generalissimo Trujillo." The Miami Herald editorialized, "Somehow
dahlias, daisies, pine trees, and 65 weather are not the picture that most
people visualize when they think of the Dominican Republic, but yet this is
what . .. ." And two weeks later in the Hartford Courant, "somehow dahlias,
daisies, pine trees and 65 weather," etc. This editorial was supplied free of
charge and was published in 59 newspapers with apparent disregard of
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 77
whether it was based on truth or the Dominican Government's public
relations program. 29
Consider also the following coincidence: 30
Secretary of Interior Udall has become a symbol of the Kennedy
Administration arrogance coupled with overriding, zealous activity to
run roughshod over private interests and spread Government control.
He is a prime example of the danger of bestowing too much power on
Government agencies ....
-July 17, 1963, Republican
Congressional Committee
Secretary of Interior Stewart L. Udall has become the symbol of the
New Frontier Administration arrogance coupled with overriding,
zealous activity to run roughshod over private interests and speed
Government control of our lives and properties. He is a prime example
of the danger of handling too much power ....
-July 22, 1963, Item in
Delaware State News.
William Allen White, former editor of the Kansas Emporia Gazette,
expressed the problem this way:
If he is a smart go -getting-up -and -coming publisher in a town of
100,000 to 1,000,000 people, the publisher associates on terms of
equality with the bankers, the merchant princes, the manufacturers and
the investment brokers. His friends unconsciously color his opinion. If
he lives with them on any kind of social terms in the City club, he must
more or less merge his views into the common views of the other
capitalists. The publisher is not bought like a chattel. Indeed, he is
often able to buy those who are suspected of buying him. But he takes
the color of his social environment.
He is pretty generally against organized labor. He is too often found
opposing the government control of public utilities. He instinctively
fears any regulation of the stock exchange. The right to strike seems to
the rich publisher and his Chamber of Commerce friends to be sheer
anarchy. It is inevitable that the managing editor and the editorial
writers who want to hold their jobs take their professional views and
get their professional slant from their boss, the man who signs the
payroll check.
So it often happens, alas too often, that a newspaper publisher,
reflecting this unconscious class arrogance of the consciously rich,
thinks he is printing news when he is doctoring it innocently enough.
He thinks he is purveying the truth when much that he offers seems
poison to hundreds of thousands of his readers who don't move in his
social and economic stratosphere . . .
The worst of it is that, bad as he is, the crookedest, rich, property
minded publisher is vastly better than he would be if he was operating
under a government -controlled press. For on seven sides out of ten,
Mass Media and Violence
the most prejudiced, unscrupulous publisher is fair and his columns in
those areas are reasonably dependable. 31
While this may overstate the case, if it is intended to apply to all
publishers, it is still certainly true of too many today.
To the extent there is a trend, it appears that the direct influence of
publishers in altering reporters' stories is declining. In the 1930's, Leo Rosten
provided a questionnaire to be filled out anonymously by Washington
correspondents. Among the statements on the questionnaire was "My orders
are to be objective, but I know how my paper wants stories played." To this,
more than 60 percent of the correspondents answered, "yes," indicating they
felt some pressure to slant their dispatches in a manner consistent with their
publisher's leanings. Another statement said "In my experience I have had
stories played down, cut or killed for policy reasons." To this, slightly more
than 55 percent wrote, "yes."
When the same questions were asked in the early 1960's, less than ten
percent replied "yes, my orders are to be objective, but I know how my boss
wants. stories played," and only slightly over seven percent replied that stories
had been killed, or played down for policy reasons. 32 Similarly, for hard
network news programs and national newsmagazines, the evidence suggests
that outside influence by advertisers or non-news network executives is
practically nil.
While these findings on Washington correspondents may provide some
comfort, the absence of pervasive publisher .influence on Washington
correspondents does not necessarily mean their brethren in other parts of
the country fare as well. The Washington correspondents are, as a group,
amongst the most able professionals in journalism. Their distance from the
home office makes control more difficult, and their generally high level of
competence gives them somewhat more independence than reporters of lesser
recognized talent.
C. Access: News Media Structure and Competitive Practices
By the mid-20th century, the structure of the news media as we know it
today was largely formed and is the structure with which we must begin our
concern. The news .media are represented by a multitude of individual
examples, but with very few exceptions the major news media share common
characteristics imposed by their common economic and business orientation.
Two characteristics stand out. First, many news media are sensitive to
their need for large audiences to a degree individual members of their
audience may find difficult to comprehend. Second, the media tend toward
concentration of ownership, influence, and control, as do other major
businesses.
1 . The News Business
,- Much of the news media's close to neurotic response to criticism is owing
/ to what Ben Bagdikian has described as the "built-in schizophrenia" of
I American journalism. The news media "have to be godless, profit-making
\ corporations and, at the same time, be selfless community institutions
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 79
devoted to the unbiased education of the public." This inner conflict of J
American journalism, cannot be ignored. ff
The news media with the largest audiences radio, television, newspapers,
magazines depend upon advertising revenues. The sums involved are large. ^
Radio and television advertisers paid more than $3.2 billion in 1967 to
present their products to the American public. 3 * Newspaper publishers
receivSTmbre than $5 billion from their advertisers, and magazine publishers'
advertising income equaled $1.3 billion. The media's advertising revenues
have consistently represented 3.5 percent of consumer expenditures in the
United States. 34
Although the sums paid for advertising are high, the number of businesses
that contributes these sums is relatively small. In 1967, 100 advertisers
contributed 30 percent of all money spent on national advertising and 80
percent of the expenditure for national TV advertising. More than a fourth of
TV advertising dollars was spent by the ten largest advertisers. This
concentration in media spending by advertisers is matched by concentration
in advertising-agency billings: 30 percent of total 1967 agency billings, and 46
percent of TV billings were placed by only ten agencies.
No one denies that the media are generally very profitable, although
exactly how profitable is a source of some dispute. Most consistently decline
to disclose their finances. Federal Communications Commission data indicate
that 1967 earnings before taxes for radio were approximately $80.8 million
on revenues of $907.3 million. 36 Television earned pre-tax prof its of $414.6
million on revenues of $2.3 billion. 3 7 Profits on television station operations
average approximately 30 percent of gross revenues and about 16 percent for
the three national networks. 38 The networks and their fifteen owned and
operated stations earned $55.8 million on revenues of $953.3 million in
1967, down from earnings of $78.7 million on revenues of $903.9 million in
1966. 39 Earnings for fifteen network owned and operated stations were 39.6
percent of revenues.
Pre-tax earnings in 1967 of the TV networks and their fifteen owned and
operated stations were $160.1 million on assets of $147.3 million, almost 109
percent return on book value of assets. 40
The newspaper business, simply in terms of physical production of papers,
is larger than most of the manufacturing industries in the nation's economy.
The economic value of its production is greater than that of the drug industry
or the meat products industry, and roughly equivalent to that of the
petroleum refining industry. 41 Since World War II, the newspaper industry
has grown substantially. The number of employees increased from less than
250,000 in 1946 to more than 350,000 in 1966, a rate of growth far greater
than that of all manufacturing industries. Daily newspaper circulation now
stands at more than 61.5 million compared to less than 51 million in 1946.
Newspaper advertising revenues have increased about 400 percent since 1946.
Although between 1950 and 1966 newspapers' share of total advertising has
declined from 66.3 to 49.1 percent because of the growth of television, they
continue to be the single largest advertising medium. This preeminent
position of the newspapers in advertising is largely owing to their 61 percent
share of the expenditures by local advertisers for local media.
Other indications of the growth of the newspaper industry since World
80 Mass Media and Violence
War II include an increase in the average number of pages in daily newspapers
from 22 to 53, the increase in newsprint consumption from 3.5 to 9 million
tons per year, and the increase in annual capital expenditures from $80
million to over $169 million.
Like television, the print media rank among the more profitable businesses
in the United States. The print media, overall, earn about 18 percent on gross
revenues. 42 Estimates for the average earnings of medium-sized and larger
daily newspapers range up to 30 percent.
In these circumstances, it is not surprising that the media are frequently
accused of paying too much attention to their advertisers and too little
attention to the public who, if journalists are professionals, should be
regarded as their clients.
Criticism of direct advertising pressures upon publishers is one of the most
durable. It is personified in the snivelling publisher who kills the story of a
department store owner's divorce under threat of losing the store's substantial
advertising revenues. Evidence to prove that assertion is, however, in very
short supply. Newsmen asked about it replied that a news operation is most
vulnerable to advertising pressure when it is economically weak and,
correspondingly, it is most able to resist pressure when it is strong. In a
one-newspaper town, advertisers may be more subject to newspaper pressures
than vice versa. In at least one instance, a daily newspaper published a list of
companies whose news releases should not be printed because they do not
advertise in the paper. 43 This, of course, is as objectionable as exercise of
influence in the other direction.
j On television news programs, direct influence by advertisers is essentially
j nonexistent. The case is somewhat different for documentaries. Here it
j appears primarily in terms of the choice of subjects for documentaries.
Documentaries, however, are the most crucial part of the television
journalism, because they provide the mass audience with the only kind
of programming about vital issues in depth. There is abundant evidence
that despite protestations about plenty of hard-hitting documentaries,
the networks consistently shy away from subjects which will be
unpopular, either by failing to attract large ratings and thus sponsor
interest, or by alienating some section of the community. 44
There are also exceptions among newspapers. On the afternoon of March
29, 1968, word was received at the copy desks of both afternoon Chicago
papers that under no circumstances was the word "Carson's" to appear in the
banner headline of the next edition. That was the afternoon of a large fire in
a store owned by Carson Pirie Scott & Co. The explanation by the Chicago
Journalism Review:
Carson's is a big advertiser, and somebody in their advertising
department might not like seeing the name of his institution in the bad
company of other words like "fire," "ablaze," or "holocaust." Of
course, maybe nobody cared particularly either, since it was a fact, and
not even the advertising department could do anything about that.
Newspapers, however, weren't about to take a chance on the latter. 45
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 81
The report goes on to suggest that much of the coverage featuring clothes
and fashion, travel, and business news is designed to keep advertisers
happy good news on these subjects deserves to be printed. "In contrast,
Operation Breadbasket's boycott of A & P Food Stores was pointedly ignored
by the downtown dailies until young blacks tore through a North Side A &
p 46
A similar motivation has been ascribed to the Boston Globe and the
Boston Traveler decisions to print misleading weather information during the
Easter shopping period. 47
More important than the influence of particular advertisers is the effect of
policies adopted to maximize profits. With high fixed costs, there is pressure
to maintain the maximum possible audience.
For the print and electronic media, the cost of production has little
correlation to circulation. If a newspaper or news magazine goes to the
expense of gathering the news and selling and preparing the advertising
messages to support it, the incremental cost of extra press runs is relatively
low. The equipment is already there, and newsprint and ink costs for a
medium-sized newspaper typically are about 26 to 28 percent of total
expenses. For larger newspapers it is considerably lower. The pressure is
greater for television. It costs television no more to produce a program whether
30 or 30 million people watch. Yet, the single most important measure of
revenues will be the projected cost per thousand television households
delivered. If enough viewers are delivered for the network to break even,
additional viewers produce additional revenues at no additional cost. It is for
this reason that the pressures on the news media to attract and maintain
audience may seem quite out of proportion to small shifts in ratings or
circulation. Although network news officials insist that a few points change in
the ratings are not important to them, an examination of the emphasis placed
on news program ratings in the trade press and institutional advertisements in
magazines like Broadcasting strongly suggests otherwise. 48
The accusation has frequently been made that the news media cater to the f
lowest common denominator in public taste. Vej^fe^cjitjcs^^ \
we know have undertaken to explain how news^ executives jietermine what J
appealsj:o the lowest comjnpji^norninator. It is simply one ofthose cliches
that have gained acceptance among those ^vho think the media should meet
their particular standards. Certainly, if "lowest common denominator" means
that the media appeal solely to the uneducated, they are wrong. Were this so,
the majority of educated Americans would turn to smaller circulation
media as many ofthose at the top of the educated spectrum have done.
More likely, the effect is for the media to present material of the broadest \
possible appeal, necessarily aiming at middle America. It is also true that the
same high premium is placed on not offending any significant segment of the
audience. 49 It is this requirement that makes it more difficult for new ideas /
to gain access and limits reporting on those conditions which give rise to/
much of today's dissent.
The need not to offend is greatest for national news media and those with
large circulation in metropolitan areas. To limit audience alienation, large
circulation media prefer to report ideas or factual stories that are either
inoffensive or on which there is relatively broad agreement or wide
82 Mass Media and Violence
acceptance. When they must report controversial ideas or offensive facts, they
prefer to speak through the person of a recognized figure a government
official, prominent businessman, or recognized expert. Although exceptions
are made for news commentators, like Eric Sevareid, who have sufficient
national stature to entitle them to broadcast such opinions, in the main
| television rarely covers new ideas until they are talked about by people of
^recognized importance.
Although preference is given to action to attract large audience, the
networks seek to avoid offending. Both practices are apparent from the
following description of Vietnam coverage by Robert MacNeil:
At CBS, Vietnam hands used the expression, "shooting bloody" to
describe the filming they had to do to get on the air. It was not that
they were ordered to shoot only war scenes, but when they shot a
political story or the progress of the pacification program as well as war
scenes, it would be the action film which the program producers
selected. Night after night for two years, American families have seen
badly wounded Americans, sacks of dead Americans being loaded for
shipment home, sprawled heaps of small, dead Vietnamese bodies.
There are those who believe that this portrayal of horror has sickened
Americans and turned many against the war, which has seemed
increasingly pointless. Yet the horror has been heavily edited, and that
may also have had a political impact The grisly truth has been
shown in the screening rooms of the network news departments. There
would be close-up footage, with sound, of a young soldier, whose leg
has been shot away a moment before, screaming obscenities at the
medics, pleading with them in desperation to stop his agony. 50
Avoidance of the controversial is not the result of a directive or other
overt expression of policy. As with other newsroom taboos, journalists soon
learn what is and what is not acceptable through newsroom gossip and
observation. When particular kinds of items are consistently rejected, no one
has to tell them they are wasting their time turning in more. 5 1
2. News Media Concentration
The second aspect of the news business that inhibits a marketplace of ideas
is concentration of control, cross-ownership within the same market, and the
\ relative homogeneity of perspective among news media owners.
At the close of 1968, there were 671 commercial and 169 educational
television stations. 52 Of the commercial stations, all but a handful were
affiliated with or owned by one of the three commercial networks. Each of
the three national networks owns five VHP stations in major markets and
together are affiliated with 542 stations-CBS, 192; NBC, 200; and ABC,
ISO. 53 One hundred and forty of the non-commercial stations are affiliated
with the National Educational Television network.
Many of the nation's commercial radio outlets are tied together by
network ownership or affiliation. CBS owns and operates seven AM FM
stations and is affiliated with 244 other stations and, in addition, operates the
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 83
CBS Pacific network with 2 1 affiliates. ABC also owns six AM-FM stations
and, operating four separate networks, has some 900 affiliates. Of the
remaining approximately 4,700 commercial radio stations serving the
country, 696 are affiliated with one of the 44 smaller networks. 54
Those commercial TV and radio stations that are network affiliates receive
network news programs and, in addition, as of 1966, Associated Press
serviced 2,600 domestic radio and 324 television stations; the UPI service
went to 3,078 broadcasters, 320 radio-TV stations. 55
The prominence of chain ownership in both radio and television has
increased steadily. In 1939, 39 chains owned 109 AM radio stations or 14.3
percent of all AM radio. In 1967, 373 chains owned 1,297 AM stations or
31.4 percent of the total. The pattern is similar in television. In 1956, 81
chains owned 203 TV stations or 45.8 percent. In 1967, chain ownership had
grown until 147 chains owned 459 stations or 73.6 percent. 56 Although the
number of commercial television outlets between 1956 and 1967 increased
from 443 to 623, the number of station owners remained constant, 321.
Newspapers have no exact counterpart to the three broadcasting
networks, but the major wire services and news and feature syndicates
perform much the same function. The older of the two major wire
services Associated Press provides news and features to more than 1,200
member daily and weekly newspapers. United Press International serves
nearly as many newspaper subscribers.
[O] nly 16.4 percent of the dailies receive a service other than AP or
UPI. And most of these are large dailies which also receive both AP and
UPL The New York Times Service has one hundred subscribers, the
Chicago Daily News more than seventy. None of the other
approximately forty-five supplemental news agencies serve as many as
sixty dailies. The only foreign news service received by more than one
or two newspapers is Reuters, with forty-one subscribers.
Obviously, large segments of the population rely on AP or UPI for
their picture of the world. Their newspapers and their broadcasting
stations subscribe to no alternate source of non-local news. 57
Beyond these common sources of news and feature content, there is a
tendency toward ownership of the nation's newspapers by fewer and fewer
publishers. In 1910, over 600 cities had competing daily newspapers; by
1965, there were only 43 cities with fully competitive dailies. 58 JnJ7
percent^f jailjai^s^!apO]aarkets, only one owner is represented^ ^JThgjO
Iarges_t^d^jiescapture39pe^ In fflS^oSy 62
of tlie^ore^trTaTrXbOU"7Ia^ ownedEyTs chains . 6 * Today ,
more than half (59 percent) of the total daily newspaper circulation belongs
to 871 dailies owned by 157 chains, and one group alone accounts for 6
percent of the total. 62 One witness before the Senate Antitrust and
Monopoly Subcommittee in 1968 projected that at the present rate of
expansion all the daily newspapers would be chain owned within twenty
years and all Sunday papers within thirteen years. 63 Nearly two-fifths of the
chain-owned papers are owned by twenty chains, and more than one-fourth
84 Mass Media and Violence
are owned by twelve chains. Nineteen of the 25 largest newspapers in the
country are chain owned.
The trend toward one-newspaper cities has made the problem of
cross-ownership of media within the same market more acute. In the fall of
1968, there were 55 cities in which there was ownership or control of a
television station by a monopoly newspaper, plus six more cities in which the
newspapers were operating under a joint publishing agreement and one or
both of the papers owned a television station. In 23 of the 55 cities, the
monopoly newspaper controlled the only television station in the city. In 78
cities, the only daily newspaper owned or controlled the only AM radio
station. Overall newspaper ownership of radio and TV stations did not
significantly increase during the 1960's, and most of the TV-newspaper
combinations resulted from acquisitions that occurred some years ago. In
view of the increasing number of single-daily cities, however, any additional
newspaper acquisitions of television or AM radio facilities should be closely
examined.
3. Acquisition of Suburban Newspapers
One of the most important competitive developments in the newspaper
field has been the rise of the suburban, or "community." daily. This growth is
a countertrend operating against the increasing number of single-newspaper
cities. Between 1945 and 1962, for example, the weekday circulation of
suburban dailies in the 10 largest metropolitan areas rose from 2.8 million to
5 million, an increase of 80 percent, while the circulation of metropolitan
dailies rose only 2 percent, from 16.2 million to 16.5 million. 64 Just as
suburban merchants are taking business from the downtown merchants,
suburban newspapers are effectively competing for circulation growth that
might otherwise go the downtown papers by default.
The city dailies are responding, of course. Many have adopted zoned or
regional editions, in which separate sections are added to the downtown
papers that are distributed in particular suburban areas. These separate
sections carry local news and advertising sold to local merchants at a rate
substantially less than that for advertising appearing in the paper's total
circulation sections. Zoned editions are evidently the most effective
competitive weapon available to the downtown daily facing major suburban
competition short of acquisition of the suburban competitor.
As the suburban papers grow and thrive, metropolitan papers will
increasingly be tempted to meet this new competition by the easiest
means acquisition. By acquiring its suburban competitors, a downtown
paper can take advantage of suburban growth without the expense and
trouble of zoned editions and without improving its own product to provide
comprehensive, in-depth, area-wide news coverage. It can promote the "two
newspapers on every doorstep" concept without sacrificing advertising
revenues and with each of the commonly owned papers freed from the
urgency of sharpening its performance, and it can institute combined
advertising rates that will effectively forestall the entry of new competition.
Should the trend to downtown-suburban mergers continue to develop,
another source of new voices in the community would be cut off.
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 85
Within the last two years, the Justice Department has won two cases which
suggest that such a trend can be prevented under the antitrust laws. One case
involved the acquisition of the San Bernardino Sun-Telegram by the
downtown Los Angeles Times. The acquisition took place in 1964, involved
the purchase by the largest daily newspaper in Southern California, or, to put
it another way, the acquisition by the only remaining Los Angeles morning
daily of the largest morning daily newspaper within 75 miles of Los Angeles.
The District Court found that the acquisition violated the Clayton Act, and
has ordered divestiture of the Sun in order to restore it as an independent
competitive force. The decision is on appeal by the defendant, but if
affirmed, it will be an important roadblock against the trend toward
concentration of the newspaper market in Southern California. The decision
will also provide a valuable precedent applicable to other situations where a
trend toward acquisition of suburban competitors may be developing.
4. Syndicated Features
Another problem area closely related to the competitive struggle between
metropolitan dailies and the emerging suburban competitors is "syndicated
features." Major newspaper syndicates acquire copyrighted materials, such as
columns, comics, and crosswords, and they engage in the business of licensing
newspapers to publish these features. Over the years a practice has developed
whereby unduly broad exclusive territorial rights to the features have been
sold to the metropolitan papers. 65 The effect of this practice has been, of
course, to deprive many non-metropolitan newspapers of the opportunity to
purchase and publish many popular features. Sometimes the area of
exclusivity extends out for more than a hundred miles around the city in
which the large daily publishes, and thus includes wide areas in which the
metropolitan daily is not even a significant competitive force. Sometimes
newspapers will even buy features they do not publish, simply to keep them
out of the hands of their competitors. Numerous complaints have been
received by the Department of Justice, which has had negotiations with some
of the major syndicates to determine if the problem can be alleviated through
a consent settlement.
On Sept. 14, 1966, the Department of Justice secured a consent decree
from the World-Journal-Tribune. The defendant agreed to waive exclusive
right to publication in the New York city area of nineteen features formerly
appearing in the three merged papers, The Herald Tribune, World- Telegram &
Sun, and Journal-American. 6 6
Like distributors of syndicated features, both Associated Press and United
Press International have a long history of business practices which
substantially increase barriers to entry by newcomers and discriminate against
smaller news organizations. 67
5. Joint Publishing Agreements
In approximately two dozen cities there have emerged some quite
recently arrangements under which newspaper publishers combine their
production facilities and commercial functions but retain separate ownership
86 Mass Media and Violence
and separate control of news and editorial departments. Most such
arrangements have the following characteristics: Establishment of a third
corporation to manage and operate the business functions of both newspapers
(sometimes one newspaper acts as the managing partner); composing,
stereotyping, and printing the newspapers of both parties in a single plant;
consolidation of advertising and circulation departments; allocation of the
morning field to one newspaper and the evening field to the other (this often
includes the shutting down of one or more newspapers); allocation of the
Sunday field to one newspaper or the other; pooling of profits by the parties
to the agreement; and the establishment of either forced or optional
combination advertising rates. Sometimes the parties technically reserve to
themselves the right to fix their advertising rates independently, but this
reservation is a mere formality when profit pooling is involved.
Profit pooling is the most offensive feature of these joint arrangements
because it necessarily removes much of the incentive for either party to the
agreement to try to increase its circulation at the expense of the other.
Marked increases in advertising rates have been observed shortly after some of
these arrangements were put into effect. Nor can continuation of commercial
competition between the papers be expected when the advertising and
circulation departments are not kept separate in fact as well as in form.
Arrangements whereby competing newspapers simply pool manufacturing
and distributing functions is not necessarily undesirable or illegal. An
arrangement of this kind can make possible savings in plant, equipment, and
labor costs; insistence on inefficiency is not one of the objectives of current
antitrust laws. But profit pooling and price fixing are designed to improve
profits, not by eliminating inefficiency, but by eliminating all commercial
competition between the papers, and to that extent are probably unlawful
under current antitrust decisions.
It was on this basis that the Department of Justice challenged the legality
of a joint publishing agreement between the Arizona Daily Star and the
Tucson Daily Citizen as a per se violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act.
The agreement, in effect since 1940, provided for profit pooling, agreement
on advertising rates, and allocation of markets. Also involved in that case was
a challenge to the 1966 acquisition of the Star by the Citizen on the grounds
that it violated Section 7 of the Clayton Act. At the time suit was brought
these two papers were the only daily newspapers published in Tucson,
Arizona. The district judge in that proceeding has already indicated that he
regards certain aspects of the operating agreement unlawful, although no final
decree has been entered (July 4, 1969).
Related is a bill now in the hearing phase before the Senate Antitrust and
Monopoly Subcommittee. Originally introduced as the "failing newspaper
act" it has been relabeled the "newspaper preservation act." Hearings were
suspended at the end of June 1969, pending the disposition of the Tucson
newspaper litigation. The objective of the bill would exempt from the
antitrust laws mergers and joint newspaper operating agreements involving
one or more "failing newspapers" which are defined to include any paper
that "appears unlikely to remain or become a financially sound publication."
This is a radical extension of the traditional antitrust exemption provided for
failing companies. In addition to unduly relaxing the failing company defense
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 87
already available to merging companies, the bill would legalize the
profit-pooling and price-fixing features of joint publishing agreements. The
bill has been strongly opposed by many suburban dailies on the ground that
such an exemption would place them at a severe competitive disadvantage.
While there is a definite trend toward concentration of the control of news
sources, recently there is a good deal of evidence that the government has
taken an active interest in stopping this trend and possibly reversing it. Until
recently, in the whole history of the antitrust laws the Justice Department
has filed only about a dozen cases in the newspaper field. 68 In part this was
no doubt owing to the recognition that there may not always be an exact
correlation between maintaining advertising competition and promoting the
social values inherent in a multiplicity of voices. In recent years there has
been some refinement of antitrust doctrine and a sharpening of the tools of
analysis that have provided new confidence. In 1967, the Department
challenged the attempted acquisition of the American Broadcasting Co. by
International Telephone and Telegraph Corp. (ITT). Among the grounds
urged for disallowing the merger were that ITT was a potential entrant into
broadcasting and CATV, and that ITT was an important source of the
technology and engineering skills needed to multiply channels for mass
communication. More recently the department took a position before the
FCC opposing cross-ownership.
On Jan. 30, 1963, the Federal Communications Commission made clear it
was opposed to combined broadcasting-newspaper advertising rates a
practice that makes entry of new media and survival of old media more
difficult. On June 21 , 1965, the Commission adopted a proposed rule making
an interim policy that would have prevented chain ownership of more than
three (two VHF) television stations in any of the top 50 markets, but the
Commission has already made exception to this guideline on at least four
occasions. This year the Commission launched a broad investigation of
broadcast ownership that will include cross-ownership, chain ownership, and
ownership by diversified corporations.
While we would not oppose government efforts at de-concentration, as a
practical matter the administrative and political problems that would have to
be overcome make substantial progress unlikely. With the exception of
ownership of television stations by newspapers in the same market, the
limited government resources available would be better directed toward
preventing additional concentration, eliminating competitive practices, and
planning for the future development, particularly of CATV, along lines most
conductive to providing a marketplace for ideas.
D. Access: Coverage of Protest
The increased frequency of boycotts, sit-ins, picketing, parades, and
large-group protest meetings has generated public and governmental concern
over the news media's and particularly television's coverage of these events.
In the late 1950's and early sixties, many southerners believed that if the
media would not cover these events, they would not happen. Today many in
the North share that view. Some Americans thought such events were one
continuous dramatic production staged for and sometimes by the television
88 Mass Media and Violence
networks. Criticism has ranged from claims that the media distort the events
they report to bald assertions that they incite riots simply by their presence.
At one time, a demonstration, a boycott, a sit-in, or any other form of
confrontation, even when non-violent, almost guaranteed coverage by the
news media. Today, the greater number of non-violent demonstrations have
reduced their efficacy as a technique for access, but still appeal to traditional
news values and provide the action desired by television.
Apparent to any observer of the American scene for the past fifteen years
is that this technique for gaining access is used by those who have not been
admitted through traditional channels. General Motors, the President of the
United States, or the Chamber of Commerce do not need a parade or physical
confrontation to attract media attention. Dissenters have the problem of
attracting not only media attention, but also public attention. The
non-violent demonstration is a press conference for those who cannot
otherwise command the attention of the media and its public. Although
demonstrations would probably occur infrequently if the media did not cover
them, press conferences would also occur less frequently if the media did not
cover them. Those who object to nonviolent demonstrations may object to
the format of the press conference, just as often they disagree with the
message.
The criticism that "media coverage of conflict causes conflict" proceeds
from an inaccurate assumption: that media coverage is both a necessary and
sufficient condition for conflict. It is neither. The causes lie elsewhere, in
social conditions and tensions.
One of the earliest accusations that television was the cause of violent
eruptions in the process of social change is that of former New Orleans Mayor
deLesseps Morrison. Integration of New Orleans schools was less than
peaceful. At first he attempted to place the responsibility on Leander Perez,
political boss of an adjoining parish. When that met with little success he
labeled television the primary villain. Blaming television was an afterthought;
the real cause of violence was his own neutrality toward the Supreme Court's
desegregation order, the unlawful posture of the governor, the Louisiana state
legislature's policy of massive resistance and refusal to support the local
school board, and the neutrality of civic leaders. 69 Where government and
civic leaders are willing to cooperate in securing orderly social change, it seems
clear that the press can be of assistance without seriously damaging its
traditional standards of journalism. 70
The immediate effect of non-coverage of protest would probably be less
protest; for those who subscribe to the ostrich theory of journalism, this may
be the short-term answer. But protest is an attempt to communicate, to tell
the public that the social machine is in trouble.
America continually readjusts its intergroup relations in the pursuit of
certain fundamental democratic values. Readjustment, however, can generate
severe tension. As de Tocqueville has said:
Only a consummate statecraft can enable a king to save this throne
when after a long spell of oppressive rule he sets to improving the lot of
his subjects. Patiently endured so long as it seemed beyond redress, a
grievance comes to appear intolerable once the possibility of improving
it crosses men's minds. For the mere fact that certain abuses have been
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 89
remedied draws attention to the others and they now appear more
galling; people may suffer less but their sensibility is exacerbated.
The alternative to continuous readjustment is massive repression, which
would produce a society neither dynamic nor democratic. Without media
attention, the tensions of change could not be identified, much less alleviated.
Media performance is subject to criticism on at lea v st two grounds. As
suggested earlier, to the extent the media have not focused on the conditions
underlying much of today's protest they have reduced the likelihood that
these problems would be met before growing to such serious proportions.
Even here, however, the failure of the media performance cannot be regarded
as the only cause. Some of these conditions were covered but were largely
ignored. The second criticism is that the news media slight the causes of
protest at the expense of reporting the manifestations of discontent, physical
confrontation.
If there were systematic balanced surveillance of the community, the need
for demonstrations as vehicles for communication would not be so great. If
the news media did not place such a high value on conflict and action, the
character of protest might be quite different. If the public and its government
had attended to the problems which beset them today, our society would not
be in such a state of upheaval.
1. Influence of Media Presence
One commentator has said, "Nothing, but nothing, ever happens the same
way it was after you put a TV or movie camera on it! The fundamental
problem is that TV reporters are so conspicuous that, without intending to,
they can't help but influence their own coverage." 71 To the extent his
presence is obtrusive, no reasonable and honest newsman can deny that his
presence has an effect on the event he is covering. Another has observed,
"A newspaper reporter equipped with pencil and pad subtly
influences the event he is covering; a still photographer with his cameras
dangling about his neck may change it more. And a television camera
crew, with their lights and large equipment, can transform the event
into an entirely different scene. So much so, in fact, that it is
questionable if TV is capable of reporting the news objectively." 72
Reporting the news objectively, in this sense, means reporting it as it would
have happened if the newsman were not present. There is little doubt that his
presence has an effect on the behavior of protestors. Consider the following
description of television coverage of a picket line :
By now it was something after 8 p.m. and the television crews
needed something to show on the 10 o'clock news . . .
Up came the three-man television crew: a camera man with a
hand-held camera, a sound man and light man. Very discreet in the
dark.
"May as well get it."
You could sense the disappointment in his voice, because pictorially
it wasn't much of a demonstration.
The light-man held up his 30-volt frezzi and laid a four-foot beam of
90 Mass Media and Violence
light across one section of the picket line. Instantly the marchers' heads
snapped up, their eyes flashed. They threw up their arms in the
clenched Communist fist. Some made a V with their fingers, and they
held up their banners for the cameras . . , 73
Obviously, it was not the same event once the cameras were on.
As on other decisions regarding coverage, it is important to apply neutral
journalistic principles in deciding whether to cover an event. What many
critics of protest coverage do not acknowledge is that others stage events for
the benefit of the press. Yet, was the distortion any greater than the "unreal"
hearing which followed the circulation of this memorandum to a
congressional committee:
1. Decide what you want the newspapers to hit hardest and then
shape each hearing so that the main point becomes the vortex of the
testimony. Once that vortex is reached, adjourn ....
4. Do not permit distractions to occur, such as extraneous fusses
with would-be witnesses, which might provide news that would bury
the testimony which you want featured.
5. Do not space hearing more than 24 or 48 hours apart when on a
controversial subject. This gives the opposition too much opportunity
to make all kinds of counter-charges and replies by issuing statements to
the newspapers.
6. Don't ever be afraid to recess a hearing even for five minutes, so
that you can keep the proceedings completely in control so far as
creating news is concerned.
7. And this is most important: don't let the hearings or the evidence
ever descend to the plane of a personal fight between the Committee
Chairman and the head of the agency being investigated. The high plane
of a duly authorized Committee of the House of Representatives
examining the operations of an Agency of the Executive Branch for
constructive purposes should be maintained at all costs. 74
The congressional hearing undoubtedly would have been a different event if it
would have been held at all, were it not for the anticipated presence of the
media. Nor is the staging of congressional hearings new. The above
memorandum was circulated in 1943 by the counsel of a House committee
investigating the Federal Communications Commission.
Publicity is frequently the end product and not the sideline of the
committee's work. In some of the more notable probes, the final
committee conclusions have been a matter of scant importance. After
two particularly sensational ones of recent years the MacArthur
dismissal inquiry and the Army-McCarthy hearings the chairman
sought to dispense with the formality of a report altogether, each
making vague assertions that the public had "the facts" and could form
its own judgments. The responsibility to come up with remedial
legislation is often forgotten in the shuffle. 75
Committee hearings are not the only activities of government officials
that are staged or doctored. It is only necessary to recall one of the more
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 91
recent episodes in which Senator Edward Kennedy's Subcommittee on Indian
Education set off on a tour of Alaska, only to have some Republican
members bolt the excursion on the charge that the trip was "a stage-managed
scenario" to boost Kennedy's presidential prospects. There was apparently no
objection that the tour was frankly designed to generate publicity to improve
the educational and anti-poverty programs for Eskimos and Indians. 76
Similarly, President Johnson's interview with White House correspondents
was edited under the supervision of administration aides. "CBS and ABC both
protested to White House officials but were told that the remarks the
President was concerned about were matters of security. When pressed, they
admitted they meant the President considered them politically sensitive." 77
Only CBS advised viewers that the interview had been edited under White
House supervision. Estimates of total federal expenditures on public relations
and public information run as high as $400 million annually. 78
The argument persists that demonstrators holding up clenched fists differ
from Congressional hearings contrived to focus on a particular point or other
public information activities of the government. The demonstrators know
what they are doing; they consciously conduct themselves before the camera.
If they hold up clenched fists they want to communicate this message to the
public. Most of them, however, have some additional message. Although
demonstration and confrontation are vehicles for access, something else rides
in the vehicles. The media go to a demonstration, make the demonstration
the story, but they ignore the message. In doing so they are performing about
as well as if they had reported that the President held a press conference, but
forgot to tell the public what the President said.
2. Media Incitement to Violence
With respect to the possibility that the presence of the media may incite
demonstrators to real violence, rather than threats of violence or hostile
gestures, the solution does not lie in prohibiting coverage. If the conduct pro-
moted by the media's presence is socially undesirable and not constitutionally
protected, a law can prohibit such conduct. Where conduct is unlawful, arrest
the demonstrator. But denying all demonstrators access simply because some
of them may engage in unlawful activity prescribes too broad a remedy for an
otherwise narrow problem, and clearly would be unconstitutional. Most
demonstrators do not engage in unlawful violence simply to get on camera;
less extreme conduct usually suffices. Denying coverage to all demonstrators
attempts to discourage indirectly that which cannot be prohibited directly:
infringing dissident's first amendment rights. However unwise the hostile
message from the disaffected may be, the conditions under the first
amendment that justify the limitation of speech, including symbolic speech,
are few. That the message is unwise is not one of them.
Protestors usually have little to gain in the way of access to the media by
engaging in unlawful or violent behavior. Indeed, the more violent their
behavior, the more likely the media will focus on that to the exclusion of the
views for which access is sought. Moreover, the revulsion of most Americans
to violence means that regardless of the soundness of their view, when the
message comes across mixed with lawless behavior audience acceptance is
substantially reduced. The dignified 1963 March on Washington, D.C., was a
much more effective vehicle for communicating views than the performance
92 Mass Media and Violence
of the New York Yippie contingent at the 1968 Democratic National
Convention.
Nevertheless, protestors do engage in unlawful or violent behavior for
several reasons:
1. Sometimes the grievances of demonstrators include police
brutality. To bring the excesses of the police into public view, they may
seek to provoke them when television cameras were present.
2. The demonstrators may wish to illustrate the depth of their
conviction in the Tightness of their cause by risking jail sentences or
other punitive action.
3. The demonstrators regard the law they are violating as
unconstitutional and seek a court test.
4. Frequently, there is a large group that supports the goals of the
demonstrators, but is not willing to engage in the extreme tactics they
adopt. Under such circumstances, the more radical members seek to
generate a confrontation with the police for the purpose of surfacing
the "venality" of the "establishment" and thereby convince those on
the fringe that any means necessary should be adopted to secure shared
objectives.
5. The demonstrators may seek to generate such a massive official
overresponse as to force a breakdown in the administration of criminal
justice and thereby illustrate how corrupt is the entire system.
As a case in point, the report of the Violence Commission's Chicago Task
Force, Rights in Conflict, abundantly reveals many complex motivations for
unlawful or violent behavior.
The provocation may be mild or severe, lawful or unlawful. The response
of the authorities to the 1963 march in Selma, for example, was an
overresponse by the police, for they were provoked by demonstrators who
wished only to peaceably exercise their first amendment rights. Television
coverage, because of its revelation of this truth, undoubtedly contributed to
the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill.
The overresponse of the police in Chicago during the Democratic National
Convention discloses a reaction to severe verbal provocation, threats
of extreme violence, and, in some instances, physical assault and other
conduct by demonstrators. Yet the police responded with more force than
was necessary to enforce the law. Many newsmen were surprised, therefore,
that the majority of the public sympathized with the police.
So long as the media continue to cover demonstrations, some
demonstrators will continue to provoke the police. To this extent, coverage
may contribute to the level of violence. But the incentive is the same whether
the television cameras are present or not. The objective is overreaction by
police, and publicity will be achieved through the print media and informal
channels if television is not present.
Media coverage, then, does provide some incentive to violence; but it also
provides a disincentive.
First, as suggested earlier, nobody, including demonstrators, wants to have
his unlawful acts recorded on camera. Secondly, the presence of the media
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 93
also tends to have a restraining influence on the use of violence by the
authorities. During the late fifties and early sixties, Justice Department
lawyers encouraged media coverage of civil rights demonstrations in the belief
that it restrained the police. 79 Former Attorney General Nicholas
Katzenbach has acknowledged the constructive role of television coverage:
The bitter segregationists' view of [the civil rights movement] is that
the demonstrators are following the cameras, not vice versa. To them, it
is the Northern press and the television networks which seem to be the
motive force in the civil rights movement. This idea apparently
motivated many of the toughs during the 1961 freedom rides in Selma
and elsewhere. Almost their first moves were against the cameras.
Yet news coverage has been a powerful deterrent to racial violence in
the South. For every assault on newsmen, many more incidents have
been defused by their presence. Reporters and cameras, particularly the
network-television cameras, which symbolize the national focus on
Southern violence, have had a tempering as well as instructional
effect. 80
In Chicago, many officers removed their badges to avoid identification and
frequently smashed cameras to destroy evidence of their misconduct. They
did not want the public to know what had happened.
Media coverage thus reduces the immediate violence that results from
overresponse by the police. But police violence has a fallout effect that may
promote more extreme confrontations or even induce a shift to covert tactics,
because they are less risky than public confrontations. When non-violent
demonstrations become impractical because of personal risk, the disaffected
can do nothing or they can resort to more extreme tactics. While many will
certainly be deterred by massive applications of police force, others may very
well decide to go underground.
3. Coverage of Demonstrations
Another source of tension between the news media and the police during
demonstrations was highlighted by the Walker Report: "The police are never
enthusiastic about the presence of newsmen in large crowd
situations . . . ." 8 * Conflict between the police, who want to maintain or
restore order, and reporters, who wish to provide full coverage of a volatile
event, does arise as it did in Chicago. Mayor Daley and the Chicago police
accused the media of interfering with the maintenance of order. Newsmen, in
turn, complained of excessive restrictions on their coverage. That there is
some truth to both complaints makes the problem no easier to resolve.
It does suggest that, where a demonstration is anticipated, the press and
the police should discuss their competing interests in advance. TV should
certainly arrange to avoid blinding officers with kleig lights and flashbulbs. It
does not follow, however, that such conduct by some members of the press
justifies indiscriminate retaliation by police. The police should also keep in
mind that, as in Chicago, not everyone with a camera or strobe unit
represents the press. Many protest organizations have their own cameramen
and some persons were impersonating television network newsmen in
94 Mass Media and Violence
Chicago. Nothing, it is clear now, pleased some demonstrators more than
indiscriminate police violence toward the news media.
If a member of the press refuses to obey a lawful police order to cease
interfering with or to stop obstructing police efforts at crowd control, he is
properly subject to arrest. Under no circumstances, however, can police
justify the confiscation of film, notes, or audio tapes. Nor is there any excuse
for the destruction of equipment, or the use of force against a reporter unless
he is resisting arrest. This problem has confronted reporters for a long time. If
the present Federal Civil Rights Act proves inadequate, consideration ought
to be given to enacting the necessary amendments. Police violence of the kind
in Chicago clearly generates a threat to the gathering of news for transmission
in interstate commerce, and it impairs the most fundamental of an
American's civil rights his first amendment right to know.
Unless the police intend to engage in improper conduct, it is also in their
best interest to have reporters present. Consider the following incident:
In Chicago some time ago, the Negro comedian Dick Gregory
complained, a few days after he had been arrested in a demonstration,
that the police were brutal in making the arrest. WMAQ in Chicago
carried Gregory's statement and then, without comment, reran the film
showing Gregory being arrested. The film did not bear out Gregory's
accusation of brutal treatment, and the Chicago police were grateful
that the station was able to show exactly what had happened. 82
Large demonstrations normally require a permit by demonstrators and
pre-planning by both demonstrators and police. The press, if it decides to
cover the event, ought to pre-plan and consult with both the demonstrators
and the police. Under such circumstances, if all parties conduct themselves
reasonably, the problem lessens in accommodating the desire of the
demonstrators for coverage, the obligation of the police to maintain public
safety, and the right of the press to provide adequate coverage. The police
and the demonstrators can help enormously by negotiating a permit
agreement far enough in advance to permit planning by the media.
Authorities occasionally delay issue of a permit as long as possible on the
theory that it will discourage people from participating, but this is
reprehensible and, if chaos results, the authorities must accept responsibility
for the consequences.
Generally, the presence of the media improves the behavior of those
present. Most demonstrations involve important political and social issues.
Each side seeks adherents. However attractive violence may be to the few, it
has little appeal to the vast majority of Americans. In Chicago, the various
groups of demonstrators attempted to give dissidents a choice. They tried to
warn protestors when a particular line of activity might lead to arrest or
violence, and they tried to instruct those who did not wish to participate to
avoid these activities. This policy shows that some dissident groups recognize
that, if demonstrations are to be successful tomorrow, they cannot lead
inevitably to bloody confrontation today; otherwise, the protestors cannot
attract people to their movement, people who, while strongly supporting the
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 95
objectives, either fear or have no appetite for violence. They need such broad
support for their success.
The news media can take additional steps to offset whatever incentive they
may provide for violence, first by balanced coverage of the confrontation. At
least four elements require balanced treatment:
1 . The purpose of the demonstration. What is the nature of the
grievance? Why are the demonstrators there?
2. The events leading up to the demonstration. Have other remedies
been sought, such as administrative relief or negotiations, either on the
grievances or on the right to demonstrate? If so, what has been the
response of the objects (city officials, university officials, etc.) of the
demonstration?
3. The demonstration. How many people were present? How did
they conduct themselves? Do not focus only on the most extreme
conduct or dress.
4. What provocations, if any, were directed toward the police? Why
were the demonstrators trying to provoke the police? Did the police use
more force than was necessary to maintain order? Were there any
extenuating circumstances, such as physical exhaustion or security for a
presidential candidate?
The first element is important because particular grievances frequently
cause demonstrations. As suggested earlier, failure to cover the grievance
compares to announcing that there has been a presidential press conference
but neglecting to relay what the President said. Moreover, if the demon-
stration forms part of the strategy of confrontation designed basically
to provoke police then the public has a right to know about it. Similarly, if
the purpose is to get arrested and to convey to the public the depth of a
dissident conviction, the public should know that. Also, knowledge of the
purpose of demonstrations will aid the news organization in deciding whether
to cover the event at all and, if so, the amount of resources to allocate to the
coverage. It will help them avoid groups whose only purpose is to get on
camera.
Information on the second element tells the public whether the group
involved has been reasonable in attempting to resolve its grievances. If it has
not, the public will undoubtedly have little sympathy for them. If it has, the
public will probably conclude that its action was justified and place
responsibility for the consequences of the demonstration with those who
could meet the grievances. Such coverage will provide an incentive to the
aggrieved to pursue less drastic remedies, as well as give similar incentive to
responsible officials to take reasonable steps to remedy the grievances.
The third element provides the public with a representative portrayal of
the kind of people involved, the number who felt sufficiently strong about
the grievances to appear, and the dignity with which they conducted
themselves. If all the coverage of demonstrators focuses only on the most
extreme behavior, no incentive remains for dignified and orderly conduct.
96 Mass Media and Violence
The fourth element determines the justification for the official response
and which party to the confrontation ought to be held responsible for any
violence that resulted. Such coverage provides incentives to demonstrators to
avoid extreme provocations and to the police to avoid the use of excessive
force.
The issue of provocation presents a special problem. Many provocations
are obscenities, not appropriate for either broadcast or for print media. Some
people have suggested that the media have an obligation to disseminate the
language of provocation anyway. Among those who once subscribed to this
theory, at least in reporting on the Walker Report, was Norman Isaacs of the
Louisville Courier-Journal. But the response from his readers was so
overwhelmingly negative that he decided not to do it again. The problem
remains, however, and the solution is to describe in abstract terms the nature
and severity of the provocations.
Television has acute problems in providing balanced coverage of this kind
for at least three reasons. First, television communicates in two modes, audio
and visual. Certain kinds of visual portrayals can have an impact out of
proportion to the accompanying verbal statements. Where pictures become
available of" some elements, and are especially dramatic, extra effort is needed
to balance them with commentary. Under some circumstances, it may be
impossible to present certain picture sequences and retain balance; then,
perhaps, the sequence ought to be eliminated or softened. Second, certain
segments of the audience are less receptive to verbal than visual messages. Eric
Sevareid is worth a thousand pictures only for those who understand him.
When commentary is accompanied by very dramatic film clips, it is especially
difficult to provide balance.
The second characteristic that makes balanced television reporting difficult
applies to almost any kind of story. With only 30 minutes to cover all the
news, network television can provide little more than a headline service.
There is a similar bias in this direction because of television's visual
presentation. As Walter Scott, NBC board chairman has said: "Because
television is a visual medium, it may scant the background and significance of
events to focus on the outward appearance the comings and goings of
j statesmen instead of the issue that confronts them." 83 The network news
departments and those of many local stations do as well as they can in the
( time available. The necessity of expanding the evening network
news broadcasts from 30 minutes to an hour is plain. The format of that hour
should be altered from the present formula to a mixture of hard news and
news magazine presentations a cross between "Walter Cronkite" and "60
Minutes" on CBS, "Huntley-Brinkley" and "First Tuesday" on NBC, in the
style of "Martin Agronsky's Washington" on WTOP-TV in Washington, D.C.
The third reason television coverage tends to be less well balanced than
other media is that the entertainment ethic is somewhat stronger in television
and, accordingly, action scenes tend to dominate.
We do not suggest the abandonment of action sequences. In some
instances, film, by far the most effective means of communicating the
forceful, human aspects of a story, is a good attention getter. But once
television has the audience's attention, it should also provide the audience
with valuable information.
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 97
* # * *
The media can reduce confrontations and demonstrations by giving more
balanced coverage to the community, by opening traditional access channels
to those with new, different, and minority views. Such changes in media
performance will not eliminate protest altogether because other reasons exist.
In many universities, for example, the dissenting students have control of the
one medium of mass communication in their community, the school
newspaper, which usually favors the dissidents both in the quality and
quantity of its coverage. If one seeks to lay the whole explanation for
s confrontation on inadequate media access, he must somehow find a plausible
explanation for the university phenomenon.
Where media attention is a positive incentive to demonstrate, it is also a
remedial phenomenon that compensates for imbalanced surveillance. The
solution, then, is not to ignore demonstrations, but to correct the conditions
which, if they did not give them birth, were at least the midwife. Once done,
to the extent demonstrations are an access problem they will diminish.
Similarly, the standard for determining whether an event will be covered
should place more emphasis on the nature of the grievance, the number of
people affected, the severity of the grievance, and less emphasis should be
placed on the willingness of the aggrieved to engage in violence and the
likelihood that they will.
REFERENCES
1. Walter Gieber, "Attributes of a Reporter's Role" (San Francisco State College:
unpublished mimeo), p. 27.
2. Wilbur Schramm, ed., Mass Communications, (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
1954), p. 195.
3. John Hohenberg, The News Media; A Journalist Looks at His Profession (Holt,
Rinehart & Winston, 1968), pp. 294-297.
4. Paul F. Lazarfield, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet. The People's Choice (New
York: Columbia University Press, 1948); Shirley A. Star and Helen McGill Hughes,
"Report of an Educational Campaign: The Cincinnati Plan for the United Nations,"
American Journal of Sociology (1950) pp. 389-400; Charles F. Cannell and James
C. MacDonald. "The Impact of Health News on Attitudes and Behavior," Journalism
Quarterly (1956), pp. 315-323; Dorwin Cartwright, "Some Principles of Mass
Persuasion: Selected Findings of Research on the Sale of United States War Bonds,"
Human Relations (1949), pp. 253-267.
5. Wilbur Schramm and Richard F. Carter, "Effectiveness of a Political Telethon,"
Public Opinion Quarterly (1959), pp. 121-126.
6. Daniel M. Wilner, "Attitude as a Determinant of Perception in the Mass Media of
Communication: Reaction to the Motion Picture, 'Home of the Brave,' " (University
of California, Los Angeles Library unpublished PhD dissertation, 1951); Gordon
Allport and Leo J. Postman "The Basic Psychology of Rumor," Transactions of the
New York Academy of Sciences, Series II (1945), pp. 61-81; Eunice Cooper and
Marie Jahoda "The Evasion of Propaganda," Journal of Psychology (1947). p. 1525;
Patricia L. Kendall and Katherine M. Wolf, The Personification of Prejudice as a
Device in Educational Propaganda (New York: Bureau of Applied Social Research,
98 Mass Media and Violence
Columbia University, 1946); Herbert H. Hyman, and Paul B. Sheatsley, "Some
Reasons Why Information Campaigns Fail," Public Opinion Quarterly (1947), pp.
412-423; Patricia L. Kendall and Katherine M. Wolf. "The Analysis of Deviant
Cases in Communications Research," in Communications Research, Paul F.
Lazarsfeld and Frank N. Stanton, eds., (New York: Harper & Bros., 1949).
7. Herbert H. Hyman and Paul B. Sheatsley, "Some Reasons Why Information
Campaigns Fail," Public Opinion Quarterly (1947), pp. 412-423; Claire Simmerman
and Raymond A. Bauer. "The Effect of an Audience Upon What is Remembered,"
Public Opinion Quarterly (1956), pp. 238-248; Virginia Seeleman, "The Influence
of Attitude upon the Remembering of Pictorial Material, "Archives of Psychology, No.
258 (1941); Jerome M. Levine and Gardner Murphy, "The Learning and Forgetting
of Controversial Material," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology (1943), pp.
507-517.
8. Lazarfeld,ef 0/., op. cit. footnote 4.
9. Melvin L. DeFleur and Otto N. Larsen, The Flow of Information (New York: Harper
& Bros., 1958); Elihu Katz, "The Two-step Flow of Communication: An
Up-to-Date Report on an Hypothesis," Public Opinion Quarterly (1957), pp.
61-78; Robert K. Merton, "Patterns of Influence: A Study of Interpersonal
Influence and Communications Behavior in a Local Community," in
Communications Research 1948-49, Paul F. Lazerfeld and Frank Stanton, eds.,
(New York: Harper & Bros., 1949); Elihu Katz, and Paul Lazarfeld, Personal
Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications
(Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1955).
10. James Coleman, Herbert Menzel, and Elihu Katz, "Social Processes in Physicians'
Adoption of a New Drug," Journal of Chronic Diseases (1958), pp. 1-19.
11. James H. Copp, Maurice L. Sill, and Emory J. Brown, "The Function of Information
Sources in the Farm Practice Adoption Process," Rural Sociology (1958), pp.
146-157; Bryce Ryan and Neal Gross, "The Diffusion of Hybrid Seed Corn in Two
Iowa Communities," Rural Sociology (1943), pp. 15-24; North Central and Rural
Sociological Subcommittee, Social Factors in the Adoption of Farm Practices
(Ames, Iowa: Iowa State College, 1959); Paul C. Marsh and Lee Coleman, "Group
Influences and Agricultural Innovations: Some Tentative Findings and Hypotheses,"
American Journal of Sociology (1956), pp. 61; George M. Beal, Joe M. Bohlen, and
Everett M. Rogers, "Validity of the Concept of Stages in the Adoption Process,"
Rural Sociology (1957), pp. 166-168.
12. Joseph Klapper, The Effects of Mass Communication (New York: The Free Press,
1960), p. 252.
13. Ithiel deSola Poole, "The Mass Media and Their Interpersonal Social Functions in
the Process of Modernization," in Communication and Political Development
(Lucien Pye, Ed.) (Princeton University Press, 1963) Chapter 14; Tamotsu
Shibutani, Improvised News (Bobbs, Merrill 1966).
14. Shibutani, op. cit., footnote 13.
15. Ibid.
16. A. D. Annis and N.'C. Meier, "The Induction of Opinion through Suggestions by
Means of Planted Content," Journal of Social Psychology (1934), pp. 65-81; Martin
F. Herz, "Some Psychological "Lessons from Leaflet Propaganda in World War II,"
Public Opinion Quarterly, pp. 471-486; Arnold M. Rose, "The Use of Propaganda to
Reduce Prejudice," International Journal of Opinion and Attitude Research (1948),
pp. 220-229; Carl I. Hovland, "Effects of the Mass Media and Communication," in
Handbook of Social Psychology Sindzey Gardner, ed. (Cambridge, Mass,:
Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1954), pp. 1062-1103; Irving J. Janis and Seymour
Feshbach. "Effects of Fear- Arousing Communications," Journal of Abnormal and
Social Psychology (1953), pp. 78-92; Carl Hovland and Wallace Mandeli, "Is There a
Law of Primacy in Per suasion?" A merican Psychologist (1952), p. 538.
17. Irving, L., Janis and Seymour Feshbach, "Effects of Fear Arousing
Communication," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 195 3), pp. 78-92.
18. Roy Popkin, The Environmental Services Administration (New York: Frederick A.
Praeger, 1967), p. 186.
19. William L. Rivers, The Opinion Makers (Boston: Beacon Press, 1965), p. 180.
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 99
20. Journalism Quarterly (1950), pp. 383-390.
For other studies dealing with various aspects of gatekeeper performance, see:
Walter Gieber, "Across the Desk," Journalism Quarterly (Fall 1956), pp. 423-32;
Walter Gieber and Walter Johnson, "The City Hall Beat," Journalism Quarterly
(1961), pp. 289-97; Walter Gieber, "Private versus Public Role of the Newsman,"
paper presented to Association for Education in Journalism, 1963; Walter Gieber,
"The City Desk: A Model of News Decisions," a paper presented to the Association
for Education in Journalism, 1964; Walter Gieber, "Role Playing Among
Reporters," paper presented to Association for Education 1965. Walter Gieber, "A
City Editor Selects the News," paper presented to American Sociological
Association, 1961; Ithiel de Sola Poole and Irwin Shulman, "Newsmen's Fantasies,
Audiences and News Writing," Public Opinion Quarterly (1959), pp. 145-58; Leo
Rosten, The Washington Correspondents, (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1937);
Robert P. Judd, "The Newspaper Reporter in a Suburban City," Journalism
Quarterly (1961), pp. 35-42; Dan D. Nimmo, Newsgathering in Washington, (New
York: Atherton Press, 1964); Roy E. Carter, "Newspaper Gatekeepers and the
Sources of News," Public Opinion Quarterly (1958), pp. 133-44; Jack M. McLeod
and Searle E. Hawley, Jr., "Professionalization Among Newsmen," Journalism
Quarterly (1964), pp. 529-37; Alex S. Edelstein and J. Blaine Schulz, "The Weekly
Newspaper's Leadership Role as Seen by Community Leaders," Journalism
Quarterly (1963), pp. 565-74; Merrill A. Samuelson, "A Standardized Test to
Measure Job Satisfaction in the Newsroom," Journalism Quarterly (1962), pp.
286-91; Douglass Cater, The Fourth Branch of Government (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1959); William L. Rivers, The Opinion Makers (Boston: Beacon, 1965);
Walter Gieber, Gatekeepers of News of Civil Rights and Liberties (Berkeley:
Department of Journalism, University of California).
20aJbid.
2QbJbid.
21. Lewis Donohew, "Newspaper Gatekeepers and Forces in the News Channel," Public
Opinion Quarterly (1967), pp. 61-68.
22. Canon 5, The Canons of Journalism, American Society of Newspaper Editors,
Appendix II-D.
23. Warren Breed, "Mass Communications and Socio-cultural Integration," Social Forces
(1958), pp. 109-116.
24. Arthur E. Rowse, Slanted News (Boston: Beacon Press, 1957), p. 124.
25. Ben H. Bagdikian, quoted in Failing Newspaper Act, Hearings before the
Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the Committee on Judiciary, U.S.
Senate, July 12-26, 1967, part I, p. 311.
26. Ibid., p. 395.
27. "Ethics and the Press: Conflicts of Interest, Pressures Still Distort Some Papers
Converage," The Wall Street Journal July 25, 1967; reprinted in Failing Newspaper
Act, op. cit., footnote 25, p. 440.
2S. Ibid., p. 439.
29. William L. Rivers, Failing Newspaper Hearings, op. cit., footnote 25, p. 397.
30. William L. Rivers, The Opinion Makers, op. cit., footnote 19, p. 197.
31. William Allen White, "Publishers Menace Their Own Freedom," quoted in George L.
Bird, et at., The Press and Society (New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1951), pp. 74-75.
32. William Rivers, op. cit., footnote 19, pp. 175-178.
33. "AM-FM Broadcast Financial Data, 1967" FCC Public Notice 27306, Feb. 7,
1969-B.
34. Some of the factual material in this section is drawn from Dr. Bogart's paper for the
Task Force (reprinted as Appendix II-A). The conclusions are those of the Task
Force and do not necessarily reflect Dr. Bogart's views.
35. Ibid.
36. FCC Public Notice, op. cit., footnote 33.
37. "TV Broadcast Financial Data," FCC Public Notice 26097, Dec. 31, 1967.
38. Bogart, op. cit., footnote 34.
39. "TV Broadcast Financial Data, 1966," FCC Public Notice 5317, Aug. 25, 1967.
40. Ibid. The 1967 earnings may be atypical; earnings in 1966 were $186.8 million on
100 Mass Media and Violence
assets of $126 million, a 148% return on book value of assets.
41. John G. Udell, The Growth of the American Daily Newspaper; An Economic
Analysis (Madison: Bureau of Business Research and Service, School of Commerce,
University of Wisconsin, 1965).
42. Bogart, op. cit., footnote 34.
43. Brian McNamara, Failing Newspaper Hearings, op. cit., footnote 27, p. 419.
44. Testimony of Robert MacNail before the NCCPV, Dec. 18, 1968, transcript, p. 21.
Howard K. Smith had such an experience on a "News and Comment" program on
the political obituary of Richard Nixon. The show included a 2-minute interview
with Alger Hiss. "/T/ here was a prompt rush for the door by several sponsors of
other ABC programs, apparently on the theory that breaking a contract is better
business than staying in the vicinity of adult reportage. At the end of the season,
Smith's own sponsor deserted him. But the starkest display of apologetic journalism
came from two of the ABC stations that refused to broadcast the program, then
blacked out references to it in the next day's news reports."
45. "Giving Readers the Business," Chicago Journalism Review, October 1968, p. 3.
46. Ibid.
47. William L. Rivers, Failing Newspaper Hearings, op. cit., footnote 29, pp. 394-395.
48. See also, "The Whole World is Watching," Public Broadcast Laboratory Broadcast,
Dec. 22, 1968, at 8: 30 'p.m., script p. 18.
49. There is some research on this point, most of it quite old: See, discussion and
sources cited in Klapper, op. cit., footnote 12, pp. 38-43. One or two additional
studies will be published in the next year.
50. Robert NacNeil, "The News on TV and How It Is Unmade," Harpers, May 1968, p.
75.
51. Testimony of Robert MacNeil, NCCPV Hearings, Dec. 18, 1968, transcript p. 21.
52. 1969 Broadcasting Yearbook, p. 11.
53. Ibid. pp. E8-E15.
54. Ibid. pp. E8-E-18.
55. Bryce Rucker, The First Freedom (Southern Illinois University Press, 1968, p. 67.
56. Ibid. pp. 189-194.
57. Ibid. p. 68.
58. Bogart, op. cit., footnote 3.
59. Ibid.
60. Ibid.
61. Rucker, op. cit., footnote 55, p. 20.
62. Bogart, op. cit., footnote 34; Rucker, op. cit., footnote 25, p. 282.
63. Rucker, Failing Newspaper Hearings, op. cit., footnote 25, p. 281.
64. Kenneth R. Byerly, "Newspaper Battle in Suburbia: Goliath vs. David,"
Media/Scope (August 1964), pp. 58-66.
65. Loyal B. Phillips, former president and publisher of fate Evening Independent of St.
Petersburg, Fla., testified: "In many cases the dominant newspaper holds exclusive
contracts on the best editorial columns, women's features, comics, etc ... In some
instances the metropolitan dailies control publishing rights on syndicated features
for smaller nearby cities, thus preventing publication in small city . newspapers.
Sometimes the dominant newspapers tie up syndicated features without using
them." Testimony before the Antitrust Subcommittee of the Committee on the
Judiciary Hearings on Concentration of Ownership in News Media, Mar. 14, 1963.
The Transcript is in the office of Chairman Emanual Celler. "The Philadelphia
Evening Bulletin pays $250 a week for Drew Pearson on the condition that Pearson
will not be sold to any other paper in Pennsylvania, in Delaware, and in part of New
Jersey." William Rivers, Failing Newspaper Hearings, op. cit., footnote 25, p. 395.
For a discussion of the role of synicated features in the economics of newspaper
publishing see Rucker, op. cit., footnote 55, pp. 60-79.
66. United States V. World- Journal-Tribune, Inc., Civ. 66-2967 (S.D.N.Y.).
67. The most recent recap of this history is in Rucker, op. cit., footnote 55, pp. 60-79.
68. United States V. Chattanooga News-Free Press Co, Crim. 7978 (E.D. Tenn: 1940)
United States V. Lorain Journal Company, Civ. 26823 (N.D. Ohio: 1949) aff d 342
U.S. 143 (1951); United States V. The Nams -field Journal company, Civ. 28235
The Marketplace Myth: Access to the Mass Media 101
(N.D. Ohio: 1951); United States V. The Kansas City Star Co. (Crim. 18444): 240
F. 2d 643 (8th civ. 1957) cert, denied 354 U.S. 923 (19 ); United States V. The
Kansas City Star Co., (Civ 7989; United States V. Witchita Eagle Publishing Co.,
Inc., Civ. W 1876 (D. Kansas): (1959); United States V. Times Picayune Publishing
Company, Civ. 1797 (E.D. La.: 1950) rev'd 345 U.S. 594 (19 ); United States V.
Harte-Hanks Newspapers, Inc. Crim 15393 (N.D. Tex). See 170F. Supp. 227 (N.D.
Tex,, 1959); United States V. The Lima News, Civ. 64-178 (W.D. Ohio: 1964);
United States V. Lindsay -Schaub Newspapers, Inc. Civ. 6748D (E.D. 111.: 1967).
69. See Robert L. Grain, "Desegregation in New Orleans," Part III on The Politics of
School Desegration (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969), pp. 235-322.
70. William R. Carmack, "Media Role in Aiding Social Change," American Journal of
Ortho-psychiatry, (1959), p. 539; Stewart E. Perry, "The Conflict for the News
Editor in Desegregation Disturbances: A Case Study in an American Social Process,"
Psychiatry (1963), pp. 352-367. In each of these cases there was a commitment by
the community elite to avoid violence. Over a two-year period prior to integration in
New Orleans, WDSU-TV repeatedly stated editorially that Southern cities that
accepted integration peacefully had better future prospects and that "beating up
freedom riders and calling on the empty legal doctrine of inter-position [which the
Louisiana legislature did] were not the tactics of sane or reasonable people." William
B. Monroe, Jr., "Television: The Chosen Instrument of the Revolution," Race and
the News Media Paul L. Fisher & Ralph Lowenstein ed., (Anti-Defamation League of
B'nai B'rith, 1967), pp. 85-86.
71. Richard Salant, quoted in George N. Gordon and Irving A. Falk, TV Covers the
Action, (New York: Julian Messner, 1968), p. 166.
72. Sophy Burnham, "Telling It Like It Isn't," New York Times Magazine, Sept. 16,
1968, p. 13.
73. Ibid. p.14.
74. Douglass Cater, The Fourth Branch of Government (New York: Vintage Books,
1959), pp. 58-59.
IS. Ibid. pp. 59-60.
76. Time, Apr. 18, 1969, pp. 22-23.
77. Robert NacNeil, The People Machine (New York: Harper & Row, 1968, pp.
315-316.
78. William L. Rivers and Wilbur Schramm, Responsibility in Mass Communication
(New York: Harper & Row, 1969), p. 97.
79. Lawrence Fanning, Race and the News Media, p. 1 10.
80. Quoted by Monroe, Jr. op. cit. t footnote 70, p. 88.
81. Daniel Walker, Rights in Conflict, A Report to the National Commission on the
Causes and Prevention of Violence (New York: Bantam, 1968), p. 303-304.
82. Monroe, jr. op. cit., footnote 70, pp. 91-92.
83. Quoted by MacNeil, op. cit., footnote 50, p. 75.
Chapter 6
COVERAGE OF CIVIL DISORDERS
In contrast to demonstrations, coverage of civil disorders raises slightly
more difficult and serious issues. Some police officials believe that coverage
of civil disorders in other cities encourages violence in their jurisdictions and,
once a disturbance has begun, local coverage contributes to the size of the
crowd and escalation of violence. In the spring of 1968, the executive
director of the International Association of Police Chiefs, Quinn Tamm,
stated, "If destructive and fatal riots occur in American cities this year, a
major share of the blame must fall upon the shoulders of sensational
'journalists' and overnight pundits of the press who are assiduously stoking
the fires of unrest."
Some evidence supports this view. Morris Janowitz has written that it is
"... impossible to rule out the contention that detailed coverage of riots had
an effect on potential rioters" and on the public at large. In addition to the
instance where the presence of the camera has led rioters or police to play to
the television audience and thereby exacerbate tensions and aggressive
behavior, the more important feature is the impact of rioting on the wider
audience:
Again we are dealing with a process of social learning, especially for
potential participants. Rioting is based on contagion, the process by
which the mood and attitudes of those who are actually caught up in
the riot are disseminated to a larger audience on the basis of direct
contact. Television images serve to spread the contagion pattern
throughout urban areas and the nation. Large audiences see the details
of riots, the manner in which people participate in them, and especially
the ferment associated with looting and obtaining commodities which
was so much at the heart of riot behavior. Television presents detailed
information about the tactics of participation and the gratifications
that were derived . . . The media disseminate symbols of identification
used by the rioters and their rationalizations. The mass media serve to
reenforce and spread a feeling of consciousness among those who
participate or sympathize with extremist actions, regardless of the
103
104 Mass Media and Violence
actions' origins. In particular, television offers them a mass audience far
beyond their most optimistic aspirations. 1
Prior to the disorder in Watts in 1965, the American news media had little
recent experience in covering the civil disorders which have plagued the
nation since. Media personnel made errors of judgment, as did others
involved in these civil disorders. The judiciary, for example, was not equipped
to handle the large number of arrests and arraignments required in Watts in
1965, Detroit in 1967, or Washington, D.C., and Chicago in 1968. Detention
facilities were inadequate. The police were trained to act as individuals or
groups of two and three. This training was clearly inadequate to deal with the
massive disturbance which required a well disciplined force acting in unison in
groups of 20 or more. The National Guard's performance in Detroit made it
clear that special training and rules of conduct were necessary if they were to
function efficiently and not contribute to racial tension. It was not until after
the Kerner Commission recommended special training for Guard troops and
the Attorney General and the International Association of Police Chiefs
sponsored a conference at Airlie House in December 1967 for law
enforcement officials from major cities that substantial progress began.
Although the slow response of other organizations directly charged with
maintaining the peace in our cities does not justify the errors of media
performance, it does suggest that the media have a good deal of company.
Moreover, it contains another important lesson: because an organization
makes mistakes in the course of a civil disorder whether it be the police or
the news media it does not necessarily follow that their role should be
abolished. The mistakes should not be repeated and the salutary activities
should be continued.
The most important function the news media serve during periods of civil
disorder is communication of accurate information. Almost invariably, if a
modicum of journalistic responsibility is exercised, the information relayed
by the news media will be more conservative than the rumors that would
circulate in its absence. When suggesting non-coverage, most critics overlook
the possibility that the information that will dominate is more likely to
escalate violence than media coverage.
The media, however, cannot cover events in any manner they please, nor
is their past performance flawless. The decision to bar media coverage is a
dangerous one, and the substitution of governmental news sources is
undesirable. Although the latter alternative might provide information that
most white adults believe, in many communities the majority of young blacks
and important segments of the young white population would not.
Only four media practices perhaps more accurately malpractices make
the desirability of coverage a close question. The first is media dissemination
of rumors. The second is live coverage that informs potential looters and
arsonists of the deployment of police or otherwise aids them in evading
apprehension. Third is coverage that is apt to draw people to the scenes of a
disorder when police seek to disperse the crowd. Last is the coverage of violent
or other events likely to have a high emotional impact on the viewer without
providing perspective a practice defended by the television newsman on the
ground that pictures do not lie. Some news organizations engaged in all four
of these practices in the coverage of the 1965 Watts disorder.
Coverage of Civil Disorders 105
A. Watts
John McCone, chairman of the commission which investigated the Watts
disorder, concluded that any investigation of the news media coverage would
be counter-productive; he believed that even if news coverage did contribute
to the disturbance, the Commission had more to lose by criticizing than it
could possibly gain through making suggestions that might persuade the
media to modify their practices. 2 The McCone Commission's observation on
the media were limited to three very mild paragraphs. The one specific
comment was on coverage of a meeting of community leaders called to
determine what might be done to quell the rioting started the night before.
The television media were present. The meeting became a public forum where
complaints from members of the Watts community were aired. Among the
complaints were charges of police harassment, use of poverty funds to pay
high salaries to city bureaucrats, and that Mayor Yorty, elected in 1960 with
strong support from the black community, had ignored their problems.
The mother of the man whose arrest had sparked the disorders was
present. She had also been arrested. Addressing the group, she said, "I am the
woman who was arrested last night . . . But I'm not here to talk about that.
I'm here to ask you, please, to help me and to help others in this community
to calm the situation down so that we will not have a riot tonight." Voices in
the audience endorsed her plea.
At that point, a young man about 16 years old seized the microphone:
"It's like this, the way the policemens treat you round here, I'm going to tell
you something. It ain't going to be lovely tonight whether you like it or not!"
Those present showed their disapproval with whistles and jeers. He
continued:
I was down on Avalon last night, and we the Negro people have got
completely fed up! They not going to fight down here no more. You
know where they going to fight? They're after the Whiteys! They going
to congregate. They don't care! They going out to Inglewood, Playa del
Rey, and everywhere else the white man supposed to stay. They going
to do the white man in tonight. And I'm going to you you ..."
There was no question that the meeting was newsworthy. It is even possible
that the young man's statement was newsworthy. It is doubtful, however,
that the people who broadcast it had any notion of whether this young man
had a following, whether there was any truth to what he said, or whether he
was representing only himself and trying to steal a little air time.
One of the moderates at the meeting who saw the telecast responded:
"Man, how come you come here stooging us like that? The white man ain't
interested in nothing. Look to me like he want us to riot!" Another said:
"Sure, baby! If that's the way they want to read it, that's the way we'll write
the book!" 3
Television told it the way it wasn't. This kind of coverage invites
overresponse by the white community. It generates resentment in the black
community. The Los Angeles performance should set to rest forever the myth
that the camera cannot lie. What was reported was true, but the message
received was probably 99 percent false. The news media must show more
concern for the accuracy of the message received. It is not enough that the
106 Mass Media and Violence
message sent is literally true. Showing the most dramatic aspect of the
unusual can distort the message as much as false statements. By focusing only
on the statement of the boy, a small slice of a significant event, the media
misled and angered parts of their audience.
The second objection to the coverage of the Watts disorder, even more
serious, was the indiscriminate dissemination of rumor. The most valuable
function the media can serve in periods of high stress is to provide accurate
information. When the media disseminate every available rumor, however, a
good case can be made for eliminating coverage. Consider the following
descriptions of media reporting on Watts:
Chief Parker's office resembled the locker room of a team that has
just won the world series. A television crew with live cameras was
parked there permanently. Up to 20 reporters, filling the air with
smoke and babble, were in constant attendance, moving out only to file
stories and meet deadlines. Every report, every rumor that came in was
immediately relayed raw and without qualification . . .
Television and radio faithfully transmitted each of these reports
without evaluation, and the listener, who was in no position to make
any judgment, and who never learned that the ominous snipers
downtown were a couple of drunks or that the location of the men seen
loading shotguns was that of the Hollywood police station, assumed the
worst and made it a banner weekend for gunshop owners, with sales up
more than 250 per cent.
Chief Parker told the press he continued to believe the rioting was
unorganized, but that "I will say that other elements moved into it."
The Los Angeles Times "interpreted" this as "Parker Hints Muslims
Took Part in Rioting." 4
This kind of reporting leaves the media with almost no useful function to
serve during periods of civil crisis.
The third lesson from Watts teaches that live coverage can provide
information to would-be looters and arsonists about the deployment of police
and troops, and thereby assist them in evading apprehension. During the
Watts disorders, live television coverage came via helicopter. While such
coverage may have provided fast and accurate information to the public and
to the police about the scale of the disorders, it also may have had a harmful
effect. 5 At the Poughkeepsie Conference, sponsored by the Kerner
Commission, representatives from the television industry agreed that live
television coverage of Watts also inflamed the issue. Network news executives,
as a result, expressed doubts that television would ever again present live
coverage of a civil disorder. 6
B. The 1967 Disturbances
In his charge to the Kerner Commission, President Johnson expressly
requested they investigate "What effect do the mass media have on riots?"
The Commission reached three conclusions:
First, that despite instances of sensationalism, inaccuracies, and
Coverage of Civil Disorders 107
distortions, newspapers, radio, and television, on the whole, made a real
effort to give a balanced, factual account of the 1967 disorders.
Second, that despite this effort, the portrayal of the violence that
occurred last summer failed to reflect accurately its scale and character.
The overall effect was, we believe, an exaggeration of both mood and
event.
Third, and ultimately most important, we believe that the media
have thus far failed to report adequately on the causes and
consequences of civil disorders and the underlying problems of race
relations. 7
Many media representatives interpreted the report as having vindicated
their performance. If measured against the more extreme allegations made
against the media prior to the report's release, such may be the case, but it
cannot be concluded from the report and the studies on which it was based
that all the media learned their lessons in Watts.
The Commission found that the main causes of the imbalance that did
occur were:
[A] significant imbalance between what actually happened in our
cities and what the newspaper, radio, and television coverage of the
riots told us happened ... We found that the disorders, as serious as
they were, were less destructive, less widespread, and less of a
black-white confrontation than most people believed . . .
[D] espite the overall statistical picture, there were instances of gross
flaws in presenting news of the 1967 riots. Some newspapers printed
scare headlines unsupported by the mild stories that followed. All
media reported rumors that had no basis in fact. Some newsmen staged
riot events for the cameras . . .
[T]he press obtained much factual information about the scale of
the disorders property damage, personal injury, and deaths from local
officials, who often were inexperienced in dealing with civil disorders
and not always able to sort out fact from rumor in the confusion . . .
[T]he coverage of the disorders particularly on television tended
to define the events as black-white confrontations. In fact, almost all of
the deaths, injuries, and property damage occurred in the all-Negro
neighborhoods, and thus the disorders were not "race riots" as the term
[T] he main failure of the media last summer was that the totality of
its coverage was not as representative as it should have been to be
accurate. We believe that to live up to their own professed standards,
the media simply must exercise a higher degree of care and a greater
level of sophistication than they have shown in this area higher,
perhaps, than the level ordinarily acceptable with other stories. 8
The Kerner Commission's finding that television c6verage of the disorders
was generally calm is predicated on the assumption that the number of
sequences is the relevant standard of measurement. Of the 955 sequences
from local and national television analyzed, 27.4 percent were classified as
emotional, 51.7 percent were found to be calm. These findings supported the
conclusion that coverage was relatively calm. Yet the quantity of emotional
108 Mass Media and Violence
versus calm material tells very little about the effect of the material broadcast
on viewers. At the Democratic National Convention, CBS news devoted a
total of 38 hours and 3 minutes to coverage of the convention, but only 32
minutes and 20 seconds, or 1 .4 percent, were devoted to film or tape
coverage of the demonstrations. On the NBC network, out of a total of 19
hours and 37 minutes of its overall convention coverage, approximately 13
minutes and 49 seconds were devoted to film or tape coverage of disorders
involving demonstrations and police. 8 If all convention activities that might
have been stimulated by the disorders were included in the CBS count, e.g.,
the speech by Senator Ribicoff, the total amount of time devoted to
disorders, both calm and emotional, figures at less than 4 percent. But in view
of the letters and phone calls received by the networks and the FCC, this
material had a tremendous impact.
The research of Benjamin D. Singer on persons arrested during the 1967
Detroit riots also suggests that the emotional sequences tend to dominate.
When asked, "What were most people doing in these riots [seen on
television] ," 46 percent remembered property being destroyed or looted, 28
percent perceived whites committing aggression against Negroes, 14 percent
reported that they had seen fighting in a general sense, and 9 percent reported
Negroes fighting against law enforcement officials and soldiers. 1 c
As Martin S. Hayden, editor and chief of the Detroit News, has observed:
Even though the Commission's own content analysis indicates that
emotional, violent scenes were a minor proportion of the entire
coverage, it remains obvious that one picture of angry blacks smashing
stores, or policemen blazing away at a building, has an impact greater
by far than a dozen portrayals of civic leaders urging calm or expressing
concern, and another dozen dispassionate discussions of the underlying
causes. 1 1
A second conclusion, that the coverage was generally factual and balanced,
is also suspect. To have reached the conclusion that coverage was factual and
balanced, it would have been necessary to examine not only the content of
the television materials broadcast, but also to have observers on the scene of
the disorder to record what they saw. This was the approach taken in
assessing the accuracy of the coverage of a MacArthur Day parade back in
1952. 12 Although not 'perfect, in the absence of having such observers, the
observations of ghetto residents are the next best standard for comparison.
They concluded overwhelmingly a consistent exaggeration and
unrepresentative coverage.
Interviews with 567 Negroes in seven cities indicated that consistently
they felt that local and national news media greatly exaggerated the rioting in
the cities. Those interviewed thought that the news media focused on:
(1) the amount of damage done by rioters; (2) how rampant damage was;
(3) the amount of looting done; (4) how many persons were arrested;
(5) the presence of guns or other weapons used by rioters. They also
indicated that other crucial and widespread incidents were either never
reported or, if reported, not adequately. Negroes interviewed said that
sensationalism, the result of quoting uninformed sources rather than seeking
out reliable sources of information, was geared to widen misunderstanding
between Negroes and whites.
Coverage of Civil Disorders 109
Ghetto residents felt that the news media placed no emphasis on the
amount of police brutality or the number of deaths inflicted by police, -state
troopers and federal troops; on the attempts at riot control by members of
the Negro community or outsiders and that such attempts were discouraged
by the authorities. The local news media, Negroes contended, sympathized
with and were in complete accord with city officials and police action in
controlling the rioting.
Persons interviewed in ghetto areas suggested that network coverage
"overplayed" and exaggerated, but that local newscasts had more balance and
accuracy. Field researchers reported a high degree of hostility toward
television among ghetto residents particularly Negro teenagers based on
what they felt was a pronounced discrepancy between what they saw
happening in the riots and what they saw on television.
The Kerner Commission study concluded that newspaper coverage, like
television coverage, was generally calm, factual, and restrained, not emotional
or inflammatory. Of the total of 3,045 riot-related articles, 502 (16.5
percent) focused primarily on legislation that should be sought and planning
that should be done to prevent or control future riots. Approximately 45.8
percent focused upon the action of the disorders: defiance and mob action;
police brutality; fire bombing, arson; Negro attack against enforcement
agents; sniping; looting, vandalism; harm to property or persons; general
disorder; and enforcement, containment or control. The newspaper analyst
got less of an impression than the television analyst of the riots as a
confrontation between whites and Negroes.
Newspapers tended to characterize the disorder as national, rather than
local phenomena, especially when the rioting was in the newspaper's
hometown-a view that squares with the Chamber of Commerce perspective
of local newspapers to downplay difficulties in their community and focus
upon problems of other communities. In addition, by portraying the
disorders as national rather than local phenomena, the implication persisted
that no special fault lay with local residents.
During the actual disorders, the newspapers in each city studied tended to
emphasize the news of racial problems elsewhere. At least 40 percent of all
stories originated from other than local sources. Newspapers gave almost as
much headline coverage to riots in other cities as they did to the riot in their
own cities. In part, this may be the result of exaggerated wire-service stories.
Martin Hay den, has suggested
"an almost mathematical relationship between the level of exaggeration
and the distance of news transmission. Detroiters following their
newspapers and local TV and radio stations had no illusions: the
situation was bad. Anyone trying to follow the story from California
got a different mixture of fact and fiction suggesting the whole city was
'gone.' Take my word for it; Detroit is still there." 1 3
Much of the responsibility, he says, can be traced to the wire service:
The problem began with press association transmission .... On the
second day of the riot UPI reported:
Detroit-National Guard tanks rumbled through blazing, riot-torn
Negro neighborhoods where gunfire left dead and wounded in the
streets and entire blocks of buildings ablaze.
1 10 Mass Media and Violence
Our managing editor called to complain that nobody could find
UPI's tanks. The press association responded with proof: a photograph
of tanks in a school yard where they stayed parked for another day
while media in other cities still had them "rumbling" through Detroit's
streets.
On the Friday of the riot week the trouble essentially was over. The
Detroit News front page featured a think piece on snipers and who they
might have been. Our page one picture was of two national guardsmen
watching a shapely girl sashaying down the street. But UPI that
morning reported:
Jumpy police and national guardsmen, using tanks and machine
guns, waged war early today with savage snipers, the hard-core
remnants of a riot which wracked Detroit with the worst racial violence
in modern U.S. History.
A third example came over UPI wires on July 28:
Chicago More than 200 people have been killed in the Detroit
rioting but the news media have intentionally withheld the story from
the public, according to Negro entertainer and civil rights activist Dick
Gregory.
Ten paragraphs said Gregory had "proof of the charge. The UPI
staff in Detroit knew it was hokum. But we still are trying to live the
story down. There remain people convinced that somebody achieved
the remarkable and disposed of hundreds of bodies. 14
Reports like these clarify why some newspaper editors felt that the disorders
in other cities were more newsworthy.
As in Watts, the Kerner Commission learned that the media did pass on
rumors:
In Detroit, a radio station broadcast a rumor, based on a telephone
tip, that Negroes planned to invade suburbia one night later; if plans
existed, they never materialized.
In Cincinnati, several outlets ran a story about white youths arrested
for possessing a bazooka; only a few reports mentioned that the
weapon was inoperable.
In Tampa, a newspaper repeatedly indulged in speculation about
impending trouble. When the state attorney ruled the fatal shooting of
a Negro youth justifiable homicide, the paper's news columns reported:
"There were fears today thatthe ruling would stir new race problems for
Tampa tonight." The day before, the paper quoted one "top lawman"
as telling reporters "he now fears that Negro residents in the Central
Avenue project and in the West Tampa trouble spots feel they are in
competition and trying to see which can cause the most unrest which
area can become the center of attraction."
A West Coast newspaper put out an edition headlined: "Rioting
Erupts in Washington, D.C. Negroes Hurl Bottles, Rocks at Police Near
White House." The story did not support the headline. It reported what
was actually the fact: that a number of teenage Negroes broke store
Coverage of Civil Disorders 111
windows and threw bottles and stones at police and firemen near
downtown Washington, a mile or more from the White House. On the
other hand, the same paper did not report unfounded local rumors of
sniping when other news media did. 1 5
Not without some justification, therefore, have some law enforcement
officials doubted the efficacy of media coverage. Yet these examples are
considerably weaker than those of rumors disseminated by the media during
Watts.
C 1968
This Commission did not conduct any factual investigation of the
disorders that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Quite
early, the Media Task Force considered contracting a content analysis similar
to that sponsored by the Kerner Commission. After discussing the matter
with research organizations, and after evaluating the utility of a content
analysis without having had observers on the scene, the Task Force concluded
that the possible results could not justify the expenditure.
The various fact-finding Task Forces in Chicago, Miami, Cleveland, and
San Franciso were requested to evaluate the role of the media, but time
limitations made comprehensive evaluation almost impossible. With regard to
Chicago, it might have been feasible to have undertaken such a study using
the substantial outtakes from both NBC and CBS as a gauge. CBS however,
refused to entertain any inquiry into its "news judgment," and NBC, while
not flatly refusing, expressed strong reservations.
From the Chicago, Miami, Cleveland, and San Francisco reports, from
interviews with representatives of the news media, and from other sources,
both public and private, we have concluded, not surprisingly, that some news
organizations have made substantial progress toward responsible coverage of
disorders while others, unfortunately, have made little or none.
The mayor of the District of Columbia, Walter Washington, said, toward
the end of the April 1968 disorders:
I must say at this point never in my public life have I seen a more
responsive press and a more responsive media. I should say for the
citizens of this city that I am appreciative for the press, radio and TV
that have reported, and reported accurately, and reported well and fast,
so that you could keep abreast and be assured of the condition as it
advanced and progressed.
But a study conducted by the Lemberg Center at Brandeis University also
indicates that coverage of urban violence needs improvement. The analysis of
press reactions to 25 alleged sniping incidents in 24 cities during July and
August of 1968 illustrates the effects of the newsman's pursuit of conflict
upon news judgment.
The Lemberg Center study concluded that the disorders of July 23-26,
1968, in Cleveland, involving pitched gun battles between black nationalists
and police, shaped press interpretations of subsequent sniping incidents in
other cities. The Cleveland Press and the New York Times both characterized
1 12 Mass Media and Violence
the Cleveland disorder as an organized plot against the police. Subsequent
reports of sniping in other cities supported the view that a new phase in the
course of racial conflict had begun, and this view became widespread. On
August 3, 1968 the New York Times said in an editorial:
. . . The pattern in 1967 has not proven to be the pattern of 1968.
Instead of violence almost haphazardly exploding, it has sometimes
been deliberately planned. And while the 1967 disorders served to rip
away false facades of racial progress and expose rusting junkyards of
broken promises, the 1968 disorders also reveal a festering militancy
that prompts some to resort to open warfare. 1 6
Again, on Sept. 13, 1968, Time took note of an "ominous trend" in the
country:
Violence as a form of Negro protest appears to be changing from the
spontaneous combustion of a mob to the premeditated shoot-outs of
the farout few. Many battles have started with well planned sniping at
police. 1 7
The Brandeis study of these 25 incidents does not support this view. In 20
of the 25 disorders, there was no evidence of planning. Seventeen were traced
to unplanned incidents, frequently related to police action. Of the other five
incidents, only in Cleveland was there any significant evidence of planning,
and even that is in doubt. 1 8
Analysis of newspaper clippings and interviews with police officials from
each of the 24 cities led to the following conclusions:
1 . The overwhelming number of disorders surveyed failed to display
conclusive evidence of a new type of racial violence based on
conspiracy and guerilla tactics.
1 Initial versus later reports of sniping showed many discrepancies
concerning the amount of sniping. These discrepancies included a
downward revision of early sniping figures, particularly where the
following items were concerned: the number of snipers involved, the
number of shots fired, and the number of policemen involved as targets.
3. The press at both the local and national level was inclined
toward imprecise, distorted, inaccurate reporting. In some instances,
the press revealed a tendency to needlessly sensationalize the news.
These findings lead to the conclusion that sniping reports have
generally been exaggerated and that recent suggestions of a new 'trend'
of racial violence based upon the events of last summer are highly
questionable.
The Lemberg criticism of both the local and national press the wire
services, individual newspapers, and the national news magazines sharpens to
a few salient observations: early press reports were inaccurate and distorted;
too little attention was given to the immediate causes of the disturbances;
and, in the aftermath, few attempts (with the notable exception of the New
York Time's on the Cleveland disorders) were made to verify previous
Coverage of Civil Disorders 113
statements or to assess the tensions and grievances rooted in the community.
Failing on all these fronts, the national press, in particular, was overzealous in
its reports of a "trend" based on limited and unconfirmed evidence.
D. Reporting Civil Disorders
The Kerner Commission made several recommendations to improve media
performance during civil disorders. The Media Task Force endorses each of
them.
Much of what should be done requires only good judgment and planning.
Local media should contact their law enforcement agencies, and receive
briefings at least twice a year on the prospects for violent disorders and
whenever a planned event has a potential for violence. At such a briefing,
they should be advised of the plans the police have made for dealing with
emergencies and their reasons for the planned response. When violence erupts,
the police should be prepared to establish channels of communication with
the news media to assure the rapid and efficient flow of information.
The need for such a system was apparent in Detroit:
At a time of rioting, rumors are rampant and tend to grow as
exhaustion sets in. Tensions rise and incidents tend to be exaggerated
by overreaction. These rumors can have serious effects.
Authoritative sources of information must be identified quickly,
developed on a priority basis and maintained, with full reliance placed
on them. Regular news conferences must be held by senior civilian and
military officials; if they are not, the press will follow the sensational
reports and fan the rumors. Members of the press, as feasible, should be
permitted to accompany senior officials on tours of the riot areas, and
to share in their evaluations in order to provide the facts to the public
quickly and authoritatively. Regular formal contact with the press
should be augmented by frequent background briefings for community
leaders because rumors flourish at all levels. 19
Conflict will naturally arise between the objectives of the news media and
the objectives of the police. The newsmen want to report as fully as possible;
the police want to prevent escalation of the disorder and to restore the peace.
Yet the police and press have common interests. Full, fast, and accurate
reporting can make a contribution to restoring order. On balance, the effects
of coverage of civil disorders are positive; but the news organizations can take
steps to reduce even further the negative effects of their reporting, and in
important measure, their success depends upon the full cooperation of local
officials.
Prior liaison by the media should not be limited to the police. If the news
organization has followed the Task Force suggestions made earlier to establish
communication with Negro and with other dissident organizations in the
community, they will also tap these news sources. But development of these
sources must be made prior to the disturbance; without them, there can be no
balanced coverage.
Advance contact with rumor centers is also important. During the April
1 14 Mass Media and Violence
1968 disorders, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and several other cities
established rumor centers, which consisted of a battery of telephones manned
by persons provided with the latest information. Through regular reports
from such a rumor center, the media can be in a much better position to
determine the most frequent rumors and thereby be better able to perform
their important function of destroying rumors.
Collectively, and within their own organizations, the news media can
accomplish much before the disorder starts. Indeed, how much they do may
determine whether it starts at all or, if it does, how much it grows.
The most controversial and difficult issue for radio and television centers
on the delay of news. Where the news event is of a kind likely to symbolize
past injustices to any significant group in the community, there is a danger
that such an event may trigger a large-scale disorder. 20 Moreover, once a
crowd has begun to gather at the scene of such an event, immediate broadcast
of the event and its precise location is likely to draw additional persons to the
area and add to crowd-control problems of the police, thereby contributing
to the likelihood of a violent outbreak and its severity if it does occur.
Consider the following example from this Commission's Miami Task Force
report:
[During the early minutes of the riot in Miami] , as at all times before
and after, the activities of the news media were unrestricted in the area
of the disturbances. They used their own discretion in determining
where to go and what to do. The fact that the disturbances were taking
place was aired promptly on two radio stations serving primarily black
community. One newscaster made a telephone call to one of the
stations from the scene, and his report came "live" on the air in the
midst of a popular rock-n-roll show. This medium, perhaps more than
any other was responsible for quickly spreading the word and attracting
more people to the scene with concomitant problems. 2 1
No two events are exactly the same. The solution necessarily rests in the
competence and good judgment of newsmen and media executives, but recent
experience does suggest some of the considerations to be weighed in deciding
how soon to report inflammatory incidents and how to report them without
contributing to already overburdened police officials and, in some cases, to
alleviate tension.
Once it is decided that the incident is potentially inflammatory or may
attract a crowd to the scene, most of the newsmen with whom we have
discussed the problem suggest a delay of a least 30 minutes to confirm the
story, make sure the facts are clear, and to avoid exaggeration. Under
particular circumstances it may require a delay of an hour or longer. Media
transmittal of unconfirmed reports, emotional or unbalanced accounts, and
visual portrayals of violence without perspective can do at least as much
damage as news delay. Where community- wide guidelines are in effect, it is
best to designate one journalist representative to determine the length of the
embargo. Such centralization eliminates the competitive pressures that tend
to undermine this policy. A complete embargo beyond one hour, and
preferably beyond 30 minutes, probably cannot be justified. 2 2
There are at least three reasons for this: (1) failure to make any report
Coverage of Civil Disorders 1 15
will result in the spread of unchallenged rumors; (2) additional delay will
impair the credibility of the media, perhaps not for that particular incident
but for future incidents; (3) persons who might otherwise travel through the
area must be advised to avoid it.
News of the 1943 Detroit race riot was censored because of the war. Yet,
Negroes in rural Mississippi, 700 miles away, received news of the event one
day later from Pullman car porters on the Illinois Central Railroad. 2 3
In June 1967, a Negro male was found dead in his cell at the Onondaga
County Public Safety Building in Syracuse, N.Y. Word spread throughout the
city that he had been shot. Onondaga County Sheriff Patrick Corbitt initiated
a tour of the cell area and presented a statement to five Negro clergymen
concerning the incident. The spokesman for the Negro ministers as well as the
county coroner appeared on television. They reported that the cause of death
was definitely not external injury. Some local officials believed that these
immediate steps to broadcast the findings reduced the possibility of trouble.
In Washington, D.C., the shooting of a woman near 14th and U Streets by
a white police officer resulted in a minor disturbance. All the ingredients for a
disorder were present. Rumors had already started to the effect that a child
and two women, one of them pregnant, had been shot and killed by a white
policeman. One department spokesman, present at the scene, stated that it
took about 1.2 seconds for the rumor to run from 14th and U Streets to 14th
and Columbia Road and back, a distance of several blocks. This same officer
reported that on-the-spot coverage of the incident by black journalists
resulted in the quick dissemination of accurate information which calmed
residents in the area. Three important factors worked together: restraint, a
credible medium, and police/media cooperation.
If any doubt persists that news of an incident will travel throughout the
community regardless of whether it is reported, recall that the Kerner
Commission survey found that during the Detroit riot, where the news
embargo extended well beyond an hour, 74 percent of the ghetto residents
interviewed learned of the disorder through word of mouth. As a general rule,
communications through such channels will be a gross exaggeration of any
injustice that may have occurred, or even a complete fabrication. In Watts,
for example, the arrest of an intoxicated driver drew a crowd. A woman
wearing a barber's smock was also arrested for assaulting an officer. But, the
totally false rumor was soon circulating that she was pregnant and had been
roughly abused by the police.
The city of Chicago has a city-wide code which provides that news of a
disturbance shall not be broadcast until the police have it under control. The
difficulty with such a rule is that it may be hours, perhaps even days, before
the police achieve such control. In the meantime, the public needs to know
what is happening. In Detroit, for example, the first person killed, a woman,
was shot while driving through the riot area. If she had listened to the radio
or had watched TV at mid-morning of that day, she did not have a chance to
learn of the riot because Detroit stations kept it off the air for hours at the
request of Negro leadeers.
The dilemma of meeting the public's need to know and rumor suppression
without contributing to the size of the crowd can be resolved by restrained
reporting until the police have the situation under control or until the
information is no longer likely to contribute to the^ disorder. The most
1 16 Mass Media and Violence
important piece of information to withhold is the precise location of the
disturbance. At the same time, the media can advise people to avoid the
general area. If the police have planned adequately, they should be able to
advise the media of routes to avoid and to suggest alternative routes for
people who normally use the affected streets.
In cases where some delay is necessary, it is absolutely essential that the
media take more than usual steps to report fully at a later date.
Many journalists believe that the basic requirements for good
reporting intelligence, judgment, lack of bias, responsibility, restraint, and
balance provide adequate standards for meeting any challenge. Certainly no
set of government or industry guidelines can adequately replace these
long-standing fundamentals of good journalism. Others in the news media
believe, however, that coverage of disorders requires elaboration of these
principles in the form of specific rules. We concur. During periods of stress,
general principles are not self-executing. The guidelines adopted by many
news organizations acknowledge that the problems of covering violence in an
unstable, often racially troubled, social environment make more specific rules
of behavior necessary .-
In reporting both incidents that may grow to disorders and the disorders
themselves, the media can make additional preparations within their own
organizations. They can issue instructions to their staff along the lines of the
guidelines discussed in Appendix II-C.
Some TV stations, for example, have already made the decision not tc
cover riots with live mobile television units. Rather than send conspicuous
shoulder-braced sound cameras to a riot, they can plan to send the much
smaller, hand-held silent cameras, plus a man with a tape recorder to pick up
random sound. Similarly, they can use black and white instead of color film,
which requires more light; in this way, they can reduce the need for
crowd-attracting lights and apparatus. They should plan, in advance, the
deployment of manpower within the news organization, what the process for
assimilation shall be, and who shall exercise responsibility at each stage.
A neighborhood fight should not be called a riot. A disturbance should not
be designated racial without confirmation. Accuracy should have priority
over speed. The story, particularly its violent aspects, should be kept in
perspective. Known visible facts should be reported in a calm, matter-of-fact
manner. Lights should not be used if they heighten tension. If it becomes
apparent that the media's presence attracts a crowd or causes extremists to
act for the cameras, the lens should be capped and the crew withdrawn. No
information, including police contingency plans that might aid rioters in
evading apprehension by the police should be disseminated; reporting without
specific details or delayed reporting can usually avoid this problem.
During the course of the coverage of disorders, news decisions will have to
be made. In the local newsroom of a radio or television station, different men
may be putting bulletins on the air, assigning TV cameramen, reviewing and
editing film and scripts, and producing, in coordination with the newscasters,
television and radio news programs: all these people should check their major
decisions with the news director.
If, for example, the police radio carries a report of a National Guardsman
being shot, it is tempting to put this on the air, because it has the surface
authenticity of a police report. Many of these reports are based on rumors
Coverage of Civil Disorders 117
and are simply requests for confirmation by a police officer. The story is
skimpy; no details substantiate it. During the tension of a riot, the police can
act hastily and carelessly. Moreover, the day is past when everything the
police say should be broadcast as "truth." The report must be confirmed.
This event supposedly happened in Cleveland: There was a police report
that a National Guardsman was shot. The wire services picked it up and
several radio stations put it on the air. But at least one news director decided
to keep it off the air until one of his men could go to the scene and check it.
It turned out that a Guardsman had simply fallen off a jeep and lain in the
streets a few seconds after his fall. Nobody had been shot.
In the case of a disturbance in Washington, D.C., a report came in from a
newsman on the scene that a mob was smashing windows one mile from the
White House. The editor canceled out the reference to the White House as
irrelevant and alarmist. The general location of the disturbance was reported,
but not the exact corner. Specific instructions for avoiding the area were
given to motorists.
For another possible case, a film clip comes in showing several young
people looting a clothing store. A policeman is standing by, watching. Does it
go on the air? Yes, if the event can be put in perspective. During the April
1968 disorders in Washington, such scenes appeared on the air. Many people
objected to the showing of the clip. These scenes, they thought, gave
potential looters the impression that the police did nothing. Others objected
to the laxity of the police. One responsible news director has suggested that it
is sufficient to point out that there was only one policeman present, and he
would leave it to the audience to infer that the officer was not being
cowardly or cynical, but was just using good judgment.
Is this adequate? A number of studies suggest that simply displaying the
facts frequently results in a lost message. 24 The reporter should expressly
state the reasons, or the probable reasons why the police are doing nothing.
For example, where the looters outnumber the policemen, they probably
cannot be apprehended without the application of deadly force ; this could
endanger the lives of the officers and would contribute to the tension in the
community. The large-scale application of deadly force to prevent crimes
against property, particularly against teenaged looters, as many of them were
in Washington, D.C., may escalate the response of the extremists in the black
community.
Another film clip comes in showing policemen swinging their batons at
rioters. Does it go on the air? Again yes, but only if it can be put in
perspective. News media face no more difficult task than to decide when a
scene of violence should be broadcast and how it should be cast. At least one
news director suggests that it is sufficient to broadcast such material as long
as the newscaster does not make "purple" statements such as, "he swung
viciously," or they "cracked skulls." He says, "let the film tell the story."
The film cannot tell the story. It represents a very small slice of the
disorder. It does not tell why the police were cracking skulls; whether they
were attacked by the mob; whether the mob had been ordered to disperse
and refused to do so; whether they were trying to rescue an officer or another
threatened person; or whether they had just lost their senses and, for no
apparent reason, decided to beat up some people. Just showing the film clip
openly invites every viewer to supply his own reason why, and it will be the
1 18 Mass Media and Violence
viewer's preconceptions about rioters or police that will determine what story
he receives not the film. Just showing the film may be the easy way out of a
difficult decision for the reporter, but just showing the film is not enough.
The reporting of riots often takes on the color of the policeman's
viewpoint because the reporter usually goes into the riot area with the police
and he normally sticks by them. If he is being shot at by the same sniper who
is shooting at the police, the reporter identifies and sympathizes with the
police. But he is not the police department's public relations office. If he
witnesses police misconduct, he should report it. When the police perform
well under extreme provocation, long hours, and accompanying tension, he
should report that too.
The reporter can offset this tendency to tell the story from the official
viewpoint by being especially alert to evidence of black assistance in crowd
control and in cooling the situation. The Kerner Commission found the media
somewhat remiss in reporting the good work done by ghetto residents.
With a few exceptions such as the Washington Post, the Media Task
Force's five-city survey turned up little evidence of newspaper guidelines for
the coverage of violent events. 25 Also, the failure of 50 percent of the radio
stations to respond to the Task Force's questionnaire suggests limited
adoption of guidelines, except at the national level.
All news organizations should give serious consideration to codifying
guidelines parallel to those already promulgated by the major networks, by
the Washington Post, and by other news organizations. Although no set of
guidelines will cover all eventualities, the more specific they are, and the more
they are discussed within the news organization, the greater the probability
that the reporter or correspondent under stress will adhere to them.
Most of the initiative for developing guidelines should come from
individual news organizations. Journalism is a diverse, loosely knii, pluralistic
institution, and should remain so. Few critical journals and no strong
professional organizations prescribe rules of conduct or levy sanctions. Little
leadership comes from the schools of journalism. Professional organizations,
such as Sigma Delta Chi and the American Society of Newspaper Editors,
have considered riot coverage and related issues, but have not exercised strong
leadership.
Electronic journalism, fortunately, does. The National Association of
Broadcasters (NAB) and the Radio-Television News Directors Association
(RTNDA) have both promulgated codes of ethics and standards for news
broadcasting and, together with network news policies, have provided
touchstones for news reporting. Standards for reporting violence for the
networks and the NAB and RTNDA are similar in focus to avoid
inflammatory or morbid or sensational reporting with the networks being
the most specific.
Over the last year or so, seminars and discussion groups have discussed riot
coverage and surveillance of the ghetto; these have undoubtedly heightened
the awareness of participants to special needs and problems. Such activities
should continue and should be initiated by national, state and local
professional organizations, and by schools of journalism.
Coverage of Civil Disorders 1 19
The potential for leadership in the RTNDA is underscored by the activities
of its northern California chapter. After discussing the sensitive role of the
broadcaster in civil disorders, the chapter designated a committee to
recommend suggested guidelines. In setting out these policy guides, the
RTNDA committee observed that the majority of news directors in the region
felt that such a set of guidelines was necessary in this one area of coverage
because, among other reasons,
"an instance of widespread civil disobedience, particularly one involving
racial strife, is entirely unique from any other kind of story in that its
coverage could affect the direction of its development and intensity, its
duration and outcome and therefore demands exception
treatment ..."
This particular set of guidelines was endorsed by the chapter membership
and submitted to station managements and law enforcement officials. Judging
from the returns from the Task Force's inquiry into San Diego, the
circulation of the guidelines in Northern California influenced the adoption
of similar guidelines by many radio and television stations in that State. The
entire RTNDA and the American Society of Newspaper Editors would do
well to consider undertaking similar action nationwide.
REFERENCES
1. Cited in Hugh Davis Graham and Ted Robert Gurr, the History of Violence in
America, Report submitted to the National Commission on the Causes and
Prevention of Violence, (New York: Bantam Books, 1969). p. 440.
2. Williams L. Rivers and Wilbur Schramm, Responsibility in Mass Communication
(New York: Harper and Row, 1969), p. 175.
3. Robert Conot, Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness (New York: Bantam Books,
1967), pp. 154-155.
4. Ibid. p. 151.
5. William B. Monroe, Jr., "Television: The Chosen Instrument of the Revolution," in
Race and the News Media, Paul L. Fisher and Ralph L. Lowenstein, eds. (New
York: Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, 1967), p. 92.
6. Report of The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, (Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., March 1968), pp. 205-206.
7. Ibid., p. 201.
8. Ibid., pp. 202-203.
9. Letter written at the direction of the Federal Communications Commission by Ben
F. Waple, Secretary, to ABC, CGS, and NBC, Feb. 28, 1969, p. 2. footnote 1.
10. Benjamin D. Singer, "Journalism and the Kerner Report: The Report's Critique of
Television," Columbia Journalism Review, Fall 1968, p. 57. ("I don't know"
responses were eliminated in computing these figures.)
11. Martin S. Hayden, "A View From Detroit," in The Media and the Cities, Charles U.
Daly, ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), p. 60.
12. Kurt Lang and Gladys Engel Lang, Politics & Television (Chicago: Quadrangle
Books, 1968), pp. 36-78.
13. Hayden, op. cit., footnote 11, p. 58.
14. Ibid. p. 57-59.
15. Kerner Commission, op. cit., footnote 6, p. 202.
16. Sniping Incidents: A New Pattern of Violence? (Waltham, Mass.: Lemberg Center
for the Study of Violence, Brandeis University, February, 1969).
17. Ibid.
18. Louis H. Masotti and Jerome R. Corsi, Shoot Out in Cleveland; A Staff Report to
the NCCPV, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., May 1969), Passim
19. Final Report of Cyrus R. Vance, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense
Concerning the Detroit Riots, July 23 through August 2, 1967 (August 1967).
120 Mass Media and Violence
20. Louis B. Schwartz and Stephen R. Goldstein, "Demonstrations, Picketing, Riots,"
Police Guidance Manuals: A Philadelphia Model (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania, 1968), pp. 24-28; FBI, op. cit., footnote 1, p. 17.
21. Miami Report, The Report of the Study Team on Civil Disturbances in Miami,
Florida during the week of August 5, 1968, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Print.
Off., 1969), p. 11.
22. A "brief voluntary moratorium" on reporting the news was one of the two
characteristics common to the community wide broadcast codes that the Justice
Department's Community Relations Service evaluated for the Kerner Commission in
1967. The specific period of delay, the CRS pointed out, was seldom more than 30
minutes- sufficiently long to assure accuracy and balance.
23. Ben H. Bagdikian, "Editorial Responsibility in Times of Urban Disorder," The
Media and the Cities, Charles U. Daly, ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1968), p. 17.
24. Wallace Mandell and Carl I. Hoveland, "Is There a Law of Primacy in Persuasion?"
American Psychologist (1952), p. 538; Elihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Personal
Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications (New
York: The Free Press, 1955).
25. See Appendix II-C.
Chapter 7
JOURNALISM EDUCATION*
The only place where one can learn
to be a journalist is in
a great newspaper
- Frederic Hudson, New
York Herald, Circa 1870.
Young men writing in the great newspapers
were as a rule profoundly ignorant
of the simplest history or philosophy .
- Andrew Dickson White,
president, Cornell
University, 1868.
In the half-century following the Civil War, journalism education moved,
haltingly, onto the American college campus. Its establishment as a
college-level program was accompanied by a debate as to whether there
should be collegiate preparation for the practice of journalism. From the
vantage point of 1969, the resolution of the debate was never really in doubt.
During this same period America was transforming its system of higher
education into a mass producer of the specialists required by a developing
industrial nation. The professions, and would-be professions, were being
legitimized by higher education, and it was not possible to ignore journalism.
There were those who regarded professional training as unnecessary.
Journalists like Frederic Hudson of the New York Herald argued in the
1870's that a training school of journalism could not be made "very
serviceable." He asked: "Who are to be the teachers? The only place one can
learn to be a good journalist is in a great newspaper office . . . College training
is good in its way, but something more is needed for journalism." 1 Many of
today's journalists agree.
Sentiments such as Hudson's did not prevent the incorporation of
journalism instruction into the universities. But the accompanying debate
probably tended to obscure a more significant issue: the relationship of two
important American institutions, the university and the press.
This chapter is based almost entirely on a paper prepared for the Media Task Force
by Professor I. W. Cole of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern
University.
121
122 Mass Media and Violence
Because this issue was not resolved, journalism education, like Alexander
Pope's Man, has existed on an "isthmus of a middle state." At one extreme,
journalism education has been expected to function as a service to the
press-as-business by recruiting employees and providing them with basic
training that is, functioning as a sort of campus extention of the personnel
departments of the mass media. At the other extreme, journalism education
has been expected to improve the press-as-a-social instrument-that is, serve
the society by changing the press.
An educator of the period, Andrew Dickson White, was concerned with
improving the press as a social instrument. Inaugurated as president of Cornell
in 1868, he proposed to establish "departments for the instruction especially
of those who intend entering public life through the newspaper or the
forum." He believed that young men serving the great newspapers were, "as a
rule profoundly ignorant of the simplest history or philosophy." 2
Generally, the issue was resolved in favor of the universities serving the
press as business. To a large extent, this still is the pervading influence,
considerably refined, in present-day journalism programs. As a result, the
journalism program is likely to reflect the needs of the press as perceived by
the press; it makes journalism education a circular process, in which current
newsroom practices are observed and emulated in the classroom.
In fairness to both the university and the press it should be noted that the
issues are not as black and white as this summary would make them appear.
More thoughtful leaders in both campus and newsrooms have sought
diligently to resolve the ambivalence and ambiguity which has hampered both
education for journalism and the practice of journalism. There are universities
which, perhaps subliminally, view their journalism programs as being a form
of public relations with the state press. There are many others that perceive a
more significant fuction. Conversely there are employers of journalism
graduates who regard journalism education as simply an extension of the
firm's personnel department. But there are many others who are impatient
with journalism schools for producing too many young men and women well
drilled in yesterday's practices rather than prepared to devise tomorrow's
solutions.
All professional and specialized programs in higher education have faced
similar problems in this respect. In his examination of journalism and liberal
education, Paul L. Dressel states:
... it should be observed that much of the early education in this
country in all professional callings was narrowly technical. Most
curricula in that day and indeed up to very recent times emphasized
handbook information artd rule-of-thumb procedures while neglecting
basic theory and generalized knowledge useful in the infinitely varied
circumstances of everyday practice ....
The most advanced views today assume that if it is to be fully
effective in preparing graduates for the complicated demands of
contemporary life, professional education must have not a single goal
but rather three comprehensive objectives. First, because of its very
nature, it must obviously inculcate the corpus of knowledge, the
complement of skills, and the traits of personality and character which
constitute the distinctive features of a particular craft ....
Journalism Education 123
A second purpose, and one of rising importance, is concerned with
the general education which all those who attend an institution of
higher education must have if they are to understand, and to live
competently in, an increasingly complex democratic society ....
Furthermore, an educational institution can hardly absolve itself of a
third responsibility-that of assisting the student in gaining
self-understanding, a moral grounding, and a consistent view of the
world. 3
The limitations of a system of journalism education oriented to serving the
press as business are serious and the advantages few. To the extent that those
newsroom practices that appear to be the most sound are selected for
emulation, this approach can lead to evolutionary changes in the press, and
this indeed has been an important function of journalism education. Yet the
disadvantages far outweigh this very tenuous contribution.
Journalist Eugene Methvin, for example, writing in The New Leader,
reports that some members of his profession are concerned that modern
journalism may be caught in the "tradition trap." He writes:
Science Writer Blair Justice surveyed popular college journalism
textbooks and found that the definition of newsworthiness has
progressed little beyond the precepts developed intuitively by city
editors in the days of the Hearst-Pulitzer street circulation wars. The
canons of "reader psychology" generally taught place unvarying
emphasis on the theme that "conflict and violence are news." They
have been in an agrarian America just emerging from a century of
isolation, but are they in the century of the two world wars and Fourth
of July weekend highway massacres?
To test the impact of this training, Justice sent questionnaires to
journalism students at six universities before and after their first
journalism courses, and to journeymen editors and reporters. He
submitted 20 headlines, 10 suggesting nonconflict or even harmony.
Respondents were asked to rank the headlines in two ways: (1) where
they would place the stories as daily newspaper editors; (2) how much
personal interest they had in the news involved.
The results were startling: After exposure to journalism textbook
"reader psychology," the student significantly upgraded the play they
would give conflict and violence. The practicing journalists showed a
similar bias. All showed a great gap between personal and news
judgment, playing up stories, in which they had little interest, burying
others they found personally appealing. 4
Perhaps more serious than the passing of outmoded traditions is the failure
to perform the critical role of continuous review of the efficacy of present
practices and to instill in journalists a tradition of self-criticism. Schools of
journalism have, from time to time, been encouraged to institutionalize a
continuing critique of the press. There is little evidence of much response. Jay
W. Jensen, chairman of the department of journalism of Illinois, has outlined
the role:
124 Mass Media and Violence
Existing knowledge of the mass media their character, behavior and
effects should be constantly subjected to scrutiny and criticism.
Indeed, even the methods by which such knowledge is attained should
be continuously criticized. This is commonplace in other units of the
university.
Likewise, the values (legal, moral and cultural) underpinning the
mass media their policy, content and objectives; the rationale of their
existence, the milieu of norms, imperatives and sanctions in which they
operate should be continuously examined and appraised.
Finally, the institution's arrangements which comprise the order of
mass communications their effectiveness, utility, propriety, and so
on also should be the object of continuous criticism.
For the school of journalism to do otherwise would be to abandon
its proper role as a unit of the university, and therefore to abandon its
responsibilities to its students, to society, and to its profession. The
primary reason for its existence, as for higher education in general, is
not to be found in the cultural heritage it transmits to students. This
function is also performed by other agencies in society. The ultimate
justification for the journalism school, as for the university, lies rather
in its critical function, in its continuous critique of knowledge, values
and institutions.
The school of journalism imparts knowledge, but it should impart
that knowledge critically. If it fails in this respect, it has no reason for
existence, except perhaps that of relieving industry of the burden of
apprenticeship training. It is not enough that, in preparing students for
careers, the school of journalism promotes critical consideration of
those principles and techniques necessary to technical arrangements
underlying and impinging upon those careers. For only thus may
students be expected to pass from college into their period of technical
apprenticeship with their critical faculties already honed and practiced
in connecting fact with theory, values with action, ideals with reality,
and the demands of life with its possibilities. 5
The need to develop a tradition of criticism within journalism schools is
more important than for other disciplines. Government review and criticism is
feared undesirable, and, because of the first amendment, the threat of
government action as a device for making private institutions responsive is
nonexistent. Finally, the press, the critical agency for most other institutions
in our society, has shown great timidity toward self-criticism.
A. The Curricula
Today there are 55 institutions offering accredited programs in journalism.
Almost an equal number of other institutions offer programs with similar
objectives, most of which have not sought accreditation.
In earlier days, journalism programs were for those who wished to be
newspaper men. As radio and then television became part of the mass
communications system, the journalism curricula in many universities were
changed to reflect the emergence of the new media. Sometimes, but not
Journalism Education 125
always, the name of the unit offering the instruction changed from
"journalism" to "communications."
The place of the journalism unit within the university hierarchy varies
considerably from institution to institution. Thus, at one state university
there is a department of journalism headed by a chairman, while at another
there is a college of communications headed by a dean. The differences are
more than semantic, however, and in the two examples cited there are
substantial differences in the scope of the divisions and the responsibilities of
their administrators.
In general, the typical journalism program concentrates on students who
are candidates for a 4-year bachelor's degree. Three of the accredited schools
depart from this pattern. Columbia University's School of Journalism offers a
1-year graduate program; Northwestern bases its curriculum on a 5-year
program leading to a terminal professional Master's degree. The University of
Michigan has recently eliminated professional instruction for undergraduate
students, offering instead a 2-year program leading to a Master's degree.
In the typical four-year journalism program, about three-fourths of the
course work offered for the bachelor's degree is taken in departments other
than journalism. Usually, but not always, the bulk of the student's
non-journalism program is drawn from social science and humanities
departments.
The one-fourth of the total course work in subjects offered through the
school of journalism is divided roughly into two parts: part of the journalism
subject matter is devoted to journalism techniques, and the other part to
courses emphasizing the social role of journalism. Even this sort of
classification is crude; a course in reporting would fall into the journalism
techniques category, yet can include excellent instruction, for example, in
government and politics through reading and reporting assignments given to
students.
The journalism schools themselves have contributed to some confusion by
suggesting an unrealistic dichotomy between specialized courses in journalism
and those courses offered by the traditional liberal arts departments. The
schools point to their restrictions which prevent the student from taking
excessive numbers of the journalism course offerings, and to the requirement
that he take a substantial number of nonjournalism courses, as examples of
the "liberal" nature of the typical journalism curriculum. Up to a point this is
true, but to the extent that it has encouraged the belief that journalism
courses are narrowly vocational, and nonjournalism courses are more nearly
broad and general, the case has been overstated. As the late Virgil M.
Rancher, while president of the State University of Iowa, noted in a 1953
address:
We forget that it is possible to become liberally educated by the
teaching and study of professional or specialized subjects in a liberal
manner . . .
While in general I would support the proposition that there are some
things which every liberally educated man should know, I fear that we
have been led into error sometimes by believing that the study of
certain subject matter inevitably results in a liberal education. It is
nearer the truth to say that there is no subject matter, worthy of a
126 Mass Media and Violence
place in the curriculum of a modern Land-Grant college or state
university, which cannot be taught either as a professional specialty or
as a liberal subject. 6
From this dichotomy between "journalism" and "non-journalism"
segments of the journalism curriculum has arisen a division of labor. The
journalism school concerns itself either primarily or solely with the
journalism course offerings from which one-quarter of the student's
undergraduate program is chosen. Typically, the journalism faculty resists
encroachment by other faculties on this part of the curriculum. Conversely,
the journalism school frequently plays little or no role in the formulation of
courses to be offered elsewhere in the institution, courses from which
journalism students choose three-fourths of their undergraduate programs. To
a great extent, such a situation is an understandable by-product of the
administrative structure of universities. Dressel comments, however, that the
division of labor need not be as absolute as he observed it to be:
. . . there is no real attempt, such as could rather readily be made with
the small group of journalism students at any particular stage, to
inventory their general background in the liberal arts courses and to
build on this in the development of some of the journalism courses.
Professional [journalism] faculty members . . . seem to know very little
about what is being done in the liberal arts courses and make very little
attempt to relate their courses to these. 7
Since 1960, when Dressel's comment was published, there has been
evidence of increasing efforts on the part of individual journalism schools to
bring about better integration between the Journalism and non-journalism
segments of the student's curriculum. Despite this, what Dressel describes as
"the tendency to see journalism courses as discrete courses," 8 and to see
journalism as discrete from liberal arts remains very much a feature of
journalism education.
What effect does the dichotomy between journalism and non-journalism
courses have?
First, the ability of the journalism school to incorporate into its
curriculum courses pertinent to contemporary social problems is in large part
dependent on the course offerings of other departments of the
institution actions over which the typical journalism school has little or no
influence. If, through the actions of other departments, such courses are
available, at least two other factors determine whether these .courses are
incorporated. The journalism faculty may, through student advising or
through curriculum requirements, encourage or discourage enrollment in such
courses by journalism majors. The faculties of the departments offering such
courses through prerequisites established for enrollment in the courses, make
it possible or impossible for journalism students to include the courses in
their program of study.
Second, in that one-fourth of the journalism student's program is offered
by the journalism school, considerable freedom to reflect the changing social
environment is possible. The instructor in a course in public affairs reporting,
for example, may assign his student to report on problems of race,
Journalism Education 127
government, education, and similar subjects germane to the changing milieu.
In many journalism schools such changes in emphasis would be possible
without formal changes in course offerings. The principal limiting factor in
most instances would be the imagination and competency of the instructor.
An additional limiting factor, though probably a less important one, would be
the physical location of the university of which a particular journalism school
is a part, with urban locations offering more close-at-hand resources for
student reports than rural locations.
Without detailed study of the academic transcripts of recent journalism
graduates, it is not possible to determine the extent to which journalism
schools are making use of courses offered by other departments which center
on contemporary social problems. Traditionally, journalism school curricula,
insofar as the non-journalism segment is concerned, are highly permissive. It
seems fair to assume that if such courses are offered in institutions with
journalism curricula, the journalism schools are erecting no barriers for
journalism students. Further, most journalism schools have long encouraged
students to take course work in the social sciences, and it is in the social
sciences that many courses dealing with current social problems are found.
A 1967 study by Ray E. Hiebert, head of the University of Maryland
Department of Journalism, found that a number of journalism schools that
did not offer specific courses in urban affairs require their students to enroll
in such courses in other departments. Surveying 130 institutions and receiving
83 responses, Hiebert found:
A distressingly large number of schools [one-fourth of those
responding] indicated that they had no courses in urban affairs
reporting, required their students to take no courses in other
departments that touched on the subject, and had no plans for
developing a program in this area. Many of these schools are situated in
rural settings, which may be the reason for their aloof position.
While new programs are being developed and there are hopes and
plans in the works, the survey has shown that perhaps not enough is
being done especially in view of the great magnitude of the urban
problems today. 9
The obvious question is why the journalism school response has been less than
adequate.
James W. Carey, in a thoughtful paper circulated informally in the summer
of 1968, suggests that in part this inadequacy is owing to the dichotomy
between journalism and non-journalism courses. This practice is attacked by
Carey:
One might counter that what I am recommending starts to take the
journalism curriculum into the domains of history and the social
sciences. That is precisely what I am recommending. With the increasing
professionalization of the social sciences- that is, in the training of
professional sociologists in Sociology I-they becomes less and less
relevant in organization and content to the needs of the journalist..
This means, in part, encouraging the offering of certain kinds of
courses, stepping in to create and staff courses where they are otherwise
128 Mass Media and Violence
unavailable, filling interstices in the curriculum by the redefinition of
the objectives of journalism courses. . . .*
While not proceeding as far, nor necessarily in the manner advocated by
Carey, a number of journalism schools are seeking to fill gaps in the
journalism curriculum through the introduction of new or modified courses.
Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism has brought to its
students lecturers from other departments of the university. The Columbia
journalism faculty has for many years used New York City as a laboratory for
its reporting instruction, and more recently has placed increased emphasis on
urban study and research undertaken by each student during his final weeks
in the school's program.
Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism also has, over the
years, capitalized on its urban setting to use Chicago and suburbs as
laboratories for student reporting assignments. In its master's degree program,
in addition to traditional journalism courses, the school offers seminars on
urban problems, the U.S. legal system, urban education, science and
technology, politics and government, and the urban economy. These
substantive seminars are taught by Medill faculty members with appropriate
qualifications, and by members of other departments, such as education,
business, and political science.
In 1965 Medill added a Washington, D.C., program, in recognition of the
growing intercourse between the federal government and urban centers.
Under this program, 1 5 graduate students each quarter study and report from
Washington, under the direction of resident Medill faculty members.
Recipients of the news stories produced are newspapers in smaller cities,
which receive articles on actions in Washington which have local impact.
Other schools of journalism have taken steps in the direction of placing
more emphasis on current social problems, or are in the process of so doing.
For example, the University of Texas has introduced a new course, politics
and the press, primarily for journalism students. In addition, in a public
affairs reporting course a $20,000 grant helps to finance journalism student
studies of problems of politics, transportation, taxation, and the like, while
some advanced journalism students also undertake summer internships in
governmental offices. The School of Communications cosponsors, on
educational television, weekly programs for Americans of Mexican descent,
and programs dealing with low-income areas of Austin and the residents of
those areas. University of Illinois journalism students undertook the
preparation of detailed reports on problems of state government in Illinois,
and made the finished product available to Illinois newspapers for
publication. At the University of Nebraska, a course in in-depth reporting of
significant issues has been a feature of the journalism curriculum for a
number of years, with substantial attention in the course going to problems
and possibilities of community growth.
In all the institutions from which the above examples have been drawn,
and in many others not mentioned, there are expressions of intent to
undertake additional activities aimed at providing journalism majors with
greater exposure to the major forces at work in society. Most of the
journalism administrators interviewed in an informal telephone survey by I.
W. Cole were inclined to be self-critical, and critical of journalism education
Journalism Education 129
in general, for moving too slowly in this respect. But on balance, the sum of
the activities in the schools sampled showed evidence of progress toward
deeper exposure of at least some students to important social change.
More progress is needed. James W. Carey, in the paper discussed above,
asserts that a new journalism is emerging in the United States, offering
opportunities for what he describes as a "golden age" of journalism
education: The opportunity now exists, perhaps for the first time, to make
journalism schools significant, vital, and prestigious elements within
universities; and, more importantly, for such schools to become important
contributors to the political and social life of the country. This opportunity
has been created in part, he believes, by the emergence of students with:
...both the ability and the muscle to move from the campus into
positions normally reserved for mature writers. More students seem to
think that journalism really counts; that journalism is where the action
is; that in journalism one cannot only describe the circulatory system of
this fibrillating society but also create the intellectual perceptions upon
which we will come to terms with the modern world... They do not
avoid journalism schools, as is too frequently assumed, because [the
schools] are too professional, but because they are not professional
enough. [Such students] do not avoid journalism schools because such
schools teach 'techniques' but because such schools teach the wrong
kind of techniques and needlessly divorce the techniques of that presen-
tation from the substance of what is presented. 11
B. Continuing Education Programs
In August 1968, John L. Hulteng of the University of Oregon School of
Journalism inventoried the continuing education programs offered during the
1967-68 academic year by all journalism schools and departments listed in
Editor & Publisher Yearbook. Of the 82 institutions that responded, 47
reported no programs. From the remaining 35 respondents, Hulteng compiled
a list of 64 continuing education programs for journalists. 1 2
Some of the programs listed had been offered for the first time during the
1967-68 academic year; others had been in operation for as many as 17 years.
Such programs, particularly in state universities, are a natural outgrowth of
the concept of service to the institution's constituencies.
Hulteng's survey was directed to those higher institutions with some sort
of identifiable journalism program. It is in these institutions that most
continuing education programs are found. Some continuing education
programs for journalists, however, are conducted by institutions without
journalism schools. The most prestigious such program in the nation is
Harvard University's Nieman Fellowships, which since its founding in 1937,
has offered carefully selected journalists an opportunity to become
students-at-large in the university.
The continuing education programs in journalism are, understandably, a
mixed lot. Some are concerned with the most basic skills and techniques of
highly specialized journalistic tasks; others with broad and sweeping social
issues. Some last for a single day; others, including the Harvard program, for
an academic year. Many seek to advance the public relations of institutions
130 Mass Media and Violence
offering the programs, but probably most of these are not offered primarily
for public relations purposes.
The programs cannot be regarded as a substitute for in-residence collegiate
training, but at their best they offer the most effective means of helping the
practicing journalist adapt to changing demands, provided, that is, that the
profession is willing to participate.
When the Nieman grant was offered to Harvard University, President
James Bryant Conant asked 10 publishers if the underlying assumptions of
the program- a broad educational experience for working newsmen-were
valid; all 10 said no.
'The publishers doubted the value of a pure academic experience,
compared to shorter training in specific techniques ... In the course of
a re-examination of the program in 1964 President Nathan Pusey of
Harvard asked 300 publishers if they thought the program should be
continued; they all said yes." 1
Just as an increasing number of the operators of the media have become
more involved in, and more sophisticated concerning, journalism degree
programs, they are increasingly interested in university programs that offer
mid-career educational opportunities for their staff members. And while many
of the service programs offered by journalism schools draw solely on the
journalism faculty for instruction, an increasing number embrace the
resources of the whole university. In an address to the annual convention of
the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1959, I. W. Cole urged the
editors to think of the journalism school "not as an entity in itself, but as a
door to a large and complex educational institution with tremendous
resources ... we at the Medill School of Journalism offered recently a short
course in crime analysis and reporting. We would have experienced great
difficulty in this undertaking had it not been possible for us to mount this
program in cooperation with our School of Law." 1
While the interest in continuing education programs for journalists is
present, it remains to be determined how firm the "market" for such
programs will be. Herbert Brucker, past president of the American Society of
Newspsper Editors who is director of the Professional Journalism
Fellowships, Stanford University, poses the question this way:
The pattern has already been set by [the American Press Insitute] at
Columbia. This, also mid-career education, differs from the others in
two ways. In the first place, it is devoted exclusively to journalism
itself. In the second place, it is short and therefore relatively cheap.
Enlightened publishers support API by contributing to its overhead,
and generally they pay their share of the running expenses for each
staff man they send to a seminar. They are willing to do so because
they have learned through experience that in return they get back a
better city editor, or circulation manager, or political reporter or
whatever the man or the woman may be.
The question now is whether owners and publishers see that their
survival depends on more than just vocational journalistic proficiency.
In a real sense it depends also on an understanding of the contemporary
Journalism Education 131
world, on the part of their editiorial staffs, that is as deep and as broad
as possible.
So there you have it: will newspaper owners, publishers and editors
support the new mid-career, re-education programs with endowment
funds and current-expense funds? 1 5
What Brucker refers to as the new programs are ones which were either
created or received substantial impetus from foundation funds,with the Ford
Foundation in the role of the most substantial contributor:
1. Medill School of Journalism: $1,092,000 for 3-month seminars
for midcareer newspaper men as well as shorter sessions which also
include editors, publishers, and broadcasting executives.
2. Harvard: Expansion of the Nieman program with a $1.2 million
grant.
3. Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism: $1.6
million for further development of the graduate school.
4. American Political Science Association program that brings
selected members of the press and young political scientists to
Washington for a year of work on staffs of members of
Congress-$750,000.
5. Southern Regional Education Board: $700,000 for a variety of
study and seminar programs for newsmen from the South in six
regional universities.
6. Stanford University: $975,000 for a Nieman-like program for
experienced journalists.
7. Six Major Urban Reporting Projects: $6.3 million since 1965. 16
The Southern Regional Education Board program has since been given a
new status which promises to obtain for it continuing support from the
Southern Newspaper Publishers Association. It is also interesting to note the
variety of subject matter and the variety of institutions that have been a part
of the SREB program. Much of the emphasis in the SREB program has been
on seminars of 3 to 5 days' duration, for groups of no more than 25
journalists, with subject matter ranging from urban problems to international
affairs. In addition, a limited number of individual fellowships for one or two
semesters of study at Duke, Emory, Vanderbilt, the University of North
Carolina, the University of Texas, or the University of Virginia have been
offered.
While the Ford Foundation journalism grant program has provided the
most massive approach to encouraging mid-career education for journalists,
the Russell Sage Foundation has also made significant contributions. With a
Sage grant, the School of Journalism of the University of Wisconsin, for
example, offers opportunities for newsmen from newspapers and television to
attend a 2 -semester program in the social sciences.
Faced with internal and external pressures to continually upgrade staff and
undertake more complex reporting tasks, some questions have been raised as
to the ability of the mass media as businesses to support the mass media as
social institutions. The lead article in the January issue of the American
Society of Newspaper Editors Bulletin proposes grants to permit individual
newspapers to do more "serious probing into community, social, political,
racial and economic problems." 1 7 This would seem to further underscore a
132 Mass Media and Violence
fundamental question concerning the future of the nondegree programs for
newsmen: once the input of funds, particularly funds on the order of those
granted by the Ford Foundation, are gone, how many mid-career programs
for journalists will be able to survive?
It is insufficient for the journalist merely to learn the presently applied
technical skills necessary to his craft and receive exposure to non-journalism
courses dealing with contemporary problems. The skills of today will not be
good enough tomorrow. And, although many of today's problems will be
with us for a long time, there will be new ones.
The journalism student, as other student professionals, must acquire those
skills and perspective that will enable him continually to adapt his
professional values and practices to the changing needs of the society he is
trained to serve. Within the journalism school the degree candidate should
have an opportunity to learn communication theory, what is known about
the effectiveness of different forms of presenting the message, and a sufficient
acquaintance with the methods of research to allow him to stay abreast of
developments long after he has left the university. His courses in other
departments must also be adapted to meet his special needs. A course in
sociology for sociologists, for example, is not what the future journalist
requires. He needs general instruction in the principles of sociology, a broad
background in the discipline, but most important, a sufficient understanding
of what sociologists can and cannot provide after he has left the university.
He needs to learn how to adapt their work to the needs of journalism. It is
the same with other departments.
Journalism educators on many campuses faced or still face questions
concerning their academic legitimacy. While acceptance both on the campus
and in the newsroom has been sufficient for the journalism schools to feel far
more secure than they would have two decades ago, the memory of less
happy times seems to linger.
Perhaps these factors contribute to the willingness of journalism educators
to plead guilty to a variety of offenses, real and imaginary, or to be
excessively aggressive in defending journalism schools against valid criticisms.
It would be difficult to maintain that journalism schools as a whole have
shown great imagination or agility in reacting rapidly in a time of great social
change. The fact that the same can be said of many other parts of the society
hardly constitutes an excuse. At the same time, society's period of troubles
has already proven for some journalism schools a time of opportunity. At the
University of Iowa, a new journalism curriculum, reported to be experimental
and innovative, is in the making. At a number of schools, including the
University of Texas, Columbia, and the University of Michigan, efforts to
bring more Negro journalists into the white mass media are in the planning or
execution stages. A recent Ford Foundation grant to the American
University, affiliated with the Washington Journalism Center, also has as its
objective a special program to bring more minority group members into
journalism. Much more, however, needs to be done.
In the history of journalism education, the 1960's may prove to be
significant as the decade during which closer and more effective working
relationships between the press and the university were developed. The
Journalism and Education 133
mid-career education programs for journalists are likely to have an effect not
only on the students, but also on the teachers, and, typically, these new
programs involve teachers from all parts of the campus. If newsmen are
discovering that academicians have answers to some social questions, it is not
too much to hope that some of the academicians will discover from newsmen
that the faculty members have not always been addressing themselves to the
right questions.
How rapidly the partnership between press and university will grow is
more difficult to predict. The journalism schools which seek to develop new
techniques will be competing for development funds during a period when
higher institutions face growing fiscal problems. The print and broadcast
media seeking to upgrade and 'develop their news staff will increasingly find
themselves in competition with other employers seeking essentially the same
talented manpower.
Increased financial support for journalism education from the mass media
undoubtedly will be required on a substantial scale, but it would be
unrealistic to believe that this single source of outside support will be
sufficient. Those which recognize that their existence within higher education
must be based on service to the society, not simply on service to the press will
do well. Those segments of the press that will be capable of benefiting from
the activities of such schools will be those which recognize the validity of that
position. Whep that stage has been reached, it may be that the support for
improving communications within the society will be increasingly shared by
the society at large.
REFERENCES
1. Charles F. Wingate, Views and Interviews on Journalism (New York: F. B.
Patterson, 1875), pp. 195-196, as quoted in Albert A. Sutton, Education for
Journalism (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1945) p. 9.
2. John S. Brubacher and Willis Rudy, Higher Education in Transition (New York:
Harper & Bros., 1958), p. 160.
3. Paul L. Dressel, Liberal Education and Journalism (New York: Teachers College,
Columbia Universtiy Press, 1960), pp. 6-7.
4. The New Leader, Jan. 15, 1968, p. 7.
5. Jay W. Jensen, "A Method and a Perspective for Criticism of the Mass Media,"
Journalism Quarterly (Spring 1960), pp. 261-262.
6. Virgil M. Hancher, "Liberal Education in Professional Curricula," Proceedings of the
Sixty-Seventh Annual Convention of the American Association of Land-Grant
Colleges and State Universities, Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 10-12, 1953 (Washington,
D.C.: The Association, 1953), pp. 45-51 as quoted in Dressel, op. cit. footnote 3, p.
16.
7. Dressel, op. cit. footnote 3, p. 97.
8. Ibid,p.9S.
9. Ray E. Hiebert, "National Survey Shows Inadequate Effort by Schools to Prepare
Their Students for Covering Urban Affairs," Journalism Educator (Summer 1968),
p. 15.
10. "Comments of James W. Carey Following a Visit to the Iowa School of
Journalism," p. 33.
11. Ibid, p. 5.
12. John L. Hulteng, "An Inventory of Continuing Education Programs Offered by
Schools and Departments of Journalism," (Hulteng submitted the Inventory in
August 1968, on behalf of the Association for Education in Journalism Committee
on Professional Freedom and Responsibility, of which he was chairman.)
134 Mass Media and Violence
13. The Newsman's Scope, p. 13 (Published in September 1958, this brochure is one of
a series of booklets on activities supported by the Ford Foundation.)
14. I. W. Cole, address to 1959 Convention, American Society of Newspaper Editors,
Washington, D.C., as published in the Convention Proceedings.
15. Herbert Brucker, "Mid-Career Reeducation Programs" The Bulletin of the
American Society of Newspaper Editors, (September 1968), pp. 12-13.
16. The Newsman's Scope, op. cit. footnote 13, pp. 3-6.
17. Bob Holmes, "Foundation Grants to Cover the News?," The Bulletin of the
American Society of Newspaper Editors (January 1969), pp. 1-3, 11.
Chapter 8
MEDIA PRACTICES AND VALUES
Relevant to each of the foregoing subjects intergroup communication,
access to the media, and coverage of civil disorders are the practices and
values of the news media that pervade all reporting. The mechanics of
assembling a newspaper or television program affect both the content and
mode of presentation. The newsman's concept of news introduces a factor
into his normal process of selective exposure, perception, and retention which
does not afflict the nonjournalist. And the inverted pyramid style of
reporting news, favored by many newspapers and the wire services, impairs
the fidelity of the message and the likelihood that the viewer's perception of
the event will be accurate.
News gathering and dissemination are essentially bureaucratic and
contribute to news distortion. A news account is handled by a succession of
gatekeepers who have an opportunity to evaluate, to change, to interpret, and
to garble the message.
The structure of news organizations is hierarchical. When the values of \
superiors conflict with those of subordinates, the superior's values will j
prevail. In some news organizations the dominant values and policies are
those of the publisher or owner; in others, such as newspapers in the
Newhouse chain, considerable latitude prevails for editors within the simple
command make money.
The^ first stage in the gathering of news is the allocation of resources.
Assignments are made on the basis of wire^service roundups, telephone tips,
press releases, announcements of press conferences and hearings, by
monitoring police and fire department wireless communications, and from
hunch. In fact, if a reporter is not assigned to cover an event, for most
Americans it does not exist.
When an event is powerful or exciting, i.e., has high "news" value, the
newsman is pressed for time and the probability of some distortion
approaches certainity. Take, for example, a fast-breaking news story moved
by one of the wire services. The Associated Press and United Press
International both try to break the story first, hoping thereby to increase the
likelihood that subscribers to both services will use their story.
The reporter at the scene may be able to report a hundred separate facts
about the event, but his first transmission is a 1 -paragraph flash. Which facts
135
136 Mass Media and Violence
does he choose? The first transmission on the wire is followed by a number of
paragraphs on unrelated news stories until the wire service has assimilated
enough information to sent additional paragraphs. This sequence is repeated
until the story loses its "news" value or until all available facts and angles are
exhausted.
The radio or television newscaster, taking the first bulletin off the wire,
must decide whether to read the bulletin paragraph over the air. If he does,
the listener forms his initial perception of the event on the basis of that
bulletin. If the bulletin is inaccurate or misleading, and the listener doesn't
hear a later, corrected broadcast, or if the radio station does not broadcast
explanatory material later, he is left with an inaccurate recollection of the
event. Garbling may subsequently be corrected by the listener if he sees a full
television news broadcast, a complete newspaper story, or a magazine article
that records the event fully and accurately and places it in perspective. Which
version of the story he accepts, however, may depend upon the extent to
which it fits his preconceptions, rather than the fact that it was broadcast
later and, accordingly, should be more accurate. The incorrect facts, as first
heard, may stick in his mind.
The same wire story, fed to a newspaper, is picked off the wire by an
editor. Having more copy from the wire services and his reporters than he
could possibly print, he too must decide whether the item will be included
and if so, how much. His next decision is whether it will run on the front
page or on the inside pages of the newspaper. Again, with a fast-breaking
story, it may begin as a bulletin in an early edition and, accompanied by
supplemental stories, grow into a larger front page story in a later edition.
The editor must piece together the subsequent parts of the story which come
over the wire intermittently.
In every case, a headline is written, compressing the essence of the story
into even fewer words. If the bulletin is inaccurate, or, if the copywriter on
the rim of the paper's copy desk garbles the meaning in the headline, an
additional source of distortion creeps in.
Even if all information were passed by the gatekeepers with perfect
fidelity, the limitations of time and space would still affect the audience's
perception of its environment. A newsroom is inundated with a flood of
competing information. Every news organization must select from the flood
those driblets that will be allowed to surface for public view. A metropolitan
newsroom, for instance, may have a half-dozen teletype machines, two
newsphoto receivers, radio receivers on police and fire frequencies, dozens of
press releases, hundreds of telephone tips from which to choose in a single
day, and to these, add the product of the paper's own news staff. Then
galvanize the organization with an impending deadline. Compress the output
into a finite amount of space column inches for a newspaper or minutes and
seconds for a television news program and the result is a package of
information, selected, synthesized, honed in the greatest of haste on the basis
of decisions automatically made. Clearly to produce an accurate portrayal of
the environment, or to provide knowledge in a form that has more than
perfunctory significance, are most difficult tasks for newsmen.
An example from the wartime experiences of a long-time wire service
newsman illustrates the point. He went to London early in 1943, at a time
when the wire services, AP and UP, transmitted a daily roundup of strikes at
Media Practices and Values 137
war plants around the United States. Americans, he said, understood that the
wire services did a daily roundup, but the practice caused the English to
misunderstand the state of America's labor relations. London newspapers
played about six paragraphs total of U.S. domestic news on their front pages,
and five of those six paragraphs were devoted to the AP or UP roundup of
strikes at war plants. The impression of the British audience was one of
widespread labor unrest in the United States. A similar result ensues from
wire service roundups of civil disorder or campus protest.
In any event, the disjointed nature of news, resulting from the mechanics
of the news system, may prevent an audience from ever knowing the
significance of events. Tonight's 2-minute television news story about a riot in
a distant city may not be followed tomorrow by a 10-minute story on the
underlying causes, simply because the news director will have other stories
with higher "news" values to show his audience. The disjointed riot story
rides off into the limbo of the audience's memory, to reappear only when
stimulated by another disjointed but related story. Yet the impression it first
made colors, perhaps irrevocably, the audience's future opinion.
Each of these decisions involves what journalists call "news judgment."
While a great many studies have been done on the selective processes of
audiences, remarkably few have been done on the selective processes of
journalists. Part of the reason for this anomaly is that many media members
believe it is nobody's business but their own.
Nevertheless, it is possible to extrapolate from audience studies and apply
them to journalists. While this can provide some insights into news judgment,
important differences distinguish professional journalists from their
audiences. One of the most significant is that a journalist is a trained listener,
observer, reader, and writer. He has developed skills that aid him in selecting
from a multitude of facts, opinions, and events, and in finding those items he
calls "news." He is trained to present his findings in a clear, concise, and
orderly manner. All journalists, it does not follow, are sagacious, able,
extraordinarily perceptive unbiased, and excellent writers many of them are
not; but such is their goal and they devote much time and energy to
developing these skills.
Another significant difference is that, in addition to the preconceptions \
each individual carries around with him, the journalist is looking at events in a
peculiar way. He is trying to determine whether an event is "news" and which
facts about the event make it "news." In other words, he is actively seeking
something called "news," and his preoccupation with certain kinds of events
and facts is apt to have a distorting effect that does not work on the
non-journalist observer. What, indeed, is news?
A. The Newsman 's Concept of News
News, in the most literal sense, is what you read in newspapers and news
magazines, what you see and hear on television, and hear on the radio. While
the definition is accurate, it is not very useful.
Several years ago, a political scientist decided that, in order to understand
the operations of the federal government, it would be necessary to learn
about political journalism. The nation's capital has as perceptive, articulate,
138 Mass Media and Violence
and brilliant a collection of American journalists as can be found anywhere;
yet, none of them was able to define news. And the few who offered succinct
definitions did not agree. 1 News has been defined as the unusual, the
significant; it is change, anything that interests the audience, drama, conflict,
violence; it is "what I say it is." 2 The ambiguity among journalists about
news is understandable. The occasions on which they must exercise their
news judgment do not allow for reflection and the journalism schools have
made few efforts to examine the normative question, what ought to be news..
Generally, what most contemporary newsmen mean by news is an event
that happened within the last 24 hours and will attract reader interest. An
event quite old, recently discovered, can be news if it can be related to a
current issue of high saliency. This was demonstrated in the fall of 1968,
during the hearings on the circumstances and possible deception surrounding
the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Similarly, "trend" stories may or may
not qualify as news. As James Reston has suggested, if the story of a
developing trend is published before anyone notices it, it is a hard news story;
if it is published after it has become a topic of discussion, it is soft. The
criteria for determining reader interest are conflict or violence, firstness,
novelty, human interest, impact, saliency, and, for some, proximity.
Conflict and violence as well as sex gained prominence in American
journalism as devices for expanding readership among non-newspaper readers.
These are the lessons taught by the periods of sensationalism in the 1830's,
the 1890's, and the late 1920's. History also teaches that, once people begin
to read newspapers, they begin to become interested in more substantial fare.
Certainly the level of sensationalism practiced in the past is little in evidence
today, yet the tradition subtle and much refined persists. 3
This tradition sometimes provides reporters with exciting hallucinations.
In 1967, Ted Post on of the New York Post said there had hardly been a single
year since he left the South that the New York dailies, his included, had not
provided at least one season of Negro scare stories "that aroused such
intra-community tensions that bloodshed could well have resulted. One paper
may pick up a legitimate and dramatic story of racial conflict, and then the
season is on. A competitor will seek a 4 new angle' on the story, only to be
topped by a third or fourth rival, and pretty soon the whole city will seem to
be fighting the Civil War all over again." 4 He cited some examples:
. . . Months before the rioting of July, 1964, broke out in Harlem and
in Brooklyn's Bedford-S.tuyvesant section, the annual scare season had
been opened and from a rather unexpected source. The staid New
York Times ... It proclaimed that it had uncovered the existence of a
sinister Harlem organization composed of Negro teen-agers and
pre-teen-agers who had pledged to maim or murder every white person
found in Harlem. Then it cited four recent isolated and unsolved
slayings of white persons during apparent holdup attempts and
credited them all to the new organization the Blood Brothers.
Every responsible social, civic, youth, and antidelinquency agency in
harlem not only denounced but disproved the preposterous story. But
the Times continued to pursue it, with its competitors panting in its
path and with the Blood Brothers' membership growing from 30 to
400 and then dropping to 90 in successive editions.
Media Practices and Values 139
In Queens, a white student who wanted to quit college read of the
Blood Brothers and got a big idea. He slashed himself with razor blades
and told the police that he had been assaulted by two Negroes who
called him "white man" (obviously Blood Brothers). The story got a big
play in all the local dailies and made a big hit with every body except
the police. They called the student in for questioning, and he broke
down and confessed to the hoax.
All the papers seemed willing to drop the story except the New York
Journal-American. In "news" stories that really should have run in the
editorial column, the Journal-American intimated that the only "hoax"
in the case was the youth's confession. Didn't everyone know the Blood
Brothers were around?
The Times buried the Blood Brothers as abruptly as it had created
them, but the scare returned in the form of stories about a group of
youthful assassins called the Five Percenters, said to believe that 95
percent of all Negroes are either cattle of Uncle Toms and that only the
remaining 5 percent are courageous enough to try to kill all white
people and Negro policemen.
This new group was publicized editorially by the New York Herald
Tribune . . . The Times denounced the Five Percenter scare, compared
it with the Blood Brother myth, which it said was quite properly
protested by Negro leaders. The Times didn't seem to recall where the
blood Brothers were born. 5
David Brinkley has said, ". . . placidity is not news. News is the unusual
and the unexpected. If an airplane departs on time, arrives on time, it isn't
news. If it crashes, regrettably, it is. I don't-I don't understand that
complaint at all. Never have." 6
News is the unusual, the extraordinary ; it is something that doesn't happen
every day. The media have no need to report each airliner that arrives safely;
it is not a matter of general public interest. The objection, however, is not
that the media focus upon the unusual; rather it is that they focus on the
unusual aspects of the unusual, and this narrower focus means the most
dramatic or violent aspect of the unusual. Recall, for example, the coverage
of the meeting at Watts, devoted to discussing grievances and what could be
done to calm a tense racial situation. The media focused on the extremist
statements of one 16-year-old boy. 7 This was not a representative portrayal
of a legitimate news event.
The unrepresentative portrayal of the unusual has been called
"highlighting." The problem is generic and consists of giving the highlights of
an event rather than the event itself. Moreover, there is a kind of highlight
spiral. The assignment editor assigns the reporter to cover the most exciting
or unusual events. The reporter, who wants to get his story in the paper or on
the air and knows that space and time are short and that he is in competition
with other reporters, then reports the most exciting or unusual aspects of that
event. His product then goes to an editor who may cut it to include only the
most exciting of the exciting. Finally, there is the executive editor (or
producer in TV) who may kill the piece if it lacks the "news values" of
competing products, or will institute a re-edit to cut out the less exciting
parts.
140 Mass Media and Violence
This brief summary exaggerates the nature of the spiral to some extent.
Some activities, like the public acts of the President, are covered whether
they are exciting or not; on some days competitive pressures are weaker than
others; and editors must consider the morale of their reporters and cannot
always cut as ruthlessly as they would sometimes like to do. The difficulty of
portraying the unusual in a representative fashion is particularly exacerbated
for television because of the fee system. The correspondent may receive $25
to $150 for each time he appears on television, in addition to his base salary.
This provides an incentive not only to make the most of whatever assignment
he receives, but once he has secured sufficiently dramatic footage to get on to
the next one and not waste time doing the kind of digging necessary to
provide perspective. 8
Attracting audiences requires conflict and drama. Conflict, to be sure, is
important and should be reported, because change in our society frequently
emerges from conflict. Some news organizations have, however, a capacity for
manufacturing drama where none exists or to overdramatize the dramatic. In
addition, the press has a tendency to focus on the conflict rather than the
change that may or does emerge from it. Here is a description of some news
coverage of the San Francisco Conference called to draft the United Nations
Charter:
. . . This gathering necessarily followed a course governed by protocol;
it involved proposal and counter proposal, preparation of texts,
amendments and revisions, and eventual agreement by compromise.
On many days during the weeks the Conference was in session there
was nothing to report. But the reporters had to sent in their stories.
Somehow there had to be news. The result on the lower levels was a
series of personal items modeled after the Hollywood fan magazine and
on the higher levels a distorted account of what took place. Because
drama and tension were demanded by the editorial desks back home,
drama and tension were manufactured at San Francisco. Hence calm
was turned into the calm-before-the-storm. Silence became the
silence-of-impending-conflict. The passage of time became a portentous
period of delay. So completely was the task of manufacturing suspense
performed that, when, after some weeks an acceptable charter was
signed, the effect on newspaper readers was one of incredulous
surprise. 9
In a similar vein, Lawrence Laurent, television critic for The Washington
Post, observed President Nixon's third television 10 news conference dealing
with foreign affairs:
The lack of conflict [in the press conference] that TV commentators
often equate with "news" left reporters on all networks with little to
say. The result was that the TV reporters were frequently reduced to
the role of a radio announcer, describing endlessly those things that any
interested viewer could see for himself. 1 1
Several months later the New York Times observed:
Media Practices and Values 141
Editorialists, columnists and others who for months have had little
better to do than write about the serenity of the White House and the
cool competence of its principal occupant have suddenly come alive
with dark hints that the Administration is suffering as Newsweek
asserted last week, "a leadership crisis of disturbing proportions." 1 2
Frequently, too, the media will distort events in the direction of audience I"
expectations, often formed from predictions the media itself makes. A study/
by Kurt and Gladys Lang found that television coverage of Douglas
MacArthur's homecoming parade in Chicago was characterized prior to its
occurrence as one of the most exceptional events in history. TV portrayed
the support of the crowd as unanimous and stronger than it was and avoided
direct comment on the political issues involved.
The study was conducted with monitors that described what they saw on
television and compared these descriptions with those of 3 1 observers on the
scene. Here are the descriptions of the same event, first, as reported by the
network monitors:
The scene at 2:50 P.M. at State and Jackson was described by the \
announcer as the "most enthusiastic crowd EVER in our city .... You
can feel the tenseness in the air ... you can hear the crowd roar." The
crowd was described by the commentator as pushing out into the street
with the police trying to keep it in order, while the camera was still
focusing on MacArthur and his party .The final picture was of a bobbing
mass of heads as the camera took in the entire view of State Street
northward. To the monitor, this mass of people appeared to be pushing
and going nowhere. And then, with the remark, "The whole city
appears to be marching down State Street behind General Mac Arhtur,"
holding the picture just long enough for the impression to sink in, the
picture was suddenly blacked out.
Here is the report of a second monitor:
... the last buildup on TV covering the "crowd" (cut off as it was
abruptly at 3:00 P.M.) gave me the impression that the crowd was
pressing and straining so hard that it was going to be hard to control. I
first thought, "I'm glad I'm not in that," and "I hope nobody gets
crushed."
Here is the description of the same events by an observer on the scene:
[As MacArthur passed] everybody strained but few could get a really
good glimpse of him. A few seconds after he had passed most people
merely turned around to shrug and to address their neighbors with such
phrases: "That's all." "That was it." "Gee, he looks just like he does in
the movies." "What'll we do now." Mostly teen-agers and others with
no specific plans flocked into the street after MacArthur but very soon
got tired of following as there was no place to go and nothing to do.
Some cars were caught in the crowd, a matter which, to the crowd,
seemed amusing. 1 3
142 Mass Media and Violence
The role of conflict as a news value and the manner in which it leads to
exaggeration from passage through numerous gatekeepers was illustrated by
an experience of President Kennedy. During a 2-hour background briefing for
35 correspondents, President Kennedy stated:
Well, I think we are more aware, probably, that we are going to incur at
intervals people's displeasures. This is sort of a revolving cycle. At least
I think the U.S. ought to be more aware of it, and I think too often in
the past we have defined our leadership as an attempt to be rather well
regarded in these countries [the Atlantic Alliance] . The fact is, you
can't possibly carry out any policy without causing major
frictions .... So I think what we have to do is be ready to accept a
good deal more expressions of newspaper and governmental opposition
to the United States in order to get something done than we perhaps
have been willing to do in the past. I don't expect that the United
States will be more loved, but I would hope that we could get more
done. 14
This was an important statement. The United States was likely to be less
concerned with criticism from friendly governments. The President intended
to move toward a firmer leadership role in the Atlantic Alliance. An
Associated Press reporter strengthened the statement:
President Kennedy intends to follow up his Cuban success by exerting
stronger leadership over the West's Cold War policies even at the risk
of offending sensitive allies.
Correspondents not present could use either the AP story or the milder UPI
report. The French and German news agencies used the AP story ..The Times
of London, known for its characteristic understatement, was about to use the
UPI report when a correspondent for the BBC provided a copy of the AP
story. The story in The Times was headlined, "TOUGH LEADERSHIP
RESOLUTION BY PRESIDENT KENNEDY." A typical sentence in the story
ran, "The President has made known that he will pace the foreign stage like a
young lion . . ." The Paris-based, French newspaper, Le Monde, used the
foil owing headline:
PRESIDENT KENNEDY HAS DECIDED TO DIRECT THE
WESTERN ALLIANCE WITHOUT WORRYING ABOUT
OBJECTIONS OF THE ALLIES.
As the news was passed, the President's statement became stronger and the
conflict greater.
Focusing on conflict is not always the cause of distortion, sometimes it is
merely a preoccupation with the unusual or slighting of the ordinary. Some
leaders of the anti-war movement believe that the media have placed too much
emphasis on the unusual aspects of the movement and not enough on its
substance. The parades of the anti-war movement are unusual; the
significance of the growing discontent of Americans from all backgrounds
with the war in Vietnam is unquestioned. But a great many different kinds of
Media Practices and Values 143
Americans oppose the war; opposition ranges from the responsible to the
fanatical. Some who oppose the war may properly be described as hippies or
anarchists. They wear colorful clothes, use extreme language, and reject many
accepted social and moral standards. The complaint has been made widely, in
some instances legitimately, that during a parade or demonstration television
tends to focus on the most "unusual" participants. If this is all that is shown,
and it is simultaneously reported that there were 50,000 people participating
in the parade, the viewer is likely to assume that all present were of the type
portrayed on television, which does not square with reality. Many viewers
may be misled about the nature of war protest. In fact, there are a great many
people in this country who are, in every other aspect, within the
"mainstream" of American thought but oppose the war and, nevertheless,
participate in these demonstrations.
Consider another reported example: during the civil disorders at San
Francisco State College, shortly after Dr. Hayakawa took over as
acting-president, the entire nation saw pictures of him atop a sound truck
ripping out wires. The car was surrounded, apparently by hostile students.
The television newscast gave the impression that the entire university was in
turmoil. If the viewer read the Los Angeles Times account the next day, he
learned that the event on television represented only one episode that lasted
eight or ten minutes. The rest of the day, Dr. Hawakaya was in his office
receiving groups of students seeking to restore order on campus. The same
day, 16,000 students attended class and did not participate in the
disturbance. A few words by the television commentator would have
provided the perspective necessary to communicate a representative portrayal
of what had happened at San Francisco State College that day. Those words
were missing.
B. Objective Versus Interpretive Reporting
Many of these complaints against today's journalism can be traced to the
traditional belief that news is vaguely understood as the unfolding,
event-oriented story, and the objective reporter's job is to tell the facts as he
observed them about who did what, when, where, how, and why. Arguably,
there is nothing wrong with that formula except that, regrettably, the
"why" if it is there at all is last and often lost on the composing room
floor.
Formula ordering of facts does not help much either. News reports are
usually written in what is termed the "inverted pyramid" style. The formula
takes its name from the rule that all the essential drama and facts must be
compressed into the first one or two sentences of the story. Additional facts
are arranged in descending order of importance.
There are several reasons for this formula. Once the writer is accustomed
to it, facts fit rapidly into place. According to the folklore, readers may not
read the entire story unless their attention is attracted immediately. Headlines
are usually written by copy editors seated at the rim of the copy desk; their
time is limited and they expect to write the headlines on the basis of the first
two paragraphs. Perhaps the most important reason is that the article can be
cut radically by dropping paragraphs from the end of the story on short
notice as composing room needs may dictate.
144 Mass Media and Violence
Although the reasons for the style are easily understood, it does not
encourage reflective writing. It reinforces the tendency to present drama at
the expense of balance and to emphasize objectively verifiable facts who said
what, how many were injured, and how much property was destroyed at the
expense of why the event took place, its significance, and what should be
done.
Formula writing also multiplies the opportunity for distortion. Consider
the following example, nominated by the Columbia Journalism Review as the
best lead from the 1968 Democratic Convention. The UPI dispatch reported:
Chicago Police and National Guardsmen battled thousands of antiwar
protestors with clubs, rifle butts and tear gas in the heart of this
convention city tonight. Hubert Humphrey was among those gassed.
The "gassing" of the Vice President was described in greater detail in the
fourth and fifth paragraphs:
Humphrey, awaiting his expected nomination at the International
Amphitheater five miles away, had left his windows open on his 25th
floof suite in the Hilton and taken a shower to freshen up.
An upward draft wafted the tear gas into the suite and when
Humphrey emerged he began coughing and sneezing. 1 5
If the subsequent paragraphs had been cut in the composing room, the story
would have been factually correct, but grossly inaccurate in the impression it
left.
The inverted pyramid is, of course, not the only possible style. The
chronological account has its place in news columns as well as in suspended
interest stories. These take longer to fashion, but they generally heighten the
dramatic qualities of the story without undue emphasis on conflict. They are
more comprehensible than news presented in the standard format.
The suspended interest format (1) does not lend itself to indiscriminate
shortening through elimination of later paragraphs; (2) requires the headline
reader to read the entire story; and (3) requires more time to write. It is still
limited by the recital of more or less objectively verifiable facts. And little by
way of background or interpretation of the significance of the event is involved.
To a great extent these rigid standards for news reporting were adopted to
stop editorializing in the news columns characteristic of an earlier era. In
addition, the wire services, which served clients with a broad range of political
views, could avoid offending any significant segment by reporting only
observable facts and avoiding any attempt to provide perspective. The
inadequacy of this approach became apparent in a limited way shortly after
the beginning of World War I. The American people had little understanding
of the events in Europe. No doubt this was in part due to the absence of prior
comprehensive coverage of Europe. The growth of interpretive reporting
continued during the twenties, but was limited to foreign correspondents.
With the New Deal, it became apparent that traditional formula reporting on
the new complex social legislation would leave the reader totally confused.
Interpretive reporting was extended by larger newspapers to coverage of the
nation's politics.
Media Practices and Values 145
In 1938, Sidney Kobre, a veteran Baltimore reporter, wrote in the
Journalism Quarterly :
What are the next steps in American journalism if the newspapers are
to be made an effective, up-to-date social institution? Certain lines of
development can be pursued.
The materials with which the newspaper deals are fundamentally of
a psychological, economic and sociological character. It is an
oversimplification to handle this material as if it were ordinary routine
stuff. All aspects of human life are being methodically investigated,
instead of being viewed in the usual "common-sense" traditional
manner. The human body is a complicated and intricate nervous and
physical system. When it breaks down only trained men can rehabilitate
it. The stuff of which news is made is just as highly complicated
because it relates to human behavior. Only specialized reporters with
eyes sharpened in the social sciences can handle and interpret the facts
intelligibly.
The expert has been quietly emerging up to now from university
halls and entering every field affecting industry and politics. Why not
journalism? 16
Although there is a growing agreement on the efficacy of interpretive
reporting, there is substantial disagreement on what it means. Some suggest
that interpretation is nothing more than backgrounding, providing the
antecedent facts to place the day's events in perspective. Others refer to it as
"in-depth" reporting. Edwin Canham, Editor of the Christian Science
Monitor, has said "Background, surrounding circumstances, prior events,
motivation all are part of the real and basic news. This kind of interpretation
is the best kind of reporting." Jeffrey Pond of the New York Times has
made the case in favor in interpretive reporting:
For example, a person has been tabbed as the mayor's choice for a
job. I think you have to interpret the facts in this situation. It is not
enough to say he is simply the mayor's choice. That does not tell
anyone anything. He could be the mayor's choice because he will be an
easy man to handle; he could be the man the mayor honestly regards as
most competent for the job ; the selection could be a political payoff; it
could be a step to another job; it could be a way to get him out of the
way for someone else. The reporter who simply says "X" is being
considered is really betraying the reader's confidence; the average
reader is not intimate enough with the situation. The reporter has got
to tell that average reader what really is happening and why. 1 7
The critics of interpretive reporting claim that it opens the door to slanted
news. In response to such criticism, Lester Markel of theAfew York Times has
written:
There are, as I see it, three approaches to dealing with the news;
first, the basic facts; second, the interpretation of these facts; third, the
comment on them. Thus:
146 Mass Media and Violence
What Mr. Khrushchev says about Mr. Kennedy is spot news.
Why Mr. Khrushchev says these things is interpretation.
Whether Mr. Khrushchev should have said these things and what we
should do about him is opinion.
It is crucial that the difference between interpretation and opinion
be fully recognized. Interpretation is an objective appraisal, based on
background, knowledge of a situation, and analysis of primary and
related facts. Editorial opinion, on the other hand, is a subjective
judgment; it is a definite taking of sides; it is likely to be
exhortation . . 1 8
The test is whether, after reading the story, you know where the reporter
stands. 19
Knowledge and background of the situation are absolutely essential to
effective interpretive reporting. While interpretive reporting is still largely
limited to foreign affairs and politics in Washington, D. C., it is being used
increasingly to report other domestic news. The need for interpretive
reporting of the civil rights movement, life in the ghetto, black power, and
the student revolt should be clear.
In the Columbia Journalism Review, Eric Blanchard has described the
reporting of the Poor People's Campaign in Washington as "so pedestrian, so
police-blotter superficial that the New Yorker envisioned newsmen asking
Martin Luther King, Jr., which mountain he had visited and which night it
was that he had first started having his dream." 20
Blanchard continues with a disturbing description of the coverage of the
May 29 march on the Supreme Court:
That day perhaps more than at any other time during the campaign
the poor acted as the bloc they wanted to be. Negroes, with their
catalog of economic needs, marched in support of Indians. The Indians
were seeking "justice" from the Court, which two days before had
ruled, in their eyes, against Indians by asserting that the State of
Washington had a right to regulate net fishing (not just by Indians, as a
matter of fact, but by everyone). Despite a 114-year-old treaty, the
Indians are running a distant third to canners and sportsmen in taking
fish from the waters of Puget Sound and its tributaries. Interested less
in legal niceties than in food, the Indians decided on a direct-action
approach to the Supreme, Court. Several windows in the building were
smashed; a distressed young woman hauled down the American flag.
But almost unanimously newspapers chose to emphasize the disorder
almost to the exclusion of background on the Indians' problems . . . the
fairest account of the day that I saw was in the Baltimore Sun, which
subordinated the windows and the flag to the bottom of the front-page
matter, while the fishing rights were cited twice on page one.
The net impact of newspaper treatment of the demonstration was
almost totally negative (presumably reinforcing the attitudes of those
who believe that the poor are criminals and eroding the positions of
others who aren't sure yet). Reporters were careful to write only that
"windows were broken," but their circumspection was spoiled by
Media Practices and Values 147
"active" headlines. The papers got a good bag from that day. The
problem was they were loaded for rabbits, and that's what they got. 2 1
* * *
Commercial media must attract the attention of the audience if they are to
maintain the necessary financial support and to communicate with the public.
Moreover, using reader interest as one criterion for determining what is news
is both socially desirable as well as economically necessary. If the media do
not report those matters that interest the reader they will turn to other
sources for the desired information.
The difficulty with too many news organizations is that they have a
tendency to do nothing more than attract the audience's attention; once they
have the public's attention, they should go on to tell them something. A
recent example of failure to go beyond attracting public attention is the
report on page one of the Washington Star about an ex-convict and his wife
who wanted to see their children, kidnapped a Texas Highway Patrolman, led
them on a 90-mile-an-hour chase across East Texas, only to have the husband
shot on entering the house where he was told he could spend 10 or 15
minutes with his children. 22 There was no explanation of why it was
necessary to kidnap the officer, and there was no indication of why he could
not see his children. All that was reported were the facts of the kidnapping,
the chase, and the manner in which Texas authorities handled the chase and
eventually killed the man. The next day the Washington Post ran a 7- by
5 -inch picture on the front page with a similar story inside. 23 Perhaps the
public has simply been trained to regard such items as "news." Yet, one can
hardly suggest that it had any apparent significance, particularly page one
significance.
Contrast this with the coverage by several newspapers of a senseless murder
by a frustrated and deranged inventor who killed a secretary at the American
Physical Society in New York. The basic facts were reported, but the New
York Times went beyond the action. The killer had been a former mental
patient and they discussed the state and federal veterans release system for
mental patients. The New York World-Telegram and Sun listed eleven other
cases involving crime by mental patients who had been released from
institutions; editorialized on the inadequate release standards for mental
patients from veterans hospitals; reported that the Mattewan Hospital, where
the killer had been confined, had only four psychiatrists for 1,700 patients;
and carried a story by the UP science editor who said that the public's
indifference was to blame for such tragedies. 24
Critics have suggested that the news media should put more emphasis on
"good news." The profession has categorically rejected this suggestion. They
have an obligation, they insist, to report events which involve conflict, the
threat of violence, or actual violence.
Reporting on the real conditions of life undoubtedly contributes to the
level of anxiety in this country. From data on radio and news listening among
New Yorkers, Mendelsohn developed the point that today's citizen lives in a
state of anxiety created by real conditions. This, he reported, leads to "an
almost desperate sense of urgency regarding 'the news."' In its extreme form,
such anxiety can cause some persons to reject their responsibilities as
148 Mass Media and Violence
members of a democratic society and avoid the information of media content
altogether. 2 5
In a 1962 study in Los Angeles, a correlation was found between not
reading newspapers, not watching television news, and not listening to radio
news. Some people almost totally ignore the news. 26 Professor Lyle often
encounters respondents in field surveys who say they consciously avoid the
news "because it upsets me."
The media have properly rejected the suggestion that they report "good"
news simply because it is good. It apparently has not occurred to very many
newsmen, however, that events should not go unreported simply because they
involve a non-violent resolution of conflict. One function of the media is to
aid in coordinating society's response to change. They can fulfill this function
in part by telling the public how conflicts are resolved nonviolently and by
giving such resolutions the same prominence they give the violent
manifestations of conflict.
For the overwhelming majority of Americans, information about
important social issues must come from the mass media. Giving only the
objective observable facts leaves too much to the reader's preconceptions.
The action must be set in context, the public must be given a representative
view of events and an explanation of their significance.
The news should provide a sensitive instrument reading on vital, but
remote, parts of our social machinery that the citizen cannot personally see
or hear, like a human early warning system. The news system must examine
itself to see if it is reporting things that really mean much anymore; or
whether it selects "news" because it seemed interesting or profitable or easy
in the past. It should do this because the social machinery can be destroyed
by archaic, obsolete, or false readings. The task is easy for the formula
reporter or editor or technician, who receives a set of traditional news values
for what is news. For those newsmen who are serious about relaying what
something means to men's lives, however, the job is very hard. It requires
knowledge of society at a level of education and sophistication previously
unknown to the general run of the news trade.
REFERENCES
1. William L. Rivers, The Mass Media (New York: Harper & Row, 1964) p. 74.
2. Others have also struggled with the question "What is news?": See Robert E. Park,
"News as a Form of Knowledge," Society (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1955), pp.
71-78; Helen M. Hughes, News and the Human Interest Story (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1940) pp. xii ff.; Curtis D. MacDougall, Interpretative Reporting
(New York: MacMillan, 1957), p. 52; Walter Gieber, "News is What Newspapermen
Make it" in People, Society, and Mass Communications Lewis A. Dexter and David
M. White eds. (New York: Free Press, 1964), pp. 173-180.
The head of NBC news, Reuven Frank, prefers to rely on tradition and the
newsman's intelligence: "There are no objective criteria by which to judge what
news is. There is only an accumulated body of tradition and personal intelligence of
a man who, in full possession of that tradition, makes it operative. It's news because
we covered it. We covered it because we thought it would be news. If it turns out to
be what we expected, it's news. If it isn't what we expect-it's not news." Reuven
Frank, "TV Journalism: A Dialogue," in The Progress In Television A. William Blum
and Roger Manveu eds. (New York: Focac Press, 1967), p. 117. Reprinted from
Television Quarterly, Fall, 1962.
Media Practices and Values 149
3. See Part I, Chapter 1, section on Sensationalism.
4. Ted Poston, "The American Negro and Newspaper Myths," in Race and the News
Media Paul L. Fisher & Ralph L. Lowenstein, eds. (New York: Anti-Defamation
League of B'nai B'rith, 1967), p. 67.
5. Ibid., pp. 68-69.
6. "The Whole World is Watching," Broadcast by the Public Broadcast Laboratory,
Dec. 22, 1968, script p. 12.
7. See Part II, Chapter 6, section on the Watts disorders.
8. "With some recent exceptions, network newsmen make their money from fees paid
on top of a basic salary. Reporters contributing to television news shows receive
fees ranging from $25 to $150 for each item used on a program containing
commercials. A man may spend three or four days quietly digging for facts to
support a story, only to find himself receiving a fee of $50 if his story is used-or
nothing if the story does not pan out. His colleague, meanwhile, may use the same
amount of time rushing to snatch an interview here and put together a few
superficial facts there, may place ten separate pieces on the air, and may as a result
pocket $500. Obviously the system discourages methodical pursuit of information.
The object is to get each story on the air and move on to something else." Robert.
McNeil, "The News on TV and HowJlIsJInMade," Harper's, Oct. 1968^p. 74.
9. Commission on Freedom of the Press, A Free and Responsible Press, Robert
Hutchins, Chairman (Chicago: University of 111. Press), pp. 56-57.
10. Broadcast live on the three networks at 9 p.m. est, Mar. 4, 1969.
11. Lawrence Laurent, "Two Looks at Nixon's TV Report," The Washington Post,
March 1969.
12. Robert E. Sample, Jr., "Nixon's Leadership: The Focus is Still Far From Clear,"
New York Times, July 13, 1969, p. E-l.
13. Kurt Lang & Gladys Engel Lang, Politics & Television (Chicago: Quadrangle Books),
pp. 49-50.
14. William L. Rivers, The Opinionmakers, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1965), p. 51 ff.
15. Columbia Journalism Review, Fall 1968, p. 9.
16. Sidney Kobre, "The Social Sciences and the Newspaper," Journalism Quarterly
(1938), p. 288.
17. Quoted in William L. Rivers, The Mass Media, op. cit. footnote 172, pp. 180-181.
18. Ibid., p. 181.
19. For a well-articulated discussion and defense of interpretative reporting see "H.R.
Jolliffe, A Semantic Slant on 'Objectivity' vs. 'Interpretation,'" Journalism
Quarterly, pp. 189-193.
20. Eric Blanchard, "The Poor People and the 'White Press'" Columbia Journalism
Review (November 1968), p. 61.
21. Ibid.
22. Washington Star, May 1, 1969, p. 1.
23. The Washington Post, May 3, 1969, pp. 1, A- 12.
24. Sidney Kobre and Juanita Parkes, "The Newspapers Cover a Murder Case,"
Journalism Quarterly (1954), pp. 311-318.
25. Harold Mendelsohn, "Socio-Psychological Perspectives on the Mass Media and Public
Anxiety," Journalism Quarterly (1963), p. 511.
26. Lyle Wilcox, Eds., "A Community Daily in a Changing Metropolitan Press
Environment" (Los Angeles: UCLA Department of Journalism), p. 27.
Chapter 9
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Few American institutions are as free from responsible and systematic
analysis as the American press. The press, which performs the role of reporter
and critic for other institutions, has been reluctant to undertake self -analysis.
Yet the products of equally few American institutions are as readily visible as
that of the press. It should come as no surprise, therefore, to hear the press
accused when the society fails to meet individual expectations. Frequently
the accusations are ill-considered, in part because of the absence of reliable
information.
Many accusations have been hurled against the news media for their real
and imagined contribution to violence. "The press reports violence because
violence sells the press," critics assert. 'The press encourages violence because
the violent seek the publicity the press provides." These are typical
accusations and perhaps the most common charges that the news media fail
to do enough or do too much about violence in our society.
The news media can play a significant role in lessening the potential for
violence by functioning as a faithful conduit for intergroup communication,
providing a true marketplace of ideas, providing full access to the day's
intelligence, and reducing the incentive to confrontation that sometimes
erupts in violence. That is a subtle and uncertain mission.
The traditional relationship between violence and the press is a matter of
journalism history. Violence has had a prominent role in the press, and, at
least since the time of Benjamin Day and the "penny press," violence has had
some economic importance as well. Long ago, publishers learned that they
could expand their readership among heretofore non-newspaper readers by
openly marshalling the most exaggerated and detailed reports of violence and
sex. Today there are very few new markets and the rate of literacy is high.
It is undoubtedly true that some groups have learned to use violence and
the press to exploit their goals. They have learned that the media generally
can be counted on to give violent behavior a prominent role in the day's
news. The result is that when they seek publicity for their grievances, conflict
and possibly violence may be one of the techniques used in the fairly certain
knowledge that the press will make sure "the whole world is watching."
Although there is truth in this charge, it is probably a good deal less than
seems to be popularly believed. First, violence is not necessary to gain media
151
152 Mass Media and Violence
attention. In the case of television particularly, any kind of physical action or
dramatization of conflict will usually suffice. Second, groups who engage in
violence are apt to have their message lost because of the media tendency to
focus on the violence to the exclusion of the message. Third, the use of
violence, as is frequently the case in university confrontations, is a political
instrument used to provoke the police and thereby radicalize large numbers
of students who are sympathetic to new left goals, but ordinarily reject new
left tactics.
Today, the press is less dependent upon violent content upon titillation
in general than it may ever have been. The hard fact is that violence is not
primarily what the news media have to offer today. For those who suppose
that it is, that may be because it is what they have come to expect or
choose to see and read.
Beyond that, it is the function of the news media, as the Commission on a
Free and Responsible Press has put it, to provide "full access to the day's
intelligence." Unless we propose to emulate the ostrich, we must
expect indeed, the public has a right to demand that the press will report
the day's intelligence including that which is violent. As with other events,
when there is violence, the public has a right to know it.
We make these points forcefully because we wish to set to one side the
querulous contentions of those who see in the press the source of most that is
evil and who argue particularly that the press ought to "accentuate the
positive and eliminate the negative." That may be a good formula for
songwriting in troubled times; as a prescription for news content it is fatuous.
Yet, the media have contributed to the widespread use of confrontation as
an instrument of social change by their failure to report adequately the
conditions underlying current protest, by the proposals for solution of
pressing social problems, and by their action-oriented coverage of conflict.
The contention that the news media are subject to manipulation by the
demonstrators is only partly accurate. It has happened and will again. It is
significant, we repeat, not only as an incentive to violence but, perhaps more
important, for what it suggests about weaknesses of the news media which
touch upon the areas that concern us. More often than not, those who object
to coverage of this kind would object equally to the cure, admission of the
disaffected through traditional channels.
The press does provide a marketplace for ideas, but it is not of the sort
commonly supposed. The increased level of violence in the country today is
partially owing to the sluggish response of our institutions to social change;
but the press shares in this sluggishness, and an important part of its
inadequacy is the inability of new and different voices to gain routine and
peaceful access to the centralized news media.
Professor Jerome Barren has proposed one solution in the Harvard Law
Review. 1 He urges that the first amendment requires a nondiscriminatory
right of access to the media for socially important ideas with legislative,
judicial, and administrative remedies. It is romantic to think in the 1960's,
writes Barren, that it is possible to guarantee a free marketplace of ideas
simply by keeping the government away from the press. We agree. But can
the courts and legislatures do a better job? We doubt it, for it is equally
romantic to think that if the courts and legislatures were granted the power
Conclusions and Recommendations 153
to force publicity for certain ideas, they would act to protect the weak and
unorthodox.
One problem in ending mass discrimination in the South, from the 17th
century to the present, for example, has been the exclusion of the black
communities and the poor whites for that matter from routine access to the
mass media. Anything from them that upset the racial or economic status
quo was censored or viciously attacked. And the judicial and legislative
officials in the region were frequently more vindictive than the news media.
When some newspapers and broadcasters broke this conspiracy of silence,
they were harassed by law enforcement and legislative agencies. To illustrate,
Gene Wirgess, Hazel Brannon Smith, P. D. East and others expressed
nonconforming thoughts and suffered from the response of local courts and
state governments.
On the national level, the evidence is equally discouraging. What the most
powerful committees of Congress regard as the proper range of political and
social ideas indicates what would happen if they were able to legislate
information into the news system. Moreover, to the extent members of
Congress believe that certain ideas have not received sufficient public
attention in the media, they control one of the surest means of access for
those ideas, congressional hearings. High government officials who seek to
increase the range of debate need only speak.
The Federal Communications Commission has statutory power to force
broadcasters to study the needs of their communities, to produce
programming to meet these needs; further, it has the power to force a
balanced treatment of issues and a fair treatment of individuals. A study of
the FCC's use of this power, however, does not provide much hope. The
natural history of all regulatory agencies serves as a model for power of
government over ideas. Agencies like the FCC, specifically created to protect
the public interest against private interest, were given powerful weapons to do
it. In almost every case, within a few years they had either handed these
weapons over to private interest or allowed them to atrophy through lack of
use. They became, not guardians of the public interest, as the FCC should be,
but service agencies for the industries involved. At the FCC this is no doubt in
part owing to inadequate congressional appropriations. 2
Judicial and legislative officials have a vested interest in the news. Senator
Fannin's address to the Senate objecting to the use of funds appropriated for
the Office of Economic Opportunity to support community-action
newsletters is a recent example. Among the messages he objected to were
these on the strike at San Francisco State College:
The only reason the strike was called was as a last resort to bring out
into the open [the student's] grievances and the present injustices and
irrelevancies on the campus of a school which belongs to this
community .... The basic truth of the strike is the freedom of
self-determination of students in their education versus the present
misuse of the schools by irrelevant and outside political forces such as
the office of the Governor, State superintendent of schools, trustees
and such boards of directors who are totally alien to the needs and
desires of black and third world students. The activities and grievances
of the students deserve the sympathy of the local community.
154 Mass Media and Violence
He raised objections to other items in the newsletters. One item urged that
there was little difference between being in jail and life in the ghetto, and
closed with the suggestion that the reader join in the fight for "identity,
equality, not civil rights but human rights." Another item predicted that civil
war was "almost inevitable" unless white Americans face the fact that they
have a responsibility to see that "all children have some guarantees decent
economic income, housing, education, and health insurance that exist for
their own children."
Government officials or media operators are not inherently wicked. It is
something much worse. Each is convinced that he possesses the truth. In the
case of government officials and present broadcasters and publishers, it is
probably very nearly the same truth.
Mass media openings today are in short supply, no matter who the message
bearer, and these openings are made to collect huge audiences. On this basis, it
costs too much to broadcast minority views, or at least, unrich minority
views. A mass press also demands that the person who gets such an opening
must not only appeal to an undifferentiated mass audience, but also avoid
seriously offending any significant segment of that audience. If minority
views were aired regularly on prime time, it would cease to be prime time. It
may be quicker and more practical to get judicial, legislative or public policy
action to increase the number of public channels rather than to force entry
on existing channels. This process is already happening in a small way: CATV
has continued to grow, the Office of Economic Opportunity has in the past
supported community newsletters, and there are over 100 underground
newspapers with more than a million circulation and an underground wire
service.
On the broader level, no technical reason exists to prevent each
community from having 20 television and several hundred voice or data
channels, which would leave plenty of time and space for minority views at
extremely small cost. In addition, such a communications system could be
used to revitalize local politics, culture, and community interaction. In the
city of Los Angeles, for example, if a group wants a public discussion of
problems relating to the Santa Monica School Board, they must broadcast
over a radio transmitter that covers 4,000 square miles. Similarly, it is
technically feasible to construct a cable system that would allow a
congressman to reach only those homes in the district from which he is to be
elected. The cost of campaigning via television could be considerably reduced.
Finally, the Federal Communications Commission can make an important
contribution to upgrading the performance of broadcast media without
becoming involved in news content.
Section 309(a) of the Communications Act requires that they make a
determination whether the licensee has operated in the public interest. While
there are many objections by broadcasters today to any suggestion that the
FCC become involved in determining program mix, it is clear that such
objections would have been quite surprising to the Congressmen who first
passed the statute and the broadcasting industry which on initial passage not
only agreed, but volunteered that public service programming was one of
their most important activities. In Congressional testimony which led to
passage, the National Association of Broadcasters said, in part:
Conclusions and Recommendations 155
It is the manifest duty of the licensing authority in passing upon
applications for licenses or the renewal thereof, to determine whether
or not the applicant is rendering or can render adequate public service.
Such service necessarily includes broadcasting of a considerable
proportion of programs devoted to education, religion, labor,
agricultural, and similar activities concerned with human betterment.
Broadcasting magazine editorialized in 1934:
[The Commission] cannot censor programs. But it can consider the
merit of programs in passing upon applications of stations for renewal
of their licenses, just as it did in deleting the stations operated by
Brinkley, Baker and Shuler. 3
Much later the Supreme Court made it relatively clear that simply meeting
the technical requirements for broadcast is not sufficient:
[A] n important element of public interest and convenience affecting
the issue of a license is the ability of the licensee to render the best
practicable service to the community reached by his broadcast .... The
Commission's licensing function cannot be discouraged, therefore,
merely by finding that there are no technological objections to the
granting of a license. 4
The public interest standard is inchoate and requires, as all such standards
do, the articulation of content by the agency charged with its enforcement.
From time to time, the FCC has made some efforts to develop programing
standards. 5 Yet, the recent failure of a Commission majority to endorse the
development of guidelines indicates they do not accept the public interest
standard as a part of their Congressional mandate . 6
Any institutional arrangement for mass media is bound to have its defects,
and many of the critics of commercial broadcasting seem to overlook the fact
that any alternative will have different, perhaps more serious, defects. One
important way in which the government can act positively to broaden the
range of ideas in the marketplace is by providing adequate support to the
present best alternative to commercial news service, the Public Broadcast
Corporation.
Another proposal is to provide support for some continuing and
systematic analysis of press performance. Although the news media may be
sluggish, they are not immovable. If, 30 years ago, anyone had announced
that most daily editors should think twice before using anything a police
official said about a crime, he would have been hooted down as a radical
against a free press; yet that is exactly what is beginning to happen in
newsrooms today. 7 If anyone had told most network executives ten years ago
that he run on prime time a TV series on the problems of people who live
with cockroaches, he would have dismissed the idea as crazy. The lack of
outside analysis and interaction with the public has left the whole system to
drift with forces that are not clearly seen from within.
New journalistic forms are needed. After events are reported, something
more is required opinions, analysis, solutions. These opinions do not always
156 Mass Media and Violence
come from the proverbial pillars of the community; frequently they will
come from new voices which, at the present, have a very hard time getting
into the media unless they appeal to traditional news values by creating
conflict or violence. When, in the past, there were many different newspapers
in one place, it might have been left to each one to give its personal analysis
and it was assumed this would cover the field. But, today, we do not have this
kind of multiple voice anymore. It should become habitual editorial policy to
display fairly and clearly the opinions, analyses, and solutions offered by a
wide variety of people, expert and non-expert, covering the spectrum,
regardless of the proprietor's personal position.
Too many news organizations fear social ideas and social action. As a
result, they stimulate, dissatisfy and arouse anxiety only to fall silent or limit
themselves to irrelevant cliches when thoughtful solutions are required.
Alternative solutions to our most urgent social problems, based on the work
of our most imaginative social thinkers, and written with the clarity that only
a good journalist can produce, ought to be standard practice.
America can look forward to change the only certainty. This will require
not only information about events, violent and non -violent, but ideas about
what to do about these events. It is a new kind of journalism. It may start, as
in the past, with the fair or objective description of physical happenings, but
now it must go beyond to a fair portrayal of alternative solutions. The last
generation of reporters concentrated on reporting objective physical
happenings telling the reader what he saw with his own eyes and heard with
his own ears. The next generation must concentrate on describing what
somebody else thinks.
A. Action by Government
Although the government's role in the communication of news is properly
restricted, it is becoming increasingly evident that the policies of the first
amendment cannot fully be realized simply by keeping the government out.
Specifically we recommend:
A. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting be provided with a
budget for news and public affairs programming comparable to that of
tne television networks. The three networks spent about $150 million
for such programs last year. We believe that approximately $40 to $50
million should be provided to the CPB for news and public affairs. The
corporation should focus on providing those services which commercial
broadcasting cannot or will not perform.
This will require great restraint on the part of the government. We
believe such restraint can be partially assured by requiring that all
communications between government officials and the corporation
relating to news content be a matter of public record, and that all
hearings be open to the public.
B. The Justice Department and the Federal Communications
Commission should scrutinize carefully all mergers, license applications,
and license transfers which would result in greater concentration of
media ownership. While generally we do not believe that it is feasible to
Conclusions and Recommendations 157
significantly deconcentrate the industry, we do believe that, except in
cases of above average performance, license renewals by television
stations affiliated with a newspaper in the same community should be
granted only on the condition that the station or newspaper is sold
within the next 3 years. The traditional failing company exception
would, of course, also apply.
C. Perhaps most important is that the government must stay
abreast of new technological developments in the communications
industry and be prepared to assure that further concentration of
control does not occur. This is particularly important -with respect to
CATV. Control of access to the 20 or more channels of such a system
by a single corporation is unacceptable. If CATV is to be made a
common carrier, conditions for access provide one of the most difficult
policy problems confronting the government. In addition, the technical
specifications e.g., whether there will be an opportunity for selection
through information retrieval and the allocation of the channels for
various purposes are of crucial importance. Toward this end we would
endorse the recommendation of the Telecommunications Task Force
for the establishment of an executive level department for
Communications planning with authority to appear in regulatory
proceedings involving these issues. 8
D. There is a good deal of confusion, particularly among practicing
broadcast journalists, about what the fairness doctrine requires. We
believe that the most the fairness doctrine should require is that the
licensee give a representative portrayal of the arguments of various sides
of an issue. If the arguments for a particular result are overwhelming,
the broadcaster ought not be forced to pretend it is a close question so
long as he provides a representative portrayal of opposing views. The
belief that balance, regardless of the merits, is required seems to have
had a dampening effect on willingness of many broadcast news
organizations to treat controversial subjects. We recommend the FCC
clarify this ambiguity and resolve it along the lines indicated.
E. Each year the Federal Communications Commission must pass on
approximately 2,500 broadcast license renewal applications. With this
kind of case load, in addition to its other many chores, it is impossible
for the Commission to give individual consideration to each application.
Yet the Commission is obliged to determine that each renewal will serve
the "public interest, convenience and necessity." If the Commission is
to effectively discharge its mandate, it must develop at least broad
guidelines for such determinations in order that its staff can bring to the
Commission's attention those cases that raise serious questions.
Although we do not endorse any specific set of standards we do believe
that the recent dissenting opinion of Commissioners Cox and Johnson
articulate the proper direction of such guidelines. 9 They include:
(1) The percentage and number of hours of news programing; (2)
The percentage and number of hours of public affairs programing; (3)
158 Mass Media and Violence
Percentage oi network news programs cleared; (4) Local and regional
news as a percentage of total news programing; (5) Amount of locally
originated prime time programing; and (6) Number of news employees.
Although these standards are relatively objective measures, it is clear that
they would not be the sole guide of whether or not to renew the license.
They do provide guides for determining which license renewal applications
ought to be brought to the attention of the full Commission.
In addition to the kind of criteria articulated in the above dissenting
opinion we would recommend the exploration of an additional standard.
The percentage or amount of time devoted to news and public affairs is
only one measure of public service. Equally important as the time devoted is
the quality of programing. Although we cannot accept involvement of the
FCC in making judgments whether a news and public affairs programing is
good or bad, it does seem appropriate for the Commission to examine the
expenditures on this kind of programing. The correlation between cost and
quality is hardly precise, but it is an appropriate index for consideration so
long as its infirmities are recognized. Finally, it is clear that expenditures on
news and public affairs programing ought not be evaluated in the abstract.
The adequacy of such expenditures should be judged against the profitability
of the station as a percentage of depreciated capital investment, or, in the
case of stations which have been transferred since commencing operations,
depreciated value of the purchase price. With regard to stations subsequently
subject to sale, no readjustment of the depreciated value of assets would be
allowed except the capitalized cost of securing the transfer.
This report has focused very little on the pathology of American
journalism. There are, to be sure, a number of well-documented cases of news
suppression and the rudeness and pomposity of some newsmen is well known.
There is little those outside the profession or news organizations can do to
improve manners and there is little point in admonishing against what even
the least principled members of the profession recognize is wrong.
Recent governmental concern with "staged" events does require, however,
that we briefly address this problem. Characteristic of the kind of response
generated by the television coverage of the disorders at the Chicago
convention is H.R. 9566,, now pending in the House of Representatives
Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. If enacted, the bill would
make it unlawful "for any person, with intent to deceive the listening or
viewing public, to broadcast a news program which has been falsified in whole
or in part." The penalty is a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment
for not more than 1 year, or both.
No one, of course, can endorse the broadcast of a news program that has
been falsified with intent to deceive the listening or viewing public. Yet there
are great dangers in such legislation to the kind of journalism we seek to
promote.
Perhaps the most serious adverse effect would be to make even smaller the
marketplace of ideas and reduce coverage of important social problems.
Prosecution under this bill will require a jury verdict on the factual questions
of whether the news was "falsified" and also whether it was done with
"intent to deceive." Passing over the problem of determining whether a news
event has been falsified, it is quite clear that the question of intent will be
Conclusions and Recommendations 159
resolved by circumstantial evidence. The most important aspect of this
circumstantial evidence will be how much of a falsification was involved. As
our earlier discussion of audience distortion concludes, whether the jury
regards the portrayal as false and if so, whether there was intent to deceive
will turn in large measure on their political convictions. An important
determinant of the guilt of the defendant in each case then will turn on the
political views of the jury. Such a law is intolerable in a society that values
free speech.
Moreover, aside from its dubious constitutionality, we believe that such
legislation is unnecessary. There is almost no evidence at the present time to
suggest that the conduct this bill seeks to proscribe occurs with anything but
the rarest frequency. The events which gave rise to this legislation, the
incidents of staging reported in Rights in Conflict, 10 would hardly qualify.
First, there is insufficient evidence to identify the parties involved and
establish that they participated in a staged event to support a criminal
conviction. Second, the Media Task Force staff viewed all of the material
broadcast on the three networks and none portrayed any events even
remotely resembling the events described in the Rights in Conflict. Third, the
Task Force staff viewed the out-takes (film not broadcast) and there was no
evidence that they were filmed by any network crew. Fourth, the Federal
Communications Commission has made it clear that it will investigate charges
of staging and falsifying news broadcast where there is any extrinsic evidence
to support the charge.
There is no demonstrated need for such legislation, its effect on broadcast
news practices would clearly be negative, and to the extent a problem does
exist, the FCC is capable of handling it under present law.
B. Action by the News Media
This report has explored the role of the media in the resolution of social
conflict. We offer our recommendations for the consideration of those who
have traditionally been accorded responsibility for acting in the areas upon
which recommendations touch. They should be given no special significance
or weight beyond whatever persuasive force they may have. Specifically, the
fact that the report was funded by the government entitles our
recommendations to no special weight. It is against this setting that our
suggestions are made:
F. Journalists should reexamine the degree to which existing news
judgments incorporate obsolete standards, including a tendency to
report violence because it is sensational, rather than because it is
significant. Moreover, in reporting conflict, the press should develop a
special sensitivity to the danger of overstating the degree of conflict.
G. Beyond reexamining existing standards for reporting violence,
newsmen should reconsider the contemporary utility of well-established
news-gathering practices. Perhaps most important is that interpretive
news stories-which can be written with time for calm reflection and
balanced judgment be allocated more resources and be given greater
160 Mass Media and Violence
prominence. For newspapers, this means running such stories regularly
on page 1. For network television, this requires expansion- of the
existing time slot for the evening news to 1 hour and changing to a
mixed hard news/news magazine format. A similar change in format is
desirable for local news. If necessary, this should be done at the
expense of documentaries.
H. We strongly recommend that the news media examine carefully
the problems posed when equivalent access to the media is denied. In
this connection, we particularly recommend:
(1) That the media hire and train increased numbers of newsmen
from minority groups.
(2) That the media provide the kind of regular surveillance of
minority group activities which it applies to other segments of the
community.
(3) That the media provide information to local groups about
preparing press releases and, more generally securing access to the
media through traditional channels short of demonstration,
confrontation and violence.
(4) The use of ghetto ''stringers."
(5) Inclusion of members of minority groups in day-to-day news,
such as births, deaths, weddings, business promotions, opening of
new businesses, and social functions.
(6) More background and in-depth stories on social issues and
particularly those stories dealing with facets of the American scene
with which the majority of the audience have little actual
experience.
I. There is a need for greater interaction between the news media
and the community and for responsible criticism of media performance.
There are a number of ways in which this can be brought about:
(1) News organizations should establish and publicize the existence
of grievance machinery or internal appeal boards to hear the
complaints of persons who feel that their viewpoint has been
unfairly excluded from the press or that the press coverage of an
event in which they were involved is inaccurate. Such a program has
worked well at the Louisville Courier-Journal
(2) News organizations should encourage local press councils to
provide a continuing exchange of views between the news media
personnel and representative members of the community.
(3) Journalism schools should ingrain in their students a tradition of
continuous reexamination and self-criticism through, inter alia, the
establishment of journalism reviews and programs designed to
prepare the student to apply new findings in communications theory
to the practical problem's of communicating the news.
(4) The establishment in other major metropolitan areas of
publications like the Chicago Journalism Review which provide a
Conclusions and Recommendations 161
forum for public debate on news media performance.
(5) News organizations should freely criticize other news
organizations and report on their performance the same as they
would any other institution in our society.
J. Journalists should continue their efforts to upgrade their
profession at a personal or individual level. We endorse the mid-career
training programs offered at some universities and urge that more
media owners and operators, particularly television, make time and
funds available to their newsmen to take advantage of these programs.
K. We recommend that every news medium establish a code or
other form of guideline to be followed in the coverage of riots or other
events involving group violence. Although we do not propose to
recommend specific guidelines, we suggest that at least some effort be
made to establish advance contacts with the police and with various
dissident groups in the community before violence erupts. We also
recommend the establishment of rumor-clearance centers and close
liaison between these centers and the press. In the case of reporting
incidents likely to spark group violence, we recommend a minimum
delay of 30 minutes in broadcasting the news, perhaps longer delays in
giving the precise location of potentially explosive crowds, and very
careful and restrained reporting until the police have the situation
under control.
L. We recommend that news organizations resist those critics who
would have them deny coverage to protest. The news media can reduce
substantially whatever incentive they provide for violence by providing
balanced treatment of at least four aspects of demonstrations:
(1) The purpose of the demonstration. What is the nature of the
grievance? Why are the demonstrators there?
(2) The events leading up to the demonstration. Have other
remedies been sought; if so, what has been the response of those
addressed?
(3) The demonstration. How many people were present? How did
they conduct themselves? Do not focus only on the most extreme
conduct or dress.
(4) The provocations, if any, and the official response. Why were
the demonstrators trying to provoke the police? Did the police use
more force than necessary to maintain order? Were there any
extenuating circumstances, such as physical exhaustion or personal
security of political candidates?
The standard for determining whether an event will be covered should
place more emphasis on the nature of the grievance, the number of
people affected, the severity of the grievance and less emphasis on the
willingness of the aggrieved to engage in violence or the likelihood that
they will.
162 Mass Media and Violence
Several times in this report it has been suggested that the news media
ought to report that which is significant items that mean something to men's
lives. We have offered no concise definition of "significant" nor rigid
guidelines to determine what is and what is not significant. We agree with one
journalist who responded to such a suggestion that not many newsmen he
knew made an effort to report the insignificant: There is, however, a middle
ground and that is where many perhaps a friajority of newsmen stand
today.
For too long, the press has been victim to what journalist Eugene Methvin
has described as a "tradition trap." News is what newsmen say it is, we are
told, but for too many newsmen the news is really what an earlier generation
of editors and newsmen have said it was a generation whose values were
formulated on the basis of many conditions that no longer exist.
In a speech to the Overseas Press Club, Willard Wirtz observed that
criticism of the press by anyone even remotely associated with government is
a notably unrewarding occupation. In part, this is no doubt owing to what he
went on to describe as the belief of some journalists that "an essential balance
against the power of government to corrupt absolutely is the power of the
press to be critical beyond criticism." 11 We cannot agree. Throughout this
report we have offered our views on what is and what is not significant and
the ways in which journalists' values and practices should be changed.
Obviously, our comments are not equally applicable to all news organizations
nor will our solutions be persuasive to all newsmen. We can only recommend
their implementation where they are found both applicable and persuasive.
The government can no more legislate good journalism than it can legislate
good manners. More important than the adoption of specific suggestions is
that each news organization make an independent determination of what is
significant. There will never be agreement among the many news
organizations or other institutions, including the government. Yet, such
diversity is what the first amendment is all about and is the strength of
American journalism.
REFERENCES
1. Jerome A. Barren, "Access to the Press-A New First Amendment Right," Harvard
Law Review (June 1967), p. 1641.
2. This and other ideas in this chapter are taken from a speech before
mmmmmmmmmm, Dec. 13, 1%8, by Ben Bagdikian.
3. Broadcasting, Jan. 15, 1934. "The cases cited were those of John R. Brinkley
(renewal denied, 1930), who used his station KFKB' Milford, Kansas, to promote
goat-gland rejuvenation operations; Dr. Norman Baker (renewal denied, 1931), who
used his kTNT, Muscatine, Iowa, to promote a cancer 'cure' and assail the medical
profession; and Rev. Robert P. Shuler (renewal denied, 1931), who used his KGEF,
Los Angeles, for attacks on religious and other groups. In each case the commission
action was based on program content." Eric Barnouw, The Golden Web (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1968), p. 29, footnote 4.
4. National Broadcasting Company, Inc. v. United States, 319 U.S. 190, 216 (1943).
5. See Public Service Responsibility of Broadcast Licensees, Report by the Federal
Communications Commission, Mar. 7, 1946; Programming Policy, 20 Pike and
Fisher Radio Regulations 1901 (1960); Ascertainment of Community Needs by
Broadcast Applicants, FCC Public Notice, 19880, Aug. 22, 1968
Conclusions and Recommendations 163
6. See Renewal of Standard Broadcast and Television Licenses, 11 F.C.C. 2d 809
(1968); License Renewals, 10 Pike and Fisher Radio Reg. 2d 944 (1967); Renewal
of Standard Broadcast Station Licenses, 7 F.C.C. 2d 122 (1967); N.Y.-N.J.
Licenses Renewed, F.C.C. Public Notice, May 29, 1969.
7. Bagdikian speech, op. cit. Footnote 2.
8. Final Report, President's Task Force on Communications Policy, (Washington, D.C.,
mimeo: Dec. 7, 1968).
9. N.Y.-N.J. Licenses Renewed, FCC Public Notice, May 29, 1969, dissenting
opinion.
10. Daniel Walker, Rights in Conflict, A Staff Report to the National Commission on
the Causes and Prevention of Violence (New York: Bantam Books, 1968).
1 1. Remarks of Willard W. Wirtz, Secretary of Labor, before the Overseas Press Club of
America, New York, Feb. 27, 1967.
Appendix II-B
CONTEMPORARY FUNCTIONS
OF THE MASS MEDIA
By Jack Lyle*
A. Mass Media as Institutions
The mass media are society's institutionalized channels of communication.
Like all institutions, they must have a raison d'etre which is functional for the
society. They must fill an existing need or a need that is created and, unless
they are responsive to changing conditions within the society and the
complex of interrelated institutions serving it, they may cease to be
functional and will disappear.
Some of the dislocations that have occurred and are still occurring within
the mass media as a result of changes in technology and in financial and
political organization have been outlined in earlier chapters of this Task Force
report. Our question here is: what are the functions of the mass media in
contemporary American society and how do these relate to the members of
our society, both as individuals and as members of groups within that
society?
Basically, we communicate to exchange information in an attempt to
reduce the uncertainty of the world about us and thereby increase our
chances of survival. To paraphrase Harold D. Lasswell, 1 communication
serves to: (1) provide a survey of our environment, (2) coordinate the
society's collective response to the environment, and (3) achieve transfer of
the society's culture from one generation to the next. The mass media came
into being to perform these tasks as a specialization.
But from the beginning the content of the media has included items
obviously aimed more at titillating rather than informing trie public. Thus the
media have developed a second category of functions, that of entertaining the
public. The balance of these two functions between media and within each
medium has been a frequent cause of concern both to the professional staffs
of the media and to critics and others concerned with public affairs.
1 . The Information Function
"What we don't know won't hurt us" is perhaps one of the most false of
adages. To survive, individually or grouped into societies, we need continuing
Associate Professor of Journalism, University of California, Los Angeles.
187
188 Mass Media and Violence
inputs of information both on changes in the physical environment and on
the activities of other individuals and societies. The work of Allport and
Postman 2 during World War II documented the uneasiness which people feel
in situations where they lack information and where the normal
communication media do not (or cannot) keep them sufficiently informed to
allay such uneasiness. People then seek alternate sources of information and
in such situations rumors flourish. These situations become more severe if the
public loses faith in either the media or official spokesmen.
In recent decades the ability of one society to change the environment of
another has been geographically expanded, thus extending the boundaries of
our "critical" environment. As this has taken place, we have become
increasingly dependent upon others, particularly the mass media, to provide
us with a survey of a larger proportion of the environment relative to what we
can personally observe. But concomitant with this has been an expansion of
the ability of one society to communicate directly with members of another
(or conversely, a diminution of the ability of one society to be kept
psychologically isolated from others) through the modern mass media's
potential for broad and rapid dissemination of information.
a. Implications for Democratic Society
Americans have perhaps a heavier responsibility in this regard than the
citizens of any other society today, perhaps of any society in history. As
citizens of a representative democracy, we have the responsibility to maintain
a level of knowledge of conditions and events so that we can fulfill our role in
making the system work. Democracy demands full dissemination of
information together with free discussion, in contrast to those societies
governed by elite individuals or groups. The extraordinary position of the
United States in world politics today makes the entire world our critical
environment. It is not surprising that such a situation produces great tension
for individuals and the society as a whole.
Much has appeared in the media in recent years about a "credibility gap"
between the Executive branch of government and the public (particularly as
represented by media reporters). The justification of these charges is beyond
the scope of this discussion, but remembering the work of Allport and
Postman, the implications of the situation are quite obvious. What makes the
situation far more serious is the fact that the major news media also are
finding that a credibility gap exists between at least some members of their
audiences and themselves.
Economic conditions have pressured the general media toward bigness and
consolidation. This has produced within some segments of the public a
perception of increasing uniformity and blandness in media content which
these people feel reflects manipulation of the media by the agencies or
persons in control. The truth or falseness of this perception is beside the
point here, for the perception does constitute the "reality" on which these
individuals base their assessment of and reaction to the media and the media's
role in today's society. Having such a perception, it is understandable that
these persons feel the "free and open marketplace of ideas" on which a
Contemporary Functions of the Mass Media 189
democracy is predicated is diminishing. An increasing number of grouos now
feel the necessity to launch their own periodicals to present their side of the
argument. Sizeable numbers of individuals, as individuals and as members of
groups, express skepticism regarding the nation's regular news media. For
example, one study has shown that among a sampling in a medium-sized
California city the respondents discounted, on the average, a third of what
they read in the newspapers and a fifth of what they heard on television
newscasts. 3
This type of outlook is frequently a result of strong political convictions
(or strong convictions on any salient attitudinal or behaviorial continuum),
and it is interesting to note that many of the same charges of bias are raised
against the media by those at both extremes of the political spectrum. The
charges, for example, made against the media by conservatives at the 1964
Republican Convention are very reminiscent of those made by liberal
Democrats through the years. 4 The charges are also frequently heard among
other strongly committed persons, whether they be "hippies", southern
segregationists, or Black Panthers.
A 1963 study two years before the Watts riots showed that from a
sampling of Los Angeles Negroes only 32 percent felt the metropolitan dailies
would give a black candidate treatment equal to that given a white opponent,
only 25 percent felt Negro churches and organizations had a chance equal to
white organizations for getting publicity in the daily press, and 54 percent
felt that the daily press was not fair in its treatment of race relation issues. 5 A
1960 study showed a much greater perception of political bias in the Dallas
Morning News among Roman Catholic priests as compared to Baptist
ministers, but perhaps more significant was the finding that among all
clergymen the perception of political bias increased if the individual felt the
paper was unfair to his own religious group. 6
This latter fact underlines a conclusion drawn from a series of reader
attitude studies; that the unfavorable attitudes toward the newspapers (and
possibly the other news media) by the public are general. 7 From this it may
also be concluded that if people find fault with a newspaper on some specific
count, they tend to lower their estimation of the rest of the paper's
performance in general. Hovland and Sherif 8 reported that their respondents
tended to distort the location of other points of view as a function of the
location of their own position on the continuum. Thus, those at either
extreme are likely to ascribe the middle position to themselves and exaggerate
the extremity of other positions, while putting the objective neutral position
"on the other side" in their perception. We can accordingly see that a
newspaper _that attempts to follow a neutral_course might be construed as
biased by strongly committed persons.
While many blame distrust of the media on media consolidations, it seems
equally plausible to postulate that the situation offers strong evidence of
uneasiness within our society. The relationship between this uneasiness and
the media-audience trust situation is undoubtedly circular. Perhaps this is
most graphically illustrated in the matter of race relations. If, prior to a riot,
the media report smoldering conditions, after the riot some persons will
accuse them of sparking the violence; if they ignore the conditions, others
will blame them for having failed to warn society of the threat. 9
190 Mass Media and Violence
Knowledge has been called power, but there are stresses that can result
from "knowing too much." From data on radio news listening among New
Yorkers, Mendelsohn 1 developed the point that today's citizen lives in an
age of anxiety based on real conditions. This, he reported, leads to "an almost
desperate sense of urgency regarding 'the news.'" In its extreme forms, this
anxiety can lead some persons to reject their responsibility as participants in a
democratic society and to avoid the informational aspects of media content.
In a 1962 audience and reader study in Los Angeles, a correlation was found
between not reading the newspaper, not watching television news, and not
listening to radio news, thereby showing that there are persons who almost
totally ignore the informational media. 1 1 It has not been an uncommon
experience of the author to encounter respondents in field surveys who state
that they consciously avoid the news "because it just upsets me."
2. The Entertainment Function
With considerable insight, Cooley described early 20th century American
newspaper content as "organized gossip." 12 Gossip does usually contain
information that has pertinence for the listener, but it also contains details
(factual or otherwise) that are included primarily to enhance the interest of
the story itself. It is not surprising that professional reporters have long
recognized that it is not sufficient in most cases to relate only the critical
facts; effort must be expended to make the story interesting as well as
important to the audience. (The ego requirements of the reporter are also a
factor. It is certainly possible, even among professionals as well as gossips, to
let the desire to attract and maintain attention cause the reporter to distort
his presentation. This has obvious detrimental consequences for his success in
fulfilling his obligation to report accurately.)
Another factor, however, is the balance of activities competing for the
individual's time. In recent years the amount of leisure time available to the
average American has been steadily growing. And as the time available for
activities of one's own choosing has increased, so has the relative affluence to
make possible a broader range of choices. This has created opportunities for
people and agencies with ideas for providing leisure activity.
3 . The Information-Entertainment Mix
All of the mass media can be and are used to provide entertainment as well
as information and many have sought to benefit from the new opportunities
offered by increased leisure time. Each medium has distinct advantages and
disadvantages in various areas which have been demonstrated by empirical
research. 13 The audio-visual have been described as having dominantly
entertainment advantages, and the printed media as having predominantly
informational advantages. But let us hasten to reaffirm that such a division of
functions is anything but complete. Furthermore, as we shall show in later
sections of this report, individuals differ in their personal orientation to ana
use of the various media. A basic point, however, remains that within any
mass medium the information function generally is intentionally intertwined
with some degree of entertainment. As Mendelsohn inferred from his New
Contemporary Functions of the Mass Media 191
York study, without such content to provide relief from the tension
produced by factual reports of important events, anxiety levels might rise to
an intolerable level and drive more persons to totally avoid the news.
The problem is to establish a proper balance between information and
entertainment. Again, because of individual differences, there is no universal
"proper" balance. Because these are mass media, the tendency generally is to
attempt an optimal balance from the standpoint of the majority. This
inevitably leaves a minority irritated.
4. Leader or Reflector of Society?
An examination of the social comment on contemporary society over the
decades shows that whatever mass medium was predominant at the time was
frequently accused of undermining the existing society and its values. This
situation realistically reflects the potency of the media to influence, but it
also reflects the fact that the extent to which the mass media are expected to
assume leading roles in correlating society's action and in molding its culture
remains unresolved. Too frequently the critics confuse manifestations of
conditions and problems with the conditions and problems themselves. As
was stated earlier, the media are institutions of society and as such reflect
how the members of the society choose to use them.
As we have already seen, within the area of the information function,
various factions raise charges of systematic bias in the media's performance.
In the area of entertainment, some critics charge that the media are debasing
values and cultural levels. A debate on the validity of these charges is not
appropriate here; our point is that the charges themselves demonstrate what is
perhaps a basic tension within a social organization here, a democracy that
requires that its citizens permit and listen to opposing points of view and to
be tolerant of them. Such behavior guarantees maximum freedom for society
as a whole, but inevitably imposes some restrictions upon each individual.
And, recalling the work of Hovland and Sherif, we should not be surprised
that those who are most critical, who feel most oppressed, are frequently
among the most doctrinaire and intolerant of other viewpoints.
As societal institutions, the mass media are inevitably involved in this
problem. The news media have traditionally attempted to solve it by a
distinction between "news" and "editorial comment." Increasingly it is being
recognized that some degree of interpretation is inherent in the very act of
reporting, regardless of the medium, and that interpretation inevitably
reflects individual differences of physical perception and sociopsychological
background. Furthermore, selective interpretation is exercised by each
individual member of the audience and readership. Thus in situations where
the society is highly polarized on one or several issues, it becomes
increasingly difficult for the media to communicate effectively to all. The
reactions to the television confrontations of John F. Kennedy and Richard
Nixon in 1960 are an obvious example of how such selective perception and
interpretation can operate within even a highly controlled format. 14
As for entertainment functions, many if not most of those who deplore
the quality of American television and what they perceive as its failure to
raise national cultural levels are also among the strongest critics of the type of
192 Mass Media and Violence
Kulturpolitik reflected by boards of censorship and "official" art. The
all-important question is: who is to make the decision as to what is "good"
and in what direction society should move? This is a continuing source of
tension within a democracy, and as institutions within a democratic society
the media are inevitably a focal point of this tension.
B. Survey of General Media Content and Audience
In this section we will look at the broad outline of mass media content
together with some measure of the media available to and their general use by
the American public. Table B-l presents the levels of use reported in a 1967
study of residents of a small city in the Midwest and provides a useful point
of reference for this discussion. 1 5
Following the discussion of the individual media we shall discuss some
different patterns of media use which have been documented.
1 . Books
Despite the alarms expressed about the possibility that television might
have devastating effects upon book reading, book publishing is still a
flourishing industry. Both dollar sales receipts and the number of new books
published have shown a general upward trend during the past decade,
although there have been year-to-year fluctuations in the latter category. In
1967, 28,762 new books were published in this country, of which 22,887
were new titles and 5,875 were new editions. 1 6
The importance of books as a medium for furnishing specialized
information is shown by the data contained in Table B-2. Of the total number
of books published, fiction, biography, and juveniles accounted for only 23
percent, the arts for 14 percent, sports, recreation, and travel for 6 percent,
while 57 percent of the titles were in areas of specialized interests or
reference.
This is not to deny that books continue to play an important
entertainment role in American society. The role of books has actually been
expanded in the postwar years through the continued growth of paperback or
"soft cover" publishing. Although their lower price means that they account
for only 6 percent of the total dollar income of the publishing business
(textbooks account for 51 percent, professional books for 10 percent,
juveniles for 6.3 percent, book clubs for 9 percent, and trade books for 7.3
percent,) over 310 million copies were sold in 1966 and there were 42,500
titles in print in soft-cover editions. 1 7
Although much of the consumption of paperbacks is for escape reading
(Ian Fleming's "James Bond" adventures have sold a total of over 36 million
copies and You Only Live Twice had a first printing of 2.7 million), some of
the biggest sellers have been hard information books (Dr. Spock's Pocket
Book of Baby and Child Care had sold over 16 million copies by 1965) and
books of literary and historical merit (Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, over 6
million copies, and Baldwin's Another Country, over 2.25 million).
Accordingly, the major publishing houses have found that quality books may
not attract a large readership in expensive cloth editions but will bring
Contemporary Functions of the Mass Media 193
Table B-l -Typical Media Use in a Small City
Sample Size 206
Percent
TV Time "Yesterday"':
None 40.8
Under 4 hours 41.7
4 hours or more 17.1
Radio Time "Yesterday":
None 29.1
Under 2 hours 39.2
2 hours or more 31.6
Read Newspaper Daily 77.2
Read a Magazine "Yesterday" 52.9
Attended Movie Within Past Month 29.6
Phonograph Listening "Yesterday":
None 62.6
Under 1 hour 9.2
1 hour or more 14.0
(Remainder do not own a
phonograph.)
Table B-2 -Books published in 1967
New New
Category Title Edition Total
Fiction 1,981 1,099 3,080
Biography 783 261 1,044
Juveniles 2,390 321 2,711
Art 844 221 1,065
Literature 1,172 553 1,725
Music 165 52 217
Poetry/Drama 739 237 976 l
Sports/Recreation 391 110 501
Travel 769 321 1,090
Agriculture 218 69 287
Business 509 118 627
Education 781 124 905
General Works 426 128 554
History 1,015 472 1,487
Home Economics 203 53 256
Language 382 182 564
Law 392 135 527
Medicine 935 254 1,189
Philosophy/Psychology 633 230 863
Religion 1,502 362 1,864
Science 1,835 532 2,367
Sociology/Economics 2,761 850 1,232
Technical 1,051 201 1,232
Total 21,887 6,875 28,762
Source: The Bowker Annual of Library and Book Trade Information 1968, p. 61.
194 Mass Media and Violence
multimillion-dollar sales in lower priced soft-cover editions whose price range
is from 95 cents to $2.95. 18
In recent years advances in technology and marketing practices have made
it possible for books to become a much more contemporary medium, in that
they now capitalize quickly on important events. Thus we have seen the
appearance of "new books," such as the variety of titles appearing within
weeks of the assassination of President Kennedy, and within a matter of days
following the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 and the murders of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.
One problem faced by the book industry and the public is that the
sheer number of titles makes it impossible for most bookstores to stock more
than a small fraction of the total number of books in print, and proper
display of even the books stocked also presents severe difficulties. The latter
situation is perhaps most acute for paperbacks, because many paperback sales
are a result of casual browsing by bookstore patrons. Personal checks of
paperback displays at newsstands in various locations revealed a wide variety
of titles. Escape content westerns and crime, science, and erotic
fiction predominated in most cases, but there were also books on current
affairs, good fiction, and history, as well as standard literary works.
2. Libraries
Not all book reading is a result of book sales, for, of course, books may
also be obtained from a library. The importance of libraries as a
communication channel is shown by the fact that 19 cities have libraries
containing more than a million volumes, and that libraries in 65 cities
circulate more than a million volumes per year. Seven libraries circulate more
than 5 million. 19
Most libraries find that their staff and space are pressed by growing
operations and few are able to make systematic analysis of their patronage.
The Los Angeles City Public Library, one of the nation's largest, keeps no
regular detailed information on circulation on a city wide basis. However,
library officials did collect and provide some statistics from several branches
that were selected to reflect a socioeconomic cross section of the city, as
shown in Table B-3. Because no firm relationship exists between branches and
their "market area," and because these circulation figures are not related to
number of users, interpretation of such figures from a sociological point of
view is risky. However, at least two interesting observations might be pointed
out. The first is that adult patronage relative to total circulation is
considerably lower in poorer neighborhoods, particularly where Negroes
predominate. The second is that nonfiction generally constititutes the larger
share of adult books circulated, as it also does in the case of book sales
(although not nearly to the same degree), while fiction is very predominant in
child circulation.
3. The Book Public
Despite the fairly sizeable figures cited above, it must be admitted that
book reading is not a common activity among the majority of the population.
The sale and circulation of books, even more than that of magazines and
Contemporary Functions of the Mass Media
195
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Woodcrest (welfare-mid
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196 Mass Media and Violence
newspapers, suffers from the fact that the general level of reading skill is low.
(One researcher has estimated that 60 percent of adult Americans have only
limited reading skill. 20 ) A national survey found that book reading
"yesterday" was reported by only 5.8 percent of college -educated
respondents and by only 0.9 percent of those with less than a high school
education. 21 Indeed, according to Los Angeles Times Book Editor Robert
Kirsch, book dealers estimate that their total trade is accounted for by no
more than 11 percent of the nation's population. And in the question of
public taste, no definitive information is available: such indices as "best seller
lists" are based only on sales at selected book outlets, and accordingly are not
an accurate measure of total sales.
It is perhaps worth noting that while television has often been considered a
threat to book reading, some librarians report they find indications that it
may actually stimulate reading. 22
4. Magazines
The number of magazines published in the United States is astounding.
The Ayer Directory' 12 lists over 22,500 periodicals (not including
newspapers). However, only 147 titles are listed in the "General Editorial"
category, which includes current news, fiction, literary, and illustrated
publications. Of these, 12 are primarily for children, 17 are comic groups, 49
are for men (including 18 adventure/detective/western types), 13 are movie
magazines, and 41 are youth publications. There is a wide variety of
categories, including many titles for women's interests and 21 categories
under sports. But the great bulk of publications consists of those directed at
special trade, technical, and class interest groups.
Of what might be considered general circulation magazines which have
audited circulation, 52 had an average per issue circulation of one million or
more in 1967 (table B-4). 24 It is worth noting that in the post-World War II
years several Negro magazines have been started and have achieved
considerable success. Best known is the largest, Ebony, with an audited
circulation of just under a million. The same publishing firm also issues a
weekly Negro news magazine, Jet, whose circulation is over 350,000, and a
monthly service magazine for Negro women, Tan, with 122,000 circulation.
The content of magazines varies in both subject matter and quality.
Perhaps the most straightforward way to deal with the topic of magazine
content is to state that at the average newsstand the American of whatever
age is offered an opportunity to indulge whatever his fancy of the moment
might be: high-quality fiction and essays on contemporary affairs as well as
violence and sex of every description. With a little searching he can obtain
magazines that range from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the obscene to
those that reflect nearly every political or philosophical viewpoint.
The number of titles available at a large newsstand makes it very difficult
to make a comprehensive systematic survey of the magazines. The following
is an admittedly cursory and subjective review of a sampling from some of the
more exotic offerings at a large newsstand in the suburban San Fernando
Valley section of Los Angeles, and is presented to give a general idea of the
more extreme types of trash that are readily available to the public.
Contemporary Functions of the Mass Media
197
Table B-4. Magazines with ABC circulation of
one million or more in 1967
(Source: World Almanac 1968, p. 161)
[in millions]
General
17 '.2 Reader's Digest
7.7 Look
1 A Life
6.7 Saturday Evening Post
Women
&.6McCaU's
7.5 Family Circle
7.1 Woman's Day
7.0 Better Homes & Gardens
6.2 Ladies Home Journal
5 .8 Good Housekeeping
4.3 Redbook
3.4 American Home
2. 2 True Story
1 .3 Glamor
1 .3 House & Garden
1 .0 House Beautiful
Men
3. 9 Play boy
2.5 True
1 .4 Argosy
1 .0 Esquire
Sports
1 .4 Outdoor Life
\ A Field & Stream
1 .3 Sports Afield
1 .2 Sports Illustrated
Scholastic
2.0 Senior Scholastic
1 .8 /wra'or Scholastic
News
3.5 77rae
1.5 t/.S. News & World Report
1.1 Newstime
Farm
3 .0 Farm Journal
1 .3 Successful Farming
1 .3 Progressive Farmer
1.1 Grif
Juvenile
1 .8 Scouting
1 .4 Seventeen
1. American Girl
Religion/Fraternal
2.5 American Legion
I A Elks
1.3 KFW
1.1 Presbyterian Life
Miscellaneous
U3 TV Guide
5 .0 National Geographic
2. Q Parents
1 .5 Popular Mechanics
1 .5 Workbasket
1 .4 Photoplay
1 .4 Popular Science
1 .4 Mechanics Illustrated
1.1 Columbia
1. Holiday
198 Mass Media and Violence
Single Girl (50 cents), Exciting Confessions (25 cents), and Real Secrets
(35 cents) are published by three different companies. Despite the lurid titles
displayed on their colorful slick covers "Save a Bad Girl for Me," "We Had
More Than Fun That Night Our Beach Party Turned into a Bare Party," "I
Learned the True Meaning of Sex Making Love to a Stranger" the stories are
surprisingly wordy and almost always end on a strongly moralistic note. Less
moralistic and more explicit are the stories in Action for Men (40 cents) and
Man's World (50 cents), where, for example, 'The Girl Who Played Virgin"
gives her virginity to her "uncle" on her wedding night and the victims of
"The Mantrappers" are subjected to the nymphomaniacal lust of a female
military horde.
Mixing sex and violence are the "crime" or "detective" magazines which
suggest that the stories are actual cases. It might be noted, however, that of
the two examined, Confidential Detective (35 cents) and Detective Cases (50
cents), one featured a number of foreign cases, and in both the accompanying
photographs suggested that many of the stories took place some years ago.
With titles such as 'The Hippie Orgy and the Bludgeoned Nude Beauty,"
"Twisted Sex Provided a Pervert's Alibi," "The Oversexed Butcher Who
Bathed in Blood," "Hit Her with a Jack-handle, Crush Her with a Rock," the
stories in general are fairly explicit in describing what kind of violence was
committed, how it was done, and to what effect.
"Girlie magazines" have long been familiar on newsstand racks, but other
erotic publications are also common now. Some seem to be directed at
homosexual males, others at lesbians. RAM ($3.50), for example, is simply a
54-page collection of full-page photos of nude males, with a focus upon the
genital area. Salute ($3) states that its aim is "to illuminate the conviction
that the unclothed human body is worthy of respect and deserving of
increased acceptance in our culture." It mixes editorial matter ("Go-Go Guys
of the Golden Gate," "Why I Model Naked") with front and back shots of
nude males, singly and in groups. The issue examined was dedicated to the
premise that "Youth will be served," and of the 69 photographs
approximately half featured subjects who appeared to be in their midteens.
The color cover of Sapho ($3) shows a photo of a bare-breasted, black-booted
blonde flaying two nude companions who are trussed up in harnesses
suspended from the rafters.. The stories, illustrated with posed photos and
drawings, include "Torture Chamber," "Leather Whipper," "Bobby-sox
Spanker," and other items depicting sadistic/masochistic lesbianism.
(Unreleased) Dynamic Films ($2) is "for mature adults ... a pictorial
representation of phases and mores of our contemporary society," although
its "editorial content is not to be construed as descriptive or to condone any
action." It is heterosexual in its approach, but also features a heavy emphasis
on sadistic sex, particularly the kidnapping of men for sexual purposes by
groups of females. In "Under the Dum-Dum Tree" a "baddie gets it from
three chicks"; in "The Bellboy Caper" the bellboy expected a tip, but was
stripped for action instead, while in "Acid" a bearded hippie is shown
kidnaped, stripped, chained, flogged, bitten, and force-fed by a motorcycle
gang chick and a hairdresser who "is downright mean and likes to kick the
hell out of men before beddy bye time . . ." The editorial attacks local
censorship of erotic films, arguing "In an age when the viewing of violent
murders, fictional or unreal, on television or in the 'legitimate' movie houses
Contemporary Functions of the Mass Media 199
[is permitted] , it seems incongruous that there should be such bias shown
toward sex and the portrayal of it on film (sic) . . . Must sex be
forced underground with dope and gambling, while war, violence, deceit,
avarice and general debauchery remain on the surface for all to view as being
acceptable, even to our children?" This general type of magazine is marked
"adults only" and issues are either stapled or sealed in clear plastic envelopes
to prevent their contents from being inspected prior to purchase.
As for the magazine readership, a great deal is known about the readers of
the larger general-circulation periodicals they tend to be better educated,
white-collar, professional people. But with regard to those' who might be
termed marginal (or worse) within the general social mores, we have little
more than speculation. In a study of children, it was found that the reading
of pulp magazines did decline with the advent of television and that these
children fit into a general pattern of immediate gratification use of the mass
media. 25 But the very nature of the content of such magazines makes their
readers reluctant in many cases to admit that they do indeed read them.
Circulation figures are also difficult to obtain and often are not reliable.
Furthermore, sales figures have drawbacks as a measure of magazine
readership, for magazines often have a "life span" of weeks, months, or even
years and during this time they may be passed from hand-to-hand, from
family to family. The data in Table B 1 shows that of the respondents,
two-thirds stated they had read a magazine of some sort within the past week.
5. Comic Books
Perhaps for most adults, the mention of comic books evokes an image of
animal characters popularized by Disney and others, together with
"Superman," "Batman," and their fellow superhuman fighters against evil.
However, these represent only a few of the general types found today within
the comic book selection on most large newsstands. In gathering a sample for
informal inspection for this paper, two dozen were selected from well over
100 titles on display (the practice of stocking several issues of the same series
concurrently makes it difficult to establish an exact count). Most are 32-page
issues that sell for 12 cents, but there are also "giant" 80-page "classics"
series that sell for 25 cents.
The Ayer Directory lists 13 comic book publishing firms, each publishing a
number of series. In addition, there are "illustrated magazines," such as
Creepy and Eerie, which sell for 40 cents and more. Where circulation figures
are provided in the directory, they are for the publisher's entire group rather
than by individual title. Only seven publishers provided circulation
information, and their total combined monthly circulation was 30.7 million.
Comic book reading appears to peak among children between the ages of
12 and 15. A study of San Francisco school children showed the median
number of comic books read per month as 4.5 for boys and 3.3 for girls at
the eighth-grade level, while at the sixth-grade level the figures were 3.3 and
1.4 respectively. In five Rocky Mountain towns reported medians were 8.5
for boys and 4.7 for girls in the sixth grade (eighth-graders were not studied).
By the end of high school, reading has been discontinued by most students
(in San Francisco, the median at the 12th grade was 0.9 for boys and 0.07 for
girls). 26 Despite this decline with age, it is well known that there is an adult
200 Mass Media and Violence
readership of comic books. The Armed Forces, for example, have capitalized
on this by using the comic book format in some of their educational
programs. Several comics publishers include in their group a series on the
"true romance true confessions" theme, such as Career Girl Romances, I
Love You, Just Married, Teenage Love, and Secret Hearts.
The major categories of comic books appear to be: (1) the kiddie comics,
such as the Disney characters "Tom and Jerry," etc.; (2) the action comics
which break down into three subtypes of (a] Superman, Captain Marvel,
Space Adventures, etc., (b) war comics such zsFightin' Marines, G.L Combat,
etc., and (c) the westerns such as Bat Lash, Outlaws of the West, etc.; (3) the
teen scene set such as Archie, Binky, Sooter, etc.; and (4) the adult-aimed
romance series mentioned earlier.
The action group are a glorification of superhuman violence in which, to
use the words of "Stretcho" of the Fantastic Four, "every force for evil must
fight a counter-force for good." There is seemingly an inexhaustible supply of
evil forces and, in a large number of cases, the fight between good and evil is
never quite brought to a resolution, although these books do include a certain
amount of moralizing. "Iron Man" closes one sequence with the following
speech: "Sometimes I grow overconfident in my super-powered armor! I
must always remember President Johnson's favorite motto, 'Let us reason
together'; for a man's brain is still his most potent weapon!" The
ail-American "Teen Titans" are forced in one sequence to work with
"Starfire," a Russian teen superhero who sums up their mutual experience,
"... all men, regardless of their belief, must learn to live together! For when
your ideologies and mine have long since turned to dust, man must still
survive!"
One of the newest series is Brother Power, The Geek, whose leading
character is a tailor's dummy which has been given life and superpower by a
bolt of lightning and who both protects the hippies of San Francisco and
exhorts them to be productive contributors to society. Issue number 2
projects an exceedingly ambivalent picture of the hippies in what appears to
be an attempt to use the hippie image to attract young readers in order to
preach against the general hippie ethos.
6. Newspapers
The term "newspaper" covers a wide variety of publications. The Ayer
Directory lists over 10,000 entries under this title. However, we generally use
the term to describe the some 1,760 daily general-circulation publications
whose function is to provide a record of current events. Although we think of
news coverage as the raison d'etre of the daily press, this is actually only one
of its activities. In an early media study, Berelson analyzed the responses of
New Yorkers when he asked them what they missed during a period when the
presses were shut down because of a strike. From these he concluded that the
daily paper not only provided information about public affairs, but also that,
through its advertising, it was an aid in shopping, +hat it gave its readers a
feeling of prestige and facilitated business and social contacts, and finally
that, as a source of entertainment, it was a welcome respite from the chores
of the day.
Contemporary Functions of the Mass Media 201
If we look systematically at the content of any newspaper it becomes
obvious that the staff tacitly, if not explicitly, recognizes these functions. In
post-World-War-II years advertising's share of space has steadily increased, and
today it is not uncommon for it to fill up 70 percent of a paper. Of the
remaining 30 percent, "hard news" seldom occupies more than one-third of
the paper (or 10 percent of total space). One study of Sunday editions
showed that while the average number of pages had increased from 118 in
1939 to 193 in 1959, the space allocated to news had actually decreased. The
growth of special sections, particularly those devoted to leisure activities,
together with increased advertising was blamed for this decrease. 28 It should
be noted, however, that advertising is an important attraction for the papers
and that it plays an important part in a paper's role as "a tool for daily
living."
Table B-5 points up the fact that there is considerable variation from paper
to paper in the balance of "hard news" and entertainment-type content
provided, and that even within the same paper quite different emphases may
be given from day to day, and from edition to edition within the same day.
For example, even the comparatively staid Los Angeles Times changes to a
sensational makeup featuring the more sensational news of the day for its
street editions. Such a treatment is almost standard for street editions because
of the fact that they must catch the eye of the passersby and literally shock
them into buying the paper. It will be noticed in Table B-5 that the last four
categories, which constitute the more sensational/entertainment types,
account for over a third of the news and editorial space in five of the eight
papers.
Most children are introduced to the newspaper through the comic pages
and readership of the comics remains high through the adult years. 29 Most
papers include a wide variety of comics, ranging from "soap opera" types
such as "Mary Worth" and "Gasoline Alley," to kiddie strips such as "Donald
Duck," to satirical strips such as "Lu" Abner" and 'Togo," to strips of violent
action. Indeed, the general level of mayhem maintained over the decades in
one of the most popular of all strips, "Dick Tracy," would be hard to match
even in comic books. Nor are the comics free from political and ideological
propagandizing, as evidenced by the conservatism espoused by "Little Orphan
Annie" and the liberalism of "Pogo."
In earlier decades, when even small cities had competing dailies, individual
newspapers frequently developed by design or by chance a pattern of
content that appealed to specific audiences. Today, however, only 3 percent
of the nation's cities have competing dailies under separate ownership. As
newspaper consolidations have decreased the variety of daily papers available
to the urban public, the survivors have been faced with the task of trying to
provide coverage to fit the needs of the public at large. At the same time the
population growth and increased organizational complexity of society have
made the job of reporting news more difficult. In trying to serve the broad
needs of the community, it is inevitable that some individuals and groups will
feel slighted and will consider the coverage as biased. The fact that the daily
press has been neither able nor inclined to provide adequate coverage of the
problems of ethnic communities has led to the establishment of periodicals
that focus on these groups. A variety of such papers will be found in most
larger cities, some in foreign languages, others in English, others bilingual.
202
Mass Media and Violence
Table B-5 -Division of news and editorial space
by 8 Midwestern dailies*
[In percent]
News category
1
2
3
Paper
4 5
6
7
8
War/defense
15
20
19
26
22
22
26
25
Economic activity
11
21
14
12
8
15
12
12
Education/
classical arts
15
5
12
13
12
10
12
9
Public health/
welfare
4
3
2
7
3
3
4
5
Science/invention
1
1
3
3
2
1
2
2
Public moral
problems
1
1
2
1
2
1
2
2
Crime
3
6
5
3
4
4
7
6
Accidents/disasters
4
10
6
3
3
2
5
6
Popular amusements
25
6
12
10
21
17
10
9
Human interest
16
14
14
9
15
13
13
11
*From Guido H. Stempel III. "Content Patterns of Small and Metropolitan Dailies,"
Journalism Quarterly, 39, 89 (1962).
Because black citizens have been the victims of severe and prolonged
segregation in the American community, it is not surprising that the Negro
press is particularly widespread. The 1968 Editor and Publisher Yearbook 30
lists 148 Negro newspapers publishing in 102 cities in 34 states and the
District of Columbia. These include two dailies (in Atlanta and Chicago), each
with 30,000 circulation, six biweeklies with a combined circulation of
117,000, and 140 weeklies whose circulation totals 1,508,500. And this list is
not complete.
The Negro press has a long history that dates back to before the Civil War.
These papers have been frequently criticized by black militants and
sociologists alike as being dysfunctional for the advancement of Negro rights
and Negro living conditions. 31 As recently as 1963 it was asserted that the
black press was declining, at least partly as a result of advances in the
integration of black Americans into the general stream of American life. 32
However, with the burgeoning of the black power and black pride
movements, there has been some evidence of a new militancy and life in
Negro papers, as manifested either through change of editorial tone in older
papers or the establishment of new publications.
Contemporary Functions of the Mass Media 203
7. The Underground Press
Despite the relative decline in general daily newspapers in the post- 1930
decades, a considerable number of new papers have continued to appear. In
several ways, these papers are reminiscent of the publications that were the
forerunners of today's press: they are unabashedly journals of opinion,
crusading to defend and advance particular points of view. Their content is
directed not to the general public but to the "believers." Furthermore (and as
a result of this situation), they are generally small, financially pressed, and
must be published spasmodically on uncertain schedules. However, a few of
them have grown into relatively fat and prosperous publications.
Among these, much public interest and attention has been focused upon
the self-labelled "underground press," which serves primarily to express the
frustrations of groups within the society particularly among the young who
question aspects of established values and institutions.* Such papers have
appeared in most of the larger urban centers and, although they cling to the
"underground" label, they are sold openly and at least some have qualified
for and use second class mailing permits.
There are certain parallels between the "underground press," which is
generally oriented to the "new left," and the publications of the radical right.
These shared characteristics distinguish both groups from the mainstream of
ethnic-minority publications. The latter were (and are) seldom intended to be
the sole information source for their readers, and they generally sought to
promote the assimilation of their readers into the national society while
maintaining ethnic traditions in harmonious relationship to the larger society.
But in many papers of both right and left, and in the publications of some of
the more militant Negro groups, there is both active rejection of the existing
society and a concerted attempt to discredit the general information media.
In this respect, they are symptomatic of the centrifugal conditions within our
contemporary society.
The first reaction of those members of the general public who may come
in contact with a copy of an "underground" paper is probably shock at the
frequency with which sexual words, figures of speech, and pictures are used.
News stories and features are frequently written in the earthiest language with
little regard for grammatical niceities. It is difficult not to suspect that some
readers of such papers as the Los Angeles Free Press , the Berkeley Barb , or
The East Village Other buy the paper primarily for the titillation found in the
sex section of the classified ads. And it is somewhat depressing to note that in
the smaller, weaker papers the bulk of the advertising is devoted to promoting
erotic books and products.
An informal survey of twelve such papers available at The Free Press
Bookstore in Westwood (near the Los Angeles campus of the University of
California) shows a wide variation in content and treatment, from the highly
esoteric printed psychedelia of Oracle (including articles such as "Unique
*In the Editorial Writing section of the 1967 "High School Journalism Day" at UCLA,
about half of the participants stated that "underground," i.e., unsanctioned, paper had
been published on their campuses. Many implied that the staffs of the official school
paper had been involved in the clandestine enterprise because they were repudiating
what they thought was overly strict supervision of the official paper by school
authorities.
204 Mass Media and Violence
vocal abilities of certain Tibetan Lamas") to what are, in effect,
"community" papers containing articles with news announcements and
features of special interest to the hippie element and even to militant
crusaders such as Movement and the Barb. Many of the papers do concentrate
on exposing what the staff perceives to be discrimination against and
persecution of minorities within the society generally, but more particularly,
discrimination against "their own." Thus they are reminiscent of the
turn-of-the-century "Muckrakers." The quality of writing varies, even within
the same paper, and may range from well-written and researched articles of
high journalistic merit to blatantly propagandistic and emotional essays and
to what seems to be little more than "dirty word exercises."
As was previously stated, many of these papers operate on an exceedingly
informal and financially precarious basis, which in part is a reflection of the
attitudes of their audience. It is an ironic fact that if a paper reaches a point
of financial stability, it is likely to be accused of having surrendered to the
"Establishment" ethos of materialism. This charge has been raised by other
papers against the Los Angeles Free Press, but its editor, Art Kunin, states
that only by becoming economically sound can such papers be assured of
continued ability to present their viewpoints, and that conformity to
"Establishment" business practices need not be accompanied by acceptance
of "Establishment" social practice and principles. 33
Circulation figures for these publications are difficult to ascertain, because
they do not participate in the usual inventories of periodicals, such as the
Ayer Directory. A study of the four major underground papers in the Los
Angeles area that reported claimed individual circulations as high as 68,000
and combined circulations of 166,000. The same study showed that the
Underground Press Syndicate has 39 member papers in 23 cities in 12 states
and the District of Columbia (plus five Canadian and English members). 34
8. Movies
Of all the mass media, the movies felt perhaps most strongly the impact of
television's competition. There were cities in the nation whose movie theaters
did not close their doors in the years immediately following television's local
debut. And while the number of feature films released in the United States
has actually increased in the post-television years, the nature of these films
has changed. For example, in 1945, 93 percent of all films released(377) were
produced in this country. In the following years American production
declined while foreign imports increased, and in 1958 American productions
were in the minority for the first time. This trend continued until the early
1960's, with American film production falling to as low as 28 percent of the
total. However, in recent years there has been an upturn, and by 1967
American films accounted for 39 percent of the 462 new features. 35
The variation in the availability of movie features is pronounced as one
moves from urban areas to smaller cities and towns. It is only in the largest
cities that the public has access to all or most of the total output. Thus it is
very difficult to establish any conception of the "average" motion picture
content available for the American public. Although there is no systematic
content analysis to support this contention, most observers feel that movies
have become increasingly "adult" in recent years, and certainly American
Contemporary Functions of the Mass Media 205
studios now put great emphasis on the "spectacle" pictures. These trends
have been related to increased ticket prices. First-run picture tickets in the
cities generally cost $2.50 to $3 and the price is still rising. These factors
make it difficult to think of movies today as "family entertainment,"
although there are some productions obviously aimed at child and family
group viewing. Some indication that movies are not primarily intended to be
a family activity is shown by an inspection of the films offered in any major
city. For example, the Los Angeles Times "Calendar" section of October 6,
1968 listed 48 major engagement films currently showing in the city. Of
these, 13 were recommended for "adults only" (most containing explicit
erotic scenes and/or exceptional violence), 27 for "mature audiences"
(including teenagers), and only eight for "families." These eight included
"Camelot," "Paper Lion," "The Secret War of Harry Frig," "The Two of
Us," "2001 a Space Odyssey," "War and Peace" (Russian production), and
the new wide-screen print of "Gone With the Wind."
Various minority interests are catered to by selected movie houses in most
larger cities. Just as in literature, it is often difficult to determine where the
line should be drawn between art and pornography. Most cities do have movie
houses advertising "a warehouse of wild and wooly adult entertainment,"
"male film festival," "for unshockable adults." Such films can claim little in
the way of redeeming artictic value. With regard to ethnic minorities,
imported films have provided attractive fare for most ethnic groups. The one
segment of the population that has not had film fare of its own is the largest
minority group, the Negroes.
Weekly attendance at the movies averages 45 million. 36 The Michigan
study on which Table B-l was based reported that only 7 percent of the
respondents had attended a movie during the previous week. 3 7 Post-television
period studies on teenagers have reported that the median monthly movie
attendance by teenagers in a large city was about 1 .5 and just over twice
monthly for teenagers in several smaller cities and towns. 38
9. Radio
As with the movies, radio was seriously hurt by the advent of television
and has survived only in a drastically revised form. Yet the number of radios
in the country continues to increase, particularly the number of transistorized
portables and car radios, for radio is truly the medium that goes wherever we
go. It is no longer so much an entertainment medium as a companion or
background to our activities. Several studies have documented that most
radio listening today is a "secondary activity." 39 It emits a continuous
stream of music and chatter to accompany other activities, whether it be
doing homework or housework or fighting traffic on the freeway. In 1966,
there were 262 million radios in the United States and of these 64 million
were car radios. 40 The 1968 Broadcasting Yearbook gives a national estimate
of 147 minutes of radio listening per day by those who some time during the
day use television. In fact, the report states that the percentage of adults who
listened to the radio each day in comparison with those who watched
television was 75 percent and 66 percent, respectively. 41
While the most prevalent type of programming today is some variation of
the music/chatter format, "all-talk" programming is appearing in some urban
206 Mass Media and Violence
areas, and several cities now have "all -news" stations. One of the most
interesting types of programs is the "open-line" format, in which is broadcast
the telephone conversation between the program host and the listeners who
call in. These programs provide an opportunity for persons of diverse outlook
to express their opinions publicly.
The abundance of radio stations relative to television outlets, particularly
with the expansion of Frequency Modulation (FM) broadcasting, coupled
with comparatively low production and operating costs, has made it possible
for many radio stations to establish a format for specific-interest groups
rather than for the general mass audience. This has included specialization not
only in music categories, but also for ethnic groups. Most larger cities have at
least one station which seeks to appeal to the Negro public. There is also a
scattering of stations operated by public agencies and private foundations
which attempt to provide intellectual and cultural fare for an acknowledgedly
small audience.
10. Phonograph Recordings
The phonograph has become an increasingly important mass medium in
recent years. Today there are over 48 million phonographs in this country,
and the number has increased 33 percent in the last 5 years. 42 The
development of compact, transistorized disk-and tape-playing machines has
increased the flexibility of the medium and, indeed, phonographs are
beginning to pose a challenge to radio as a car-carried medium. Table B-l
shows that about a fourth of that sample of adults had listened to records the
day before being interviewed.
Phonograph recordings might be thought of as the "books" of the
electronic media, in terms both of flexibility offerred and of selection of
content and time of use. The variety of titles, as with books, is immense. The
Schwann Catalogue 43 recently stated that there were approximately 35,000
titles currently on the market. During a single year over 7,000 "singles" and
3,500 long-play titles may be released. 44 The biggest sales have always been
in popular music, but in recent years the youth market has become
increasingly important to the record industry. Reflecting this is the fact that
the long-time champion of record sales, Ring Crosby, has now been
supplanted by "The Beatles," whose records sold over 210 million copies in
only 4 years. 45
Songs have been used in many cultures not only to entertain, but to
inform and propagandize as well. This is true in the United States today, as
careful listening to the lyrics of many of the widely played records will reveal.
However, there are other phonograph recordings that are much more
explicitly designed for this purpose. The "Spoken and Miscellaneous" section
of the Schwann Catalog contains not only a long list of humor records, of
which many contain social commentary, but also a wide variety of recorded
propaganda and information, from "Bipartisan Treason" and "The Case
Against Flouridation" to the "Quotations of Mao Tse-Tung" and 'Two Fists
of Communism."
1 1 . Television
Although it is the newest of the mass media, television holds undisputed
mastery of the field. The amount of time spent watching television relative to
Contemporary Functions of the Mass Media 207
that spent with other media and leisure activities will vary, but television is
the medium that receives the largest share of the public's free time. According
to the 1968 World Almanac, 94 percent of American homes today have
television and 25 percent have two or more sets. A 1967 Roper survey
reported that the average time spent by adult Americans watching television
each weekday was about 2 3/4 hours. 46 Of the 66 percent of adults who do
watch some television on a given day, the 1968 Broadcasting Yearbook
estimates an average daily viewing time of just over 31/2 hours. 47 The
Nielsen National TV Rating report for the second half of January 1968
estimated that the average daily operating hours per set varied from a low of
4.8 hours in midsummer to a high of 6.8 hours in January. In January, the
estimated percentage of households watching television rose from 55 percent
at 6 p.m. to a high of 68 percent in the 8-10 p.m. "prime-time" period, after
which is gradually declined. But 22 percent of the households were estimated
as still watching at midnight. About a fifth of the households had their sets
on by 10 a.m. and by midday the figure rose to one-third.
A leading show, such as "Here's Lucy," may be viewed by over 40 million
persons, and NBC's "Saturday Night Movie" may have an audience equal to
two-thirds of the total paid attendance for all the nation's movie houses
during the entire week. The President's "State of the Union" address in
January 1968 was estimated to have had an audience of over 52 million
viewers. Although the late afternoon hours on weekdays are generally
thought of as the "children's hours" on television, the largest number of
children are actually watching in the early evening hours. For example, 14
evening shows had a larger number of 2-to 5-year-olds watching than did any
daytime program in the same Nielsen report, and these evening programs
ranged from "The Avengers" and "Batman" to "The Beverly Hillbillies" and
"Disney's Wonderful World of Color." Furthermore, according to the Nielsen
projections, children continue to be watching by the millions up to as late as
1 1 p.m. on weekdays. Over 5 million children under the age of 12 and almost
6.4 million 12 -to- 17 -year-olds were still watching between 10:30 and 1 1 p.m.
on one Monday in the period covered. Returning to the "children's hours,"
programming in this period frequently consists of little more than a parade of
old movie cartoons interspersed with toy and cereal commercials.
The content of television varies from community to community, reflecting
both the number of channels available and the programs selected by the local
network affiliates for broadcasting. The major input, of course, comes from
the three major networks, and this is particularly true in the prime evening
hours. During the day, affiliated stations have more freedom to fill their
schedule at their own discretion. However, a large portion of daytime
programming by these stations and of all programming by nonaffiliated
stations is filled with reruns of old network series and movies.
Table B-6 shows a breakdown of the 35 hours of evening programming
(6-11 p.m.) provided each week by each of the three network-owned
and-operated stations in Los Angeles during their normal schedule for the
1968 fall season (which includes the actual network schedule plus locally
supplied materials in several periods, primarily between 6 and 7 p.m., when
no network service may be provided).
It is interesting to note the prominent place given to movies even during
prime-time network programming. Actually, in terms of total program
208 Mass Media and Violence
Table B-6.~ Breakdown of fall season programming between 6-11 p.m.
on network-owned stations in Los Angeles for a typical week
[In hours and minutes}
Category ABC CBS NBC
News 0:00* 9:00 8:30
Information 0:00 2:00 0:30
Adventure 2:00 1:00 1:00
Mystery/detective 7:30 2:00 3:30
Western 2:30 3:00 4:30
Situation comedy 4:00 6:00 2:30
Serial drama 1:00 0:00 0:00
Family variety/ family adventure 0:00 2:00 2:30
Variety 4:30 6:00 5:00
Movies 12:30 12:30 4:0
Quiz/games 1:00 0:00 0:30
Unspecified film 0:00 0:00 0:30
*The ABC station schedules its early evening news hour at 5 p.m. and its late evening
news at 11 p.m.
schedules of all stations, most communities are provided with a larger number
of movies each week on television than in their local movie theaters. To cite
an extreme example, in a single week the seven VHP stations in Los Angeles
showed five musical, 15 science fiction, 18 western, 18 comedy, 29 detective,
and 73 dramatic films, for a total of 158 different full-length feature films. In
former years the films shown on television tended to be older features, but
today this has been somewhat modified. Of this 158, 33 were made in the
1960's and nine were less than 3 years old. Among the films were not only
all-time classics (as well as potboilers), but art films of critical acclaim. The
importance of films is shown by ratings cited earlier, which reported that
feature films had the largest average audience of all program categories. Both
type of film and audience are broken down in Table B-7.
There are numerous "specials" on each network during each season. For
the fall of 1968, ABC scheduled 17, CBS 20, and NBC 34. These included a
wide variety of content, from sports and musicals to public affairs,
documentaries, and children's features.
The relative scarcity of avilable television channels and the medium's high
operating costs generally have made it the most "mass" of all the media. The
gradual expansion into UHF still has not provided much specialization
although there are a few Spanish-language stations operating. An all-Negro
station was attempted in Los Angeles in the early 1960's, but due to a
number of factors (a UHF allocation and an attempt to have all-black
programming for which there were no sources except local production, were
important handicaps) it survived only about half a year. (It would be
interesting to know whether or not, with a wider distribution of UHF-
receiving sets and the new spirit of black pride now evident, such a station
could survive today.) However, in recent months the networks and some local
stations have presented programming that focuses on Negro problems and
features Negro entertainment.
Contemporary Functions of the Mass Media 209
Table B-7.- Average audience estimates according to
Nielsen 's second report for January 1 968
Average percent of TV
Evening: Households
General drama:
30 minutes length 19.7
60 minutes length 16.3
Suspense/mystery:
30 minutes length 18.1
60 minutes length 17.0
Situation comedy 19.6
Western 18.1
Adventure 18.0
Science fiction 17.0
Variety 20.4
Feature films 21.2
Dinner-hour news 12.5
Daytime:
Serials 9.9
Situation comedy 8.6
Quiz 8.0
News 6.7
Weekend:
Children 7.3
Sports 7.1
12. Educational Television
One type of "minority" station that has appeared in many communities is
the noncommercial "educational" station. There are now over 140 such
stations in operation, the majority being affiliated with the National
Educational Television (NET) organization, which facilitates the exchange of
programs between stations and the supply of a few special productions. The
programming of these stations is varied, with heavy emphasis placed on public
affairs discussions, programs of practical information and a few of formal
instructional content, and the arts. During the day on weekdays, many
transmit instructional programs for the local school systems.
These stations supply a highly contrasting alternate choice to the viewing
public. However, many of their programs deal with highly specific subject
matter and appeal primarily to a limited audience of those interested in that
particular subject. It is therefore not surprising that the audience of these
stations at any given hour is generally too small to be reflected in the major
audience measurement services, but there are a few programs which have won
sizeable audiences both locally and nationally through NET distribution. Over
the course of a week most of these stations that operate on a VHP frequency
will attract the attention of 10 to 25 percent of the households in their area
at least once. 48
210 Mass Media and Violence
C. Different Patterns of Media Selection and Use
The discussion of educational television with its limited, specialized
audience serves to bring into focus the fact that the mass media do not have a
single mass audience. Individuals do differ both in their choice of media and
in their selection of content within each medium. Some of these differences
reflect differences in the practical needs of the individual. Thus the person
who owns stocks is more likely to read the financial section of the newspaper
than one who does not. Other differences reflect differences in the means
available to individuals. Thus low-income families may have to rely upon the
"free" entertainment of television rather than upon entertainment, such as
the movies, that carries an admission price. Still other differences reflect
social and psychological factors that vary not only from individual to
individual, but the balance of which may vary within the same individual
from time to time. Thus as children mature they begin to seek information
and content that conform to their sex role expectations. Or the person who is
troubled or physically fatigued may seek "escape" content from the media,
whereas under normal conditions he might reject the same content as puerile
and seek instead more informational, edifying content.
The overall situation is further complicated by the fact that the same
content may have different value for the various individuals who do give it
their attention. For example, a psychiatrist working with institutionalized
disturbed children might say that these children were upset, not by television
shows that were heavy in violence, but by those situation-comedy shows that
portrayed happy families. Thus Dr. Benjamin Spock is quoted as deploring
the sadism in Disney's feature film, "Snow White," and another writer
reported hysterical reactions to Pinocchio being swallowed by the whale in
the Disney feature film of the same name. 49
Although the situation is complex, there are some patterns that have been
traced out in empirical research and that provide some insights into the
relationship between the media and the public. The following paragraphs are
only a brief survey of some of these relationships.
1 . Demographic and Ecological Factors
Choice of media and of content within media has been found to differ in
systematic relationship to a variety of demographic and ecological factors. For
example, one study of media behavior in children reported relationships
between sex, religious affiliation, and social class, and whether or not the child
was primarily oriented to "pictorial media" (boys, Catholics, and blue-collar
workers' children were more apt to be so oriented than their opposites). 5
One of the earliest qualitative audience analysis studies documented the
importance of age, sex, and socioeconomic status on the choice of newspaper
content. (The reading of "hard" news comes in the late teens, whereas comics
reading peaks early, remains at a plateau, and gradually declines with age;
blue collar readers tend to read sensational and entertainment content at the
expense of "hard" news; the reading of society and sports news is sex-related,
as one would expect, etc.) 5 *
One of the best indications of a person's orientation to media use is his
socioeconomic status, usually measured by type of occupation, income, and
Contemporary Functions of the Mass Media 211
education (singly or in combination). The Michigan study of audience
behavior included comparison of poor whites and poor blacks with the
general population. The results are summarized in Table B-8. Similar patterns
have been reported by other studies. Generally speaking, those in the lower
socioeconomic categories are more likely to be heavy users of pictorial media,
particularly television, while those in the upper socioeconomic categories use
a wider range of media. Poor blacks are even more extreme in this respect
than poor whites. This television-orientation is further reflected in the
preference of television over the newspaper for news by these latter groups.
Accordingly, it is not surprising that both the "CBS Evening News" with
Walter Cronkite and NBC's "Huntley-Brinkley Report" draw a larger
proportion of blue-collar than white-collar viewers. 5 2
Because of a combination of pressures, those who have had relatively more
education and are in white-collar or professional occupations need and desire
more information from the media than is the case among the lower income,
blue-collar groups. The differences in media use between the groups partly
reflect differing levels of competition for the individual's time. Unemployed
people, for example, have more free time than those with jobs, but they also
obviously have fewer means to avail themselves of a wide range of activities.
The professional has the financial resources to exercise a wide range of
options. He also is under pressures that require him to participate in a wide
variety of activities, not only civic and social, but professional as well "to
keep up with his field." Within the limits of present technology, this type of
professional information is still most efficiently provided by the printed
media, so that the professional man must maintain a high level of literacy. A
result of this is that the act of reading is less demanding for him than for the
blue-collar worker, so that it probably has for him an intrinsic pleasure value
in itself. One study has documented that the orientation toward all the media
increases with education, but also that the demands connected with
education preempt time that otherwise might be spent with the media. Use of
other media further preempts the time that the educated man might like to
spend watching television. 53
Turning again to the question of choice of news sources, the pattern
shown in Table B-8 has been reported in many studies together with the
further finding that the level of trust placed in the different media also
differs. For example, studies in Los Angeles showed that the poor, and
particularly the Negro poor, were much more suspicious of the newspaper
(including Negro papers) than they were of television, whereas white-collar
workers were moderate in their trust of television. 54 A variety of other
factors have also been found to be related to different patterns of media
usage, some of which seem to be a reflection of changing patterns in
American living. For example, interest in community news in comparison
with interest in metropolitan area, national, and international news has been
found to be lower among more mobile families (and in some metropolitan
areas 20 percent or more in Los Angeles 25 percent of the families change
residence within a calendar year), among apartment dwellers, and among
those who commute to other areas for work or shopping. These factors also
appear to be related to the selection of media in a number of complex ways,
even to predicating the choice of competing daily newspapers. 5 5
Studies have also documented differences in interest in and selection of
212 Mass Media and Violence
Table B-8. -Differences in media use patterns
according to income and race*
[In percent]
General Poor Whites Poor Blacks
Population (150) (131)
TV time "yesterday" :
None 40.8 22.7 25.2
Under 4 hours 41.7 25.3 19.8
4 hours or more 17.1 52.0 55.0
Radio time "yesterday":
None 29.1 40.0 36.7
Under 2 hours 39.2 32.7 25.9
2 hours or more 31.6 26.0 35.9
Read newspaper daily 77.2 69.4 58.8
Read a magazine "yesterday" 52.9 38.3 38.2
Attended movie within past month . . . 29.6 12.0 16.0
Do not own phonograph 13.6 29.3 16.0
Phonograph listening "yesterday":
None 62.6 24.7 13.0
Under 1 hour 9.2 33.3 48.1
1 hour or more 14.0 12.7 22.9
Medium preferred for world news:
Television 34.9 65.3 65.6
Radio 25.7 12.0 19.8
Newspaper 31.5 18.0 10.7
People 4.4 4.7 3.1
Medium preferred for local news:
Television 20.4 32.7 26.7
Radio 31.0 34.0 32.1
Newspaper 40.3 25.3 18.3
People ,,6.8 6.7 21.4
*From Bradley S. Greenberg and Brenda Dervin, Communication Among the Poor
(East Lansing: Michigan State-University Press, 1967-1968).
media content, particularly news. Crime news has been found to be of greater
interest not only to the poor in comparison with the middle class, but also to
city dwellers in comparison to suburbanites. 56 The fact that the Nielsen
Television Index Market Section Audiences Report provides a breakdown of
individual program audiences by such factors as size of family, size of
community, and section of the nation, as well as a variety of socioeconomic
indicators, reflects that the composition of the audience does vary from
program to program.
2. Sociopsychological Factors
There is some evidence that lower income groups are more concerned with
seeking immediate solutions and pleasures, whereas higher income groups are
Contemporary Functions of the Mass Media 213
frequently willing to undergo intermediate discomforture and to expend
effort if by so doing they see the possibility of a greater ultimate reward. 57
This is felt to constitute a difference in the mores of socioeconomic groups
that extends into many types of behavior, including media use.
Data to support this generalization has been reported in a number of
studies. For example, white-collar-working parents have been found to have
"guilt feelings" about watching television and permitting their children to do
the same. 58 Some authors have hypothesized that certain media the
pictorial media and television in particular have a greater potential for
providing "immediate" gratification, while other media such as books and
magazines are more efficient for providing the type of detailed information
frequently required for "deferred" gratification. Such studies as those of
Schramm et al 5 9 have graphically demonstrated the importance of parental
example and guidance in influencing the child's acquisition of values and their
application to media behavior. Another study presented evidence suggesting
that blue-collar workers who do not conform to their class mores concerning
media viewing (i.e., they are high users of print and low users of television)
exhibit other behavior and attitudes suggesting that they are striving for
upward mobility. 60 Intelligence is another factor that has been found to be
strongly related to media orientation, with the more intelligent persons more
frequently selecting media and content that offer deferred gratification than
is the case with those of average and lower intelligence. 61 These factors are
frequently interrelated, but each has been found to operate independently as
well as in combination with others in influencing media usage.
There are also other factors that may intervene. The media are at times
used to enhance the image we wish to project to others. It will be recalled
that Berelson's study showed that many of the respondents indicated that
social prestige was a factor in their reading of the newspaper. Emotional
factors have also been shown to be an important variable. Again, Berelson's
study showed that some newspaper reading was predicated on combating
"anomie" or loneliness. Another early study reported that radio soap operas
often served a similar purpose in combating isolation for housewives. 62
Children's use of comics was found to vary similarly, with lonely children
using them for fantasy while other children put the story content to creative
uses, such as providing ideas for play activity. 63
Still another factor which has been found to be important in influencing
the amount of use of media for fantasy is the degree of personal stress or
tension felt by a person at a given time. One adult study reports that
"escape" television viewing increased among adults when they were under
high stress. 64 Surveys of child and teen media use have found that children
who reported conflict with their parents and/or peer groups showed increased
media use for fantasy. Such media use was also found to accompany high
scores on antisocial aggression scales. 65
It should be pointed out that, in these studies, use of the media as a means
of escape from social isolation and/or personal tension is higher among
white-collar working families. This is inevitable because the normative use of
immediate-reward media is so high among blue-collar workers that it leaves
little room for them to use increases of such behavior to relieve personal
stress. The general fact remains, however, that people are likely to take their
problems to the media, and in extreme cases it appears that the gratification
2 14 Mass Media and Violence
found therein may lead to a circular situation resulting in "addiction" to this
"mechanical friend." The question of the extent to which this may also lead
them to active antisocial behavior, e.g., violence, is a question that will be
treated in later sections of this Task Force's report.
D. Some Problems Related to the Mass Media's Nature
One frequently hears complaints from a wide variety of sources about
today's "mass society." Population growth and increasing population density
create a multitude of tensions within our society, and being institutions
within that society it is inescapable that the media are intertwined with these
tensions and complaints. Given the existing economic and technological
conditions, the general media must seek large audiences to survive. At the
same time, technology has extended the immediate accessibility of content to
everyone. This accessibility has its dysfunctional aspects. Much of the great
artistic heritage of our culture contains elements of violence and sex.
Recognizing this, society has generally sought to provide some safeguards
regarding the use of such content. Thus, for example, various types of
literature are introduced to children at what is considered an appropriate
period in their maturation. It is significant that many collections of Bible
stories for children omit a considerable number of details contained in the
original.
As the media grow both in the bulk of their content and the ease with
which people may generally gain access to that content, such controls are
increasingly difficult to maintain. Furthermore, these same characteristics of
universal accessibility mean that the persons responsible for the media do not
have the means to guarantee that their content reaches those for whom it was
intended and that it does not become accessible to those for whom it might
be harmful. This creates great strains within all the media. Some critics, for
example, complain that television is generally puerile and that more adult
cultural fare should be presented. Yet if the programmers attempted to
provide more adult fare, they would then hear complaints from others that
they were perverting youth. One can argue that the media can never be made
totally "safe," simply because content which is harmless or actively beneficial
for the vast majority of the population may trigger violently harmful
reactions in some few members of the audience.
In conclusion, let us return to a consideration of the media's role as
institutions of communication within society and the impact of the increasing
mass use of the media on the functions they are supposed to perform.
The massiveness of the audience is a particular problem for news media,
for as the size and diversity of a given medium's audience increase, so do the
difficulties of communicating effectively to all segments of the audience.
This, then, makes it increasingly difficult to maintain a high level of
satisfaction and trust among the members of a society that places a high value
upon individual rights and identity. The media today can transmit more
information to more people more quickly than ever before. In doing this they
can help to reduce anxiety within the public. However, there is also the less
happy possibility that they can be used, inadvertently or intentionally, to
increase anxiety. As institutions, the media consist of professional staffs
made up of fallible human beings who are using a potent technology under an
Contemporary Functions of the Mass Media 2 15
implicit mandate of the society. Just how potent that technology is has still
not been determined, but as the technology is developed and improved its
ability to effect good and evil becomes stronger, more immediate, and
far-reaching. But in the final analysis, technology is only the tool; it is the
members of society who must determine the manner of its use.
REFERENCES
Harold D. Lasswell, The Structure and Functions of Communication in Society,
Institute for Religion and Social Studies of New York City (1948).
2. Gordon W. Allport and Leo J. Postman, "The Basic Psychology of Rumor," in
Wilbur Schramm, Process and Effects of Mass Communication (Urbana: University
of Illinois Press, 1955).
3. Richard F. Carter and Bradley S. Greenberg, "Newspaper or Television: Which Do
You Believe? "Journalism Quarterly, 42, 29 (1965).
4. See, for example, pp. 39-42 in Jack Lyle, The News in Megalopolis (San Francisco:
Chandler, 1967).
5. Ibid. p. 171.
6. Ibid. p. 44-45.
7. See James E. Brinton et al., The Newspaper and Its Public (Stanford: Institute for
Communication Research (undated)).
8. See Muzafer Sherif and Carol I. Hovland, Social Judgement (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1961).
9. See, for example, pp. 29-30 in Jack Lyle, The Black American and the Press (Los
Angeles: Ward Ritchie Press, 1968).
10. Harold Mendelsohn, "Socio-Psychological Perspectives on the Mass Media and
Public Anxiety," Journalism Quarterly, 40, 511 (1963).
11. Jack Lyle and Walter Wilcox (editors), A Community Daily in a Changing
Metropolitan Press Environment (Los Angeles: UCLA Department of Journalism).
(See p. 27.)
12. Charles H. Cooley, Social Organization (Glencoe: Free Press, 1956).
13. See, for example, Joseph T. Klapper, The Effects of Mass Communication (Glencoe:
Free Press, 1960).
14. Several studies illustrating this phenomenon are contained in The Great Debates
edited by Sidney Kraus (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1962).
15. Bradley S. Greenberg and Brenda Dervin, Communication Among the Poor (in three
volumes) (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1967-68).
16. These figures and those in Table 2 are from The Bowker Annual of Library and
Book Trade Information 1968 (New York: R. R. Bowker, 1968).
17. World Almanac 1968 (New York: Newspaper Enterprise Association, 1967).
18. Figures in this paragraph are from Charles A. Madison, Book Publishing in America
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966). See pp. 547-56.
19. World Almanac 1968, op. cit., footnote 17.
20. Philip Converse, "Information Flow and Stability of Partisan Attitudes," Public
Opinion Quarterly, 26, 592 (1962).
21. News Research Bulletin (of the American Newspaper Publishers Association), No. 2,
dated Feb. 7, 1968.
22. See, for example, Frances L. Spain and Margaret C. Scoggins, "They Still Read
Books," in The Eighth Art (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962).
23. 1968 Ay er Directory (Philadelphia: N.W. Ayer and Son, 1968).
24. World Almanac 1968, op. cit., footnote 17.
25. Wilbur Schramm, Jack Lyle, and Edwin B. Parker, Television in the Lives of Our
Children (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1961). See p. 101.
26. Ibid. p. 261.
27. Bernard Berelson, "What 'Missing the Newspaper' Means," in Paul F. Lazarsfeld and
Frank Stanton, Communication Research 1948-1 949 (New York: Harper, 1949).
28. William A. Hacten, "The Changing U. S. Sunday Newspaper," Journalism Quarterly,
38,281 (1961).
29. Schramm, Lyle, and Parker, op. cit., footnote 25, pp. 247-248.
216 Mass Media and Violence
30. 1968 Editor and Publisher Yearbook (New York: The Editor and Publisher Co.,
Inc., 1968). See pp. 316-317.
31. See, for example, Franlin Frazier, Black Bourgeoisie (Glencoe: Free Press, 1957).
32. See, for example, "Negro Press: Victim of Negro Progress," on p. 50 of the Aug. 26,
1963, issue of Newsweek.
33. Quoted in Gaye S. Smith, "The Underground Press in Los Angeles," unpublished
report for the Department of Journalism, UCLA (1968).
34. Ibid.
35. The Film Daily Yearbook of Motion Pictures (New York: The Film Daily, 1968).
36. Popular Photography , June 1967.
37. Greenberg and Dervin, op. cit., footnote 15.
38. Schramm, Lyle, and Parker, op. cit., footnote 25 pp. 252- 253
39. For example, see converse, op. cit., footnote 20 and Schramm, Lyle, and Parker, op.
cit., footnote 25, pp. 243, 251.
40. World Almanac, op. cit., footnote 17.
41. 1968 Broadcasting Yearbook (New York: Broadcasting Publications, Inc., 1968).
See pp. 22-24.
42. World Almanac, op. cit., footnote 17.
43. "Preface," Schwann Catalog Dec. 1968, p. 4.
44. Billboard International Buyer's Guide, Aug. 6, 1966.
45. World Almanac, op. cit., footnote 17.
46. Burns W. Roper, Emerging Profiles of Television and Other Mass Media: Public
Attitudes 1959-1967 (New York: Television Information Office, 1967).
47. Broadcasting Yearbook, op. cit., footnote 41.
48. Wilbur Schramm, Jack Lyle, and Ithiel de Sola Pool, The People Look at
Educational Television (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1963). See p. 50.
49. Carey McWilliams, The California Revolution (New York: The Grossman Publisher,
Inc., 1968). Seep. 137.
50. Lotte Bailyn, "Mass Media and Children: A Study of Exposure Habits and Cognitive
Effects," Psychological Monographs, 73, 1 (1959).
51. Wilbur Schramm and David M. White, "Age, Education, Economic Status: Factors in
Newspaper Reading," Journalism Quarterly, 26, 149 (1959).
52. See, for example, the March 1968 Nielsen Television Index Report.
53. Merrill Samuelson, Richard F. Cater, and Lee Ruggels, "Education, Available Time,
and Use of Mass Media," Journalism Quarterly, 40,491 (1963).
54. See Chapters 8 and 9 in The News in Megalopis, op. cit., footnote 4.
55. Ibid., Chapters.
56. Roy E. Carter Jr. and Peter Clarke, "Suburbanites, City Residents, and Local News,"
Journalism Quarterly, 40, 548 (1963).
57. See, for example, Ken Geiger and Robert Sokol, "Social Norms in Television
Watching," American Sociol., 65, 174 (1959). Also see Chapter 6 in Schramm, Lyle,
and Parker, op. cit., footnote 25.
58. Gary Steiner, The People Look at Television (New York: Knopf, 1963).
59. Schramm, Lyle, and Parker, op. cit., footnote 25, pp. 47-48.
60. Jack Lyle, "Educational Television and Social Mobility," unpublished paper read to
Association for Education in Journalism convention,. 1962.
61. Schramm, Lyle, and Parker, op. cit., footnote 25, p. 105.
62. Herta Herzog, "Motivations and Gratifications of Daily Serial Listeners," in Paul
Lazarsfeld and Frank Stanton, Radio Research, 1942-1943 (New York: Duell, Sloan
and Pearce, 1944).
63. Katherine M. Wolfe and Marjorie Fiske, "Why They Read Comics," in Lazarsfeld
and Stan ton, Communication Research, 1948-1949, op. cit.
64. L. I. Pearlin, "Social and Personal Stress and Escape Television Viewing," Public
Opinion Quarterly, 23, 255 (1959).
65. See Chapter 7 of Schramm, Lyle, and Parker, op. cit., footnote 5.
Appendix II-C
MEDIA CODES, GUIDELINES, AND
POLICIES FOR NEWS COVERAGE
A. Need for Guidelines
The need for guidelines is recognized especially by the television medium,
which advertises its presence at the scene of violence with cameras, lights,
and, sometimes, special mobile trucks, in order to make a vivid, instantaneous
transmission of the event. This presence can serve as a catalyst for those
involved in the violence to create "incidents" specifically for the camera, and
the ability to transmit instantaneously makes balanced coverage inherently
more difficult.
Concerning these problems, Dr. Frank Stanton, president of CBS, has said:
Like no other medium in history, television catches the flavor, the
immediacy, the excitement, the tension and the confusion, too, of the
moment. This is the great strength of television, but also, in a way, its
weakness.
The problems related to the news media's coverage of
insurrections . . . while they can never be wholly eradicated . . . can be
minimized by the use of responsible and intelligent guidelines. Setting
up such guidelines . . . seems to us to be our responsibility and
obligation as journalists and editors and we cannot delegate this to
anyone else.
The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, in March 1968,
urged news organizations to discuss among themselves the special problems of
covering riots and to "formulate and disseminate directives based on the
discussions." The Community Relations Service (CRS) of the Department of
Justice has also encouraged the news media to discuss with city and police
officials the promulgation of community-wide guidelines for covering racial
disturbances; but it does not recommend or endorse any specific set of
guidelines. Rather, it believes, as did the Kerner Commission, that discussions
on this subject within the news organizations are as important as the
establishment of formal guidelines.
Many news editors and their staffs seem willing to rethink and redefine
their procedures for reporting disorders; but they always jealously safeguard
their rights, citing the freedom of the press, the right of the public to know
and make its own decisions, and the responsibility of the "fourth estate" to
report fully, fairly, and responsibly without prior restraint by any public
217
218 Mass Media and Violence
authority. To paraphrase one newspaper editor: any code established by the
media itself is a policy; any code imposed from the outside is censorship.
The news media have growing misgivings about outside restrictions on
news coverage of controversial public events and not without reason. Only
last year, the Ohio House of Representatives considered denying newsmen
access to scenes of riots and other emergencies. Congressional committees
have announced hearings on news practices. And some city officials have,
without consulting the media, issued riot coverage policies.
These pressures, coupled with the media's own sense of responsibility,
have resulted in the adoption of self-determined guidelines. While the daily
press, with the belated exception of the wire services, has been reluctant to
formulate specific formal guidelines for riot coverage, the case is considerably
different in the broadcasting media. All three of the major television
networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, and their 15 owned -and -ope rated stations, 1 1
of 14 commercial television stations, and 13 of the 17 commercial radio
stations, responding to the Violence Commission's five-city survey, have
adopted some form of policy or guideline for the coverage of violence.
But many of the news editors, both broadcast and print, strongly
emphasized that their policies, with respect to coverage of inflammatory or
violent events, are simply formalizations of good reporting practices, have
evolved over long periods of time, and undergo constant review and revision
when necessary. In cases where the stations, wire services, or newspapers
reported the date they initiated their formal written policies on coverage of
violence, it occurred most frequently during the past 3 years in all cases,
including the networks, it actually occurred during the past 5 years.
1 . Characteristics of Guidelines
Much similarity exists among the "guidelines" of all media:
Language . Caution extreme care in the use of language (e.g., avoid
inflammatory descriptions), catchwords (such as "police brutality" and
"angry mob"), and stereotyped phrases; use moderate language; avoid words
such as "riot" and "racial" (often until officially designated); caution in
characterization of crowd, disturbance, etc.; care not to exaggerate in
headlines.
Equipment and lights. Designation or warnings against use of certain
equipment and lights, e.g., use unmarked cars; use certain microphones,
cameras, and lights.
Conduct and safety of personnel .Provision of police escorts, special
equipment, special credentials; be a "moderating" influence.
Procedures and assignments .Most experienced newsmen to field and
command posts, special liaison with police.
Reporting practices. Emphasis on traditional good reporting practices,
e.g., confirmation, good sources; balance and fairness in story, avoidance of
reports that might inflame or incite to violence; report causes, as well as
effects; accuracy, restraint, strict attribution.
Many of the guidelines simply extend normal news procedures, but several
pertain only to the unusual circumstances surrounding riots and other violent
disorders:
Media Codes, Guidelines, and Policies for News Coverage 219
Provisions for helmets, police escorts, etc.; cautions against use of
certain terms and characterizations, e.g., "riot," "racial"; procedures
for use of only certain equipment and lights ; embargoes on live reports
and use of "bulletins"; policy of delay; avoidance of giving exact
location and descriptions of weapons.
2. Effectiveness of Guidelines
Just how effective have these policies, or guidelines, been? From the
responses, the media have found them, without qualification, to be useful and
workable. These are some representative comments:
". . . useful so far as it describes a management philosophy to which one
entire news staff can and does subscribe."
-WWDC-FM, Washington, D.C.
". . . such guidelines keep various personnel , . . alert to consequences,
alert to overemphasis, and cause of unrest and violence."
- Evening Tribune, San Diego, Calif.
". . . guides to good judgment . . . particularly at times when quick
decisions must be made."
-WRC-TV, Washington, D.C.
Above all, the formulation and establishment of guidelines appears to have
increased the sensitivity of news personnel to the problems of covering
violence.
3. Operation of Guidelines
In all types of journalism, many people take part in shaping stories, and
they all hold some decision-making power. Reporters, camera and sound men,
researchers, rewrite men, writers, film editors, desk editors, regional and state
editors, station managers and executive editors all assume responsibility, in
part, for the way a story is reported. This shared responsibility argues most
strongly for the formulation of a common policy.
Although the news editor on duty usually bears direct responsibility for
administering a policy, every person on the staff must know and abide by its
meaning, in both letter and spirit, to make it effective. Several responding
stations noted closer management supervision in times of disorder. Sanctions
that enforce station policy include criticism, suspension, or discharge.
B . Specific Media Guidelines
1. The Networks
All three of the major commercial networks ABC, CBS, and
NBC subscribe to the NAB Code and have general broadcast news policies
220 Mass Media and Violence
and standards to guide their news operation and personnel.
ABC has five "considerations" for news scripts:
(1) Good taste;
(2) Avoidance of obscene, indecent, and profane language;
(3) Avoidance of defamation;
(4) Compliance with government regulations during times of emergency;
and
(5) Competent news authority.
In addition, "the news shall not be broadcast in a manner that might create
alarm or panic."
The November 1963 "Policies and Procedures" statement of NBC sets out
broad but specific standards for the conduct of news personnel and the
treatment of program subjects. Pertinent to the issue of violence is clause 5 :
In the factual presentation and in the analysis of news, sensational
treatment will be avoided. News may never be presented in a manner
which would create public alarm or panic. News items relating to crime
or sex in particular must be handled without morbid or sensational
detail and must be treated with the judgment required in presentation
to a family audience.
For many years, CBS and NBC have reflected in their public statements, in
their internal memoranda, and in directives to their news personnel at the
network and at owned-and-operated stations, a strong sense of responsibility
in their broadcast news operation. All three networks have adopted, and now
have in effect, policy guides specifically for coverage of riots. The genesis of
these policy guidelines at CBS and NBC go back to 1963 in both cases, and
they have been augmented periodically in the intervening years. ABC's
guidelines were formalized at least as early as July 1967.
Public events and demands have precipitated a revaluation of policies at
the three networks, which has often resulted in a redefinition of news policies
and practices. It should be noted, however, that CBS and NBC have often
anticipated the special conditions and challenges of the events of these last
few turbulent years and have reiterated or modified their policies accordingly.
At CBS, Richard Salant, president of CBS News, sent a memorandum to news
personnel in June 1963, in anticipation of the disturbances in Selma,
Alabama. He warned of "the unsettling effect on a stimulated crowd that the
presence of TV cameras has," and requested that personnel and equipment be
as unobtrusive as possible and that cameras be turned away or capped
whenever there was a danger that they might exacerbate an event. In handling
"racial crises and other confrontations throughout the country," Salant urged
news personnel to conduct themselves with restraint and care.
In August 1963, after Selma and after he had appeared before the House
Subcommittee on Communications and Power, NBC President Robert
Kintner "reiterated" in a memorandum to all news personnel four points for
the handling of controversial issues and events, using as an example a
demonstration in connection with segregation: accuracy, judgment in
selection of air material, avoidance in taking sides by manner or tone or
presentation, and balancing.
Media Codes, Guidelines, and Policies for News Coverage 22 1
Both CBS and NBC elaborated upon these basic statements over the years,
and by mid- 1967 both networks had formally codified a set of guidelines for
coverage of riots and civil disturbances. In May 1967, after Watts but before
the widespread summer riots of that year NBC had set 13 guidelines for
handling civil disturbances, which were "not designed to curtail coverage, but
to insure its responsibility." NBC reiterated points which it said "are
journalistic basics we all know but may forget in the heat of covering a big
story." During the summer of 1967, CBS defined seven specific
"precautions" for its news personnel. (The first CBS document referring to
their existence was Dr. Frank Stanton's letter of Aug. 10, 1967, to Senator
Hugh Scott.)
Early in June 1968, NBC restated its policy with some updating, and on
August 20, 1968, a few days before the Democratic National Convention,
CBS News President Richard Salant amplified on the policy guidelines of
CBS cameras are to be capped if they are aggravating the situation, the exact
location of the disturbance is not to be revealed, reportage should concern
itself with the underlying issues of the disorder and warned about the
especially troublesome circumstances awaiting the news media in Chicago.
After Chicago, CBS adopted two new policies for the coverage of riots and
civil disorders: extreme care in the use of lights, and a general prohibition of
live television (not radio) coverage.
The following is a checklist that highlights the points of overlap and
difference in the written policy guidelines of ABC, CBS, and NBC in
reporting disorders:
CBS ABC NBC
Use unmarked or camouflaged
cars and equipment X X
Avoid using lights X
Obey all police instructions X
Caution in characterizing and
estimating size, intensity, and
mood of crowd or disturbance X X X
Confirm all rumor and eye-witness,
wire service, reports,
strict attribution X X
Balance all statements by rioters,
responsible officials X X
Avoid catchwords and stereotyped
phrases (such as police brutality,
angry mob), play news straight,
without emotion X X X
Cap cameras if contributing to
situation X
Avoid giving exact location,
specifics about weaponry, etc X X
Report underlying issues and
causes X X X
Do not reenact, simulate, stage,
or aid demonstration X X
No live TV coverage X X
Advise affiliates when network
coverage may conflict with local
voluntary restrictive agreements X
222 Mass Media and Violence
CBS ABC NBC
Do not describe disturbance as
"riot" or "racial" until
officially designated X X
Specific editing cautions X
Swift dispatch of reporters to
scene of disturbance X
Avoid interviews with participants,
self-appointed leaders
The written guidelines of the networks differ in two important respects:
ABC and CBS have prohibited live coverage of civil disturbances a
policy that implies delay, and
CBS recommends obeying all police instructions, whereas the policy set
by NBC to advise the affiliate when network coverage may conflict
with local voluntary agreement implies a situation wherein NBC
coverage may be in opposition to police wishes. ABC has no policy
that applies.
2. Television Stations
Eighteen of the 22 television stations in the five cities surveyed completed
and returned the Violence Commission's questionnaire. Of these 18 stations,
four were public television stations. Eleven of the 14 commercial television
stations completing the questionnaire said they had adopted specific written
or unwritten guidelines for the reporting of "inflammatory or violent news
events." None of the public television stations had adopted specific
guidelines, but, with the exception of WETA-TV, Channel 26 in Washington,
D.C., which broadcasts on-the-hour wire-service reports, the public television
stations also did not carry any "hard news" programs.
Although the television station guidelines tended to be similar, the codes
ranged over a wide spectrum in detail and specifics. Several
stations WMAL-TV, an ABC owned-and-operated station in Washington,
D.C., and KOGO-TV, an NBC-affiliate Time-Life station in San Diego,
Calif. had set very detailed, stringent plans and guidelines for their staffs, as
well as general directives, and also alternative emergency plans and
procedures. The policies of WSAV-TV, an NBC/ABC affiliate in Savannah,
Ga., as enunciated by the president in a memorandum to the news
department, related only to pretaping and delaying inflammatory film and
the prerelease of information about demonstrations. Other notable specifics
in codes were the following:
Only a few of the 1 1 stations had any specific policy for delaying the
news.
Only one or two stations recommended against live coverage.
Several stations were concerned with the use of "bulletins."
Here are some representative examples given by reporting television
stations of stories affected by their standards or codes:
Media Codes, Guidelines, and Policies for News Coverage 223
Editing of, or decision not to carry, film accounts of inflammatory
remarks by Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, and angry whites.
Deliberate downplaying of riots in Washington, D.C.
Decision to report the event fully, but without a film of the rioting.
Long, general shots of disturbances rather than closeups of angry
rioters, flaming building, etc.
Delay in broadcasting of the melee.
Delay in broadcasting the occasion of integrating a theater until after
the fact.
Edited film of hippie dispersal by police to show the causes for the
action.
The most frequent complaints reported by stations came from viewers
who accused the station or its network of showing a pro-Negro bias in its
news coverage. Two stations, WKRC-TV and WLWT-TV, both in Cincinnati,
reported their listeners complained that their policy of delay might be harmful
and ill served the public interest. The stations surveyed also seemed to have
received their share of protest mail about network coverage of the 1968
Democratic National Convention.
3. Radio
Because the radio stations in the five communities surveyed were selected
arbitrarily (every other one was listed in Broadcasting Yearbook, including
FM stations) and because only 17 of the 35 stations solicited, or 50 percent
of them, returned a completed questionnaire, this sampling of responses
cannot be considered as representative either of the radio service in these
communities or of radio guidelines in general.
However, a few observations on the returns are important and interesting.
Of the 17 responding commercial radio stations including seven FM
stations 13 have adopted some form of guidelines. In two communities,
Washington, D.C., and San Diego, all four commercial radio stations that
responded to the questionnaire from each community have adopted some
form of policy for reporting of inflammatory events and civil disturbances.
The two most frequently mentioned guidelines adopted by radio were: an
avoidance of live broadcasts from scenes of turmoil; and an intentional delay
in broadcasting reports, with holdbacks ranging from a half-hour (WKRC,
Cincinnati) to as much as 12 hours duration (KEYN, Wichita, Kan.).
Two apparently Negro-oriented stations answering to the
questionnaire-WOL, Washington, D.C., and KEYN, Wichita- have evaluated
their role with special care. Each had provisions for delay in broadcasting
reports of incipient violence in order to refrain from drawing a crowd. Each
responded in unique ways during times of racial turmoil in their
communities: WOL, in the April 1968 riots in Washington, broadcast gospel
music in the hope of quieting the Negro community; at the request of the
police, KEYN in Wichita stayed on the air beyond its usual signoff time
during civil disorders to play soul music with Negro announcers during that
evening they did not report news events.
As with television stations, agreement prevailed among radio stations that
224 Mass Media and Violence
had adopted guidelines that these were helpful to their news operation. But
although a number of radio stations have given considerable thought to their
role in time of disorder, they nevertheless heavily dependespecially the
smaller stations upon wire-service reports and often lack a well-trained and
experienced news staff.
4. Newspapers
There is little evidence that many newspapers have adopted any specific
codes of guidelines for the coverage of inflammatory events or civil
disturbances. Although three of the four papers responding from four cities in
the five-city survey indicated they have some policy for the coverage of
"inflammatory or violent news events," only two of the papers, the Evening
Tribune in San Diego, and The Washington Post in Washington, D.C., had
codified their guidelines for riot coverage.
A survey of editors of riot-torn cities that was done by William Ware,
Editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, for the Freedom of Information
Committee of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association,
emphatically concluded that there was no need for a code of voluntary
self-restraint. But while editors expressed reluctance about a "code" in the
words of one editor, a "kind of journalistic sleeping sickness" many did say
that they had exercised voluntary restraint and learned several things from
their experience: (1) to exercise extreme caution to avoid inflammatory and
exaggerated copy, headlines, and pictures; (2) to take measures to protect
their staffs; (3) to make preparations for riot coverage; and (4) to fully print
stories about what is going on as the best way to scotch rumors.
5. Wire Services
The wire-service reports of demonstrations and riots have come under
severe criticism from many sources. Because all of the rest of the
media radio, television, and newspapers depend to a great extent upon their
accounts, their influence is immediate and widespread; and their errors and
misjudgments compound many times over. This concern for inflammatory
language and inaccurate descriptions in wire service reports has persuaded the
networks and several radio and television stations to specifically provide in
their guidelines that wire stories be rechecked before use.
Both UPI and AP have now issued basic instructions on the handling of
stories involving racial violence. The AP had formed a racial task force in
1965 to set down some guidelines based on staffers' experience. These
guidelines were recirculated again in 1967 and substantially updated in 1968
to take into account the Riot Commission Report. The AP guidelines are
considerably more detailed than those of UPI, which were only set on August
3, 1967. Local UPI bureaus may have entered into community-wide
agreements that are respected in times of emergency.
Appendix II-D
THE CANONS OF JOURNALISM
(American Society of Newspaper Editors)
The primary function of newspapers is to communicate to the human race what its
members do, feel, and think. Journalism, therefore, demands of its practitioners the
widest range of intelligence or knowledge and of experience, as well as natural and
trained powers of observation and reasoning. To its opportunities as a chronicle are
indissolubly linked its obligations as teacher and interpreter.
To the end of finding some means of codifying sound practice and just aspirations of
American journalism, these canons are set forth:
I
Responsibility. The right of a newspaper to attract and hold readers is restricted by
nothing but considerations of public welfare. The use a newspaper makes of the share of
public attention it gains serves to determine its sense of responsibility, which it shares
with every member of its staff. A journalist who uses his power for any selfish or
otherwise unworthy purpose is faithless to a high trust.
II
Freedom of the Press. Freedom of the press is to be guarded as a vital right of
mankind. It is the unquestionable right to discuss whatever is not explicitly forbidden by
law, including the wisdom of any restrictive statute.
Ill
Independence. Freedom from all obligations except that of fidelity to the public
interest is vital.
1. Promotion of any private interest contrary to the general welfare, for whatever
reason, is not compatible with honest journalism. So-called news communications from
private sources should not be published without public notice of their source or else
substantiation of their claims to value as news, both in form and substance.
2. Partisanship, in editorial comment which knowingly departs from the truth, does
violence to the best spirit of American jo urnalism; in the news columns it is subversive of
a fundamental principle of the profession.
IV
Sincerity, Truthfulness, Accuracy. Good faith with the reader is the foundation of all
journalism worthy of the name.
1. By every consideration of good faith a newspaper is constrained to be truthful. It
is not to be excused for lack of thoroughness or accuracy within its control, or failure to
obtain command of these essential qualities. 2. Headlines should be fully warranted by
the contents of the article which they surmount.
225
226 Mass Media and Violence
Impartiality. Sound practice makes clear distinction between news reports and
expressions of opinion. News reports should be free from opinion or bias of any
kind.
1. This rule does not apply to so-called special articles unmistakably devoted to
advocacy or characterized by a signature authorizing the writer's own conclusions and
interpretation.
VI
Fair Play. A newspaper should not publish official charges affecting reputation or
moral character without opportunity given to the accused to be heard; right practice
demands the giving of such opportunity in all cases of serious accusation outside judicial
proceedings.
1. A newspaper should not invade private rights or feelings without sure warrant of
public right as distinguished from public curiosity. 2. It is the privilege, as it is the duty,
of a newspaper to make prompt and complete correction of its own serious mistakes of
fact or opinion, whatever their origin.
VII
Decency. A newspaper cannot escape conviction of insincerity if while professing
high moral -purpose it supplies incentives to base conduct, such as are to be found in
details of crime and vice, publication of which is not demonstrably for the general good.
Lacking authority to enforce its canons, the journalism here represented can but express
the hope that deliberate panderings to vicious instincts will encounter effective public
disapproval or yield to the influence of a preponderant professional condemnation.
Appendix II-E
CODE OF BROADCAST NEWS ETHIC
The following Code of Broadcast News Ethics for RTNDA was adopted
January 2, 1966.
The members of the Radio Television News Directors Association agree that
their prime responsibility as newsmen-and that of the broadcasting industry
as the collective sponsor of news broadcasting-is to provide to the public
they serve a news service as accurate, full and prompt as human integrity and
devotion can devise, To that end, they declare their acceptance of the
standards of practice here set forth, and their solemn intent to honor them to
the limits of their ability.
Article One
The primary purpose of broadcast newsmen-to inform the public of events of
importance and appropriate interest in a manner that is accurate and
comprehensive-shall override all other purposes.
Article Two
Broadcast news presentations shall be designed not only to offer timely and accurate
information, but also to present it in the light of relevant circumstances that give it
meaning and perspective. This standard means that news reports, when clarity demands
it, will be laid against pertinent factual background; that factors such as race, creed,
nationality or prior status will be reported only when they are relevant; that comment or
subjective content will be properly identified; and that errors in fact will be promptly
acknowledged and corrected.
Article Three
Broadcast newsmen shall seek to select material for newscast solely on their evaluation
of its merits as news. This standard means that news will be selected on the criteria of
significance, community and regional relevance, appropriate human interest, service to
defined audiences. It excludes sensationalism or misleading emphasis in any form;
subservience to external or " interested" efforts to influence news selection and
presentation, whether from within the broadcasting industry or from without. It requires
that such terms as "bulletin" and "flash" be used only when the character of the news
justifies them; that bombastic or misleading descriptions of newsroom facilities and
personnel be rejected, along with undue use of sound and visual effects; and that
promotional or publicity material be sharply scrutinized before use and identified by
source or otherwise when broadcast.
227
228 Mass Media and Violence
Article Four
Broadcast newsmen shall at all times display humane respect for the dignity, privacy and
the well-being of persons with whom the news deals.
Article Five
Broadcast newsmen shall govern their personal lives and such nonprofessional
associations as may impinge on their professional activities in a manner that will protect
them from conflict of interest, real or apparent.
Article Six
Broadcast newsmen shall seek actively to present all news the knowledge of which will
serve the public interest, no matter what selfish, uninformed or corrupt efforts attempt
to color it, withold it or prevent its presentation. They shall make constant effort to
open doors closed to the reporting of public proceedings with tools appropriate to
broadcasting (including cameras and recorders), consistent with the public interest. They
acknowledge the newsman's ethic of protection of confidential information and sources,
and urge unswerving observation of it except in instances in which it would clearly and
unmistakably defy the public interest.
Article Seven
Broadcast newsmen recognize the responsibility borne by broadcasting for informed
analysis, comment and editorial opinion on public events and issues. They accept the
obligation of broadcasters, for the presentation of such matters by individuals whose
competence, experience and judgment qualify them for it.
Article Eight
In court, broadcast newsmen shall conduct themselves with dignity, whether the court is
in or out of session. They shall keep broadcast equipment as unobtrusive and silent as
possible. Where court facilities are inadequate, pool broadcasts should be arranged.
Article Nine
In reporting matters that are or may be litigated, the newsman shall avoid practices
which would lend to interfere with the right of an individual to a fair trial.
Article Ten
Broadcast newsmen shall actively censure and seek to prevent violations of these
standards, and shall actively encourage their observance by all newsmen, whether of the
Radio Television News Directors Association or not.
Appendix II-F
BROADCAST GUIDELINES
FOR COVERAGE OF CIVIL DISORDERS
The following suggestions are to be considered as guidelines for voluntary use
by broadcast newsmen during possible or actual widespread civil disorder.
They are the product of a committee of the Northern California Chapter of
the Radio and Television News Directors Association formed to consider
carefully the sensitive and influential role of the electronic news operation in
its coverage of such disorders and recommend ways and means in which
broadcaster may better serve the public interest, safety and welfare.
Voluntary acknowledgment of these suggestions is based on the following
factors:
1. A majority of broadcast news directors in this region must indicate they
feel such a set of guidelines is necessary in this one area of coverage
because an instance of widespread civil disobedience, particularly one
involving racial strife, is entirely unique from any other kind of story in
that its coverage could affect the direction of its development and
intensity, its duration and outcome and therefore demands exceptional
treatment.
2. The civil disorder must be of such size, or indicate a potential for
developing into such size, that it could be a considerable threat to the
community.
3. Competition between broadcasters in coverage of such disorders should
continue to be vigorous but, in this one volatile area, more thought
should be given to changing the focus from dynamic impact to
authoritative and calm reporting of vital information to the public with
maximum assistance in the re-establishment of control as the primary
goal.
4. Law enforcement authorities should take the necessary steps to ensure
that adequately informed staff members will be on duty at command
posts who will be readily available to supply properly identified
broadcast newsmen with pertinent information concerning the disorder.
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230 Mass Media and Violence
A. Guidelines
(Prior to reaching the scene)
1. Stories of civil disorder, particularly when the disorder is in its early
stages, should not be over-emphasized nor should a "scare" approach be
taken by the broadcasters in their initial reporting.
2. The official designation of the incident should be used by the
broadcasters, employing the term "riot" only after authorities do.
3. At the outset of the disorder, broadcast newsmen should be dispatched
to law enforcement command posts, rather than directly to the scene
where their presence may heighten the disturbance or interfere with
efforts to establish control. An authoritatively staffed command post
will undoubtedly be in communication with the scenes of disorder and
be capable of providing newsmen with any desired information.
4. Determination of when newsmen may be sent to the scene without
danger of inflaming or inciting further discord is the individual
responsibility of each broadcast news director and his outlet.
(From the scene, command post, and studio)
5. Broadcasts which might tend to inflame or incite further violence
should not be aired.
6. Emphasis should be on the steps being taken to restore order,
advisements to the public to keep out of the general disturbance area
and, if a curfew has been invoked, of obeying that curfew.
7. Reports should be calm, objective and present the "overall picture" and
should be devoid of sensationalism, speculation and rumors which
could incite or further extend the disturbance or stir a new outbreak in
a controlled area. It should be emphasized that reports from the field
are describing only those segments of the disorder that are being
witnessed by that particular newsman.
8. Caution should be taken against over-emphasizing isolated and, for the
most part, trivial incidents. Such incidents should be incorporated into
the "overall picture" and their importance fully explained, thus
avoiding inflammatory editing of audio tape and film.
9. Exact locations of intersections, street names and addresses of flareups
should not be revealed by the broadcaster until authorities have
announced order has been established and control being maintained in
that particular area.
10. Avoid broadcasting interviews with obvious lawbreakers
in the disorder who are on the side which opposes law and order when
the interview could be considered inflammatory and may add further
Broadcast Guidelines for Coverage of Civil Disorders 23 1
problems to the disorder. Whenever possible, the broadcast newsman
should seek out a responsible spokesman for the community in which
the disturbance occurs.
1 1 . Broadcast newsmen should avoid creating further disturbances through
the indiscriminate use of cameras, lights or microphones; i.e., avoid
filming a milling crowd if it does not add to the story and might inspire
a disorder by that crowd. When possible, cameramen should attempt to
film with a long lens so as not to expose the presence of a camera and
should use natural lighting whenever feasible. In short, use good taste
and common sense.
12. Unless and until a situation reaches the point of martial law , all
Constitutional guarantees are deemed to be in force and applicable.
Hence, the aforementioned constitute guidelines for voluntary conduct
designed to provide the greatest assistance to the public and law
enforcement agencies in the treatment of civil disorders and, at the
same time, provide essential information to the public.
13. Therefore, the basic goal of all broadcast newsmen participating in the
coverage of civil disorder should be to encourage, by exemplary
performance, responsible reporting that will produce an even greater
fulfillment of their obligation to serve the public interest and safety, as
well as defend the aims of duly constituted law and authority.
(Endorsed by the membership at a meeting on February 23, 1967, for
submission to station management and law enforcement officials.)
Appendix II-G
EMPLOYMENT DATA
Professionals on TV and Radio News Staffs -
Network Owned and Operated Stations
CBS:
Total professional staff 1,123
Total number of Negroes 51
Number of years on staff as of Oct. 1968:
6 mos. or less 6 mos to 1 yr. 1 yr. to 18 mos. 18 mos. to 2 yrs. 2 yrs. or more
31 2 1 5 12
Percentage of Negroes on staff: 4.5%
ABC:
Total professional staff 672
Total number of Negroes 26
Numbers of years on staff as of Oct. 1968:
6 mos. or less 6 mos to 1 yr. 1 yr. to 18 mos. 18 mos. to 2 yrs. 2 yrs. or more
14 2 3 07
Percentage of Negroes on staff: 3.9%
NBC:
Total professional staff 718
Total number of Negroes 29
Number of years on staff as of Oct. 1968:
6 mos. or less 6 mos. to 1 yr. 1 yr. to 18 mos. 18 mos. to 2 yrs. 2 yrs. or more
14 3 5 2 5
Percentage of Negroes on staff: 4.0%
233
PART III
TELEVISION ENTERTAINMENT AND VIOLENCE
Parts I and II contained an examination of the past and present
characteristics and context of the mass media in America. Part III examines
one key facet of mass media activity and production entertainment
programming and presentations. The major focus will be on television.
Mass media organizations spend countless hours producing and presenting
entertainment, and the American public spends a comparable amount of time
in consumption of such productions. The specific focus of attention here is
on the effects of mass media portrayals of violence upon audiences. The
specific effects of violence cannot be isolated from the effects of total
entertainment fares, the role of the mass media in society, or the
characteristics of mass audiences and their social environment. Thus, the
analysis of such effects must be presented in the context of the overall effects
of mass media entertainment upon audiences.
Although violence is one of the most discussed topics in America today, it
is used in so many different contexts, that it is necessary to make clear what
the term does and does not mean in this analysis. Violence is here defined as:
"The threat or use of force that results, or is intended to result, in the injury
or forcible restraint or intimidation of persons, or the destruction or forcible
seizure of property."
It is necessary to distinguish violence, as here defined, from other
phenomena, such as crime, conflict, and aggression. For example, the
definition of violence used in this Report does not completely coincide with a
common definition of crime. Crime necessarily involves the breaking of a law,
while violence does not. Crime usually connotes disapproved behavior, while
violence in American society can be approved or disapproved. For example,
the primary, characteristic of war is the use of violence by one nation against
another; yet some American wars have received broad public approval and
have been legal acts of violence. Another example of widely approved and
legal violence is found in contact sports. Often, the most violent individuals in
contact sports, as in war, are called heroes, while an individual committing a
violent crime is labelled "criminal."
In a discussion concerned with the effects of media portrayals of violence,
235
236 Mass Media and Violence
distinctions between violence and conflict are particularly important. Conflict
is a natural social process and one of the most central and enduring themes of
all forms of literature, drama, and other arts. Conflict, as presented in the arts
or experienced by human beings, occurs both within and between individuals
and groups. Violence, on the other hand, requires at least two individuals in
direct or indirect relation to one another.
The battle between passion and reason provides an illustration of the
differences between conflict and violence. An individual can experience
severe conflict between the dictates of passion and reason. Such conflict may
be resolved in a variety of ways which may or may not involve violence. The
relationship between the more general psychological or social phenomenon of
conflict and the inter-personal or inter-group phenomenon of violence is
complex. Conflict can be one, but not the only, cause of violence, and
violence can be one, but not the only, cause of conflict or mode of conflict
expression and resolution.
The necessity of conflict in drama, including mass media entertainment,
has often been noted by the authors. Because some defenders of mass media
presentations appear to rest their defense of violence on the necessity of
conflict it is especially important to note that violence, as defined, bears no
absolute relation to conflict. Some persons, for example, have pointed to
Shakespearian plays such as Hamlet to illustrate and justify the necessity of
violence in entertainment programs. The issues are only clouded by such
arguments. They fail to distinguish conflict from violence. For example, if all
the violence (as here defined) visibly portrayed in Hamlet were deleted,
essential elements and messages of the story would still remain. It is doubtful
that the same can be said for most mass media dramatic presentations.
Much of the research relevant to the issue of violence and mass media
entertainment has been carried out by psychologists interested in testing
theories of aggression. Therefore, it is important to consider the similarities
and differences between violence, as defined in this Report, and aggression.
One can act aggressively without becoming violent. Furthermore,
aggression within an individual can take the form of a feeling, drive, or
motive, and can lie dormant without becoming manifest in aggressive
behavior. Aggression, then, encompasses both feeling and behavioral states of
one or more individuals, while violence most commonly refers to manifest
behavior between individuals.
All acts of violence can be called aggressive, while all instances of
aggression cannot be called violence. As a result of the partial conceptual
overlap between violence and aggression, research findings obtained from
laboratory studies can be informative on the effects of exposure to both
inter-personal behavioral aggression and violence portrayed in the media.
Chapter 10
POSING THE PROBLEM OF EFFECTS*
The individual and social effects of mass communication must depend in
in some way upon: (1) the pattern of content offered by the mass media; (2)
the opportunities tor access to the media; and (3) the credibility attributed
by audiences to media content attributes to mass media exposure.
Numerous studies from both commercial and academic research centers
clearly support what has long been the contention of many concerned
citizens about these elementary points: (1) the menu offered by the mass
media is heavily saturated with violent content, including incidents of persons
intentionally doing physical harm to one another; (2) more and more people
have ready access to the media, with the average American spending between
one-quarter and one-half of his waking day attending to the mass media; and
(3) for most persons, but particularly for the poor in American society,
television is perceived as the most credible and believable source of
information on the reality of the world.
These points add up to a statement of one simple effect: mass media
portrayals of violence attract large audiences. This also implies a much more
troublesome question: If models for violent behavior are repeatedly presented
with few competing notions, and people, particularly children, repeatedly
expose themselves to such materials, what could be a more favorable
arrangement for learning about violence, if not learning to do violence?
However, merely to ask this question is not enough. The abundance of violent
media content, and the frequency of exposure to the same, do not suffice to
prow that the mass media can modify attitudes or induce violent behavior.
When expressed in this manner, such questions can hardly be
unequivocally answered. Indeed, many of the questions that concern us most
intensely involve both fact and value-judgment. More than this, their answers
depend on relations between different kinds of facts, connections between
these relations, and certain value-judgments implicit in the thoughts of the
questioner. It is not difficult, for example, to catalog the portrayals of
violence on television. It is more difficult to relate such tabulations to
personality and behavioral traits of viewers. It is still more difficult to show
that such a relation is one of cause and effect, and if this can be established,
*Prepared for the Media Task Force by Otto N. Larsen, Professor of Sociology,
University of Washington.
237
238 Mass Media and Violence
the effects produced must still be evaluated. When any one of these steps is
omitted, basic policy decisions cannot readily be made about the desirability
of continuing or changing the existing pattern of media performance.
Mass media, moreover, do not operate alone; they are embedded in a social
system which has many other facets. Whatever may be their effects upon the
members of their audience, these must be assessed in relation to the way
other aspects of this larger system affect these same persons.
To speak meaningfully of the role of mass communications media in such
critical concerns as the formation of personality, the induction of violent
behavior, or in value formation, it is necessary to seek out and chart the main
outlines of what is known in general about relevant processes of social
learning. Because human personality is developed largely through a process of
interaction in primary groups (such as the family), and because the various
mass media can more or less simulate such primary interaction, they can play
a real part in this process. Furthermore, they may do so unintentionally when
they only seem to be entertaining or informing, because audience members
are engaged in a process of "observational learning" and the mass media
contribute to this through "symbolic modeling."
As a child matures physically, he also undergoes a process of social
preparation- for adult roles. Much of this preparation ordinarily takes place in
the family, while some of it occurs in play groups and some of it involves
formal education. It occurs all the time the child is awake and active, even
when he and the persons with whom he interacts are not consciously
concerned with shaping his character. He becomes a residue of what he has
done and experienced, which in turn depends on his genetic endowment and
the social heritage into which he was born.
As each child grows up, he has a wide range of skills to learn. He has values
and customs to embrace, amend, or reject. He has to discover for himself
what kind of world he lives in; he gets clues to this from the way others act
toward things, toward each other, and toward him. He has to discover who
and what he is, and how his identity relates him to the world; again his clues
come from the interactions of others with him. He has to find out where he
will be going in life, how he will go, who will accompany him, and how they
can get together.
It would be surprising indeed if in our society the ubiquitous mass media
did not play some part in this complex process. And yet until recently, not
only has the potential involvement of mass media been relatively neglected,
but even the fact tnat the process is social has sometimes been forgotten.
The mass media enter into this process mainly by providing material for
"observational learning," defined as "imitation" in experimental psychology
and as "identification" in personality theory. The common denominator for
all three terms is a recognition that human beings in certain circumstances
tend to reproduce the actions, attitudes, or emotions they perceive in other
persons. These other persons may either be live or symbolized models (e.g., a
character in a story). As knowledge of the principles of observational learning
accumulates, more can be said about how groups shape the personalities of
their members. The clearer our understanding of these mechanisms, the
firmer the ground on which to base statements about the possible effects of
symbolized groups, such as those depicted in a television drama.
If the content of mass communications is being widely discussed, perhaps
Posing the Problem of Effects 239
this indicates that it has other effects. One contention is that symbolic
violence, whether portraying fantasy or reality, will arouse aggression or
increase aggressive behavior, hardening persons to human pain and suffering
and leading them to accept violence as a way of life and as a solution to
personal and social problems. Another school of thought contends that such
exposure has precisely the opposite effect. This view holds that exposure to
violence will allow the media user to discharge in fantasy what he might
otherwise act out. Thus, watching Gunsmoke or reading a Superman comic
will provide a safe and harmless outlet for human frustrations and
aggressive -hostile impulses in much the same manner as hitting a punching
bag. A third position holds that violent content has little or no effect.
Proponents of this view suggest that in a controlled and relatively secure
society, the passive recipient can vicariously live bravely and dangerously
through the video hero with no enduring impact on his feeling, attitudes or
behavior in life.
It is, of course, the first point of view which has aroused the concern and
interest of vast sectors of the general public. However, little is accomplished if
one merely notes the presence of undersirable features of some
communication medium or art form, and then lets his aversion to both be
transmuted into an assumption that the one disliked thing must be caused by
the other. Much criticism of the mass media, and especially television, seems
to reflect this kind of non-sequitur. This is unnecessary. There are research
findings which afford a more objective basis for assessing the situation.
To understand the full implications of the research, it is important to keep
in mind just how recent man's experience is with the pervasive presence of
mass media. Even now, a decade into the space age, the majority of the
world's human beings are illiterate. In our own advanced society, many
citizens have first-hand memories of the pre-television and pre-radio era.
Some can even remember a childhood in which there was no such thing as a
movie theater. Daily newspapers, in fact, have been around for a mere five
generations. Since mass communications are so relatively new, it is not
surprising that men are not agreed as to the social impact of the various
media.
Despite their tender age, mass communications have indeed become a
pervasive aspect of our way of life. The media form the core of our leisure
time activities, and television is the heart of this core. For the average
American, mass media usage occupies almost as much time as does work, and
for some, appreciably more time is devoted to mass communications. For
children, television alone occupies almost as much time as school in their first
sixteen years of life. Time -expenditure data by themselves do not prove any
of the charges leveled against the media, nor do such data validate the praise
the media have received. It is clear that the controversy over the effects of
television is unlikely to be the only result of this deluge.
The fact that time devoted to one activity cannot be used in some other
way means that the large amount of time allocated by Americans to mass
communications must have entailed some redirection of their lives. Although
casual radio listening can be done in conjunction with other (presumably
inattentive) activities, and newspapers can be read on the commuter train, the
mass media must in general have displaced other pursuits.
There are more direct and less incidental ways in which exposure to the
240 Mass Media and Violence
mass media could influence persons, and these may have either immediate or
long-range impact. Immediate effects include the emotiojial, reactions of a
person while he is viewing, listening, or reading, and the ensuing repercussions
of these in defensive reactions, fatigue, excitement, dreams, and so on. The
long-range effects concern the learning that is produced: both the content
(vocabulary, items of information, beliefs) and the strengthening or
weakening of personality traits, such as aggressiveness, passivity, and the like.
Beyond the psychological level, concern must also be directed to the impact
of the media on interpersonal relations, the development of norms, and the
acquisition of values. The possibility of a change in behavior without a change
in values must also be considered.
These are some of the dimensions of the effects of mass media violence
that must be coped with. As with most significant social issues, seemingly
straightforward questions become, upon analysis, acutely challenging and do
not yield simple solutions. Thus, the following guideline must be set up:
when we ask about the effects of the mass media, we must not phrase the
question simply in terms of whether the media have an effect; rather, we seek
to know under what conditions, how much, and what kind of effect the
media are likely to have within specified populations.
We do not underestimate the enormity of the task, nor the necessity of its
continuing pursuit. The impact of television in America is difficult to measure
because very few people remain unex posed to it, and those few tend to act
differently, in ways that pre-date the television era. One solution is to study
the way television and other mass media fit into the life cycles of those who
use them, without hoping for a comparison group of non-users. We all breathe
air, after all, and the unavailability of a control group of non-breathers does
not preclude our learning what air does for us.
Present Approach
In seeking answers to guide policy recommendations, the Violence Com-
mission, given its short life-span, could not undertake or sponsor new research
other than producing the relevant materials reported in Chapters 15 and 16.
Instead, the Media Task Force approached the problem of effects by turning
to acknowledged leaders of research in the behavioral sciences. They were
asked to prepare papers on media effects by critically examining for their
discipline what is known, what inferences can fairly be drawn from that
knowledge, what needs to -be known through further study, and what
procedures are required to discover the relevant information.
Chapters 11-14 organize and present these efforts to convey an
understanding of the effects of media violence, based on objective evidence.
The research literature emerges from many sources and flows in many
directions. It is crowded with complex issues, marked with incomplete
efforts, and subject to various interpretations. However, the research effort is
substantial enough to merit close scrutiny both for delineating what is known
and for marking out promising territory for further inquiry The problem of
communicating these assessments is a demanding one. The reader may prefer
Posing the Problem of Effects 24 1
a statement of simple findings which state unequivocal action implications.
However, research is, of necessity, conditional in nature. A presentation
devoid of qualifications may achieve clarity, but at a cost of essential validity.
While we have asked our authors to phrase their reports with scientific
fidelity, we have also encouraged them to interpret and evaluate the
implications of the inquiries reviewed.
A few consultant papers are presented to convey the full flavor of the
research-interpretive enterprise. The bulk of the reports, including the more
technical statements, are presented in the appendix. To guide the reader
through all these selections, a further distillation of issues is presented briefly
below. The general question before us is "what issues concerning the effects
of mass media violence have been addressed by researchers? What have been
the main thrust and chief contributions of empirical inquiry, particularly as
they pertain to the "entainment" realm of mass media performance?
A. Menu and Diet -Communicator Intent versus Audience Use
Mass communicators attempt to attract and hold the attention of large
audiences by providing material they deem of interest to their audience.
Indeed, communicators often proclaim that their central concern is to give
the audience "what it wants." Accordingly, a great bulk of their material is
designed to be entertaining. That is often the major effect they seek to
achieve.
However, what is given may not be all that is taken by the audience. The
kind of research on effects concerned with the intent of the mass media
menu-makers might produce quite different results than that directed toward
the diet and digestive processes of the mass media audiences themselves. This
is particularly the case, since the social setting for audience experience of
mass media content is itself undergoing rapid change of the type envisioned in
the concept of "growing urbanism."
In what ways have researchers found it fruitful to think about the nature
of effects? In Chapter 1 1 , Professor Catton carefuly traces the evolution, the
findings, and the implications in the shift from research on effects of mass
media on audiences toward a model concerned with how audience members
receive and use mass media content. In the process, he reviews past and
contemporary classifications of effects, notes the importance of "intervening
variables" in the mass communicative process, and sensitizes us to new
conceptions of effects by referring, for example, to the "opportunity cost"
by the abundance of violence portrayed by the media. In this latter
connection, he asserts that the presentation of violence by mass media does
effect the behavior of mass media audiences: it keeps them from using in
their own ways whatever other kinds of content might have been presented in
the same time of space.
Chapter 1 1 thus alerts us to the following critical conclusion : research has
shown the mass media do not easily and inevitably produce intended effects.
To say that intended effects do not automatically occur is not to say,
however, that unintended effects do not occur. Data in support of this
important conception will appear in several places throughout the Report.
242 Mass Media and Violence
B. What is the Message? Medium or Content as the Basis for Social Learning
The development of the technology of mass communication has rapidly
transformed the nature of receiving impressions and information in modern
society. When does the medium become the message? How does the form of
transmission affect the perception and learning of the content being offered?
What does technology do to the distinction between fantasy and reality?
In Chapter 12, these and other questions about the effect of exposure to
mass media violence on the social behavior of children are asked. Professor
Siegal opens by noting several trends in the history of the development of
techniques for transmitting information to the human senses. These trends
include a diminishing reliance on written forms, the integration of appeals to
several senses, the increased rapidity of communication, the increased
availability of mass media material, and the increased fidelity in
communication techniques. To illustrate the latter point, the correspondense
between the printed word "fire" and an actual fire is low, but between a
color film about a fire and the actual event, it is much closer. In a word, their
trends add up to a characterization of television.
The significance of these trends is addressed in a discussion of the
distinctions that have traditionally been made between the entertainment and
information functions of the mass media. For children at least, Professor
Siegal senses that television, because of its vividness and fidelity, blurs this
distinction. She argues that both fact and fancy have a certain inherent
authenticity when presented on television. Supporting illustrations and
research data are then presented to show that since children view these
presentations as authentic and credible, and assume that the world is really
the way it appears on television, it is natural for them to take the behavior
they observe as a model for their own.
The studies cited by Professor Siegal are important because they represent
a consistent set of findings based on observations of behavior, not merely
self-reports of attitudes or actions. The conclusion is dramatic: although it is
not governed by a board of education, television does teach. And what is
being taught? Under a wide range of conditions, children learn aggressive
behavior which they then enact in their play under suitable circumstances.
One study from this review which deserves special notice demonstrated that
children mimic the aggressive behavior of adults, whether they observe
this behavior in the flesh or on film, and that this imitation was drawn
equally from realistic and cartoon-like films. The conclusion is that the
fantasy -reality distinction on which adults pin so much hope seemed of little
significance for the children of this particular research effort.
C. Stimulating versus Cathartic Effects of Media Violence
Does witnessing mass media violence tend to facilitate or purge the
impulse to aggression?
For many, this is the central question of effects. Convincing evidence one
way or the other could help resolve many policy issues. If the catharsis effect
was clearly dominant, anxiety about symbolic violence would be greatly
relieved. Indeed, one implication could be that the media would be serving a
healthy function or performing a public service by portraying violence, since
Posing the Problem of Effects 243
such portrayals would tend to control or inhibit the acting out of aggressive
impulses. The appeal of the catharsis effect is thus evident. It stands in
positive support of free expression by the media.
The concept of catharsis has been at the center of considerable intellectual
debate since the time of Aristotle. Only recently, however, have there been
systematic attempts to test the notion through research by seeking out the
conditions under which it might have some validity. A large and growing
number of laboratory experiments have addressed the issue. The advantage of
these studies is that they isolate and control relevant conditions and afford
reasonably clear causal interpretations. Their disadvantage is that they are
often based on small samples, have a restricted time -dimension, and involve
conditions that are not closely comparable to natural exposure to the media.
In Appendix III-D Professor Goransen provides a thorough review of the
evidence from laboratory studies on the catharsis issue. His general conclusion
is that this line of research has not supported the idea that the probability of
aggressive behavior is reduced by observing the kind of violence seen in the
mass media. He adds that the vast majority of experimental studies on this
issue have reported media aggression as stimulating rather than providing
aggression catharsis.
Some of the more specific findings from laboratory studies also merit
attention because they suggest the variety of conditions under which the
observation of violence tends to increase rather than decrease subsequent
aggressiveness. For example :
(1) The stimulation of aggressive responses is more likely to occur
when aggression anxiety is experimentally minimized rather than induced
prior to exposure to filmed aggression. That is, where subjects are not
frustrated, insulted, or otherwise angered before seeing a film, they tend to
increase their willingness to inflict physical pain as a result of exposure to
filmed aggression.
(2) The stimulation of aggressive responses from exposure to filmed
aggression is more likely to occur when the witnessed aggression occurs in
a justified rather than in a non-justified content. (This point is ironic in
light of current media programming policies. In showing that "crime does
not pay" by depicting the hero's successful and righteous use of violence
against the "bad guys," the media may be creating those very conditions
most conductive to the instigation of aggression.)
(3) Novel, aggressive behavior is learned by children through exposure
to realistic portrayals of aggression on television or films. A large
proportion of these behaviors are retained over long periods of time if they
are practiced at least once. The likelihood that such aggressive behaviors
will be performed is determined, in part, by the similarity of the violence
observed from the media and the cues (e.g., names, social characteristics,
etc.) present in actual later situations.
(4) The actual performance of aggressive behaviors learned from the
media is largely contingent on the child's belief in the effectiveness of
aggression in attaining his goals while avoiding punishment. (The mass
media typically present aggression as a highly effective form of behavior).
(5) Frequent exposure produces an emotional habituation to media
violence. There is suggestive evidence that this results in an increased
likelihood of actually engaging in aggression.
244 Mass Media and Violence
(6) Aggressive impulses may be held in check if the viewer has been
made especially aware of the suffering that may result from violence.
(Production codes for most of the media include prohibitions against the
portrayal of physical agony and suffering and too much punishment.
Question: When this kind of de facto self-censorship operates to "sanitize"
violence by "prettying up" or entirely omitting the real consequences of
aggression, is the result again an unwitting creation of the very conditions
found most conducive to the instigation to aggression? Laboratory
research suggests that it is.)
In general, then, an extensive program of laboratory research mounts a
strong indictment of media performance not only with respect to the amount
of violence portrayed but, more particularly, with the manner in which
violence is portrayed. From this research perspective, there is no evidence in
support of the credibility of a catharsis effect. Indeed, under laboratory
conditions, the bulk of the evidence indicates that vicariously experienced
violence tends to serve as a triggering mechanism and increases the probability
of more aggressive behavior.
It should be emphasized that some studies from the laboratory setting do
show a reduction of aggressiveness resulting from exposure to symbolic
aggression. However, it is the contention of the researchers that this can be
explained without reference to any cathartic "draining off of aggressiveness.
Such inhibition to acting out aggressiveness occurring from exposure to media
violence results from the reminder that aggression is morally wrong
(especially in the case where media violence is portrayed as unjustified), and
when the subjects were made aware of the painful aftermath of
aggression.
A further interpretation in a broader context of sociological factors is
presented by Professor Catton in Chapter 14. He contends that the eliciting
effect is far more likely than the cathartic effect. In doing so, he remind us
that evidence that media operators are good people and have no desire to
promote violence cannot suffice to prove the mass communications either
cannot or do not produce increases in violent behavior. By providing cues
that violence is socially acceptable, mass media may inadvertently both elicit
and disinhibit violent behavior.
Despite the evidence from laboratory studies, the question of stimulating
versus cathartic effects -remains as an issue in the literature of mass media
research. This comes forcefully to our attention when we turn to research
involving more natural conditions of exposure to the mass media in field
situations. Here we have more limited research experience to draw from, but
available evidence suggests caution in dismissing the possibility of catharsis as
a major effect. The prime exhibit of such research is porvided in Appendix
III-E where excerpts from a recent study by Professor Feshbach are
presented.
Going beyond earlier survey research in the field setting, Professor
Feshbach has launched an experimental study involving relatively prolonged
(six hours a week for six weeks) exposure to television by prep-school boys in
seven residential schools located in California and New York. In each school,
boys were randomly assigned to witness either aggressive television programs
depicting fighting, shooting, or other forms of physical violence, or
non-aggressive programs from regular television fare offered during the
Posing the Problem of Effects 245
evening and weekend hours. The programs were classified along this
dimension, with a high degree of agreement, by three independent raters.
A number of personality tests and attitude scales were administered at the
beginning and end of the six-week experimental period. In addition, daily
behavior rating forms were completed for each boy over the experimental
period. By these means the investigator was able to measure and compare not
only overt aggressive behavior such as fighting and swearing but also the
mediating cognitive ideas, the hostile-aggressive attitudes, and the preferences
and the fantasies experienced by both sets of boys.
What were the major findings? This study failed to reveal any evidence
that exposure to aggressive content in television stimulates or facilitates the
acting out of aggressive behavior. Furthermore, this study did yield evidence
suggesting that exposure to aggressive content in television serves to control
or reduce aggressive behavior in pre-adolescent boys from low socio-economic
backgrounds with aggressive tendencies.
The investigator is properly cautious in interpreting the findings of the
study. He would not, for example, advocate, on the basis of this research,
that boys should be encouraged to watch aggressive television programs. He
also recognizes the conditional nature of his research and is aware of some
methodological shortcomings. Nonetheless, these findings clearly contradict
the weight of evidence from the laboratory setting. Here the investigator
acknowledges the problem of comparing the results from the two settings.
The laboratory experiments deal with highly restricted situations, with
dependent measures that are often play-like and vulnerable to the suggestive
properties of the immediate stimulus situation. On the other hand, while the
field studies have been more naturalistic, they have not experimentally
controlled exposure to aggressive content in television as closely as would be
desired. For these reasons, he concludes, there is an acute need for
comparable field investigations and replication of the present findings. While
new knowledge has been gained, the question of stimulating versus cathartic
effects still remains a salient issue for researchers and policy makers.
While the present state of knowledge on this important issue does not
easily lend itself to policy formulation, enough is known to alert the mass
media to a more sensitive, cautious, and creative approach in using violence in
entertainment programming. Grave risks are run in a continued policy of an
indiscriminate use of violence where other options are open. While the burden
of proof lies with the researchers, the burden of risk lies with the daily
activities of the mass media.
D. Mass Media Effects on Norms, Attitudes, and Values
Up to this point, attention has primarily been directed to research bearing
on the question of whether exposure to symbolic violence directly triggers
violent acts. We must also be concerned with how the media portrayal of
violence might build a climate of attitudes, norms, and values as conditions
that lead to or support actual violence, or prevent the abandonment of it in
society. This suggests a concern with questions of the following broad order:
(1) Does mass media content cultivate acceptance of the idea that this
is a violent world where there is nothing one can do but accept violence as a
norm?
246 Mass Media and Violence
(2) Does mass communication tend to teach its audience that they live
in a kind of world against which they must take up arms?
(3) Even if the mass media focus on violence does not instigate violent
behavior, is there an opportunity lost because the media do not promote
alternatives to violence by the audience?
This level of questioning suggests research not unlike the study of climate
or ocean tides. Such study may not tell us what given persons will do or
where they will go, but it could tell us in which way the cultural winds blow
or the cultural tide flows. And much can move with that.
To put it another way, research on effects is also concerned with the
aspects of life, values, and means the informal schooling of mass
communication provides. Careful studies of television entertainment fare has
revealed one dominant theme for all types of programs. That value theme is
the the end justifies the means, and the most prominent means for achieving
goals in television stories is by violence.
To be concerned with values is to suggest that whether or not such
messages directly encourage violence may not be as important as the
cultivation of the assumption that that is the way life is. The critical
possibility is that the acceptance of violence can make those who accept it a
party to the occurrence of violence by making those who are inclined to
engage in violence act in ways they sense to be socially tolerated, approved,
or even expected.
There is still a critical need for concerted research effort by students of
mass communication in this area. Such work as does address the issue is
partial and scattered. So vital is the concern, however, that we present in
Chapter 14 an integration of approach, findings, and implications from the
field by Professor Catton. In Appendix III-F, a further statement by this
author may be found under the title of "The Worldview Presented by Mass
Media." Here the author speculates on the possible degradation of values that
occurs as a result of the intimate linkage of the entertainment content of the
mass media with commercial messages.
Chapter 1 1
MASS MEDIA AS
PRODUCERS OF EFFECTS :
AN OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH TRENDS*
During the last several decades, the trend in research and theory on mass
communications has been away from the attribution of great potency to the
media, and toward regarding them as relatively impotent (or at least
innocuous). The media were initially viewed as insidious shapers of consent;
their audiences were initially seen as atomized and defenseless targets of
deliberate or inadvertent propaganda. Research findings, and the
interpretations given to them, have changed this image. The media have come
to be seen by many social scientists as components in an elaborate social
system. Their audiences have been found to be less atomized than had been
supposed, and there has accordingly been a change of direction. Instead of
asking "What effects do mass media produce?," the question now is, "How
do people and groups in the audience use mass media?"
This analysis will attempt to show that this trend does not suffice to prove
that there is no cause for concern. If it has not been demonstrated that mass
communications can regiment the population, or that these media have
corrupted our society, neither has it been proven that they are inherently (or
at least under our free enterprise system) harmless.
A. Decline and Fall of the "Hypodermic " Image
The early supposition that mass media can "inject" effects into a passively
recipient audience was based on a supposition about the nature of modern
societies. It was assumed that western civilization had become a "mass"
society, in which individuals were relatively detached from each other
and from a social fabric, and therefore homogeneously susceptible -to
stimuli from impersonal media. It was supposed that the urban way of life, in
which primary group relations had been largely displaced by secondary group
relations, made this so. The traditional basis of solidarity had been
undermined, it was assumed, the family had lost its place in the social order,
and the neighborhood as a social entity was disappearing. 1 Segmentalization
*Prepared for the Media Task Force by William R. Catton, Jr., Professor of
Sociology, University of Washington.
247
248 Mass Media and Violence
of human relations was seen as characteristic of but not confined to cities.
The heterogeneity of urban populations, the sheer numbers of people, and
increased mobility all tended to detach people from stable groups and to
foster increased reliance on formal mechanisms of norm enforcement. 2
Kinship ties, it was assumed, lose their effectiveness in urban environments,
and territorial units such as the residential neighborhood cease to function as
a basis for social solidarity The city becomes "a series of tenuous segmental
relationships superimposed upon a territorial base with a definite center but
without a definite periphery." 3
In the early 1950's, LaPiere sternly rebuked his fellow sociologists for
swallowing the dichotomous classification of societies into two types,
Gemeimchaft, and Gesellschaft, the former emphasizing homogeneity and
primary group living, and the latter emphasizing heterogeneity or social
differentiation and secondary group or impersonal contractual relations. The
assumption of an inexorable trend toward Gesellschaft had originally been set
forth by Tonnies in 1887. 4 LaPiere's rebuke was part of a rather widespread
trend toward rethinking the sociological image of the urban way of life.
Family and neighborhood ties were found to be still functioning in varying
degrees in all parts of even the largest cities. Astronomical numbers of people
did not alone turn a community into a mass society where individuals were
psychologically isolated from one another. 5 There was diminishing
acceptance of the assumption that a kind of social pathology called anomie,
wherein human beings lose their capacity to relate to each other effectively,
was the necessary result of over-elaboration of the division of labor. 6 Thus
there was growing skepticism among social scientists about the notion that a
functionally heterogenous population produces such a segmentalized life that
in relation to mass media, the people are uniformly submissive .
Propaganda efforts during World War I were based on a relatively simple
theory that was consistent with the Gesellschaft image. This theory assumed
that cleverly designed stimuli would reach every individual member of the
mass society via the media, that each would perceive it in the same general
manner as his fellows, and that this would provoke a more or less uniform
response from all."
As research accumulated, it became necessary to introduce more and more
"intervening variables" into this simple stimulus-response model. It became
necessary to recognize significant variations in the desires and inclinations of
audience members, in the way they received media stimuli, and in their
socially-shaped opportunities to respond. 8 The upshot of all these
complications was that it began to seem as if the answer to the question,
"What effects do mass media produce?" had to be, "It all depends . . .",and it
was only a short step from that to a feeling that the media really don't
produce effects at all. The contingent nature of mass media impact made it
seem that the effects ought to be attributed to the intervening variables
instead of (rather than in conjunction with) to the mass media stimuli.
Thinking was moved in this direction by research that established the
selective nature of perception. Individuals with different values, or whose
other personality characteristics differ, perceive the same stimuli differently.
At first, this discovery resulted merely in a modification of the "hypodermic"
concept of mass communication: media may produce different effects with
different kinds of people, but if people can be put in categories, the effects of
Mass Media as Producers of Effects: An Overview of Research Trends 249
mass communications injections into a particular category may still be
predictable and powerful. 9 Later the emphasis on perceptual selectivity led to
outright disparagement of the notion that media have effects at all. For
example, DeFleur writes: "When communication 'effects' are a focus of
research attention, the assumption that the media are in some way 'causes' of
these effects is a natural one. Even if it is granted that intervening processes
of some sort can soften or otherwise modify this relationship, the underlying
cause-effect conceptualization is not different, only more complicated." 10
He implies that conceptualizations in terms of cause and effect are inherently
misleading.
Skepticism regarding the "mass society" concept increased after the 1940
voter study in Erie County, Ohio. It was found that a significant role in the
mass communication process was played by informal social relationships. The
personal influence of "opinion leaders" was found to mediate between radio
or newspaper presentations on the one hand and the resulting attitudes of
voters on the other. 11 A 1953 article in the American Sociological Review
articulated the realization that had grown from this study and its successors
that the behavior of mass media audiences is "distinctly social" and hardly
conforms to the previous sociological views on "collective behavior." This
article made it clear that the old "hypodermic" model was inappropriate not
only because people in different categories perceive the stimuli differently,
but also because people in different groups use the media differently; not that
they get different injections from the same needle, but they often seem to get
no injection at all; they get material for use in their own group- and
self-determined activities. Being a member of the local audience of mass
communications "is a distinctly social activity in which interaction with
others before, during, and after any single occasion of spectatorship has
created definite shared expectations and predisposing definitions. These in
turn have a determinate effect, in conjunction with the institutionalized
character of the activity, on what members of the audience select or do not
select, and how they react or do not react. 1 2
But this does not logically indicate that mass media have no effect on their
audiences. At most it might imply that mass media seldom if ever have any
altogether independent effect. This idea has been constructed, however, as
the basis for pious rebuttal to the worried critics of the media. Sociologists as
well as media spokesmen have taken this change in theoretical orientation of
mass communications research as warrant for some complacency about media
effects. 1 3
B. Contemporary Assumptions and Theoretical Views
The assumptions people make about a topic are often implied by the kinds
of questions they ask about it. Several kinds of questions can be asked about
mass media. According to DeFleur, 14 most sociological inquiry about mass
media has thus far addressed itself primarily to the question, "How do mass
media affect society and its members?" Similarly, he says, most of the
criticism of mass media has been phrased in terms of this question. The
question implicity assumes that mass media produce distinguishable effects
(both on people and on societies), and DeFleur and others are critical of this
assumption. He suggests two other kinds of questions each of which implies
250 Mass Media and Violence
somewhat different assumptions; (1) How does mass communication work,
and is it in principle any different from direct interpersonal communication
process? Mass communication stimulates primary interaction in varying
degrees. Its capacity for socializing members of its audiences and shaping their
communication simulates primary interaction in varying degrees. Its capacity
for socializing members of its audiences and shaping their values and
personality characteristics has some striking resemblances to, and some
important differences from, real primary interaction. DeFleur also asks, (2)
What political, economic, or cultural conditions have led mass media to
operate as they do?
In the earliest days of cinema, the sheer fact that pictures moved was
enough to attract an audience. The customers in the penny arcades soon
began to choose among different kinds of film content, however. According
to DeFleur, "Such films as Beavers at Play or The Surf at Dover brought in
fewer pennies than the brief but exciting Dane du Ventre, or the titillating
What the Bootblack Saw. Efforts toward the filming of more serious or
artistic subjects were not received with enthusiasm. Film content aimed at
more elementary gratifications was what brought in the money." 1 ' Thus,
when mass media are commercial enterprises, content is shaped by
considerations of what brings in the money. The mass media operate as they
do partly because of the kind of enterprise they are in the kind of society
they are in.
Mass communication differs from other communication in some ways and
resembles it in other ways partly from purely technical considerations. But
the similarities and differences arise partly from the kinds of use people in the
audience have learned to make of the content provided. What is needed to
understand the impact of television, for example, on children is to ask not
only what television presents to them, but also what do they do with what
they take from it? 16 Television is often used as a babysitter, and the child is
often completely absorbed in the program. Some children seem addicted to
it, watching a great deal, and becoming restless when the set is not turned on
or is unavailable to them. Perhaps this medium has not made children
generally more passive, since it has only displaced an average of about half an
hour a day of active play (out of a two- or three-hour quota). The remainder
of television time is a displacement of other mass media, or of sleep. For
children who, for other social or temperamental reasons, might be inclined
toward passivity and withdrawal, television does afford them a clear
opportunity in that direction. 1 '
Adolescents, and younger children as well, seem to seek satisfaction of a
hunger for contact with the adult world from television. They have a desire to
know about it, to participate in it (which they can do vicariously with
television), and to acquire status in it. 18 This is the socialization process, so
there is inherent in the medium a potential for socializing youngsters who
bring to it an attention motivated by this sort of appetite.
If television provides information (and misinformation) about the adult
world, it may extend the limited opportunities the child or adolescent would
otherwise have for contact with that world. However, this extension is always
only an imitation, not a direct interpersonal relation. 19 For this reason, as
children grow older, some of them at least tend to shift their mass media use
from a fantasy -oriented type to more reality -oriented usage; for some, this
Mass Media as Producers of Effects: An Overview of Research Trends 25 1
means less television and more reading. This trend is more pronounced in the
middle class than in the working class. 20 It may reflect a shift from vicarious
to real social relationships as the child matures. Televised simulation of
primary group life is partly abandoned as real primary group experiences
accumulate and as skills are acquired for secondary interaction. Again,
however, discovery of this trend does not indicate that television or other
mass media have no effects; they are used by viewers seeking to be affected in
one way or another. Usage changes in relation to desires as the alternative
sources of various desired effects are changed.
Sociologists have probably erred as much in downgrading the notion of
mass media effects as they had previously erred in elevating it. To say, as
Klapper does, that mass communications effects are mediated by a complex
nexus of social and psychological factors, and that mass media are thus not
the necessary or sufficient causes of various audience effects, 2 1 is not the
same as saying mass media are ineffectual (and hence harmless). Klapper
maintains that there is strong indication from communications research that
the mass media are more likely to reinforce than to change existing opinions.
He bases this conclusion on the findings about perceptual selectivity, group
processes and normative influences on audience members, the interpersonal
network that is superimposed on the communication link between medium
and audience member, the allegedly "super-normative" characteristics of
opinion leaders in this network, and the need of commercial mass media to
comply with audience desires so as to retain large (and thus lucrative)
audiences. 22 If existing opinions are reinforced by mass media when they
would otherwise have been changed by other factors, the mass media have
produced an effect; pointing out the conservative nature of this effect cannot
argue it out of existence.
Klapper acknowledges that field and laboratory studies have shown that
"communications are extremely effective in creating opinions on matters
about which the audience is unlikely to have preexisting opinions." 23
Children are born with no opinions at all (unless their innate preference for
comfort over discomfort is dubbed an "opinion"). They begin acquiring them
as soon as they begin to be socialized. The trend in sociological thought
toward the "little or no effect" view of mass communication was developing
during the decades when television was being technically perfected and
socially adopted. Research has shown how television now dominates children's
mass media experience. If it once might have been true that the previous
types of mass media produced little or no effect on audience members, and if
this was only belatedly recognized, in the meantime the idea has ceased to
be applicable. This new electronic audiovisual medium represents a significant
jump over its less versatile predecessors in ability to simulate primary
interaction, and it is avidly attended by the most nearly opinionless segment
of the population children.
Attitude changes do occur, and Klapper acknowledges that special
circumstances occasionally enable mass media to convert people from one
view to another view, even an opposing one. These special circumstances can
include any reduction of the strength of the factors that ordinarily cause the
media to be conservative and reinforcing in their influence. They can also
include the fact that people vary in their susceptibility to persuasion. Some
people can be persuaded of anything; Klapper cites research which indicates
252 Mass Media and Violence
that the extremes of persuasion are "topic free." 24 But again, these
considerations do not necessarily divest the mass media of responsibility for
audience effects; they indicate that the average impact of communications
cannot be regarded as the only impact. The social acceptability of the average
impact is no warrant for disregarding the special effects which may or may
not be so socially acceptable.
Klapper also notes the capacity of the mass media to confer status on the
persons or ideas to which the media give attention. 25 This is an effect,
inasmuch as there is no basis for believing that status would be allocated to
exactly the same people and in exactly the same proportions by agencies
other than mass media and by means other than the sheer giving or
withholding of attention. Moreover, this can have other effects. Status can be
instrumental; people who have been accorded status by the mass media can
do things they could not otherwise do, and the effects of their actions are due
to the mass media.
Finally, Klapper discounts the assumption made by mass media critics that
the abundant portrayal of violence stimulates socially undesirable behavior. 26
Content analysis studies have repeatedly shown how abundantly the mass
media do portray violence, both real and fictional. Logically, the data
produced by content analyses can be said to fall short of the demonstration
of a causal link between communications content and audience behavior. But
if we remind ourselves that mass communicators strive to attract and retain
large audiences, analyses of mass media content tell us something about what
those who control the media think about their audiences, even if they do not
explain what the audience members think or do as a result of exposure to the
content. Content analyses do measure an effect, then the way media men
have been affected by their relative freedom to choose alternative means of
attracting audiences and by their perceptions of audience interests. Mass
media time, space and resources devoted to the portrayal of violence are not
available for presentation of other kinds of content. There is thus a clear
opportunity cost to the abundance of violence even if (as hopefully alleged) it
entails no such social cost as the perpetration of violent behavior.
Presentation of violence by mass media does affect the behavior of mass
media audiences: it keeps them from using in their own ways whatever other
kinds of content might have been presented in the same time or space.
Moreover, recalling the alleged conserving effect of mass media, and
recognizing certain traditions of violence in American history, it follows that
abundant portrayal of violence by mass media may have helped prevent
abandoment of violence by the audience. If it is true that violence is valued
by at least some Americans, then the very argument that has been used by
media apologists cuts the other way; this value, like any other, would be
subject to the value-conserving influence of the mass media.
C. Contemporary Oassiflcation of Effects
The trend away from considering what mass media do to audiences and
toward considering how audience members receive and use mass media
content does not seem to have weakened the relevance of Lasswell's now
classic categorization of mass media "functions." 27 He suggested in 1948
that mass media perform three kinds of social (as distinct from private)
Mass Media as Producers of Effects: An Overview of Research Trends 253
functions. (1) They carry on a surveillance of the environment, keeping
audiences informed of opportunities and threats to which they may need or
wish to respond individually or collectively. This is a social effect because
different kinds of social order are dependent on populations with different
degrees of informedness. (2) The media tend to bring about some correlation
of the components of society for effective, organized response to the
environment. The arguments about the limited persuasive capacity of the
media, and about the involvement of intervening variables in the persuasion
process leave this function intact, for the leaders of a modern community or
society do turn to the mass media as aids in exercising their leadership, and
the audience expects mass media to be used in the process of organizing social
action. (3) The mass media help in transmission of the social heritage from
one generation to the next. Studies of the occurrence of incidental learning
show that this function is served (appropriately or not) even when this may
not be the intent of the communicator. Studies of vicarious learning, from
observing both the behavior of models and the consequences accruing to the
models, have revealed one of the processes by which this takes place.
Clearly, the second of Lasswell's types, and especially the third, are closely
related to the socialization process which occurs apart from the mass media.
Both pertain to the imparting of values.
It is important to remember that these functions are very often
subordinated to two other purposes, more private than social, in our system.
This fact itself has value implications. A great deal of the content of mass
communications is presented as entertainment. The purpose of the audience
members in exposing themselves to the mass media is very often to be
entertained. 28 If they are informed, if their activities are correlated with
those of others, and if they -absorb something of their social hertage, it is
largely incidental to being amused or distracted. It is also largely incidental to
the communicator's quest for monetary gain. Movies bring in revenue from
admission tickets, and that is why they are produced. Books yield revenue by
being sold, and that is why they are published. Reading is incidental.
Magazines and newspapers yield negligible revenue from their subscribers;
their profit depends on income from advertising, the latter provides virtually
the entire base for radio and television. In any of these sponsored media, the
volume of advertising revenue depends in part on the size of the audience.
The advertiser ostensibly buys time or space, but his real interest is in buying
audience attention. He exchanges entertainment or otherwise interesting
communication for the audience attention required to give him opportunity
to sell his product.
D. Mass Media Incompletely Exonerated
Many good things can properly be said about the mass media in general
and about television in particular. Granted the validity of much of this
commendation, and granted that the imaginable harm television might
conceivably do to a child who is already warped or deprived of good social
relationships will not usually be done to children with warm and secure
family lives, nonetheless many of the severest criticisms remain at best simply
unproved rather than disproved. 29 AsBandura notes in reference to a number
of widely circulated survey studies that have been construed as showing that
254 Mass Media and Violence
television violence neither harms nor helps its viewers, "It is surprising how
this view has won uncritical acceptance," based as it is on opinion studies of
parents or people who work with children rather than on studies of children's
actual behavior and attitudes. 3(
Studies of the impact of audiovisual stimuli on children's behavior have, of
course, been made. To discount the implications of these experimental
studies because laboratory conditions do not duplicate real life situations,
Bandura points out, is to misunderstand the manner in which knowledge is
advanced. "Indeed," he says, "experiments are not designed to reproduce the
stimulus events that occur in real-life situations and they would be
superfluous if they were," 3 1 An experiment deliberately controls some of the
factors which vary in real life so as to be able to discern the relations between
certain specific variables which can be manipulated as they might not be
outside the laboratory.
To ensure development of principles of social learning, for example,
laboratory experimentation must involve dependent variables that overlap the
social responses to which the tester wishes to generalize the conclusions
drawn from his experiment. However, ethical considerations preclude some of
the conceivable manipulations of some variables. Accordingly, laboratory
methods must be supplemented by field studies. By the same token, field
studies take on different meanings when supplemented by laboratory
experimentation. Some of the behaviors whose causes are sought by social
scientists have resulted from such an interplay of multiple socializing agents
and compound effects of any single agent that it is often necessary to begin
with field studies that are purely correlational. These can generate hypotheses
about relations between antecedents and consequents which then require
testing in rigorous laboratory studies. Without the latter, the statements of
correlation derived from field studies cannot properly be taken to represent
causal relations. 3 2 The finding in a field study that two variables seem to be
uncorrelated cannot be taken as proof that there is no causal relation between
them; two or more causal relations that could be disentangled in careful
experimentation may mask each other in the field.
The optimistic mass media theorists, Wilenksy says, "seem always to come
to the same punch line: the burden of evidence indicates that the media are
not omnipotent; they are absorbed into local cultures via the two-step flow
from media to local group to person; and this absorption involves a
self-selection of exposure corresponding to previous attitude." 33 The
advances in theories of mass communication may be characterized as a
progressive modification of the image of anomic mass society by the
increased recognition of a host of mediating factors intervening in the
previously oversimplified stimulus-response link between communicator and
audience member. While the trend in theory and research has been toward
greater recognition of such influences, the trend in modern society at the
same time apparently has been toward the weakening of the actual influence
of these intervening social variables. Society has been moving closer to being
the way we once thought it was, while we have been abandoning that once
inappropriate image of it.
In the United States in recent decades there has been growth of structural
differentiation and increasing cultural uniformity. In this or any other
country undergoing rapid social change, the characteristics of mass society
Mass Media as Producers of Effects: An Overview of Research Trends 255
can be found to some degree. 34 Blumer's and Wirth's classic statements of
those characteristics may have exaggerated the extent to which they applied
to American society at the time they were written, but forces have been at
work tending to detach people from their local cultures and weaken local
group affiliations. People have been thrust into a new and broader world by
migration and by exposure to mass media. They have had to adjust to this
changed world somewhat independently of traditional values. So Blumer was
not really wrong in saying that "Under conditions of modern urban and
industrial life, mass behavior has emerged in increasing magnitude and
importance." 35 The trend has been extended since he wrote about it.
According to Wirth, urbanites characteristically (he did not say always)
interact with one another in terms of segmentalized roles. City life is
characterized by depersonalized or secondary group contacts, rather than
primary group contacts. There are, to be sure, face-to-face encounters, but
these commonly are segmental and impersonal. Urbanites accordingly develop
a reserve and indifference toward one another which serve as immunization
against personal claims and expectations of others. 36 A single ride on a New
York subway will show what he meant, and the so-called "rediscovery of
primary groups" by sociologists does not invalidate his statements. Certainly
there are primary groups in large cities; but they embrace a lesser proportion
of the human interactions occurring in urban than in preurban societies.
Blumer said the mass "consists of an aggregation of individuals who are
separate, detached, anonymous, and thus, homogeneous as far as mass
behavior is concerned. . .the individual in the mass. . .acts in response to the
object that has gained his attention and on the basis of the impulses that are
aroused by it." 37 Sociologists recognize today that this description fits
society less well than they once thought it did, but that recognition is not
inconsistent with the contention that it fits more closely today than it did
when it was more naively accepted.
Larsen has defined mass communication in general terms as "the relatively
simultaneous exposure of a large, scattered, and heterogeneous audience to
stimuli transmitted by impersonal means from an organized source for whom
the audience members are anonymous." 38 Normally the devices we refer to
as mass media do indeed reach a large, scattered, and heterogeneous audience
roughly simultaneously, and the research on intervening psychological or
social variables does not refute this. The means of transmission are
impersonal, and audience members are usually anonymous to the
communicator, if not to each other. That is all the definition specifies, so all
the research on group affiliations as mediators of communications and all the
theorizing about audience use of media content in no way turn mass
communication into something that would have to be called by another
name.
Mass media audience members may not be anonymous to all other
members of the audience, but they are anonymous to most others, as well as
to the communicator. This is what influences the nature of the
communication. They are socially involved in a direct way with only a very
small fraction of the total audience. Therefore, assertions that the collective
behavior concept of the "mass" is inapplicable to mass media audiences are as
serious overstatements as are the earlier views these statements were intended
to counter.
256 Mass Media and Violence
If television, and to a lesser extent other media, serve some people as
substitutes for primary interaction, these people are thereby made less
available to others as primary group associates. The need to turn to mass
media for substitute primary group experiences is thereby increased. The
detachment of people from intimate relationships which Blumer associated
with mass behavior and the reserved and indifferent attitude toward others
which Wirth associated with urbanism need not be assumed to exist before
effects can be attributed to the mass media. The mass media, when they have
become as omnipresent as they are in the lives of Americans, can foster
detachment, reserve, and indifference.
The concept of the mass is naturally associated with the concept of
urbanism. Cities are, sociologically speaking, relatively large, dense, and
permanent settlements of socially heterogeneous people. The characteristics
of the urban way of life become more pronounced the larger, the denser, and
the more heterogeneous the city happens to be. 39 Most of our cities have
been growing, and a growing fraction of our population have become city
dwellers. Modern cities have as their economic base, as Wirth noted, the
concentrative force of mechanized industry. Factories mass produce for
impersonal markets. This leads to product standardization, which, together
with the essential anonymity of customers in relation to producers, further
results in a largely pecuniary social nexus. Products and services are
purchasable by persons who possess the requisite dollars, whatever may be
their other characteristics. 40 Thus, as a result of the continued intensification
of urbanism and industrialism, our occupationally, ethnically, and culturally
heterogeneous population has acquired a good deal of the psychological
lowest-common-denominator kind of homogeneity that was presupposed by
the hypodermic model of mass communications.
To understand what continued urbanization means for the impact the
mass media may have in our lives, it is important to spell out the conditions
that would be required for mass communication to "be effective." After
reviewing four examples of explicit mass media attempts to influence
audience behavior Kate Smith's marathon bond-selling broadcasts in World
War II, a 1947 radio effort to curb juvenile delinquency ("The Eagle's
Brood"), a New York TV station's effort to mobilize civilian defense workers,
and the televised hearings of the Kefauver Committee Wiebe asked whether
radio and television can sell social objectives as they sell soap? The answer
ventured was this: "Given a reasonable amount of receptivity among audience
members, radio or television programs can produce forceful motivation. The
sponsor of the social objective must tell us to what social mechanism the
motivation is to be directed. He must see to the existence, adequacy and
compatibility of the mechanism and he must consider the distance of
audience members from this mechanism in formulating his expectations of
results." 4 1 Then Wiebe, who was Research Psychologist for CBS Radio,
added: "To the extent that he finds these factors in good order, he is in a
situation comparable to that of a commercial sponsor, and he can reasonably
expect results comparable with those of a commercial sponsor." 42 It is of
course assumed that commercial sponsors do sell their products as a result of
their advertising efforts.
Advertising on radio or television is intended to accomplish limited
objectives. Given smokers in the audience and cigarettes in the stores,
Mass Media as Producers of Effects: An Overview of Research Trends 257
cigarette commercials^ me rely seek to bring the two together. The intent is to
cause the potential customer to take whatever steps separate him from
actually making the purchase. In principle, such effects should be expected to
occur even in cases where there was no intent to produce them. A Camel
commercial may help sell Marlboros, and vice versa, simply by arousing the
viewer's urge to smoke (whatever may be his brand preference). In the same
manner, televised violence should be expected to arouse violent behavior in
viewers with violent habits who may be harboring a grudge and who happen
to have accessible targets.
Opportunities for the inadvertent "advertising" of violence to succeed are
increasing. As our cities have grown, certain areas in them have visibly
deteriorated. Other parts of them have changed in ways which may not
represent deterioration, but which cause regrets, in people with
value-commitments to previous conditions. Many of the newer residents of
urban areas have not reaped the rewards anticipated. The very presence of
some may be resented by persons who were there before them, who react to
their social differences ethnocentrically, and who see their intrusion into the
area as a threat. These people are variously experiencing an accelerated pace
of living which has led some sociologists to expect that adaptations to new
situations are likely to be made increasingly violently. Change is coming at
unprecedented speed and tradition and custom hardly prevail as constraints
on human behavior. People are now living in megalopolis without benefit of
previous personal or ancestral familiarity with this kind of environment. It is
a new kind of world. 43
Thus, our cities contain increasing numbers of people with violent
attitudes and habits, smouldering grievances, and easy access to targets of
hostility. To televise violence into such an audience without expecting to
arouse violent behavior seems sharply inconsistent with the belief that
broadcasting cigarette commercials to an audience that includes smokers can
increase sales.
Consider the simple fact that in forty years the percentage of the U.S.
Negro population which lives in urban areas has more than doubled. 44 In just
twenty years, the percentage of Southern-born non-whites residing outside
the South has almost doubled. 45 These two facts point to an increasing
abundance of contacts between persons who are more or less strangers to
each other the prior residents of a city and the recent immigrants who are
products of somewhat unlike subcultures, and who have a color difference
that can visibly symbolize both their cultural differences and their social
distance. In many of these encounters, both parties must be expected to
harbor a sense of frustration, for various reasons. An increasing proportion of
such contacts take place in large metropolitan environments, where, for all
the reasons cited previously, informal means of norm-enforcement are
attenuated. In the face of these circumstances it takes some strong and
questionable assumptions to support the supposition that televised violence
will not produce violent behavior.
Apologists for the television industry are fond of asserting that fictional
violence on the screen will not cause normal children in happy families and
stable communities to behave violently. But today they can hardly avoid
knowing that there are a good many children (and adults) whose
sociopsychological normality is dubious, whose family life is less than happy,
258 Mass Media and Violence
and who are living in communities that are far from stable. There is ample
reason for concern about the probable behavioral impact of broadcasting to
audiences of this sort such programs as Mannix, Rat Patrol, High Chaparral,
Mod Squad, or N. Y.P.D., just to mention a few.
As Wilensky points out, mass media may have considerable effect under
conditions of rapid social change because this condition includes persons
without the usual cultural and social anchorages. When norms are in flux,
mass media may reach their audiences more directly than usual, unfiltered by
the intervening variables sociologists and others have so laboriously
discovered. 46 Crisis social, economic, or political puts extra burdens on
mass media. 47 Crisis conditions can also open the way for mass media
impacts that would be restrained by non-critical circumstances.
Even if crises were unknown and social change always occurred at a snail's
pace, the possibly cumulative effects of mass media would require attention.
If a single act of violence on a single television drama could be shown to cause
no discernible behavioral response, this would not demonstrate that a
continuous exposure to such stimuli over long periods will not affect behavior
or values in profound ways. Moreover, if many audience members are
exposed to the same stimuli repeatedly, and are also recurrently exposed to
each other, a sort of "multiplier effect" is possible. Distorted images of the
real world that are obtained from the fantasy world of television are less
likely to be set straight by interaction of real human groups if all the
members of these groups have also been absorbing the same distorted images.
Just as people sometimes have the impression they "confirmed" a rumor
when they hear it from a second or a third source, the very abundance of
mass communications, and the universality of the population's exposure to
television in particular, tend to foster the illusion of "consensual validation"
of whatever values are thus absorbed.
To sum up, research has shown that mass media do not easily and
inevitably produce intended effects. To say that intended effects do not
automatically occur is not to say, however, that unintended effects
automatically do not occur. Yet the apologists for the media, and some of the
social scientists who have been unduly impressed with exceptions to the mass
society concept, have left this distinction unstated. Serious investigation is
needed now to determine what long-range unintended consequences will
occur from the way we have organized our lives around the mass media,
and especially around that simulator of primary groups, television.
REFERENCES
1. Louis Wirth, "Urbanism as a Way of Life," American Journal of Sociology, 44 (July
1938), pp. 20-21.
2. Ibid., p. 1.
3. Ibid., p. 23.
4. Richard T. LaPiere A Theory of Social Control (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1954),
pp. 3-24.
5. Melvin L. DeFleur, Theories of Mass Communication (New York: David McKay,
1966), p. 111.
6. Ibid., pp. 109-110.
7. Ibid., p. 114.
8. Ibid., p. 115.
9. Ibid., p. 127.
Mass Media as Producers of Effects: An Overview of Research Trends 259
10. Ibid., p. 122.
11. Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet, The People's Choice (New
York: Columbia University Press, 1948); Elihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Personal
Influence (Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1954); Elihu Katz, "The Two-Step Flow of
Communication: An Up-to-Date Report on an Hypothesis," Public Opinion
Quarterly, 21 (Spring, 1957), pp. 61-78.
12. Eliot Friedson, "Communications Research and the Concept of the Mass,"
American Sociological Review, 18 (1953), pp. 313-317.
13. LaPiere, op. cit. note 4, pp. 518-522.
14. Defleur, op. cit. note 5, pp. 6-7.
15. Ibid., p. 36.
16. Wilbur Schramm, Jack Lyle, and Edwin B. Parker, Television in the Lives of Our
Children (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1961), p. 169.
17. Ibid., pp. 159-160.
18. Robert Lewis Shayon, Television and Our Children (New York: Longmans, Green,
1951), pp. 26-29.
19. Schramm, Lyle, and Parker, op. cit. note 16, p. 145.
20. Ibid., pp. 105-109.
21. Joseph T. Klapper, The Effects of Mass Communication (Glencoe, III.: The Free
Press, 1960), p. 8.
22. Ibid., pp. 49-51.
23. Ibid., p. 60.
24. Ibid., pp. 94-97.
25. Ibid., p. 129.
26. Ibid., Ch. VI.
27. Harold D. Lasswell, "The Structure and Function of Communication in Society," in
Lyman Bryson (ed.), The Communication of Ideas (New York: Harper & Bros.,
1948), pp. 37-51.
28. See Douglas Waples, Bernard Berelson, and Franklyn R. Bradshaw, What Reading
Does to People (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1940), pp. 123-124.
29. Cf. Schramm, Lyle, and Parker, op. cit. note 16, p. 175.
30. Albert Bandura, "What TV Violence Can Do to Your Child," reprinted from Look,
Oct. 22, 1963, pp. 46-52 in Otto N. Larsen (ed.), Violence and the Mass Media (New
York: Harper & Row, 1968), p. 124.
31. Albert Bandura and Richard H. Walters, Social Learning and Personality
Development (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1963), p. 41.
32. Ibid., p. 39.
33. Harold L. Wilensky, "Mass Society and Mass Culture: Interdependence or
Independence?" American Sociological Review, 29 (April 1964), p. 175.
34. Ibid., pp. 177-179.
35. Herbert Blumer, "Elementary Collective Groupings," Ch. 21 in Alfred M. Lee (ed,),
New Outline of the Principles of Sociology (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1946), p.
187.
36. Wirth,op. cit. note l,p. 12.
37. Blumer, op. cit. note 35, pp. 186-187.
38. Larson, op. cit. note 30, p. 6.
39. Wirth, op. cit. note 1, pp. 8-9.
40. Ibid, p. 17.
41. G. D. Wiebe, "Merchandising Commodities and Citizenship on Television," Public
Opinion Quarterly, 15 (Winter, 1951), p. 691.
42. Ibid
43. Roy G. Francis, "Problems of Tomorrow," Social Problems, 12 (1965), p. 331.
44. C. Horace Hamilton, "The Negro Leaves the South," Demography, 1 (1964), p. 277.
45. Ibid., p. 281.
46. Harold L. Wilensky, "Social Structure, Popular Culture, and Mass Behavior: Some
Research Implications," Studies in Public Communication, 3 (1961), pp. 15-22.
47. Waples, Berelson, and Bradshaw, op. cit. note 28, p. 3.
Chapter 12
THE EFFECTS OF MEDIA VIOLENCE
ON SOCIAL LEARNING*
A. The Media, the Senses, and Information Transmission
The media differ in the senses to which they appeal and in the amount of
training that is necessary before they can be used. Thus, personal oral
communication is perhaps the primary human medium of communication. It
appeals to audition and secondarily to vision (lip reading), and the training
needed to understand it is given universally to all children in the early years
of life.
Graphic communication appeals to vision. Since it is directly
representational, little training is needed for understanding. (Research
findings about blind people who are given vision surgically after childhood
reveal that these individuals are unable to grasp the meaning of graphic
representations. Because of this we know that some training is necessary for a
child to be able to decode such representations.)
Written communication also appeals to vision, and extensive training is
needed for comprehension. As is noted above, that training has in the past
been offered to only selected human beings. Moreover, the production of
written communications has in times past been a slow process. Until the
invention of printing, a written communication could be reproduced only by
a human copier. In the medieval period, many individuals devoted their
lifetimes to copying texts. With the invention of printing, mass production of
printed texts became possible, and thereafter the written (printed) word
became increasingly important in human affairs. Still, the impact of printing
as a mass medium of communication was limited by a technology in which
paper was rare, binding was done by hand, and distribution of printed
materials was slow and inefficient. It took centuries for our society to
develop the means to benefit from the invention of printing, and only by the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries did we have the technology to
support this invention the ability to produce paper, to produce printing
machines, to distribute printed paper rapidly and widely, etc. Only then did
we have a mass base of consumers able to benefit from this
technology people who could read and understand the printed word. Thus
* Excerpt from a larger paper prepared for the Media Task Force by Alberta Engvall
Siegel, Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Stanford University.
261
262 Mass Media and Violence
the printed word became increasingly important to mass culture.
The twentieth century has witnessed the invention and promulgation of
several new modes of communication. One of these, the telephone, appeals
exclusively to audition. Communication is entirely by hearing, and in fact
even the audio fidelity of the telephone is grossly limited. The special appeal
of this mode is that it enables contact between individuals who are not within
hailing distance of each other. The telephone is an extension of the ear, and
thus of the voice. Very little training appears to be needed for its use,
although there are folk tales about adult immigrants to America who could
never learn to use the telephone effectively, who never got over the habit of
shouting into the receiver, and who were perplexed by the babble in the
receiver. Infants are fascinated by telephones, and young children go through
a period when they appear to understand the speech that they hear through
the phone receiver but do not respond to it. (Every doting parent has had the
experience of telling his two-year-old to "say hello to grandma" and of then
standing by with growing exasperation watching his child listen mutely to
grandmother's voice saying "hello, Danny," and "are you there, Danny?") By
age three or four, the child is able to carry on the give and take of a telephone
conversation, and as soon as he understands numbers he is able to dial the
phone to get his intended party. (The ability to dial comes much earlier, and
in these days of direct dialing many of us have had the experience of
answering the phone's ring to find ourselves chatting haltingly with an
adventuresome three-year-old in another state.) The school-age child is an
accomplished telephone user, and by adolescence the telephone seems to be
the preferred mode of social interaction.
Radio is another modern medium that appeals exclusively to audition. In
contrast to the telephone, it is a one-way rather than a two-way system,
putting the communications receiver in a totally passive role. (The recent
renaissance of radio has occurred in part because of "call-in" techniques
which remove the listener from that passivity and use the telephone to
transform radio into a two-way communications system.) Radio contrasts
with the telephone also in fidelity. It is capable of transmitting a very wide
range of sounds, and may be used for music as well as for human speech.
Little or no training is needed to enable an individual to comprehend radio
communication, and very little is required to acquire the skill of turning it on
and tuning it in. Children are able to receive radio communication as soon as
they are able to attend to sounds, and many mothers find that their young
infants are soothed by music from radio or by an announcer's mellifluous
tones. Children are able to understand spoken communications by radio
almost as soon as they can understand face-to-face speech; there is some lag,
because in face-to-face speech the spoken word is augmented by detailed
non-verbal communications which reinforce it. The child "gets the message"
not only from the words but also from the speaker's facial expression, body
position, etc. These modalities are absent from radio, and for this reason
radio is less effective in communicating with the very young child. By age
three or four, however, children are "tuned in" to radio, and in years past it
was a preferred communications medium for many school-age children. Just
as their mothers listened to the soap operas during the morning and early
afternoon hours, school-age children listened to their serials during the late
afternoon and early evening hours.
The Effects of Media Violence on Social Learning 263
Comic books are a form of visual communication, although they have
esthetic appeal through touch and smell as well most adults are able to
remember how the books felt and how they smelled as well as what they
looked like. Their central device is redundancy between the verbal message
and the accompanying graphic message, which is typically vivid and simple.
The books hold some appeal for children who cannot read at all, an
indication of how much is communicated directly by the pictures. Their
central appeal is to the partly-literate reader, child or adult, and for this
reason the comic book format has been widely imitated in manuals to train
hard-core unemployed workers, in appeals to voters in underprivileged
communities, etc. In contrast to the telephone and the radio, the comic book
has almost no appeal to the infant and young child, and children become
interested in this format only after they are relatively mature and
sophisticated as communications-receivers (usually in their fifth year or later).
Another contrast between the radio and the comic book is that the pacing of
the former is outside the receiver's control; the radio listener cannot adjust
the rate at which the announcer speaks. However, the comic book reader can
control the pace at which the information on the page comes to him. Adults
who watch children read comic books are struck by the children's absorption,
their deliberateness in plodding from square to square, their turning back
pages for rereading, and their return to the same comic book for another
exposure on another day. Comic books offer these possibilities for a slow
pace because they are permanent embodiments of the communication.
The wax recording was also a permanent embodiment, this time of an
auditory rather than a visual message. Despite initial low fidelity, records won
a wide audience, and they continue to be a popular form of mass
communication. Like the comic book, they can be controlled by the
consumer, and the child can play the same record over and over. Very young
children can listen to records, but their access is controlled by the difficulties
in playing them: the task of getting the needle into the groove is too difficult
for a child until he is three or four years old. Special records for children have
a wide audience among the young, and of course records for adolescents are
the mainstay of the industry.
The film was a dramatic innovation in communication technology. Like
the comic book and the record, and in contrast to the telephone and the
radio, it involves the permanent embodiment of a message. Film provided a
means of recording, preserving, and transmitting visual images which is
infinitely more faithful to the source than any comic strip could be. Both rely
on sequences of still graphics, but the film sequence is so rapid that it creates
the illusion of movement and of temporal continuity. The silent film
appealed exclusively to vision, but did so in a way which has much greater
impact than that of the earlier visual media-print, graphics, and the
print-graphics combination we know as the comic book. This impact occurs
because of the film's fidelity to its source and its minimal reliance on
conventional symbolization. It occurs also because the film embodies motion,
and the human visual system is especially tuned to the perception of motion.
The audience for a silent film does not need to know how to read in order to
enjoy the film, although that ability is necessary for understanding the
subtitles. As with comics, the subtitles in a silent film are largely redundant.
Children respond to and enjoy films from a very young age. Their access to
264 Mass Media and Violence
films has been controlled by the economics of the motion picture industry,
rather than by any constraints in their own sensory or intellectual
endowment. The expense of owning and operating projection equipment, the
need for a darkened room in which to show the film, and the expense of
renting commercial films, have combined to keep movies in commercial
theatres, with access blocked by an admissions booth collecting tolls. The
importance of the box office in controlling access is attested to by the
ingenuity of youngsters in dreaming up ways to circumvent it, and also by the
fact that many American youngsters habitually spent all of their weekly
allowances at that box office during the heyday of the movies.
The printed page became a mass medium of communication only when the
system of education created a mass audience of readers. Thus books and
newspapers represented the "first wave" of the mass media. The telephone
stands apart from this history, differing from the other communications
media in the particularity of both sender and receiver. Although there is mass
ownership of telephones in the United States today, the telephone is not
presently used for mass communication. Radio, comic books, records, and
silent films were the "second wave" of modern communications media. They
were techniques of communication that required little sophistication on the
part of the receiver. Unlike books and newspapers, these media did not
require reading ability of their audience. Each technique in this second wave
was beamed to one sense modality radio and records appealing to audition,
and comic books and silent movies to vision.
The "talkie" was such a major innovation that it deserves to be thought of
as "the third wave," a medium that provides an integrated appeal to eye and
ear. The audience for a talking film needs no special training nor special skills;
they need only the capacity for visual information-processing and for
language-understanding or sound-decoding which is universally characteristic
of the human species. By being a normal member of the human race, and by
paying the price of admission, one is able to receive communication from
sound motion pictures. Only the grossly handicapped the deaf and the
blind are excluded from full participation. For the rest of us, the
communication from sound films comes to us in the senses which are most
acute and discriminating seeing and hearing. The sound motion picture
seemed to be "the ultimate" in mass communication, and it seemed so not
only to the masters of hyperbole who were paid to advertise Hollywood.
Some suggested adding scents to the stimuli in order to sensitize the audience
olfactorily as well as visually and auditorily, but the "talkies" were so
satisfactory that the proposal to replace them with "sm^llies" was never
seriously considered. Refinements wider screens, curved screens, three
dimensions, color, and stereophonic sound were but minor embellishments
on the basic technique of reaching the viewer through eye and ear with a vivid
and integrated message. Children were delighted by the talkies, usually
preferring them to any other medium of communication. Even the youngest
child could be held in rapt fascination by a movie, and the amount of
information children learned effortlessly from films was prodigious. As with
the silent films, limitations on children's use of movies were external to the
child, created by the technology and economics of the movie the need for a
darkened room, expensive equipment, and money to rent the expensive film.
These limitations were bypassed by the next major innovation in mass
The Effects of Media Violence on Social Learning 265
communication, television. Like the movies, television beams simultaneous
signals to both eye and ear. Unlike movies, TV does not require a darkened
room, expensive equipment, or rental payments. In the American economy,
the receiver is inexpensive and television programs are free. The child need
not pay to enjoy television; his access is limited only by his ability to switch
on the set, and most children can do that as soon as they can stand, i.e., by
the end of their first year. Television also lends a sense f immediacy to the
action, as opposed to the "canned" film one sees in movie theaters.*
Differences between movies and television justify our calling the advent of
television a separate wave in the development of mass communications.
Several trends are evident in the history of the development of techniques
for transmitting information to the human senses. One trend is diminishing
reliance on written symbolization. To enjoy a book, one had to be a skilled
reader. To read a newspaper, less skill was required. Even less reading ability
yet was needed for access to comic books and to silent films. And no reading
ability at all is needed to be able to "get the message" from sound movies,
radio, records, and TV.
A second trend is the integration of appeals to several senses. The early
media reached one sense, but the newer media reach two senses
simultaneously with an integrated message. The two senses which movies and
television reach vision and audition are the most highly developed senses in
man, those on which he relies most heavily for gaining useful information
from his environment. Further, movies and television embody motion. In the
deployment of attention, the human visual system is especially vigilant to
movement.
A third trend is toward rapidity of communication. In the days when the
only way to get information across distances was to send a courier with a
hand-written document, information travelled slowly. The invention of
printing signalled the development of more rapid means of communication,
but generations passed before supporting technology developed sufficiently
to use printing in the production of newspapers. Early newspapers appeared
monthly or weekly, and dailies are a relatively recent innovation.
Simultaneous transmission of information is achieved by the newer
media radio, telephone, and television with only a split second elapsing
between the occurrence of an event and its perception by the
communications-receiver at a distant spot.
Fourth, there is a trend toward increasing availability of mass
communications. Printed communications such as books and journals were in
former times available only to an educated elite. Today such communications
reach a mass readership. Newspapers are widely available. Radio has reached
into almost every American home. Movie theaters exist in the remotest
hamlet. Most Americans, even the poorest, own television sets and in many
homes more than one set is in use.
Finally, there is a trend toward increased fidelity in communication
techniques. The "fidelity" of a communication is the correspondence of the
transmission to the event itself. Today's telephone is a much higher fidelity
instrument than its predecessors, but the correspondence between the voice
one hears over the telephone and the voice of that person when present is still
*With the advent of videotape, almost everything (except movies) on television
appears to be "live," whether or not it actually is.
266 Mass Media and Violence
not exact. Radio has higher fidelity than the telephone, and today's radio is
notably higher in fidelity than its ancestor, Similarly, phonograph records and
tape recordings have improved in audio fidelity over the years. The color
movie, like the color television, is more "hi-fi" than its black-and-white
counterpart.
B. Fidelity, Vividness, Credibility, and Authenticity
Every member of a society must learn about that society, its values, and its
habits. All children achieve this learning through trial and error, reward and
punishment, observation, imitation, oral instruction, and attending to graphic
representations. Children in literate societies such as ours also may learn
about their society and its culture via the written word. To what extent are
children likely to learn also from the even newer media from radio, movies,
and television? We have reviewed the characteristics of these media, showing
how they reach different senses and how accessible they are to children. Now
we consider how much is learned from these media.
"Fidelity" is an engineering concept, readily definable in terms of the
correspondence between an event and its reproduction by a communications
medium. The fidelity of a phonograph or a tape player may be of
considerable importance to its owner. More interesting to the social scientist
than a medium's fidelity is its credibility; he wonders how "credible,"
"believable," "compelling," or "authentic" the medium is.
The mass media have historically been used for two main purposes: to
entertain and to inform, and every medium of communication has been used
for both purposes. The book, for example, provides entertainment in the
form of novels, poetry, albums of photographs, etc., and it provides
information in the form of textbooks, encyclopedias, biographies and
histories. Radio entertainment comes in the form of comedy skits, radio
dramas, and the like, and information is distributed in news reports, bulletins
about traffic conditions, weather reports, and interviews. Comic books have
been used principally to entertain, but this format has also been adapted for
political propaganda and in how-to-do-it manuals. Motion pictures provide
entertainment in dramas, comedies, and musicals, but its informational
capacity has been exploited in instructional films, documentaries, and news
films. Television broadcasts both entertainment shows and informational
presentations such as news reports, and the newspaper contains crossword
puzzles, comic strips, horoscopes, and humor columns as well as
informational news columns. "Thus the distinction between entertaining and
informing is not related to a particular medium all the media perform both
functions.
We all believe that presentations meant to inform should be authentic. A
factual error in an encyclopedia is harmful to the reputation of that
publication. A distortion of fact in the news columns of a newspaper can
provide the basis for a libel suit and public demands for a retraction. A
textbook is judged by the accuracy and completeness of the information it
conveys to the student. A historian's account of a sequence of events is
judged above all by its authenticity, and the notion of changing history to
make it conform to ideology or political convenience is abhorrent to our
tradition. A biography will draw sharp criticism, even ridicule, if it misspells
The Effects of Media Violence on Social Learning 267
the name of a principal, places his birth incorrectly, or misrepresents a date.
On the other hand, authenticity is not an issue when the object is
entertainment. We do not criticize a comic strip about spacemen because the
rockets portrayed move more quickly than any known propellant could
power them. A soap opera is no less enjoyed because in reality no person
could endure such an unending succession of reversals and still remain full of
good cheer. A comedy skit may be improved, not debased, if a comedian
wears outsize shoes, a ridiculous necktie, and a zany hat. We do not reject a
children's story because it says that all the characters "lived happily ever
after." Part of the creativity of fiction is the use of fantasy, imagination, and
dramatic distortion.
In short, we do grant poetic license not only to the poet, but also to the
novelist, the comic strip artist, the soap opera dramatist, the comedian, the
children's fiction writer, and the television dramatist; we do not grant such
license to the educator, news broadcaster, reporter, biographer, historian, or
encyclopedist.
The distinctions between fact and fiction, news and entertainment, and
reality and fantasy, are not new. They antedate all the media, including print.
Sophisticated and literate adults find these distinctions both useful and easily
discernible. They can be applied to each of the media to the textbook in
contrast with the novel, to the news broadcast as opposed to the war
movie but in making this distinction, we may be in danger of ignoring the
authenticity or credibility inherent in that medium.
For the intellect of the child, and for the less sophisticated aspects of
intellect which adults share with children, there may be another distinction
which cuts across the familiar reality-fantasy distinction. Perhaps each
medium of communication has its own intrinsic authenticity or credibility,
and perhaps this feature lends itself to all the communications from that
medium.
At the outset, it seems that this intrinsic authenticity is simply the fidelity
and the vividness of the communication. We have already defined "fidelity"
as the psychophysical correspondence between the communication and its
source. The "vividness" of a communication is defined in terms of the senses
to which it appeals. Since sight and hearing are the primary modes of
information-processing in man, a medium which appeals to these senses is
especially vivid. Thus, it is possible to present the symbols of our language
through touch, as is done in Braille print. Obviously, this is especially useful
to the blind person, but is unlikely to be chosen by anyone who has the
option of receiving symbolic communication through vision. It would be
possible for the average housewife to locate the vegetables she wishes to buy
in the supermarket solely by smell, since each vegetable has a distinctive
fragrance. Simply by relying on smell and touch she could choose the
particular vegetables that correspond to her standards of freshness and
crispness, but no normal housewife selects vegetables this way; it is much
more efficient for her to rely on vision in locating the ware she wants. This is
the sense in which a visual communication is especially vivid.
Media which appeal to more than one sense are more vivid than those
reaching only one. We have already shown that talking movies and television
are in a class by themselves as effective media because of their vividness as
here defined.
268 Mass Media and Violence
A medium's intrinsic authenticity is a joint function of its vividness and
fidelity. Both print and film appeal solely to vision, but film has more
intrinsic authenticity because its fidelity is higher. Similarly, although
black-and-white and color film appeal solely to vision, color film is more
authentic because its fidelity is higher. If a communication technique is both
vivid and of high fidelity, as is the color film or the color television image
(high fidelity representations reaching the two most important senses), its
intrinsic authenticity is especially high.
Certain media lend an air of veracity to any message presented. Because of
the characteristics of the medium, the presentation comes across as authentic.
We may "know better," but still there is part of us that gullibly accepts the
vivid evidence of our senses. The psychologist might apply the term "face
validity" to describe the intrinsic authenticity of a television presentation.
The vividness and fidelity of a presentation provide an implicit internal
validation of its content.
Every moviegoer has had the discomfiting experience of being unable to
enjoy a musical precisely because the film does not come across as fantasy.
This makes it difficult to accept the "unreal" actions of the characters in a
musical, who break into song while embracing or tap dance down a factory
assembly line. The success of animated cartoons in portraying fantasy, on the
other hand, rests precisely on the fact that they circumvent the inherent
authenticity of photography.
When movies and TV are used to report and inform, their inherent
authenticity works to impress the news on the viewer in a forceful and
compelling way. Most observers of the contemporary American social scene
are struck by the significant effect television news reporting has on the
public's involvement in political issues, understanding of current affairs, and
preferences among public figures. Through television coverage of a national
catastrophe and its aftermath, the tragic assassination of our President in
1963, a single mood of shared grief and mourning was sustained throughout
the entire country.
A newspaper reporter made a typical comment on the impact of television
news reporting in his account of the 1968 presidential election contest in
rural Iowa. He noted that the farmers whom he interviewed seemed less
preoccupied with political issues immediately affecting their livelihood and
their communities than with those they had learned about through television
and the other mass media:
Other issues have become so overriding as to obscure the farmer's
problems, even in his own mind. Through some miracle of modern
communication and repetition, the farmer lives in rural solitude and
dwells upon crime-filled city streets, fiery demonstrations, bloody riots,
bearded campus protestors, the frustrating war in Vietnam. And all
indications are that those are the images that will fill the farmer's mind
when he walks into the voting booth November 5. 1
Today, the commonplace observation that television news reporting
influences people's concepts of reality and thus their behavior is being
supplemented by the feeling that dramatic shows may have the same effect.
The same television set that brings news into the living room is also bringing
realistic dramatic presentations. Russell Baker, commenting on the nation's
response to the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, noted the mixed
The Effects of Media Violence on Social Learning 269
emotions evoked by the fact that information about this event came to the
viewer on the same set that purveys entertainment and sports:
"Gradually, grouped together around the social center of the
TV screen with its humdrum evocation of the shared boredom of idle
evenings and endless Sunday afternoons, we struggle to suppress the
horror. 2 "
Perhaps the fact that news and entertainment appear through the same
medium is helping to blur the distinction between fact and fantasy. This was
suggested by Give Barnes when he remarked that the author of a Broadway
play is "against the moral blindness that permits million of people to treat
[the war in Vietnam] as a kind of spectator sport to be watched on TV until
we are no longer completely sure whether we are seeing our sons and brothers
being killed on a newsreel or a few Hollywood actors biting the dust on the
Late Late Show. 3
We must consider the possibility that the inherent authenticity which
characterizes television leds credibility to fictional presentations. George
Willey has raised his own doubts about the distinction between reality and
the producers' make-believe: "The growing concern is that what they make,
many believe." 4 He argues that the problem with violence in the mass media
is not that it is emotionally upsetting or aesthetically displeasing, but that it is
accepted as a representation of the way things really are. In one column, he
reviewed the difficulty which producers have encountered in attempting to
edit violence from programs already in production. His example is a producer
who cut out some of the gorier aspects of a violent scene a lady sniper fires a
rifle at a young man driving through Black Rock Town "What will not be
seen ... is a part of the same sequence which had been filmed in the original
version: a close-up shot of the windshield shattering and the young man, face
bleeding, collapsing over the steering sheel. This of course, is missing the
point altogether. The objection to violence is not directed so much to the
effect of violence but to the constant use of violence and the implicit
suggestion that it should be anticipated wherever one goes." 5
This account shows one response to the assassination of Senator Kennedy,
an effort by the television and advertising industries to cut down on the
amount of violence beamed over the airways. Other comments on that effort
also touched on the blurred distinction between reality and fantasy. For
example, a newspaper column related that the Association of National
Advertisers was urging its members to select television scripts that avoid
excessive or unnecessary violence. The column concluded by stating:
"Yesterday an agency media guy made a valid point about television violence.
'What do you do about the news programs?' he asked." 6
The same intution was the basis for a column that appeared after the
Democratic Convention in Chicago in August, 1968:
Has the campaign against violence in TV programs, which started after the
killing of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, suffered a
setback as a result of the riots attending the Democratic National
Convention?
All three networks have been seriously examining ways of diminishing
violence in dramatic entertainment and in children's cartoons partly as a
result of the widespread belief that television's example can influence the
impressionable for good or evil. But the way network spokesmen look at it at
270 Mass Media and Violence
the moment there isn't much point in cutting out the shooting in a Western
or the pistol-whipping in an underworld drama if the viewer can switch to a
news program and see citizens and the police locked in a bloody real life
no-holds-barred conflict. No network would have dared stage in make-believe
anything as violent as the battle in Chicago. 7
The argument imputed to the network spokesmen makes sense only if one
lumps together both fiction and news presentations in evaluating their effects
on behavior.
No doubt the cues as to a communication's authenticity are important. A
television presentation identified on the screen as "news," and discussed by
someone called a "newsman," provides internal cues that its pictures of
mayhem and destruction are to be understood differently from similar
photographs identified as "drama."
The comfortable and well-understood old distinction between truth and
fiction is blurred by a medium that presents truth and drama alternately, in
the same frame, with the same sharp fidelity, and with the vividness that only
a medium appealing to eye and ear simultaneously can invoke.
C. Media Content and Social Learning
Is social behavior affected by the media? Do children who have grown up
on a steady diet of television behave differently than they would if it did not
exist?
These questions lie at the heart of our current concern about the media
and violence. Serious and disinterested observers differ as to how to frame the
best answer on the basis of our present knowledge. Observers with a stake in
the media capitalize on our ignorance to reassure one another that the status
quo will hold.
Behavior is guided by belief. People act in a context of convictions about
the meaning of their acts, what acts are appropriate in particular settings, and
what responses may be expected from others. Action emerges from beliefs
about the world and how one should respond to it.
Human social behavior is learned. Much of this process occurs through trial
and error, especially in the earliest years of life. It does not seem likely that
television and other non-interactive media play a great role in such learning,
since they cannot provide differentiated "feedback" to an individual.
Whether an infant is crying or quiet, awake or asleep, hungry or full, walking
or sitting, behaving well or mischievously, the television drones on and on,
uninfluenced by the infant's behavior. Such an unresponsive communications
system does not enter into trial and error learning.
A great deal of human social behavior is also learned through observation
and imitation. As the years pass, children acquire the ability to model their
behavior after certain others, and this ability seems to be independent of
rewards and punishments. To explain a child's behavior, we inquire about the
observational learning opportunities which have been available to
him "Where in the world did he learn to do thatf" We know that children
watch television. Do they also imitate what they observe there? The inherent
authenticity of television and movies makes it easy to believe that they do.
Children understand such presentations as authentic and credible, and assume
that the world is really the way it appears there. It is natural for them to take
The Effects of Media Violence on Social Learning 27 1
the behavior they observe on television as a model for their own. An amusing
illustration of this comes from Britain:
Presenting a resolution urging the Government to consider a code of
conduct to guide people responsible for selecting television programs,
Fred Armstrong [a member of the Rural District Councils Association,
speaking at its annual conference] said that during one half-hour
program the word "bloody" had been used 30 to 40 times.
Was it surprising, he asked, when a 6-year-old boy told a woman in a
shop she was a "bloody silly old moo" because his favorite candy was
sold out? 8
Although Americans might differ with this Briton as to the seriousness of
the behavior he described, most would agree with him that the child's use of
the proscribed word "bloody" probably resulted from his watching shows in
which it was used by characters he subsequently imitated. At the other
extreme is another account of imitative behavior in Britain, this time about a
12-year-old boy who was found dead at his home in Leicester, in the English
Midlands:
Television chiefs issued a warning to millions of youngsters today
after an inquest on a boy who died while imitating his masked and
cloaked hero, "Batman" ... His father . . . told the inquest yesterday he
thought his son, hanged while wearing a homemade Batman-style
outfit, had been leaping from a cabinet in the garden shed when his
neck caught in a nylon loop hanging from the roof. The inquest verdict
was misadventure.
After the inquest [the father] said that he hoped the Batman show
would be taken off British television. "It is far too dramatic and
hair-raising," he said. "It encourages children to attempt the
impossible." A television company spokesman said:
"We regret that the death of Charles Lee should be attributed to his
viewing of Batman. Young viewers are cautioned that they should make
no attempt to imitate Batman's activities.
"Before each episode young viewers are reminded that Batman does
not in fact fly and that all of his exploits are accomplished by means of
his secret equipment." 9
What are we to think of this event? In what sense is television
"responsible" for this child's violent death? Is this twelve-year-old's imitative
behavior in the same category as the six-year-old's remarks about "a bloody
silly old moo"?
Adult behavior, as well as children's, may be imitative. On December 13,
1966, the National Broadcasting Company presented a filmed drama entitled
"The Doomsday Flight."
The plot of the film centered on the placement of a bomb on a
transcontinental airliner . . . The plane emerged safely because it landed
at an altitude above that at which the bomb was triggered to go off.
The supposed suspense lay in tracing the deranged man who kept
teasing officials with information on his deadly act. 1
272 Mass Media and Violence
While the film was still on the air, a bomb threat (which turned out to be a
hoax) was telephoned to one U.S. airline. Within twenty-four hours of the
show, four more had been phoned in. Within the week following the show,
eight such hoax calls in all were received by various U.S. airlines, including
American, TWA, Eastern, Pan-American, and Northwest. 1 * These eight bomb
threats in one week equaled the number of such calls that had been received
in the entire previous month, according to the Federal Aviation Agency. 1 2
Before the film was shown, the Air Lines Pilots Association had urged
NBC to keep the program off the air in the interest of air safety. They advised
NBC that experience had shown that "the mentally unstable are highly
responsive to, and easily provoked by, suggestion." 1 ' The pilots indicated
that they feared the program could cause an irrational person to commit an
act of sabotage. Telegrams were sent by the president of the pilots'
association to the author of the script, to an NBC vice president, to the West
Coast publicity director for NBC, and to the producer of the film at a
Hollywood studio. 14 When no response was received, another representative
of the pilots' association telephoned another NBC vice president in a further
attempt to convince the network to call off the program.
These efforts proved unsuccessful. The film was shown and the feared rash
of bomb hoaxes did ensue. Fortunately, there is no record that a bomb was in
fact placed on any plane. Unfortunately, we have no information on the
identities of the individuals who translated screen behavior into acts in their
own lives. We do not know their ages, their social histories, nor whether they
were "disturbed," "unstable," or "impulsive." Probably some of them were.
Many such individuals do exist in our society, and in our concern for the
effects of television, we must consider them as well as the "balanced,"
"stable," and "restrained" persons for whom such a ready translation from
drama to reality may be unthinkable.
For many years, black citizens have objected to the stereotyped
representations of Negroes in the mass media. They have resented the fact
that blacks were almost always portrayed in subordinate and menial roles,
such as servants, shoeshine boys, fieldhands, and ne'er-do-wells. They have
felt that these condesending and two-dimensional portrayals would influence
the way Americans felt about black people, even the way black Americans
would feel about themselves. This argument rests on the assumption that
people "accept" and "believe" the fictional representations in the media. The
depth of the objections of black citizens lends seriousness to this assumption.
It has not been sufficient to reply, "but it's only a story" or, "that's only
fantasy." Even the media men themselves have finally accepted the validity of
this argument, and serious efforts are now being made to portray blacks in
dignified and admirable roles, to represent in the media the true variety of the
human condition among black as well as white Americans. They have taken
seriously the notion that for some Americans the media constitute their only
acquaintance with blacks, and that therefore it is important for the media
portrayals to be fair and realistic. Should we take seriously the notion that
for some Americans the media constitute their principal acquaintance with
violence and aggression, and that they learn about these phenomena and how
to deal with them solely through the media?
Several research studies have addressed this question. One examined the
influence of violence in the mass media upon children's role expectations. 1 5
The Effects of Media Violence on Social Learning 273
An effort was made to study young children's impressions of a taxi driver a
role chosen because taxi drivers are not widely sterotyped in our society. One
group of second graders heard a series of radio dramas about taxi drivers. In
each "thrilling episode," the taxi driver got into trouble with another person
and extricated himself by being violently aggressive against the other person.
A second group of children in the same grade heard a series which differed
from the other only in the endings. In this series, tjie endings were not
violent instead, the taxi driver found a constructive way to resolve the
problem.
To determine whether the children's reality conceptions had been
influenced by these fictional presentations, the researcher gave each child a
newspaper test. The child was shown a copy of the local newspaper and was
asked to explain what a newspaper is. Only those who understood that a
newspaper reports reality were in the final analysis. The individual who
showed the newspaper to the child had not been involved in the earlier
playing of the dramas on radio, nor did she acknowledge any acquaintance
with them. She asked the child to tell her how certain newspaper stories
ended. The first stories presented to the child concerned current local
news the current weather, the fact that Lincoln's Birthday was approaching
and that it would be a school holiday. Then the child was read stories about
local taxi drivers, and asked to finish the story. One of these stories related an
episode very similar to one the children had heard enacted on the radio. The
children who had heard the violent endings to the radio drama gave very
different responses to this newspaper story than did those who had heard the
non-violent series. The responses were categorized according to whether the
child attributed high, intermediate, or low aggression to the taxi driver in
completing the newspaper account. In this Pennsylvania community, taxi
drivers are helpful and friendly, so it is not surprising that the children who
had heard the non-violent radio dramas tended to finish the news story in a
way that attributed no aggression (two-thirds of the cases) or only
intermediate aggression (in the other one-third) to the taxi driver. The
children who had heard the violent series, on the other hand, apparently
thought that taxi drivers in their own town would behave the same way as the
fictional ones, for half of them finished the news account in a way that
attributed "high" aggression to the local taxi driver, and only one-third
attributed no aggression.
This small study would need to be duplicated with various children, roles,
and media before we could generalize from its findings. In the meantime, it
warns us that the distinction between reality and fantasy may be blurred for
normal young children.
A striking series of studies by Professor Albert Bandura and his colleagues
at Stanford University has demonstrated that children learn aggressive
behavior from television and that they enact this behavior in their play under
suitable circumstances. In earlier studies, Bandura had already shown that
children will imitate the specifics of aggressive behavior they observe in an
adult. 1 6 He and his colleagues then conducted a study to determine whether
children will imitate aggression they observe in a film as readily as they will
imitate aggression they observe performed by adults. 1 7
The study included ninety-six nursery school children, ranging in age from
less than three to nearly six, with an average age of four and one-half. He
274 Mass Media and Violence
assigned the children arbitrarily to four categories. A child in the first
category, the "Real-Life Aggressive condition," was brought to a room and
given some materials to play with at a small table. After the child settled
down to play, an adult in another part of the room began playing with several
toys, including a mallet and a five-foot inflated plastic Bobo doll. The adult
was aggressive toward the Bobo doll in highly novel and distinctive ways, and
performed each of these aggressive acts like pummeling the Bobo on its head
with a mallet several times in the course of the session. The child, of course,
observed this aggressive adult behavior occurring in his presence. A child in
the second category was brought to the same playroom, set to playing with
the same toys, and then shown a color film on which the same adult model
displayed the same sequence of novel aggressive behaviors to a Bobo doll.
This was called the "Human Film-Aggression condition." A child in the third
category was shown a cartoon film showing an adult costumed as a cat,
playing against a fantasyland backdrop of brightly colored trees, butterflies,
etc. On this film, the cat was similarly aggressive towards the Bobo doll.
Finally, children in the fourth category were reserved as a comparison group,
with no exposure to aggressive models in the course of the study.
Immediately after the experience described above, the child was taken to
an anteroom containing a variety of highly attractive toys. The experimenter
told him he might play with them, but once he had begun, the experimenter
purposely frustrated the child by saying she had decided to reserve the toys
for some other children. She indicated that instead he could play with some
toys in another room. They went to that room, where the adult busied herself
with paperwork at a desk, while the child played with the toys. These
included toys typically used in aggressive play and others associated with
unaggressive activities. Among them was a Bobo doll and a mallet. The child
played for twenty minutes, while his behavior was observed and scored by
judges watching through a one-way mirror from an adjoining room.
The main finding of this study was that children who had observed adult
aggression prior to being frustrated were more aggressive in their subsequent
play than those who had been frustrated, but had not observed any adult
aggression. The average total aggression score for the control children was 54,
while the average was 83 for children in the "Real-Life Aggressive" category,
92 for those in the "Human Film-Aggressive" category, and 99 for those in
the "Cartoon Film- Aggressive" category.
The second finding was that the aggression of the children who had
observed adult models would be imitative. The child's behavior during the
play session was rated as imitative, partially imitative, or non -imitative. An
imitative act was one which directly copied the adult behavior the child had
seen earlier, with the child exhibiting the very acts he had observed or
speaking the very words the adult had spoken. In the "Real-Life" and
"Human Film" categories, eighty-eight percent of the children exhibited
varying degrees of imitative aggression, and in the "Cartoon Film" condition,
seventy-nine percent did so. Not only were these children more aggressive as a
whole, but, more significantly, the character of their aggressive behavior was
closely modeled on the behavior they had observed in adults, whether live or
on film. Scores for imitative aggression were significantly higher for the
children who had observed models than for the control children, and the
same was true for scores of partially imitative aggression On the other hand,
The Effects of Media Violence on Social Learning 275
aggressive gunplay was displayed equally by the various groups. This is an
example of aggressive behavior which had not been modeled by the adults in
the experiment.
This study holds special interest not only because it demonstrates that
children mimic the aggressive behavior of adults, whether they observe this
behavior in the flesh or on film, but also because it demonstrates that the
kind of film seen does not seem to affect the mimicking process significantly.
The fantasy-reality distinction in which adults believe seems to have little
significance for the bright middle-class pre-school children Bandura and his
colleagues studied.
One reason that Bandura's work is so widely respected by other
psychologists is that his conclusions do not rest on a single study. He has
conducted a series of investigations over the years, using different children
and different films. Each study adds to the strength of the conclusions we can
draw.
A second study meriting close consideration here used nursery school
children whose ages ranged from three to five years, with an average of just
over four years. 18 They were assigned at random to different categories. A
child in the first category was taken to a playroom where the adult
experimenter worked at a desk while the child watched a five-minute film
projected on a TV console. This film concerns two adult men, Rocky and
Johnny. At the beginning, Johnny is playing with his highly attractive
collection of toys. Rocky asks to play with some, and Johnny refuses. Rocky
then behaves aggressively toward Johnny and his possessions, enacting a series
of highly unusual and distinctive aggressive behaviors while making hostile
remarks. (These unusual and distinctive acts of aggression were employed in
this series of studies to enable observers to distinguish imitative acts of
aggression in the child's subsequent play from other stereotyped acts
common to the play of many children.) Rocky is the victor as the result of
his aggressive behavior, and "the final scene shows Johnny seated dejectedly
in the corner while Rocky is playing with the toys, serving himself generous
helpings of 7-Up and cookies, and riding a large bouncing hobby horse with
gusto. As the scene closes, Rocky packs the playthings in a sack and sings a
merry tune." 1 9 A commentator announces that Rocky is the victor.
Another film was used which also involved aggression between Rocky and
Johnny, but was rearranged in sequence so that the aggression behavior
shown by Rocky results in his being severly punished. "Rocky is thoroughly
thrashed by Johnny. As soon as he succeeds in freeing himself, Rocky flees to
a corner of the room where he sits cowering, while Johnny places his toys in
the sack and walks away. The announcer comments on Rocky's
punishment." 20
After viewing one of these films, the child was taken to a room for a
twenty-minute play session which was observed and scored by judges behind
a one-way vision screen. This room contained some toys similar to those in
the film, and others as well the latter being present to avoid loading the dice.
The child's imitative aggressive acts and his nonimitative aggressive acts were
recorded.
The total aggressive scores of the children in the "Aggressive
Model-Rewarded" category were 75.2, which is significantly higher than the
total for children in the "Aggressive Model-Punished" category (53.5). In
276 Mass Media and Violence
contrast, children who had seen neither film but who simply were brought to
the playroom for a twenty-minute play session had total aggression scores
that were intermediate (61.8). Most of the aggression was not sufficiently
close to that exhibited by Rocky and Johnny to be called imitative, but the
imitative aggression that was observed occurred more commonly among the
Model- Rewarded children than among the Model-Punished children, and both
showed more imitative aggressi jn than the controls, who had never observed
the distinctive adult behaviors.
After the play session was over, a child was asked to evaluate the behavior
exhibited by Rocky and Johnny, and to select the character he preferred to
emulate. Among the children who had seen Rocky emerge the victor because
of his aggressiveness, 60 percent preferred him, 5 percent preferred Johnny,
and 35 percent voiced no preference. Among those who had seen Johnny
triumph despite Rocky 's aggressiveness, 20 percent preferred Johnny, 20
percent preferred Rocky, and 60 percent had no preference.
Almost without exception the children who said they preferred Rocky as
a model were nonetheless critical of his behavior. They preferred him despite
his infamy, siding with the winner: " 'Rocky is harsh, I be harsh like he was,'
'Rough and bossy/ 'Mean/. . .'Rocky beat Johnny and chase him and get all
the good toys.' 'He come and snatched Johnny's toys. Get a lot of
toys' . . . 'He was a fighter. He got all good toys.' " 2 1 Bandura's comment on
the meaning of this finding deserves to be quoted:
The finding that successful villainy may outweigh the viewers' value
systems has important implications for the possible impact of televised
stimulation on children's attitudes and social behavior. The present
experiment involves only a single episode of aggression that was
rewarded or punished. In most televised programs the "bad guy" gains
control over important resources and amasses considerable social and
material rewards through a series of aggressive maneuvers, whereas his
punishment is generally delayed until just before the last commercial.
Thus children have opportunities to observe many episodes in which
antisocially aggressive behavior has paid off abundantly and,
considering that immediate rewards are much more influential than
delayed punishment in regulating behavior, the terminal punishment of
the villain may have a relatively weak inhibitory effect on the viewer. 2 2
These two studies demonstrate that young children imitate the specific
acts of aggression they have observed in the behavior of adults on film or
television. This imitation occurs whether the dramatic presentation is realistic
or fantasylike. Imitation is enhanced if the aggression brings rewards to the
adult who is observed and minimized if the aggression brings punishment.
A third, more recent study by Bandura again confirms the finding on
imitation. However, it is somewhat more ominous in its implications, for it
shows that children acquire from watching television the capability of
performing imitatively many more acts of aggression than they spontaneously
exhibit that children learn more from television than their spontaneous
behavior reveals.
The sixty-six children who participated in this third study were again of
nursery school age, averaging just over four years of age. 23 They were
The Effects of Media Violence on Social Learning 277
assigned at random to three categories-"Model Rewarded," "Model
Punished," and "No Consequences." A child in the first category began his
participation by watching a five-minute television show in which an adult
exhibited physical and verbal aggression toward a Bobo doll. In the closing
scene of the Model Rewarded film, a second adult appeared, bearing an
abundant supply of candies and soft drinks, informed the model that he was a
"strong champion," and that his superb performance of aggression clearly
deserved a treat. He then gave the model various desirable foods, and while
the model consumed these he continued to describe and praise the model's
feats.
A child in the "Model Punished" category saw a performance which was
identical to the above in its initial sequences, but concluded with a second
adult's reproving rather than praising the model:
"Hey there, you big bully. You quit picking on that clown. I won't
tolerate it." As the model drew back he tripped and fell, and the other
adult sat on the model and spanked him with a rolled-up magazine while
reminding him of his aggressive behavior. As the model ran off cowering,
the agent forewarned him, "If I catch you doing that again, you big bully,
I'll give you a hard spanking. You quit acting that way." 24
Finally, a child in the "No Consequences" category saw a performance
involving only the initial section of the above film, the part showing the
adult's aggression toward the Bobo doll.
Each child was then observed in a ten-minute play session while alone in a
room containing a variety of toys, among which were some similar to those
used by the adult model on the film. Judges observed through a one-way
screen and recorded the occurrence of imitative aggressive responses. Then
the experimenter returned to the playroom, bringing an assortment of fruit
juices and booklets of sticker pictures to be presented to the child as rewards.
She then asked, "Show me what Rocky did in the TV program," and "Tell
me what he said," promising to reward the child for each imitation
performed.
The findings of this study have to do with how much imitative aggression
each child performed spontaneously in the ten-minute session as compared
with how much imitative aggression he showed himself capable of performing
when offered an incentive.
As might be expected from the earlier studies, the children in the "Model
Rewarded" and the "No Consequences" categories mimicked the adult model
in their own free play, doing so more frequently than those in the "Model
Punished" category. Again we have a demonstration that children imitate
aggression they observe on television and again the finding that punishment
of the adult in the television show serves to inhibit the children's tendency to
imitate spontaneously.
When requested to imitate the adult's behavior and offered an incentive,
each group of children performed more imitative acts of aggression than had
been performed spontaneously in free play. This demonstrated that the
children were capable of more imitative aggression than they had initially
shown. Further, those in the "Model Punished" category could imitate
aggressive acts just as efficiently as those in the "Model Rewarded" and "No
278 Mass Media and Violence
Consequences" categories. Remarkably, the girls in this study (as had the girls
in the other two) exhibited less imitative behavior in their own free play than
the boys, but when offered an incentive for imitating aggression, the
mimicked essentially as many aggressive acts as the boys.
Thus, this third study of Bandura's reinforces the theory that children
learn some of the behavior they observe. Some sequences of their learning are
exhibited spontaneously in their play, and others can be elicited if the setting
is right. This is equally true whether the observed behavior was condemned
and had painful consequences, was rewarded and had positive consequences,
or was neither rewarded nor punished and had no known consequences. The
study suggests that the observed consequences of behavior have some
influence on the spontaneous mimicking of that behavior, but none on the
retention of the capability to imitate the behavior when offered an incentive
for doing so.
A related study deserves brief mention. The participants were seventy-two
children, ages six to eight, from a lower-middle-class neighborhood. 25 Every
child saw the same four-minute color film showing an adult performing a
series of novel acts with various toys. For example, when he first came on
stage, the adult had his right hand cupped over his eyes. Later, he tossed bean
bags at a target, but instead of standing erect, he bent over with his back to
the target and threw the bean bags through his legs.
Children were assigned at random to three categories. Some simply
observed the film. Others were instructed to verbalize every action of the
model as they watched the actions unfold on the TV screen. Those in the
third category engaged in competing symbolization, counting aloud while
they watched the TV film: "1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 . ."
Each child was then taken to a room containing the toys the adult had
used in the film. The experimenter asked him to demonstrate every one of
the model's actions he could recall. She praised and rewarded each correct
response. She also prompted the child with a standard set of cues, asking him
to show the way the adult behaved in the opening scene, to demonstrate what
the adult had done with the dart gun, the Bobo doll, and the bean bags, and
to portray the adult's behavior in the closing scene.
The children did very well in mimicking the adult they had just observed.
Those who had simply, watched the four-minute television show were able to
reproduce an average of fourteen sequences of behavior. Not surprisingly,
those children who had verbalized the sequences as they watched the same
film could reproduce even more an average of seventeen. As expected,
completing verbal activity interfered with the child's retention of the film
content the children who had counted aloud during the film could
reproduce only nine of the sequences afterwards.
Again we have a demonstration of the child's powers of observation and
retention. Such demonstrations have interested other psychologists, and a
number of them have conducted studies providing independent confirmation
of this phenomenon. 26 What is especially significant about these studies is
their concern with the child's behavior. Many questionnaire and interview
studies report what people say they think and what they say they might do or
not do, but these report what the subjects actually do.
The Effects of Media Violence on Social Learning 279
D. Conclusions
Every civilization is only twenty years away from barbarism. For twenty
years is all we have to accomplish the task of civilizing the infants who are
born into our midst each year. These savages know nothing of our language,
our culture, our religion, our values, or our customs of interpersonal relations.
The infant knows nothing about communism, fascism, democracy, civil
liberties, the rights of the minority as contrasted with the prerogatives of the
majority, respect, decency, ethics, morality, conventions, and customs. The
barbarian must be tamed if civilization is to survive. Over the centuries, man
has evolved methods of accomplishing this.
Our methods of "socializing" the barbarian hordes who invade our
community every year rely on their remarkable learning abilities. The infant
learns by trial and error, and man has capitalized on this ability by rewarding
infants for acceptable behavior and punishing them for unacceptable
behavior. The infant develops a close attachment to one or two persons who
care for him and meet his needs, and because of this he desires to conform to
their wishes and expectations. Man has capitalized on the infant's propensity
to make attachments by assigning special educative responsiblities to mothers
and fathers. The young child learns through observation and imitation, and
throughout the ages man has provided opportunities for young people to
learn from their elders in apprentice relations the girl learning housewifery
by watching her mother, the boy learning farming skills by working alongside
his father, the youngsters learning hunting skills by observing the experienced
hunters. The young child learns through oral instruction, and man makes use
of this opportunity by talking to children about the social group and its
values and ideals, by relating legends, telling tales, gossiping, sermonizing,
lecturing, conversing, explaining, scolding, and moralizing. The young child
learns from graphic representations, and for many years parents have created
pictorial representations of the culture, its religious symbols, its heroes, and
its workers. All of these age-old techniques of socialization have enabled man
to teach most of the young barbarians how to behave as members of the
group if civilization is to flourish.
In the modern era, these techniques continue to be very important, but
they have been joined by others whose impact is less well understood. At
first, the new methods of teaching were available only to a privileged few.
Thus, the method of teaching through written instruction reached only those
who had been taught to read and who could gain possession of rare scripts. As
the technology of printing and distribution of printed materials advanced,
more and more individuals had access to the printed word, and more and
more were taught the literacy skills needed to gain meaning from print. Thus
the printed word became important in socializing the young. Any educated
person is impressed with the extent of this importance, and perhaps it is
worthwhile to remind the reader that the ability to read is acquired late in a
child's life, long after his basic social learning has been accomplished, and the
ability to read efficiently comes even later. The child is well advanced before
he is so skillful in reading that the printed page can modify his behavior or
alter his beliefs.
280 Mass Media and Violence
The newer forms of communication circumvent this difficulty. As we have
discussed, they are meaningful to the illiterate as well as to the tutored. The
most powerful of these new forms, movies and television, communicate with
the individual both audibly and visually. The most powerful medium of all,
television, accomplishes this feat in the individual's own home, bringing into
that arena instantaneous reports of events in the world around him, not only
in his neighborhood and city, but in his nation and other nations.
The fact that we do not think of the new media as being instructors for
our young does not affect their teaching ability. Although it is not governed
by a board of education, TV does teach. We think of radio, movies, and TV as
"entertainment," but in fact children learn efficiently from them. Our
media-saturated college students, born eighteen or twenty years ago, just as
television was coming into prominence, get their kicks from playing "Trivia,"
a campy game of inconsequential questions and answers about radio, TV,
movies, comic books, and popular songs in which the effectiveness of these
media as teachers is demonstrated by the young people's ability to answer
questions like "Who was Bob Hope's radio announcer?" "What was the
consolation prize on 'The $64,000 Question'?" and "Who was the singer of
'Come on-a My House'?" A Trivia Contest was held at Columbia University in
1967, with teams from Princeton, Yale, Pennsylvania, Barnard, and other
elite schools battling it out, and with the winner receiving a trophy while a
chorus sang the Mr. Trivia song "There he goes, think of all the crap he
knows." The proud winner declared, "You have to get your basic training
from the time you are six until perhaps 12 or 13," and credited his success to
"my garbage-filled mind." 27
The new media speak directly to the child's two best developed senses,
conveying a reality which is not very different from the other realities he
experiences. A child who has seen President Johnson on television would
recognize him instantly if he should encounter him; a child who has only read
about Mr. Johnson or heard his name spoken would not recognize him on
sight, but instead would need to be told, "That's our President, Mr.
Johnson." It is precisely the direct correspondence between reality and the
television representation of reality with no need for reliance on verbal labels
for encoding and decoding that makes television so powerful.
American children, spend many hours a week watching television. They
begin watching at a very young age, and are faithful to the set on weekdays
and weekends, throughout the summer, and during the school year, with the
result that at age sixteen, the average American child has spent as many hours
watching television as he has spent in school. Is it a fair bet that the two
sources of information have affected his social learning equally?
Perhaps, but one might lean toward television. The child turned to "the
tube" at a younger and more impressionable age, and he attended the
television school on his own initiative and volition, not because of the
combination of social pressures, parental expectations, and truancy laws
which enforce school attendance. One hears a great deal about school
dropouts, but very little about those who do not watch television. The ability
of television to hold its audience better than our schools can hold their
students may tell us something about its superior effectiveness as a
communicator and thus as a teacher.
The Effects of Media Violence on Social Learning 28 1
What is this electronic mechanism teaching the child? The Christian
Science Monitor completed a survey of TV programming six weeks after the
assassination of Senator Kennedy. In 85^ hours of programming in prime
evening hours and on Saturday mornings, 84 killings were observed. Both acts
of violence and threats of violence were recorded.
The survey found that the most violent evening hours were between
7:30 and 9, when, according to official network estimates, 26.7 million
children between the ages of 2 and 17 are watching -television.
"In those early evening hours, violent incidents occurred on an
average of once every 16.3 minutes. After 9 p.m., violence tapered off
quickly, with incidents occurring once every 35 minutes, " the paper
said.
"In the early evening, there was a murder or killing once every 31
minutes," the survey reported. "Later, once every two hours." 28
Everything that social scientists know about human learning and
remembering tells us that this carnage is being observed and remembered by
the audience. If children can remember and reproduce fourteen or fifteen
sequences of behavior from one of Bandura's amateurish five-minute films,
how much do they remember from hour after hour of
professionally-produced TV?
The fact that a student can recall the 1946 singing commercial, "Use Ajax,
boom, boom, the foaming cleanser" when playing Trivia does not mean that
he mil use that foaming cleanser when he grows up and has to scour his toilet
bowl. Similarly, the fact that children watch TV "pictures of mayhem,
mugging, and murder" 2 9 does not mean that they will perform comparable
acts of violence in their own lives. This is obvious from our crime statistics,
which show that children are among the least violent of our citizens, and that
violence is most characteristic of the adolescent and young adult male.
However, television time is sold to sponsors on the conviction that
although the Ajax ad will not guarantee that the viewer will buy the product,
it raises the probability that he will. Social scientists would simply make the
same claim for filmed or televised violence, whether fictitious or real. Viewing
the carnage does not guarantee that the viewer will "go forth and do
likewise," but it raises the probability that he will.
Media spokesmen make much of the fact that as yet social scientists have
no convincing proof for this hypothesis. 30 They minimize the fact that the
evidence for it is accumulating year by year and at an accelerating rate. They
also ignore the fact that there is no convincing scientific evidence for or
against most of our social practices and policies.
To the media spokesman, one is tempted to reply "Media man speaks with
forked tongue." The television industry exists and reaps its profits from the
conviction that television viewing does affect behavior buying behavior.
Is it fanciful to imagine that there may be a relation between the Trivia
game at Columbia in 1967 and the violence at Columbia in 1968? Where did
the students learn the attitudes and the aggressive behaviors that they vented
against the police? Where did they learn the implicit values that seemed to
justify their expressing what may be entirely legitimate grievances in such
282 Mass Media and Violence
profoundly antisocial ways? They acknowledge that their minds are "garbage
filled" by the media, and we may wonder whether they are "aggression
stuffed" by the same sources.
The evidence that we do have indicates that films and television are
profoundly educative for their viewers, teaching them that the world is a
violent and untrustworthy place, and demonstrating for them a variety of
violent techniques for copying with this hostile environment. Whether this
message is beamed as fact or fiction, it is accepted by young children. They
incorporate in their own behavior patterns all the sequences of adult behavior
they observe on television.
Whether they will ever employ these aggressive behaviors in their
interpersonal relations depends on many complex factors. Every individual is
capable of more different behaviors than he has occasion to display. Many of
us remember our high school French, and although years pass without
presenting us with any occasion to speak it, we continue to retain some
capability of doing so when the occasion does arise. The analogy to television
violence is not exact, for television as a school for violence enrolls adult
viewers as well as high school students, and has them in class for many more
hours than any French teacher ever did. When the occasion arises that calls
for violence, one does not have to cast his mind to his high school classroom,
but only to last night's or last week's "thrilling episode."
What else will he remember from that episode? There was a muider every
half hour during prime viewing time on 1968 network television. How many
instances are there of constructive interventions to end disagreement? What
other methods of resolving conflict are shown? How many instances of tact
and decency could an avid televiewer chronicle during the same hours? How
often is reconciliation dramatized? How many adult acts of generosity are
provided to children for modeling? What strategies for ameliorating hate are
displayed? How many times does the child viewer see adults behaving in
loving and helpful ways? What examples of mutual respect does he view?
What can he learn about law and order? How many episodes of police
kindness does he see? How frequently does the glow of compassion illuminate
the screen?
References
1. Douglas E. Kneeland, "Pocketbook Issues Secondary in Rural Iowa," New York
Times, Oct. 18, 1968, p.34.
2. Russell Baker /'Nightmare out of the Attic," New York Times, June 6, 1968.
3. Clive Barnes, "Heller's 'We Bombed in New Haven' Opens," New York Times, Oct.
18, 1968, p. 36.
4. George Willey, "Does Happy Ending Justify Violence?" Palo Alta (Calif.) Times,
June 10, 1968, p. 22.
5. George Willey, "Editing out Violence Poses Problems," Palo Alto (Calif.) Times,
Oct. 8, 1968, p. 16.
6. Philip H. Dougherty, "Putting a Damper on Violence," New York Times, July 12,
1968, p. 38.
7. No reference 7.
8. "Children in Britain, 13 to 14, called Rulers of the TV Set ," New York Times, July
17, 1967, p. 12.
9. "Young Britons Told Not to Copy Batman," New York Times, Aug. 25, 1966, p.
42.
The Effects of Media Violence on Social Learning 283
10. Jack Gould, "The Doomsday Flight," New York Times, Dec. 15, 1966.
11. Jack Gould, "A Bomb Backfires," New York Times, Dec. 16, 1966.
12. "TV Show Blamed by FAA For Rise in Bomb Hoax Calls," M?w York Times Dec
21, 1966, p. 69.
13. "Air Bomb Threats Follow TV Drama," New York Times, Dec. 15, 1966, pp. 35-56.
14. Ibid.
15. Alberta E. Siegal, "The Influence of Violence in the Mass Media Upon Children's
Role Expectations," Child Development, 1958, vol. 29, pp. 35-56.
16. A. Bandura and Althea C. Huston, "Identification as a Process of Incidental
Learning," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1961, vol. 63, pp. 311-318;
A. Bandura, Dorothea Ross, and Sheila A. Ross, "Transmission of Aggression
Through Imitation of Aggressive Models," Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology, 1961, vol. 63, pp. 575-582.
17. A. Bandura, Dorothea Ross, and Sheila A. Ross, "Imitation of Film-Meditated
Aggressive Models," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1963, vol. 66, pp.
3-11.
18. A. Bandura, Dorothea Ross, and Sheila A. Ross, "Vicarious Reinforcement and
Imitative Learning," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1963, vol. 67, pp.
601-607.
19. Ibid., p. 602.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid., p. 60S.
22. Ibid., pp. 605-606.
23. A. Bandura, "Influence of Models' Reinforcement Contingent on the Acquisition of
Imitative Responses," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1965, col. 1,
pp. 589-595.
24. Ibid., p. 591.
25. A. Bandura, Joan E. Grusec and Frances L. Menlove, "Observational Learning as a
Function of Symbolization and Incentive," Child Development, 1966, vol. 37, pp.
499-506.
26. Mary A. Rosenkrans and W.W. Hartup, "Imitative Influence of Consistent and
Inconsistent Response Consequences to a Model on Aggressive Behavior in
Children," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 1967, vol. 7, pp. 429-434;
Deanna Z. Kuhn, C.H. Madsen, and W.C. Becker, "Effects of Exposure to an
Aggressive Model and 'Frustration' on Children's Aggressive Behavior," Child
Development, 1967, vol. 38, pp. 739-745.
27. "Triviaddiction," Time, March 10, 1967, pp. 69-70.
28. "84 Killings Shown in 85% TV Hours on the 3 Networks," New York Times, July
26, 1968, p. 29.
29. Morris Ernst, quoted by George Gent in "Human Life Seen as Devalued by Violence
in the Mass Media," New York Times, Sept. 17, 1968, p. 78.
30. Joseph A. Loftus, "CBS Man Doubts Violence Theory: Tells Panel Studies Fail to
Establish Links to TV," New York Times, Oct. 17, 1968, p. 87. This is an account
of the testimony of Joseph T. Klapper before the National Commission on the
Causes and Prevention of Violence.
Chapter 13
VALUE MODIFICATION
BY MASS MEDIA*
Before turning to research data that indicate modification of values by
exposure to mass media, some clarification of concepts is required.
Values may be briefly defined as conceptions of the desirable. 1 Most
values can be stated in words, but for some this is difficult and even
impossible. Even when people can verbalize their values, it is not clear how
effective such values are as determinants of behavior. People may behave as
they do because they hold certain values, but there are many other factors
that shape almost any human act.
Values can sometimes be stated by the people who hold them.
Values can sometimes be inferred, even when not explicitly stated, from
what people do, from rules that say what people should do, or from things
people say.
Values can change. Since the link between values and actions is
problematic, however, a change in values does not necessarily entail changed
behavior. Nor does changed behavior necessarily presuppose changed values.
To be specific: a population might differ from its ancestors in the degree to
which it admires certain forms of violence and the degree to which it abhors
other forms, yet it might behave in the same violent ways on the same kinds
of occasions as before.
Some of the ways in which behavior may change without a corresponding
change in values will be examined in the next section. The present analysis
simply assumes that there is such connection between values and behavior
that the fact that people behave in one way instead of another can sometimes
be regarded as an expression of preference, and can thus be taken as a basis
for inferring their values. If people interact with each other, for example, in
situations where it would be possible for them to inflict physical injury upon
each other, and if they seem to strive to avoid inflicting these injuries, it might
be inferred that they value the lives of others. Perhaps each values only his
own safety and behaves non-violently toward others to avoid retaliatory
*Paper prepared for Media Task Force by William R. Catton, Jr., Professor of
Sociology, University of Washington.
285
286 Mass Media and Violence
violence: even then, the expectation of retaliation would imply a norm
enforced by sanctions. The existence and enforcement of the norm would
seem to imply that the secured condition is valued. "Live and let live" is
preferred to "kill or be killed."
Thus values can sometimes be inferred from norms. It will be assumed that
values can be inferred from verbal expressions of preference. Patrick Henry's
rhetorical question, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at
the price of chains and slavery?" was an implied expression of preference. At
least on the verbal level, precarious liberty was being declared preferable to
enslaved security; he was declaring the value of freedom.
It should not be assumed that values inferred from verbal expressions of
preference will necessarily be congruent with values inferred from non-verbal
behavior. For example, men have not always responded affirmatively to the
challenge to "Put your money where your mouth is."
The process of inferring values from preferences, either verbal or
non-verbal is not a simple one. If, on a certain stretch of road, we observe
that most drivers of high-powered cars keep their speed under thirty miles per
hour, we cannot simply infer that they value moving at a leisurely pace. More
likely, they value avoidance of speeding tickets and accidents, and have seen
signs indicating a twenty-five-mile-per-hour speed limit. The posted speed
limit does not indicate that some legal authority assigns a negative value to
speed as such; the negative value -may again be attached to the risks of
accident, injury, or death which would be made excessive in this congested
area by speeds that would be tolerable elsewhere.
A. Acquisition of Values
Values are acquired in the socializing process. To the extent that the mass
media are involved in socializing human personalities, there is an inherent
possibility that these media can affect the way people acquire values and the
kinds of values they acquire.
LaPiere speaks of a category of "fugitive" values, which people impute
temporarily to certain acts or objects because of their newness. Group status
is determined partly by sharing in these fugitive values. All groups assign such
values. 2 For teenagers, there are slang expressions, popular songs, and hair
styles. For academicians, there are intellectual fashions. For motorists, there
is the value assigned to owning the latest model car. Mass media, of course,
have the power to create or implement such fugitive values. This is indicated
by the role of the radio disc jockey. The play he gives a particular record on
the air affects its "popularity" far more than the frequency with which he, or
any other private individual, plays it at home. This is why "payola" was
considered scandalous, because people who have a fondness for music did not
want to feel that the frequency with which a piece was played on the air was
induced through monetary considerations.
There are various ways in which different media can affect or have
affected values. When a new medium first comes into existence, the mere fact
that some people have access to it and some do not may give one group an
advantage over another. In the ancient and medieval worlds, only a select
segment of the population, distinguished by status and education, constituted
the reading public. Literacy was at first associated with membership in a
Value Modification by Mass Media 287
ruling elite. 3 Now that literacy is so nearly universal in a number of lands, the
ability to read no longer has that special value, although in a sense it has
greater utility than ever because of the continued multiplication and
diversification of written materials. Similarly, when the electronic media were
new, social distinctions arose between set owners and non-owners. Quite
apart from the impact of broadcast content upon audience values, set
ownership had a social value that is now lacking. Both radio and television
came on the scene after literacy was nearly universal in our society, and set
ownership, especially of television, has now reached the same status.
The transition from non-literacy to nearly universal literacy took several
thousand years. The elite status of literate people in the early centuries of
that transition was not a "fugitive" value. In the United States, it took less
than one generation for radios to become standard household fixtures, and
the corresponding transition for television took about a decade. Since
universal literacy already prevailed at the beginning of these latter two
transitions, it was never possible for early access to either of these electronic
media to have the powerful stratifying effect that early access to literacy had
had. Early television ownership did have some kind of "fugitive" value, but
this seldom gave anyone access to a fund of information from which
non-owners were totally and hopelessly cut off: newspapers and other media
were always available. Consequently, what mattered to the television viewer
was the subtler difference between the eye-witness quality of membership in
the television audience versus the quality of indirectness inherent in
membership in the audiences of the printed media. The difference between
membership in the viewing audience of television and in the listening
audience of radio was even less, though it was great enough to stimulate the
rapid adoption of television by a nation already equipped with radios.
The invention of printing increased the importance of literacy because
there was more available to read. As literacy became more universal, it took
on a different kind of value; the ability to read lost its aura of religious and
political power. The spread of literacy provided the social context for the
invention of new kinds of printed media, including the daily newspaper. A
century ago relatively few people really needed to keep abreast of current
events, but as newspaper publication began to make this more possible, the
knowledge of current events acquired a social value (and a lack of this
knowledge implied a loss of social status).
The value of being "informed" was further enhanced with the advent of
radio newscasting. It was now possible not only to know what had occurred,
but to be involved in it in a new way. One did not just read about the
President's "State of the Union" address; it could be heard on the radio, and
this gave the message a great deal more immediacy. Accordingly, the value of
audible events and experiences was enhanced.
The advent of television did not reduce the number of radios, but did
bring about a drastic change in radio programming. The audiovisual medium
improved on some of the innovations that the sound-only medium had been
performing rather well. Most drama, and a good deal of the news, were even
more interesting when experienced through the audiovisual medium.
Programmers soon realized that radio was at a distinct disadvantage in
comparison with the sound-and-sight combination, and radio programming
became largely confined to music and abbreviated news, and some special
288 Mass Media and Violence
events coverage and sportscasting aimed at people only temporarily out of
touch with television.
Just as radio newscasting discovered that the distinctive things it could do
it must do (e.g., replay recorded excerpts of a president's speech rather than
just a newscaster's descriptive summary), so the networks have found that
because they can show interesting events, they must? The visual aspects of
the news event or a drama thus acquired new values. During a radio broadcast
of a presidential address, the listener is allowed to form his own opinions
about the speech and the various points in it. Television, on the other hand,
must (because it can) show which senators or congressmen are or are not
applauding, and must show any disturbance in the gallery, or any cabinet
member who happens to be dozing during any part of the speech. Because
television can make eyewitnesses of its audience, it must and must therefore
go out of its way to present interesting and unusual visual aspects. There is
thus an inherent tendency for television to introduce a visual bias into our
value system.
Because television allows its audience to see and hear, its socializing power
should be appreciably greater than that of radio, which in turn has somewhat
more socializing power than most printed media. The power of visual
broadcasting to change attitudes and behavior is well-illustrated in an
experiment by Bandura and Menlove. 5 Children in nursery school at Stanford
who were afraid of dogs showed a significant reduction in this behavior (on a
test consisting of a graded series of actual acts of approach) after they had
been exposed to eight three-minute films, two per day on four alternate days.
The films showed a child making progressively bolder approaches to a dog.
Two different treatments were tried in the experiment. One group saw a
series of films which all used the same five-year-old male model and the same
cocker spaniel. Another group saw a series in which the same single-model
sequence was interspersed with scenes in which models of both sexes and of
various ages approached different dogs in a graded series of increasing size and
fearsomeness. Both groups showed significant and lasting reduction in their
fear of live dogs in comparison with a control group of equally apprehensive
children who were shown neutral films (Disneyland and Marineland scenes).
Television programs frequently portray actions which most viewers would
have some inhibition about performing from switching cigarette brands or
using a hair color rinse for the first time, to killing an adversary. The viewing
these events could be expected to reduce inhibitions to some degree, in much
the same manner as the dog-approaching inhibitions of the children. Before
the films were shown, the children had a negative attitude toward dogs; after
seeing the films, in which approach behavior was exhibited without adverse
consequences to the model, these values (as expressed in overt behavior) had
been shifted in a positive direction. The children not only learned to
approach the dog used in the experimental test, but their learning was
generalized to include other dogs. 6
It seems to be well established that differential vicarious reinforcement can
produce differential amounts of imitative behavior. There is no reason for
assuming that human actions described or depicted in the mass media will not
function as models in this manner. Berelson and Salter, after performing a
content analysis of a magazine fiction sample and finding majority-type
Americans overrepresented among the characters and especially among the
Value Modification by Mass Media 289
favorably portrayed ones (whereas minority members were underrepresented
numerically and unfavorably treated in the stories), commented on the
"presumable effects" of such images. They had not actually studied reader
behavior before and after exposure to the stories, but their comments are
significant in the light of subsequent experiments on observational learning.
They wrote:
These stories are probably offered and accepted purely as
entertainment. Their typical effect upon readers is ... respite . . . from
daily routines and daily cares . . . but it is certainly not the only one.
Many communications have other than their intended effects upon
readers or listeners and this is probably such a case .... Readers with
latent tendencies to assign the usual stereotypic descriptions to groups
whom they do not know, or toward whom they are unsympathetic, or
with whom they do not come in personal contact, can find support for
their convenient tags, labels, and aggressions in such magazine fiction.
Thus the condition and behavior of fictional characters can readily be
used to "prove" that the Negroes are lazy or ignorant, the Jews sly, the
Irish superstitious, the Italians criminal, and so on.
The nature of these stories, then, tends to perpetuate the myth of
the "100% American" by differentiating subtly and consistently
between The Americans and the representatives of other groups. 7
A key idea here is that people are influenced in serious ways even when
they seek only entertainment (or "respite") by exposure to mass media. This
was also found to be true in the case of those who listened to the radio
daytime serials, or "soap operas." From a study of one hundred intensive
interviews, Herzog noted three major types of soap opera listener
gratification: (1) emotional release a "chance to cry," or derivation of
comfort from sensing that "other people have troubles, too;" (2)
opportunities for wishful thinking exposure to happy episodes which offset
one's own problems; and (3) a chance to obtain usable advice. The third type
was considered something of a surprise, and was further studied in a poll of
2,500 serial listeners who were asked whether these programs helped them
deal better with their own everyday problems. Forty-one percent claimed to
have been helped, 28 percent said they had not been helped, and 31 percent
had not thought of it that way, did not know, or did not reply. 8
The propensity to take advice from radio serials varied inversely with
education, directly with the perceived amount of worry, and directly with the
number of soap operas listened to. The kind of advice obtained consisted
mainly of: (1) learning "how to take it" (acquiring what might be termed
"stoical values" and absorbing the conviction that "things come out all
right"); (2) learning to project blame on others (because the interpersonal
problems portrayed are attributable to another's character defects); and (3)
acquiring ready-made formulas of behavior (e.g., don't slap your children,
deprive them of something; take things calmly, don't get excited)?
In England, Himmelweit and his associates found that, even with regard to
values that are implicitly rather than explicitly preached editorially, television
does have some measurable impact on children despite their exposure to
many other sources of values. The influence of television depends on
290 Mass Media and Violence
repetition in dramatic form and is most possible where views are not firmly
fixed. The optimal age of responsiveness varies for different topics and
depends on emotional and social maturity as well as mental or chronological
age. The more emotionally responsive the child is to television, the greater its
influence. 10
B. Crime and Viloence
Several content analyses of television programming have shown the steady
diet of crime shows available to viewers, many of which present recurrent acts
of violence. Schramm and his associates asked a sample of parents, "If ycu
could prevent certain TV programs from being seen by your children, what
kinds would you try to prevent?" Almost two-thirds answered that they
would like to eliminate programs of crime, violence, and horror. Then they
were asked why they objected to these programs. The respondents thought
that: (1) these programs tended to frighten children; (2) the children tended
to dwell on and dream about them; (3) some children tended to re-enact
some of the dramatic scenes; or (4) such programs might induce delinquency.
These apprehensions were more common among college-educated,
middle-class parents than among lower-class parents. 1 1 One interesting
implication of the study is that the wish that children be insulated from such
programs, and the fear that such programs would have harmful effects, did
not seem to be accompanied by a conviction that parents actually could
eliminate these programs from their children's television diet.
These apprehensions and parents' implicit resignation to the pervasiveness
of these unwanted influences are important. From several kinds of tests,
Himmelweit demonstrated that
. . . under certain conditions, ideas and values which form part of the
underlying entertainment pattern do influence children's attitudes, not
because they differ from the content of other mass media, but because
they are repeated and seen much more often. We have no reason for
assuming that respect for violence and aggression a basic feature of the
popular dramatized programmes under review should have a smaller
effect than other- scenes on television. 1 2
Wertham has suggested several kinds of effects that might result from
exposure to abundant television violence. Whether or not the viewer actually
learns to value violence, Wertham suggests that viewing could conceivably
reinforce a pro-violence value. Television could demonstrate violent methods
or how to escape detection after a violent act, or the viewer's awareness of
the undesirability of violence may merely be dulled. He sees television as a
school for violence, and says, "In this school young people are never, literally
never, taught that violence is in itself reprehensible. The lesson they do get is
that violence is the great adventure and the sure solution, and he who is best
at it wins." 1 3
There is violence, for instance, in westerns. Some people assume that if
these shows are regarded as teaching anything, it is that good wins out over
evil. However, it can also be suggested that "good triumphs over bad through
Value Modification by Mass Media 29 1
violence-the manly, as well as the only, course of action." 14 There are other
values presented (and perhaps taught to some viewers) by the westerns:
.... regard for justice, life, and property. A whole range of values,
however, never finds expression in Westerns those to do with family,
work education, and manners. The characters do not need them in their
way of life; they are rarely encumbered by parents, wives, or children,
and seldom eat or go into their homes; most of the indoor action takes
place in the sheriffs office or in the saloon. 1 5
A number of studies have shown that exposure to violent or aggressive models
can increase the propensity for aggressive behavior. Lovass conducted three
experiments with preschool children who were exposed to five-minute movies
and then allowed to play with a lever-pressing toy which can cause one doll to
beat another on the hand. Exposure to a film that portrayed aggressive
behavior increased the child's indulgence in this symbolic kind of aggression;
exposure to a film of non-aggressive behavior did not. 16 Mussen and
Rutherford carried out an experiment with thirty-six first-grade children of
middle-class origin. A third of them were exposed to aggressive fantasy in an
animated cartoon, another third to a non-aggressive cartoon, and the
remainder to no cartoon. Those who viewed the aggressive cartoon
manifested an increased subsequent preference for the prospect of bursting a
balloon (or having it popped) over the prospect of merely playing with it. 1 7
Balloons are trivial objects, and balloon popping may be a relatively minor
form of aggression, but keeping in mind that values are conceptions of the
desirable which we infer from preferences, the demonstration that viewing a
single animated cartoon which portrays aggressive behavior can arouse a
preference for even such mildly destructive behavior seems to indicate that
visual media can influence values.
In a sample of 354 sixth-to eighth-grade boys in the schools of Adelaide,
Australia before television was available, Lovibond found that exposure to
comic books and frequency of cinema attendance were positively correlated
with scores on a scale designed to measure acceptance of a fascist-like
admiration for use of force by the strong to dominate and exploit the weak.
In a sample of ninety-three sixth-and seventh-graders, after television became
available, this same scale was found to, be positively correlated with the
number of hours viewed per week Moreover, preference for crime and
violence programs was positively associated both with the scale scores and
with high amounts of television exposure. 18 The attitude scale was
constructed on the basis of a content analysis of crime and war comic books
which found that these seem to express an ideology amounting to "idolatry
of force and violence."
Most of the people who write and draw for the comic-book industry
presumably have little intention of instilling a set of values or an ideology in
those who read their material. Certainly few of them are employed on the
basis of credentials signifying that society has certified their qualification for
transmission of values to children. However, an investigation of comic-book
readership by children (similar to the study of women who listened to soap
operas) reveals that such media do function as socializing agents.
292 Mass Media and Violence
Developmental, as well as entertainment, needs of children are served by
comic-reading. 1 9 How well is another question.
Zajonc found that radio programs could persuade children "to admire and
identify with a model who bears striking resemblance to the so-called
'authoritarian personality,' and who represents a system of values more
typical of autocratic than of democratic societies." 2 The structure of the
experiment showed that the acceptance of the values implicit in the model's
behavior depended primarily on the success rather than on the
conventionality of the behavior.
Berkowitz and Geen demonstrated that the inhibitions of male
undergraduates at Wisconsin against aggressive behavior could be reduced by
showing a filmed episode of "justified aggression." Their aggressive responses
toward another experimental subject were also increased when the name
attributed to that person tended to associate him with the target of the
justified aggression in the film. 2 1
In the light of such studies, it is somewhat ironic that the various
self-regulatory media codes of good practice insist that violence should not be
shown unless germane to the dramatic development of the story. One test of
relevance is that it produces a desired outcome; another is to have the
violence directed toward a character who is defined as "deserving it." In
either case, as the studies have shown, the conditions for effective
observational learning through vicarious reinforcement have been ensured. To
the child who views television for entertainment, but is also available for
incidental learning (although this is unintended so far as the media people are
concerned), violence that contributes to "dramatic development"
accomplishes something. What is to prevent the child from learning that
violence is an acceptable means to ends he may have learned or will
subsequently learn to value? When the codes forbid "senseless" violence, but
permit violence that leads to some end, perhaps they simply create the
impression that violence is usually sensible an unintentional imparting of
pro-violence values.
In the very process of seeming to preach that "crime does not pay," the
media may actually undermine the moral restraints against violent and
anti-social behavior. Screenplays based on the precept of "an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth" can lead to "socially harmful consequences. If the
criminal or 'bad guy' is punished aggressively, so that others do to him what
he has done to them, the violence appears justified." 22 There is always the
possibility that precisely those aspects of the dramatization which convey the
sense that the violence was justified can stimulate some previously-angered
person to violence. 23
There is another danger worth noting. Even if mass media violence does
not induce pro-violence values among the audience, it could so define
violence as to make certain values seem inapplicable. By repeated exposure to
stylized violence on television, for example, children may come to regard all
violence, even in news broadcasts, as unreal or unimportant. 24 This might be
the effect on some viewers, even while others were learning to admire the uses
of violence and still others were learning to abhor violence. The existence of
perceptual selectivity, so commonly cited in defense of the harmlessness of
mass media, must also preclude any easy assurance that everyone in the
audience will respond in a desirable way.
Value Modification by Mass Media 293
Wertham is not necessarily exaggerating when he says, "Many modern
children fail to see the evil in horror and the wrong in violence and have lost
their natural sympathy for the suffering of others. The trouble is not that
they get frightened, but that they do not get frightened." 25 Crime dramas, in
addition to portraying the value that crime because it does not pay is bad,
also portray other values: (1) What you do does not matter so much as which
side you are on; the "good guys" do many of the same things the "bad guys"
do, and are admired for it. (2) Good appearances more often mask an evil
character than vice versa. 2 6
As a horizon-broadening experience, exposure to television affects the
values of viewers in other ways. In England, more viewers than non-viewers in
a children's sample disagreed with the statement "My own country is always
right." 27 Evidently exposure to television can reduce ethnocentrism; some
may desire and others may regret such an effect. Viewers in the same sample
showed slightly more interest in other countries than did non-viewers. In
describing six categories of foreigners, viewers made more objective and fewer
evaluative statements that non-viewers. 28 The BBC policy of presenting
programs about foreign countries for children had the effect of leading many
viewers toward a more detached view of foreigners.
C. Family and Sex
In the same British sample, viewers and non-viewers did not differ
significantly in the proportion wishing to marry when they grow up, or in
percentage disagreeing with the expectation that marriage assures happiness.
There was some difference in their impressions of what makes a good
husband (the viewers were more inclined to stress personality attributes and
the non-viev/ers gave proportionally more stress to role performance), but
none in the impressions of what makes a good wife. Since television
portrayals of family life are quite varied, their effects may tend to cancel one
another out in an overall sampling of opinions. Moreover, for viewers and
non-viewers alike, their own families still seem to function as the major
source of children's ideas about family life. 29
There is one important exception. Children usually have little opportunity
(at least in American society) to observe adult sexual behavior directly, save
for its milder or peripheral forms. Due to norms of privacy, children can
hardly model their own sexual behavior after that of their parents. Characters
portrayed in the mass media afford some additional opportunity for
observational learning and may thus be of considerable importance. By
contrast, children in some other societies have abundant opportunities to
observe all phases of sexual behavior; in such societies there is a considerable
amount of imitation by children. It is sometimes encouraged, and often fully
accepted. 30 Similar imitative behavior occurs when opportunities do arise for
children to observe adult sex activity in normally nonpermissive societies such
as the United States. Such situations occur in crowded slum housing, for
example, where parents have little privacy from their children. 3 1
To the extent that sex is presented in the mass media, there is a pressure
upon children to learn from these presentations because of the paucity of
other opportunities for observational learning. Walters, Bowen, and Parke
conducted an experiment which produced results suggesting that sex values
294 Mass Media and Violence
can be acquired from such experiences. Male college undergraduates were
shown a series of photos of erotically posed nude or nearly nude males and
females. A moving spot of light on the film was said to indicate the eye
movements of a previous viewer. Half of the subjects saw a version of the film
in which the spot of light (ostensibly "the previous viewer's eye") was on the
background most of the time, and the other half was a version in which it was
on the breast or genital area a high proportion of the time. An eye-marker
camera attached to the subject's head recorded his own eye movements while
he subsequently looked at a series of similar pictures, presented on slides. The
group which was shown the second film spent significantly more time than
the other group inspecting the nude or nearly nude bodies and significantly
less time looking at the background features. 32
Questions can be raised as to the validity of the sexual learning available to
mass media audiences. Apart from the readers of the limited array of serious
books about sex, what image of the sexual nature of human beings is
obtained by the audiences from such media as movies, television, radio (and
the popular songs it presents), and magazines? The balance between mutually
rewarding marital sex and exploitive, obsessive, casual, or brutal sex varies
from medium to medium. Again, as in the case of other kinds of
communications, most of the people involved in preparing these images
probably have little intention of instilling one kind of sex value or another in
their audience. They are providing entertainment or some other supposedly
effectless commodity, but their intentions may be an inadequate guide to
their impact.
D. Occupational Values
In a study of television's version of the labor force, not only was the
frequency of occurrence of various job types tabulated, but a listing was also
made of the number of times each character, whatever his or her occupation,
(1) gave an order to be carried out; (2) obeyed an order an order given by
someone else; (3) gave permission to another person; (4) received permission
from someone; (5) was addressed by a term of respect, such as "sir" or "your
honor;" or (6) used such a term of respect in addressing someone else. From
these tabulations, indexes of "power" for each occupational category were
calculated by subtracting the number of submissive acts from the number of
dominant acts and dividing the difference by the sum. 33 The ranking of jobs
depicted in the analyzed programs (which was reasonably realistic) is not so
important here; what is of interest is that the tabulations could be made with
such facility. This showed that readily discernible acts of interpersonal
dominance and submission are built into television portrayals of human
interaction.
Power or lack of it is not always a highly salient aspect of occupational
roles in real life. As indicated before, the characteristics of television as a
communication medium influence the kinds of material that will be selected
for presentation. . In a television drama, the episodes in which employed
people interact with each other may be easier to portray and more germane
to development of the story than other aspects which are more characteristic
of job performance. The pencil-pushing acts of a powerful occupational
Value Modification by Mass Media 295
category may, in real life, consume more time than the people-pushing acts,
but they are unlikely to occupy a proportionate amount of the time in a
television dramatization of that role. As a result, it is possible that television
viewers come to assign greater importance to the visible signs of power, or
even to the power aspects of positions, than they would in the absence of this
influence.
Himmelweit did find that the importance of viewers attached to jobs
differed from that of non-viewers. Viewers were more ambitious and more
"middle-class" in their job preferences, and often stressed the need for
self-confidence as one of the factors contributing to personal success. 34
Perhaps this was due, in part, to the repeated witnessing of dramatic
symbolizations, where dominance is an indication of self-confidence, while
deference indicates humility.
E. Gratification Deferment
The training of the maturing human being to defer certain activities until a
more appropriate time is a necessary part of the socialization process. There
are situations in which foregoing an immediate reward will facilitate the
attainment of a larger reward later, such as studying rather than playing, or
investing some of one's money rather than spending it all as it comes. Since
immediate gratification is more appealing, it takes prolonged and intensive
training to overcome the innate reluctance to defer gratification. The ability
to defer gratification is generally considered an aspect of maturity, and is
demonstrably useful. How is it affected by the mass media?
Schramm and his associates made a study of 198 tenth-graders in Denver.
They divided the group into categories of "high" and "low" users of print,
and "high" and "low" users of television. On the premise that printed media
and television differ in the presentation of fantasy versus reality, they formed
four types: "Low users" (low TV, low print), "fantasy-oriented" (high TV,
low print), "reality-oriented" (low TV, high print), and "high users" (high
TV, high print). On a questionnaire, 83 percent of the "reality-oriented"
disagreed with the statement that "The best way to live is to enjoy today and
not think about tomorrow," while only 43 percent of the "fantasy-oriented"
disagreed. In response to the statement, "The best way to be happy is to plan
ahead," 58 percent of the "reality-oriented" agreed, and only 36 percent of
the "fantasy-oriented" agreed. In response to the statement "It's a good idea
to work hard today so you can enjoy tomorrow more," 56 percent of the
"reality-oriented" agreed, as compared with only 40 percent 'of the
"fantasy -oriented." Both the low-users and the high-users tended to fall
between the other two categories in response to these statements. 3 5
The reality group was thus most in favor of deferred gratification and the
fantasy group least so. In other words, high exposure to print favored and
high exposure to television disapproved gratification-deferring values. The
study did not show the extent to which the differences in media exposure
might be responsible for the differences in gratification-deferment preference,
or vice versa. Assuming that a preference for immediate gratification would
tend to point one toward television as a fantasy-laden medium, and a
preference for deferred gratification would tend to point one toward the
296 Mass Media and Violence
reality-laden printed media, the differential exposure thus produced would
hardly tend to undo the value difference, and seems likely to strengthen and
increase it.
The most common reason given by children for watching television is the
pleasure of being passively entertained, having vicarious thrills, and living a
fantasy. In their teens they begin to express this differently it keeps them
from getting bored. 36 The implication that without television they would be
threatened with boredom could be symptomatic of a television-bred inability
to find other means of entertainment for themselves.
Children acknowledge that they learn from television, but they generally
prefer that such learning be incidental to the entertainment value of the
medium. They consciously learn manners and customs, hair styles, clothing
fashions (for both sexes), athletic and other techniques, ideas for school
themes, conversational topics, etc. They are often loath to view educational
programs where learning is not incidental to entertainment. 37 It would seem
that this attitude, repeatedly reinforced by years of exposure to commercial
television, would carry over into school, making them unreceptive to learning
which, in those formal educational contexts, is quite clearly not incidental to
immediate pleasure. The modern college student's restless complaint that his
classes "don't seem relevant" (usually without specification of what he wants
them to be relevant to) may be a direct symptom of retarded development of
the ability to defer gratification. College classes usually are not as relevant to
immediate pleasure as are television programs, and the solutions to real-life
problems that might be derived from higher learning will seldom be as simple
and immediate as the familiar perpetration of violence upon the personal
sources of problems in televised fantasy.
On the basis of testimony by parents and teachers, Himmelweit concluded
that television does not seem to have either diminished or enhanced the
importance children attach to school, and he seemed to find no difference
between viewers and non-viewers in respective interest in school work and
extracurricular activities. 38 However, the children in Schramm's studies felt,
in large numbers, that school is dull by comparison with television. The
proportion who felt this way was highest among eighth-graders, and higher
for boys than for girls. 39 Perhaps there is a greater difference in the
attachment to male" roles on TV as opposed to real life than in the case of
female roles. In any event, as children enter their teens and pay increasing
heed to their peers and less to their parents, they are acutely conscious of the
contrast between entertainment by commercial television and education by
noncommercial television. They tend to disparage the latter as being for
"squares." Television is regarded as part of the non-educational portion of
their day's routine. 40 This almost implies that school would be viewed as part
of the non-pleasurable portion of the day.
F. "Sleeper" Effects
When exposure to mass communication can be shown to produce little or
no immediate effect on attitudes, but an appreciable delayed effect shows up,
this is called the "sleeper effect."
Such an effect occurred in the study cited earlier in which children's fear
of dogs was reduced by watching films of a child playing harmlessly with a
Value Modification by Mass Media 297
dog. The increment in dog-approaching behavior was significant in the group
which saw the series of films always showing the same child making a graded
series of approaches to the same dog; this improvement lasted with virtually
no diminution when remeasured a month later. However, in the group
exposed to the films showing a variety of persons interacting with a variety of
dogs, while the immediate increment was comparable, there was no loss over
the ensuing month, and there was actually some further gain. 41 It seems
likely that this was due to an enhancement of stimulus generalization by the
fact that both the humans and the dogs shown in the films were diverse
enough to provide a generalized model. Equipped with a more general
pro-dog frame of reference, these children were more likely to perceive
subsequent real-life encounters between persons and dogs as continuations of
the film-viewing experience. Thus they could continue to learn that fear of
dogs was usually unnecessary and that pleasure from playing with dogs was
possible, whereas the other group's learning was completed when it stopped
seeing films on the subject.
Knowledge of the sleeper effect began to accumulate from systematic
research as far back as 1933, when studies of movies as stimuli for attitude
change began to question the permanence of the change. It was soon apparent
that increments of further change were possible. 42 During World War II, in
studies of the effects of indoctrination films used in troop training, clear cases
of sleeper effects were found; factual information would be forgotten as time
passed, but opinion changes often grew. Several explanations were suggested:
(1) individuals pre-disposed to accept an opinion who had not yet done so
might be won over slowly; (2) forgetting the source while retaining the ideas
might make them more acceptable; (3) forgetting specifics while retaining
generalities might produce cumulative attitude change; and (4) implications
might be retained while the specific bases were forgotten. 43 Later research
indicated the possibility of another mechanism: (5) exposure to mass
communication could provide the audience member with a new cognitive
frame of reference by which he would perceive subsequent events in a
changed manner. 44
Whatever the explanation for sleeper effects, it is clear from the fact that
such phenomena do occur that mass media produce long-range changes in
values that would escape notice in short-range studies. It should be clear, too,
that previous exposure to the mass media may be among the factors which
shape the perceptual selections which in turn shape the effects of subsequent
exposures to mass media. Thus, the fact that perceptions are selective is no
warrant for complacent assumptions that the impact of mass communication
upon values is either negligible or necessarily benign.
REFERENCES
1. See also William R. Catton, Jr., "A Theory of Value," American Sociological
Review, 24 (June 1959), pp. 310-317; Douglas Waples, Bernard Berelson, and
Franklyn R. Bradshaw, What Reading Does to People (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago
Press, 1940), pp. 21-22. For a somewhat different but compatible definition, see
Richard T. LaPiere, A Theory of Social Control (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1954), p.
133.
2. LaPiere, op. cit. note 1, p. 142.
298 Mass Media and Violence
3. Waples, Berelson and Bradshaw, op. cit. , note 1, p. 103.
4. Wilbur Schramm, Jack Lyle, and Edwin B. Parker, Television in the Lives of Our
Children (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1961), pp. 22-23.
5. Albert Bandura and Frances L. Menlove, "Factors Determining Vicarious Extinction
of Avoidance Behavior Through Symbolic Modeling." Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 8 (1968), pp. 99-108.
6. Ibid., p. 106.
7. Bernard Berelson and Patricia J. Salter, "Majority and Minority Americans: An
Analysis of Magazine Fiction," Public Opinion Quarterly, 10 (Summer, 1946), pp.
168-190.
8. Herta Herzog, "Motivations and Gratifications of Daily Serial Listeners," reprinted
from Paul Lazarsfeld and Frank Stanton (eds.), Radio Research, 1942-1943 (New
York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1944) and in Wilbur Schramm (ed.), The Process and
Effects of Mass Communication (Urbana, 111.: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1954), pp.
50-55.
9. Ibid.
10. Hilde T. Himmelweit, A. N. Oppenheim, and Pamela Vince, Television and the Child
(London: Oxford U. Press, 1958), pp. 260-261.
11. Schramm, , Lyle, and Parker, op. cit. note 4, p. 55.
12. Himmelweit, Oppenheim, and Vince, op. cit., note 10, p. 216.
13. Fredric Wertham, "School for Violence," in Otto N. Larsen (ed.), Violence and the
Mass Media (New York: Harper & Row, 1968), p. 39.
14. Himmelweit, Oppenheim, and Vince, op. cit., note 10, p. 184 (emphasis added).
15. Ibid.
16. O. Ivar Lovass, "Effect of Exposure to Symbolic Agression on Aggressive Behavior,"
Child Development, 32 (1961), pp. 3744.
17. Paul Mussen and Eldred Rutherford, "Effects of Aggressive Cartoons on Children's
Aggressive Play," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 62 (1961), pp.
461-464.
18. S. H. Lovibond, "The Effect of Media Stressing Crime and Violence Upon Children's
Attitudes," Social Problems, 15 (1967), pp. 91-100.
19. Katherine M. Wolfe and Marjorie Fiske, "Why They Read Comics," reprinted from
Paul Lazarsfeld and Frank Stanton (eds.), Communications Research, 1948-1949
(New York: Harper & Bros., 1949); and Wilbur Schramm (ed.), The Process and
Effects of Mass Communication (Urbana, 111.: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1954), p. 49.
20. Robert B. Zajonc, "Some Effects of the 'Space' Serials," Public Opinion Quarterly,
18 (1954), pp. 373.
21. Leonard Berkowitz and Russell G. Geen, "Stimulus Qualities of the Target of
Aggression: A Further Study," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5
(1967), pp. 364-368.
22. Percy H. Tannenbaum and Bradley S. Greenberg, "Mass Communication," Annual
Review of Psychology, 19 (1968), pp. 372-373.
23. Leonard Berkoxvitz, "The Effects of Observing Violence," Scientific American, 210
(Feb. 1964), p. 5.
24. Himmelweit, Oppenheim, and Vince, op. cit. , note 10, p. 216.
25. Wertham, op. cit., note 13, p. 38
26. Himmelweit, Oppenheim, and Vince, op. cit. , note 10, p. 190.
27. Ibid., p. 256.
28. Ibid., pp. 253-254.
29. Ibid., pp. 247-248.
30. Albert Bandura and Richard H. Walters, Social Learning and Personality
Development (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1963), p. 65.
31. Ibid., p. 66.
32. Ibid., pp. 76-78.
33. Melvin L. DeFleur, "Occupational Roles as Portrayed on Television," Public
Opinion Quarterly, 28 (Spring, 1964), pp. 68-69.
34. Himmelweit, Oppenheim, and Vince, op. cit., note 10, p. 18.
35. Schramm, Lyle, and Parker, op. cit. , note 4, p. 1 14.
36. Ibid., pp. 57-58.
37. Ibid., pp. 58-59.
38. Himmelweit, Oppenheim, and Vince, op. cit. , note 10, p. 246.
Value Modification by Mass Media 299
39. Schramm, Lyle, and Parker, op. cit. , note 4, p. 91.
40. Ibid., pp. 93-94.
41. Bandura and Menlove, op. cit. , note 5, pp. 102-103.
42. See Ruth C. Peterson and L. L. Thurstone, Motion Pictures and the Social Attitudes
of Children (New York: Macmillan, 1933), pp. 65-66; and Perry W. Holaday and
George D. Stoddard, Getting Ideas from the Movies (New York: Macmillan, 1933),
pp. 78-79.
43. Carl I. Hovland, Arthur A. Lumsdaine, and Fred D. Sheffield, Experiments on Mass
Communication (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1949^, ch. 7.
44. William R. Catton, Jr., "Changing Cognitive Structure as a Basis for the 'Sleeper
Effect,'" Social Forces, 38 (May 1960), pp. 348-354.
300 Mass Media and Violence
Chapter 14
MASS MEDIA AS ACTIVATORS
OF LATENT TENDENCIES*
From what has been said in the preceding chapters, it should be
abundantly clear that good intentions are not enough. Evidence that media
operators are good people and have no desire to promote violence cannot
suffice to prove that mass communications either cannot or do not produce
increases in violent behavior.
It is not necessary to assume that the mass media would have to change
people's values, either, in order to change their behavior. Values and behavior
are not that tightly linked. Making audiences value violence is not the only
conceivable way in which mass media could promote violent actions. For
various reasons, people do not always do what they would value doing, and
they sometimes undertake actions that are markedly inconsistent with the
values they hold.
It is likewise not necessary to assume that the mass media would have to
produce deviant motivation in order to foster deviant behavior. Deviant
behavior may be either intentional or unintentional. People with deviant
motivations may not behave in a deviant manner, for any of several reasons.
Blake and Davis have listed five reasons why deviant motivation may not
result in deviant actions: (1) A person tempted to deviate in certain ways
from one norm may be inhibited by other norms and values which he has also
internalized. (2) People generally desire approval by others and the
temptation to deviate from some norm may be offset by the recognition that
it will result in disapproval. (3) The temptation to deviate may also be offset
by anticipation of formal punishment. (4) The anticipation of mere
nonreward, even without actual anticipation of disapproval and punishment,
may keep a person from deviating in spite of temptation to do so.
Nonreward, unlike punishment, affords no glamour or heroic status to the
deviant. (5) Deviant behavior may be inhibited by lack of opportunity even
when a person is motivated toward it. 1
To the extent that deviant motivation may already exist, and to the extent
that the mass media may inadvertently alter any of these preventives of
*A paper prepared for the Media Task Force by William R. Catton, Jr., Professor of
Sociology, University of Washington.
301
302 Mass Media and Violence
deviant behavior, the media can thus indirectly and unintentionally foster
deviant actions.
A. Changing Behavior Without Changing Values
The same values do not always produce the same behavior, and different
values do not always give rise to different behavior. There are several reasons
for this. If different people with the same values have different kinds or
different amounts of knowledge about the characteristics of various potential
goals, the knowledge differences will cause the same values to lead to
different actions. Even if the values and the knowledge are alike for various
people, these persons may act differently if they are at different distances
from the goals in question. Proximity to a potential goal tends to make it a
stronger motivator. Not many people will literally "walk a mile for a Camel,"
especially if another brand is available only a few feet away.
Each person has many values. At any given moment, only one or a few of
his values are salient. Two persons with the same sets of values, then, may
behave differently because different ones of their values are activated at a
given moment.
If all these things are kept in mind it should be clear that overt adoption of
some action which has been persuasively advocated through mass media is by
no means the only kind of "effect" mass media may have. Audience behavior
can be influenced without any change of attitudes or values. Mass
communications may convey new knowledge about goals already sought, thus
altering the goal-pursuing behavior of the audience. Or, mass media may
indicate to audience members that their proximity to (and hence motivation
to strive for) a goal they already desire is greater than they had supposed.
Mass media content may alter the momentary salience of the various values
already held by the audience member, showing him that another of his values
applies to a given situation to a greater degree than the one he had been
invoking.
In all of this, the fact that incidental learning does occur must also be
borne in mind. Sheer entertainment content, not intended to affect either
values or behavior, . may influence what audience members do if, in an
incidental way, it modifies any of the kinds of conditions set forth in the last
several paragraphs.
Apologists for mass media, especially television, have argued that the
provision of substitute satisfactions or vicarious experiences can serve to
prevent overt actions that would be socially undesirable. According to this
line of reasoning, the mass media serve a socially useful "cathartic" function;
by displaying violence they provide harmless outlets for the violent impulses
of audience members. But this is apparently not the way it works, according
to a series of experiments summarized by Berkowitz. 2 These studies have
shown that catharsis is less likely than arousal of aggressive behavior, as a
result of observation of aggression. In particular, watching "justified movie
violence" does not discharge the anger of previously antagonized viewers but
rather makes them feel freer to attack the person who had antagonized them.
It has become clear from a considerable body of research that televised or
filmed violence affects viewers in one or more of the following ways: (!) It
Mass Media as Activators of Latent Tendencies 303
may reduce their inhibitions against behaving in violent and aggressive ways.
(2) It may teach them forms of aggression, by giving them information about
how someone they may want to attack could be attacked when an occasion
presents itself. (3) The customary ethical ending, which supposedly shows that
crime or other wrongdoing does not pay because the villian gets punished,
may delay any tendency by viewers to reproduce the actions they have seen,
but such endings do not always suffice to eliminate effects (1) and (2). 3
In more general terms, studies of the effects of observing models have
experimentally demonstrated that (1) the observer may learn novel
responses and this is what is meant by the "modeling effect;" (2) i the
observer may have existing responses strengthened or weakened
"disinhibited or inhibited;" or (3) the observer may be stimulated to do
something he has already learned to do the "eliciting effect." 4 The eliciting
effect is far more likely than the cathartic effect. By providing cues that
violence is socially acceptable, mass media may inadvertently both elicit and
disinhibit violent behavior. 5
Consider the fact that military training, which teaches men to use
weapons, can only be effective by expecting the trainees to apply their
training at a later time under motivational conditions that differ from those
prevailing during training. If the military trainee can generalize what he has
been taught to a motivationally different situation, so can the mass media
audience member. A child observing use of such a weapon as a switch-blade
knife (either in face-to-face play or in mass media entertainment, or both)
acquires a greater likelihood of inflicting injury later if three things hapoen to
be present: appropriate motivation for using such a weapon, the weapon
itself, and a person whom he defines as an object of his hostility. One who
had not observed the weapon's use would lack one learning ingredient
fostering the act. 6
Berkowitz described an experiment with male college students which
shows that the several ingredients for hostile behavior can be acquired at
different times. Subjects in that experiement were led to expect an
opportunity to retaliate after receiving electric shocks from a supposed
partner, but they were then denied this opportunity at the time it was
expected. They retaliated more aggressively later when another opportunity
was given than did subjects who had not originally been led to expect to be
able to retaliate. 7 It is possible that one effect of the traditional "ethical
ending" of crime shows is to teach the idea that opportunities tp retaliate
against offenders are usually forthcoming. If the viewer doesn't absorb this
expectation of the right to retaliate from this source alone, he is also in a
position to acquire it from observing the recurrent exchanges of violence
berween the "good guys" and the "bad guys."
It is not necessary to continue making the assumption that audience
"persuasion" by mass media consists in so modifying the individual audience
member's internal psychological structure (e.g., his values) that "the
psychodynamic relationship between latent internal processes and manifest
overt behavior will lead to acts intended by the persuader." Such mass media
persuasion efforts as charity appeals, chest X-ray drives, political campaigns,
and efforts toward prevention of littering have apparently operated on such
an assumption. 8 In the several other ways already enumerated, behavior can
304 Mass Media and Violence
be changed without changing values and the mass media are no more
automatically exempt from producing such effects than any other agent to
which people devote so much of their time and attention.
B. Communication and Social Contagion
Is it only coincidence that the crescendo of campus unrest, street
demonstrations, etc. so uncharacteristic of American life in the past has
come in the years when the first generation to have been wholly socialized
within a society saturated with television were graduating from adolescence
into adulthood? To raise such a question is not merely to "blame" television
indiscriminately for diverse social problems. It is to suggest simply that the
ubiquity of this medium in our lives is a fact of some social importance.
People ordinarily learn in the process of being socialized that they can check
doubtful impressions of the world around them which they have obtained
from one source by seeking information from other, independent sources.
The ubiquity of television, together with the degree to which people depend
on it both as a prime news source and as a means of entertainment from
which with their guard down they derive incidental learning, tends to
undermine the independence of anyone's alternative sources. 9 If one viewer
derives from his exposure to TV crime shows the notion that police are often
stupid and brutal, and if he asks his acquaintances, "Do you think the cops
are stupid and brutal?" they may "confirm" his impressions because they
have been watching the same shows. But, having thus obtained the same
image from several sources which seem independent to him, this viewer's
impression hardens into a conviction. Worse yet, the conviction may cause
him so to act in some subsequent encounter with a law enforcement official,
as to elicit a hostile response which he will then regard as the final
"confirmation."
The ubiquity of the medium can cause problems in other ways, too. It is
common to ask whether viewing violence on TV tends to make fhe viewer
more prone to commit acts of violence. It is often assumed that the answer is
affirmative, and mass media research findings have been interpreted both
ways in opposition to the assumption and in support of it. But it is not so
commonly asked whether the expectation or hope of being shown on
television in the act of committing violent acts increases the probability of so
acting. There are at least two reasons for believing the medium may have this
effect. The "status conferral" function of the mass media generally,
combined with the "visual bias" of television, previously discussed, can
operate to favor violent behavior. When people want attention, whether just
for the sake of some non-instrumental sort of status, or because they want to
say something to an audience, they are under some pressure to do the things
that will get them the attention they want. One way to get attention from the
television cameras is to behave in a "newsworthy" way, which can mean to
engage in acts of disruption or violence which the television news people are
likely to film for showing on the air.
Along with recognition of the status conferral function, it has been
supposed that mass media can perform an "ethicizing" function by
strengthening social control and prevention of deviance through the
Mass Media as Activators of Latent Tendencies 305
publicizing of deviant behavior. IQ There is no sufficient reason, however, for
believing that publicity is necessarily unwanted by everyone engaged in
actions which someone may regard as deviant. Publicity may be precisely
what is desired, especially by people of strong convictions who feel
themselves denied a hearing through conventional channels. Such people may
include: Negroes still suffering deprivations and injustices a century after the
nominal ending of slavery; white urban residents who are resentful of assorted
changes in their urban environments including the influx of black
population; college students perturbed about the depersonalized nature of
modern, large-scale campus life and angry about the prospect of having to
leave even this to serve in the military in a war they disapprove of and which
they believe their country improperly stumbled into; or policemen who feel
beleaguered by each of the previous categories and earnestly desire increased
public support for their own profession. Whether the publicity any of these
groups can obtain for themselves by acting in ways that cater to television's
visual bias will actually serve their more ultimate ends is somewhat beside the
point. One thing they all have in common is the feeling that they are being
overlooked, and by relieving them of at least that sense of deprivation, the
attention their actions obtain from television cameras provides reinforcement
of whatever kinds of actions receive such attention.
There is another, and perhaps even subtler, way in which the television
display of various forms of behavior that had generally been regarded as
anti-social can tend to foster more of it. The word "contagion" may not be
too inapplicable. People who have felt certain impulses but have not
acted them out may be more likely to do so when they become aware that
others are doing so. This would be especially so when the impulses are strong
and when the other people have similar identity so that they function as a
positive reference group. Students at the Free University of West Berlin, after
staging a sit-in demonstration, were reported to have asked an American on
the scene, "Is this the way it was done at Berkeley?" The implication is that
definitions of the student role are not confined to a single campus. When
students on one campus are aware of the way the role is defined elsewhere,
under some circumstances they may feel some obligation to adopt behavior
that was previously alien to them because it now appears to be part of the
very role to which they feel committed. And again, because of television's
visual bias, the aspect of campus life most likely to attract the cameras and
microphones (other than intercollegiate athletics) is more likely to be protest
demonstrations, especially when disorderly, than quiet and serious work in
classrooms, libraries, and laboratories.
In many languages, it is said, "teach" and "show" are completely
synonymous. Children in many societies learn a good deal of their society's
culture by learning to do what they see adults doing, rather than just what
adults may tell them to do. Learning from models, live or symbolized, is
common to the socialization process in all cultures. 1 1 Development of the
mass media has hardly exempted the technologically advanced societies from
these principles.
"Behavioral contagion" has been observed in a number of species. It refers
to processes that include the release of a well-established pattern of behavior
in other members of a species when they witness that pattern's occurrence in
306 Mass Media and Violence
one of them. One familiar example is the "social facilitation" of yawning in a
group of humans. 12 In the absence of mass media, one person's yawn is
unlikely to release similar responses in more than a few other individuals. But
television can make common role models available to a worldwide (or
nationwide) audience of potential players of the same role. Television can
provide reference groups and a knowledge of their norms and values. For
example, in pre-mass media days, a farm girl might have few role models for
feminine behavior beyond her own mother, sisters, and the occasionally
encountered relatives and neighbors who happened to be female. Today, her
descendent can model her behavior as a woman after glimpses she has had of
"womanly" behavior all over the world, in many walks of life. Similarly,
learning to be Negro in a white-dominated society meant one thing to the
socially isolated sharecropper's child; it means something else to the child in
the urban ghetto with access to a television set, and its new meaning can
easily include violent rejection of anything regarded as a token of continued
white dominance. The ghetto dweller's child has abundant opportunities to
see whites in roles other than landlord and overseer, and he has abundant
opportunities to see how other Negroes are going about the business of
breaking down racial barriers. If television gives him more glimpses of the
violent ways than of the non-violent ways, he must be expected to learn
accordingly*.
C. Identities, Reference Groups, Information, and Action
There are some rather clear techniques by which a mass communicator can
exert persuasion. He can relate an object of persuasion to a role with which
audience members are known or expected to identify, and he can stress a
definition of that role which involves use of the object, implying that
non-users are deviant. The communicator may portray or imply social
sanctions which can or will be brought to bear upon such deviants, or he can
describe or allude to the social rewards and social approval likely to accrue to
the adopter of the communicator's goals. Congruence of the suggested act
with group approved values, or with values known to be already accepted by
the audience, may be asserted and emphasized. This will tend to show how
compliance by the individual audience member with the patterns of action
the communicator is trying to persuade him to accept will be good for the
audience member's own group. 1 3
The skill of a communicator in deliberate persuasive efforts depends on
the correctness of his assumptions as to the identities of members of his
audience (as they perceive themselves), the reference groups to whose values
they are attracted or committed, and the kinds of information they already
have and the kinds they need in order to act out their identities in the way he
desires and to invoke their reference groups' values along lines he intends. All
of these considerations apply in a modified way to unintended persuasion, to
incidental learning, or to inadvertent symbolic modeling.
In an experiment by Maccoby, Wilson, and Burton, observations of
subjects' eye movements showed that during romantic movie scenes involving
just two characters the male lead and the female lead male viewers had their
eyes on the male actor more of the time than did female viewers, while the
Mass Media as Activators of Latent Tendencies 307
latter spent more time than did male viewers watching the female player. 14
Reasoning purely from the sex interests of the viewers, it might have been
expected that boys would watch girls, and vice versa, so the actual results
which were contrary to this strongly suggest a predominance of the process of
identification. Each subject watched the movie character whose actions were
most likely to resemble his own. To the extent that the subject might be
inclined to take the movie character as a model, then, he might change his
own actions in similar situations to change the degree of resemblance. For a
model he defined positively, the observer would tend to increase the
resemblance between his own behavior and the model's; for a model defined
negatively, the tendency would be to decrease the behavioral resemblance.
Maccoby and Wilson also showed a "class B" movie to seventh graders and
tested them for retention of its content. Boys were found more likely to
remember aggressive content, and girls were found more likely to remember
romantic content. But boys remembered proportionately more of the
aggressive acts of male characters than of female characters, and girls
remembered proportionately more of the romantic acts of female characters
than of male characters. 1 5 If observation and retention were thus selective
along sex lines (and presumably further tests would show other identity lines
of selectivity), then observational learning can be expected to depend on the
matching of identities between model and observer.
Waples, Berelson, and Bradshaw cited the kinds of satisfactions housewives
obtained from reading women's magazines to illustrate enhancement of
readers' prestige as a social effect of reading. Housewife readers received
implied prestige from emphasis placed in such magazines upon "the
complexities of domestic life, on the skills required to be parent, dietitian ,
decorator, chauffeur, politician, and economist at the same time." They
added that,
When fiction plays up the important role of women whose husbands
stray from the marital fold only to be retrieved by the tact of the wife,
or whose children go mildly astray and are rescued, the prestige effects
are further intensified. Where the mother considers divorce or ventures
into business, calamities crowd the pages, and the reader eventually
decides that husband and home are the true sources of happiness.
Match this with readers who fear that their husbands and children will
err, but who want to believe that women can hold the home together,
and the effect is a sense of pride at what a woman can do and security
that this reader can do as well as a fiction character. 1 6
The possible effects of magazine fiction were also discussed, as noted
earlier, by Berelson and Salter. 1 7 They made an analysis of the characteristics
and roles of all speaking characters portrayed in 198 short stories published in
sample issues of eight of America's most widely circulated magazines in 1937
and 1943. Their analysis revealed abundant stereotyping and clearcut
discrimination. Minorities were numerically underrepresented, and were
usually assigned to unimportant or unfavorably described roles, and often
stereotyped. Common stereotypes included "the amusingly ignorant Negro,"
"The Italian gangster," "The sly and shrewd Jew," "The emotional Irish,"
etc.
308 Mass Media and Violence
Berelson and Salter studied magazine stories, not readers of magazine
stories. To the reader who identifies with majority characters while reading
such stories, the story treatment of minority characters could become a
model which could affect his subsequent behavior particularly if that is the
way the minority characters are treated in the story by the characters with
whom majority readers identify, and if such majority character behavior is
rewarded in the story. Such considerations as these partially offset the lack of
data directly revealing reader reactions. Berelson and Salter asserted that an
ethnic group stereotype in such fiction "operates socially as a stimulus of
xenophobia." 18 They attributed no mal-intent to the stories' writers, and
they recognized that minority stereotypes facilitate the filling of stock roles
with stock characters, thus meeting the need of this category of fiction for
brief, compact plots, in which the action develops quickly and with clarity.
Considerations of business success and audience heterogeneity help
perpetuate formula writing, they noted. But such writing, they went on to
suggest, actually activates prejudice in its readers, who use the discriminatory
fictional portrayals of certain minorities as "proof of the validity of
stereotypes already held by the readers.
What do minority readers of such fiction learn? This question is seldom
asked. It seems unlikely that the majority reader identifies with a majority
character solely because of their common majority status; writers have a
variety of more sophisticated techniques which they use to induce reader
identification with certain characters around whom the story revolves.
Accordingly, minority readers may experience an ambivalence not felt by
majority readers, for they will be affected by these deliberately used
identification-provoking techniques but will, because of their minority status,
also identify with some of the unfavorably depicted characters.
Regardless of internal psychological predispositions, people acquire
definitions of appropriate behavior and interpretations of reality from their
organizational memberships, their work roles, reference groups, cultural
norms, and primary group expectations. This has been made clear by a
substantial body of research and theory in sociology. DeFleur cites these
matters in the context of showing why mass media should not be considered
hypodermically omnipotent, 1 9 but it can also be noted that people acquire
definitions of appropriate behavior and interpretations of reality from the
mass media.
In one experiment, six groups of six children apiece were shown a movie in
which an adult did various simple acts with various objects. Three of the
groups were told beforehand that they would be tested afterward on their
ability to do the same things with such objects. Three were not told this, but
were also tested afterward. One group from each set was instructed to
verbalize what they saw as they watched the four-minute film. Another group
from each set was told to count as they watched (thereby distracting them
from even covertly verbalizing what they were watching). The remaining
groups just watched. Verbalizing what was seen increased ability to reproduce
the acts later, while counting somewhat reduced it, in comparison with the
control groups. Advance warning that this ability to reproduce the acts would
be tested afterward somewhat diminished the spread that was wrought by
verbalizing versus counting. 20 The various manipulations of the subjects in
Mass Media as Activators of Latent Tendencies 309
this experiment can be interpreted as having altered the degree to which the
children in the various groups watched the adult in the movie as a role
model-i.e., as a person who either could be or should be identified with and
imitated. Thus, the results of the experiment support the principle that
observational learning depends on perception of the model in terms of
common identity.
The effects of reference groups (or reference persons) and the way such
effects can be modified are evident from an experiment in which seven to
eleven-year-old subjects played a sort of bowling game and rewarded their
own performances by taking plastic tokens from a bowl, after watching an
adult model or a peer model, or both, play the game and reward their own
performances in this manner. When children saw the adult model set high
achievement standards for himself, reward himself according to such
standards and receive social recognition for adhering to such norms, these
children subsequently imposed higher performance standards on themselves
than did children who had seen models doing exactly the same but without
getting social recognition for it. 2 *
In an experiment with 84 boys whose mean age was just under six.
exposure to a three-minute color movie (silent, but with backgound music)
was shown to affect subsequent tendencies to play with available but
forbidden toys in the experimental room. The movie depicted a child playing
with similar toys. Three versions of the film differed in their endings. When
the child in the film was rewarded for his actions, or incurred no
consequences, the subjects deviated more (and more promptly) than when
the movie ended with a punishment scene, or when the subject saw no movie
at all. 22 What happens to the model as a consequence of his behavior, then,
clearly affects the model's influence on the behavior of an observer. 23
In another experiment subjects were "frustrated" at the beginning by
being shocked several times by an accomplice who purported to be another
subject in the experiment. They then viewed either a boxing film in which
one character takes a brutal beating, or a neutral film showing no such
aggression. Afterward, the subjects were given a chance ostensibly to
administer shocks to the accomplice. If the accomplice had been originally
introduced by a name resembling either the beaten character in the boxing
movie or the actor portraying him, the subject tended to give more shocks
than when the accomplice was otherwise introduced or when the neutral film
was shown. The number of shocks given was not increased by having
introduced the accomplice by a name associating him with the movie
character who did the beating. 24 Thus, aggressive responses by the subject
were patterned according to variable relationships among the apparent
identities of film models, subject, target, and whatever preexisting values
provide standards of "justification" for aggression.
REFERENCES
1. Judith Blake and Kingsley Davis, "Norms, Values, and Sanctions," in R.E. L. Paris
(ed.), Handbook of Modern Sociology (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1964), pp. 456-484.
2. Leonard Berkowitz, "The Effects of Observing Violence," Scientific American, 210
(Feb. 1964), pp. 1-8.
3. Albert Bandura, "What TV Violence Can do to Your Child," reprinted from Look
3 10 Mass Media and Violence
(Oct. 22, 1963), pp. 46-52 in Otto N. Larsen (ed.), Violence and the Mass Media
(New York: Harper & Row, 1968), p. 130.
4. Albert Bandura and Richard H. Walters, Social Learning and Personality
Development (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1963), p. 60.
5. Larsen, op. cit. note 3, p. 1 17.
6. Bandura and Walters, op. cit. note 4, pp. 116-1 17.
7. Leonard Berkowitz, "On Not Being Able to Aggress," British Journal of Social and
Clinical Psychology, 5 (1966), pp. 130-139.
8. Melvin L. DeFleur, Theories of Mass Communication (New York: David McKay,
1966), p. 123.
9. Melvin L. DeFleur, "Occupational Roles as Portrayed on Television," Public Opinion
Quarterly, 28 (Spring, 1964), p. 74.
10. Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton, "Mass Communication, Popular Taste and
Organized Social Action," in Lyman Bryson (ed.), The Communication of Ideas
(New York: Harper & Bros., 1948), pp. 95-1 18.
11. Bandura and Walters, op. cit. note 4, pp. 47-49.
12. W? H. Thorpe, Learning and Instinct in Animals (London: Nethuen, 1956), pp.
120-122.
13. DeFleur, Theories of Mass Communication, pp. 136-137.
14. Eleanor E. Maccoby, W. C. Wilson, and R. V. Burton, "Differential Movie Viewing
Behavior of Male and Female Viewers," Journal of Personality, 26 (1958), pp.
159-167.
15. Elenor E. Maccoby and W. C. Wilson, "Identification and Observational Learning
from Films ," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology , 55, (1957), pp. 76-87.
16. Douglas Waples, Bernard Berelson, and Franklyn R. Bradshaw, What Reading Does
to People (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1940), pp. 127-128.
17. Bernard Berelson and Patricia J. Salter, "Majority and Minority Americans: An
Analysis of Magazine Fiction," Public Opinion Quarterly, 10 (Summer, 1946), pp.
168-190.
18. Ibid., p. 179.
19. DeFleur, Theories of Mass Communication, p. 134.
20. Albert Bandura, Joan E. Grusec, and Frances L. Menlove, "Observational Learning
as a Function of Symbolization and Incentive Set," Child Development (Sept.
1966), pp. 199-506.
21. Albert Bandura, Joan E. Grusec, and Frances L. Menlove, "Some Social
Determinants of Self-Monitoring Reinforcement Systems," Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 5 (1967), pp. 449455.
22. Richard H. Walters and Ross D. Parke, "Influence of Response Consequences to a
Social Model on Resistance to Deviation" Journal of Experimental Child
Psychology, 1 (1964), pp. 269-280.
23. Bandura and Walters, op. cit. note 4, pp. 15, 103, 107; Richard H. Walters, Ross D.
Parke, and Valarie A. Cane, "Timing of Punishment and the Observation of
Consequences to Others as Determinants of Response Inhibition," Journal of
Experimental Child Psychology, 2 (1965), pp. 10-30.
24. Leonard Berkowtz and Russell Geen, "Name-mediated Aggressive Cue Properties,"
Journal of Personality, 23 (1966), pp. 456-465..
Chapter 15
THE TELEVISION WORLD
OF VIOLENCE
Since the advent of mass communication which are owned and operated
by increasingly complex and profitable corporations, there has been a
growing concern on the part of citizens and public officials about the effects
of mass media programming on audiences. Before these effects can be
assessed in an objective and systematic way, it is necessary to know what the
media are presenting to their audiences. The most effective way to determine
this is through content analysis.
Analyses of mass media content vary considerably in their scope, focus,
and information value for the problem of evaluation of the effects upon
exposed audiences. The most common type is the familiar procedure of
counting the number of times persons are shot, attacked, or killed in a given
program or series of programs. However, this type of analysis provides very
little information about the effects of the programming. For example, this
knowledge does not tell us (a) if the killings were justified or unjustified ;(b)
if killers were rewarded or punished; (c) if the killings were presented in a
bloodless and sanitized way, or in a "blood and guts" portrayal; and (d)
whether or not the killings occurred sadistically, as a means to a desired end,
or during the course of self-defense, law enforcement, or war.
The Media Task Force was directed by the Violence Commission to
investigate the relationship of mass media programming and violence. Several
initial decisions made by the Task Force led eventually to a contract with
Dean George Gerbner and his staff at the Annenberg School of
Communications. The Task Force first made the decision to concentrate on
media entertainment programming. After a review of content analyses
available, it was clear that no single or multiple research was sufficient.
The second decision concerned the selection of a mass medium for
analysis. Studies of media availability, preferences, and use led to the
selection of commercial television entertainment programming. Television has
a virtual corner on the mass media entertainment market. No other single
mass medium of communication approaches its claim on massive audiences
composed of all sectors of American society.
311
312 Mass Media and Violence
Our findings show that 43 percent of adult Americans (eighteen years and
older) picked television as the mass medium they use most of the time for
entertainment. The next most chosen medium was books, a distant second
with 19 percent.
At least two other considerations influenced our selection:
(1) Young children use television to an even greater extent than adults. 1
Most young children cannot read with sufficient proficiency to use
newspapers, books, or magazines for daily entertainment, and they cannot or
do not attend movies as a daily or weekly form of entertainment. 2 Radio will
not hold their attention for any great length of time. Television, then, is
uniquely equipped by its audiovisual properties to sustain children's
attention. It is unique among the mass media for children's use because of its
availability in the home and because advanced reading skills are not a
prerequisite for use.
(2) Television is the only mass medium whose entertainment content at
any point in time is very much the same regardless of locale. The three
national networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, through their owned stations and
affiliates, are responsible for the vast majority of all entertainment
broadcasting. Hence, when an analysis is made of television entertainment
broadcast by these three networks, there is a high probability that audiences
are being exposed to the same content.
We next had to decide what time periods to research and how to construct
a content analysis that would provide useful information for the general
research problem-the relationship of mass media entertainment programming
and violence. The week of October 1 through 7 was selected as typical, and in
order to assess possible changes in programming, the same week (October 1-7)
was analyzed for both 1967 and 1968. It was further decided to analyze only
prime -time viewing hours.
In the simplest of terms, the research aim was to provide an objective and
reliable analysis from which the Task Force could deduce the messages about
violence which were communicated to the audience. How violence is
portrayed is at least as important as the amount presented. Knowledge of the
incidence and intensity of violence in television programming can tell us,
among other things, how often audiences are exposed to messages about
violence and what opportunity audiences have to view programs which do not
contain violence.
Finally, the Task Force had to decide who was best suited to perform the
content analysis. We felt it essential that such an analysis should provide new
and directly relevant information, and meet all the criteria of scientific
objectivity and systematic thoroughness. Thus it was necessary that the task
be undertaken by trained social scientists who had expertise in the methods
of content analysis and mass media effects research. It was also important to
find a group which had the necessary equipment (the capability to analyze
video tape and film materials), and the ability to form an expert research
team on extremely short notice.
The Television World of Violence 313
We were fortunate to be able to contract the project to Dr. George
Gerbner, Dean of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University
of Pennsylvania. Dean Gerbner is a well-known expert on content analysis,
and was keenly interested in conducting the type of research proposed by the
Task Force.
It was also necessary to seek the cooperation of the three major television
networks in this endeavor. The networks were most helpful in compiling and
sending all the requested programs to the Annenberg School. 3
The multitude of specific details involved in translating a research project
aim into a viable research effort were carried out by Dr. Gerbner and his staff.
In a remarkably short time, this group completed the analysis and submitted
their report to the Task Force. Significant portions of the total report are
presented in the following pages.
A. Dimensions of Violence in Television Drama: Summary*
In September of 1968, the Mass Media Task Force of the National
Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence contacted Dr. Gerbner
to inquire if a study of violence in television drama could be completed in less
than two months. The study was to be based on a week's prime-time network
programming from 1967. The purpose of the study was to yield objective and
reliable indicators of the extent and nature of violent presentations shared by
all classes of the American viewing public.
1 . Challenge and Difficulties
The scope and significance of the challenge were matched by its
difficulties. Some of these were conceptual. What are useful indicators of
violence in fictional dramatizations? How could a study based on 1967
material reflect the impact upon television programming, if any, of the tragic
series of violent events that shook the conscience of the nation and the world
in 1968? It was felt that the study was worth attempting only if it could yield
multiple indicators which would be useful for a variety of investigative and
policy purposes, if it contained dimensions salient to problems of social
communication theory and practice, and if it could include 1968 material
relevant to the tendencies and dynamics of television programming.
Other difficulties were logistical. A team of research analysts had to be
recruited immediately. Physical facilities and program material had to be
obtained and organized. Instruments of analysis had to be constructed and
tested with no opportunity for pilot studies. It was anticipated that much
information would fall below acceptable standards of reliability and would
have to be discarded. Therefore, several simultaneous approaches had to be
employed to assure corroboration of results and sufficient useful information
even after eventual elimination of much that had been assembled.
314 Mass Media and Violence
2. Accomplishments
The decision to proceed with the study was taken in the understanding
that this would be a "bare bones" report, one with little interpretation. Its
purpose would be to extend the factual basis for a consideration of one
aspect of television programming and for the further exploration of the role
of fictional violence in contemporary culture. Interpretation and analysis was
to continue in a broader scope and context after the termination of the
research reported here.
What follows, then, must be seen in light of these circumstances. The
report overcame some of the difficulties and achieved some of the objectives,
despite false starts, the elimination of much interesting material of
questionable reliability, and unavoidable shortcomings. The principal lessons
to be learned are (1) the confirmation of the adage that "haste makes waste,"
and (2) the clear conviction that if indices of mass cultural content have
theoretical, social, and policy significance, only a systematic and continuous
program of research will be adequate to the task.
A special debt is owed to wives and friends for many evenings and
weekends of work, the ready assistance of an able clerical force, particularly
Mrs. Kiki Faye, the support of the research staff of the Mass Media Task
Force, and the full cooperation of the television networks.
B. A Bird's-Eye View of the Results
All network television programs transmitted during prime evening time
and on Saturday morning during the weeks of October 1-7, 1967 and 1968,
were monitored for this study. Regular television dramas, cartoon programs,
and feature films presenting one or more plays were subjected to analysis.
The analysts recorded observations about the prevalence and "seriousness" of
violence in each play; rates and types of violent episodes; the role of major
characters in inflicting or absorbing violence; the role different times, places,
people, and "the law" play in the world of dramatic violence; the significance
of violence to the plots; and, when violence was an integral part of the plot,
the rates and characteristics of encounters between parties inflicting and
suffering violence.
There are certain key terms used throughout this report, and they are
defined as follows:
"Program" and "play" are synonymous unless otherwise noted, and
denote a single fictional story presented in play or skit form. "Violence"
means the overt expression of force intended to hurt or kill. A "violent
episode" is a scene of any duration between the same violent parties. A story
element, such as violence, "significant to the plot" is one that would be noted
in a one-page general synopsis of the play. An "act of violence'"' or
"encounter" is an action originating in a particular source and directed
toward a particular receiver with no major shift in the style of action.
The Television World of Violence 3 15
During the week of October 1-7, 1967, the three television networks
transmitted 96 plays in 64 hours of broadcast time. During the same week in
1968 the networks transmitted 87 plays in 58& hours. In the total of 183
plays or 122# program hours analyzed, 455 characters played major parts,
241 of which were violent. These occurred in 149 plays (or 104.4 program
hours), which contained a total of 872 violent episodes. Of all plays
containing violence, 112 (or 78.9 program hours) portrayed violence
significant to the plot. These plays included 1215 separate violent encounters.
1 . The Extent of Violence
Some violence occurred in eight out of every ten plays. The average rate
of violent episodes was five per play (ranging from three in a comedy to 7 in a
cartoon or acting drama) and seven per program hour (ranging from five each
comedy to twenty -four each cartoon hour).
Most violence was an integral part of the play in which it occurred. The
average rate of acts of violence was eleven per play or fifteen per hour. Eight
out of every ten violent episodes and acts were presented as serious rather
than humorous occurrences.
There was no evidence of overall decline in the prevalence of violence from
1967 to 1968. Some indications of possible moderation come from slight and
selective reductions in the rates of violent episodes per play, in the
proportions of "serious" violence, and in the proportions of plays in which
violence was significant to the plot. The rates of violent encounters in these
plays indicated that, with some exceptions, the saturation of such programs
with acts of violence remained in 1968 what it had been in 1967.
Programming on CBS generally featured the least violence, and moved in
two different directions: the rate of violent episodes increased somewhat
from 1967 to 1968, but the proportion of violence significant to the plots
and the frequency of violent acts in such plays decreased. ABC, the most
violent in many respects, maintained its share of violent programming but
reduced the proportion of programs containing the most significant type and
the highest rate of violent episodes. Violence on NBC, as prevalent in 1967 as
on ABC, declined slightly in some respects in 1968.
2. The Nature of Violence
Violent acts were usually performed at close range. They were inflicted
primarily through use of a weapon, half the time upon strangers, and, in the
majority of encounters, upon opponents who could not or did not resist.
Those who committed acts of violence generally perceived them to be in
self-interest rather than for some other reason. Violent encounters were
usually between males, and almost as frequently between as within different
national or ethnic groups. These encounters primarily engaged group leaders
as initiators and group members as targets of violence.
Witnesses to scenes of violence were usually passive spectators. For every
316 Mass Media and Violence
bystander who attempted to prevent violence, there was at least one who
joined to assist or encourage it.
Pain was difficult to detect except when severe or fatal. Even so, some
injury was evident in half of all violent episodes.The casualty count of injured
and dead was at least 790 for the two weeks, and one in every ten acts of
violence resulted in a fatality.
Most violence took place between the forces of good and evil. The "good
guys" inflicted as much violence as the "bad guys," suffered a little more, but
triumphed in the end.
3 . The People of Violence
The two weeks of dramatic programming featured 455 leading characters.
Of this number, 241 committed some violence, 54 killed an opponent, and 24
died violent deaths. The dramatic lead thus inflicted violence 50 percent of
the time, became a killer ten percent of the time, and was killed five percent
of the time. One-third of those killed were also killers, and one out of every
seven killers died a violent death. Surprisingly, nearly half of all killers
suffered no consequences for their acts.
The "typical violent" actor was an unmarried young or middle-aged male.
At least one out of three characters in every age group committed violence,
but the adolescent and the middle-aged perpetrated more than their share.
They also played nine out of every ten killers and eight out of every ten fatal
victims. Those in the middle-aged group were likely to be victims.
The forces of law and of lawlessness, each numbering about one out of
every ten leading characters, accounted for one-third of all violent aggressors
and half of all killers. Criminals were somewhat more likely to commit
violence, but, when violent, agents of the law were as likely to kill as were
criminals. Members of the armed forces were less violent than the other
groups, but when violent, the most deadly; every second violent soldier killed
an "enemy." More criminals than soldiers and none of the agents of the law
died violent deaths.
There may be as many violent "good guys" as "bad guys," but those fated
for a happy outcome (mostly "good guys") were slightly less likely to be
violent than were those fated for a clearly unhappy outcome (mostly "bad
guys"). Even though half of all "violents" and nearly half of all killers
achieved a happy ending, those who did not were more likely to commit
violence, to kill, and to be killed.
4. The World of Violence
The past, the future, and the far-away loom large in the world of violence.
The settings of plays without violence tended to be contemporary, domestic,
and civilized. By comparison, then, the settings of violent plays was more
global, more distant in time as well as in place, more mobile, and more exotic.
Foreigners and non-whites committed more than their share of violence,
and, unlike white Americans, for nearly every life taken, they paid with a life
of their own.
Violence rarely appeared to violate legal codes, and when it did, the law
itself was likely to be violent.
To sum up the prevalence of violence in about eight out of every ten
The Television World of Violence 317
plays did not decline from 1967 to 1968, despite some evidence of
moderation in its rate and tone. Most violence was individual, selfish, and
often directed against strangers and victims who do not resist. Violence stuns,
maims, and kills with little visible pain. A count of casualties may find an
average of five per play injured or dead. Those who inflict violence may be
"good guys" or "bad guys," but they are not as likely to reach a happy
ending as non-violent types. All major characters, especially males in the
prime of life, have a better than even chance to commit violence, at least one
chance in ten to kill, and still reach a happy ending nearly fifty percent of the
time. Foreigners and non-whites are more violent than white Americans, but
pay much more dearly for their actions. Television drama projects Americans
as a violent country a world of many violent strangers, with a mostly violent
past and a totally violent future.
C. Dimensions of Violence
Violence in drama, as in life, is a complex matter, the full implications of
which were not the subject of this study. Our subject was the extent and
nature of overt violence in television plays. Our purposes were (1) to extend
the factual consideration of one aspect of television programming; (2) to
make a contribution to the understanding of some dimensions of the
dynamics of fictional violence; and (3) to suggest certain expectations about
violent behavior and consequences that these presentations might cultivate.
In the following pages, we give a descriptive account of the "bare facts"
relevant to the extent of violent representations during the 1967 and 1968
study periods and to selected manifestations of violent behavior, people, and
circumstances in the fictional world of television drama. 5
Selected findings will be discussed according to their relevance to these
questions:
How much violence is there is television drama? Did the prevalence,
significance, frequency, and "seriousness" of violent portrayals change
between the 1967 and 1968 study periods?
What is the nature of violence in television drama? What characteristics
of violent behavior and of its consequences do these portrayals present to
the audience?
Who are the people of violence? What is the distribution of violent roles
among various groups of the fictional population? What part does violence
play in the fate of "good guys" and "bad guys"?
And, finally, how does the world of violence differ from the world of
non-violent drama in historical time, place of action, nationality and
ethnicity of the population, and some of its recurrent themes?
The analysis included all dramatic network programs transmitted in prime
evening time and Saturday mornings for the weeks of October 1-7 in 1967
and 1968. The 1967 study period contained ninety-six plays and the 1968
period eighty -seven. It should be noted again that the basic program unit
analyzed was the play, and the terms "program" and "play" are used
interchangeably.
To correct for differences in playing time between short plays and skits
318 Mass Media and Violence
and long plays or feature-length films, the time of a program was also
measured. The 1967 study period included sixty -four hours of dramatic
programming, and the 1968 period fifty -eight and one half hours.
Regualr drama programs produced for television comprised 60 percent of
all plays in 1967 and 63 percent in 1968, or 62 percent and 69 percent of
program hours, respectively. Cartoons accounted for 33 percent of program
time. Six feature films were telecast each week, accounting for six and eight
percnt of the plays, but twenty and 26 percent of program time.
Crime, western, and action-adventure style stories comprised about
two-thirds of all television drama; comedies made up nearly half of all
programs, with some changes in proportions and shifts in network share of
each kind between the two study periods. Differences in the extent of
violence between the 1967 and 1968 study periods and among the networks
may be attributed to shifts in a few program categories, policies affecting
most programs, or to a combination of both.
1 . The Extent of Violence
How much violence was there in television drama? Did the three networks
share equally in the amount? Did the proportions change between 1967 and
1968?
The four dimensions dealing primarily with the amount of violence are
prevalence, significance to the story, rate, and extent of "seriousness."
Prevalence is the incidence of any violence on a program. It measures the
number of programs in which at least one violent act occurs, regardless of
frequency or other characteristics.
Significance to the story indicates the extent to which violence was an
integral part of the plot.
The rate of violence was measured as the frequency of violent episodes and
acts per play and program hour.
"Seriousness" involved the style and context of violent portrayals. How
much violence was presented in a humorous vein, and how much was not?
a. Prevalence
Some violence occured in 81 per.cent of all programs and 85 percent of all
program hours. The prevalence of violence in dramatic programming did not
decline between 1967 and 1968. If anything, there was a slight (four percent)
increase.
Violence was more prevalent on ABC and NBC than on CBS. However,
CBS increased its percentage of violent programming between the 1 967 and
1968 study periods.
b. Significance to the Story
Violence may be either an incidental or integral part of the story. The
measure of significance was used to ascertain the proportions of these two
types of presentations. (It was also employed as a screening device to select
those plays in which violent encounters and acts were to be subjected to
further analysis). The criterion used to measure "significance to the plot" was
whether or not the violence, regardless of type or amount, would have to be
noted in a one-page summary of the story of the play. 6
The Television World of Violence 3 19
Most plays containing any violence met this criterion. Eight out of every
ten violent programs in 1967 and seven out often in 1968 contained violence
significant to the plot. Whether this slight change represents a real decline or
merely reflects shifts in the proportion of different types of plays in
uncertain; but at least the overall significance of violence did not increase.
c. Rates of Violent Episodes and Acts
Violent episodes are defined as scenes of violence involving the same
parties, and violent acts as actions by each party in violent encounters on
programs where violence was judged to be significant to the plot.
During the 1967 study week, a total of 478 violent, episodes were
observed. During the 1968 study week, 394 such episodes were observed.
This decline of 18 percent, compared to the 10 percent decrease of all
dramatic programs analyzed, indicated the possibility of a slight reduction in
the overall number of violent episodes.
Violent episodes ranged from three per comedy to seven per cartoon or
crime, western, and action-adventure play, and from five per hour of all
comedy programming to 24 per hour of cartoons. The overall rate of violent
episodes was five per play or seven per program hour. Programming which
contained any violence at all contained an average of six violent episodes per
play and eight per hour. Reductions in these rates by less than one point per
play and per hour indicate that the frequency of violent episodes might have
declined slightly from 1967 to 1968. The overall reduction, if any, was not
evenly distributed.
CBS programs generally contained somewhat lower rates of violent
episodes than did those of the other two networks. However, although ABC
and NBC reduced their frequencies of violent episodes, CBS increased theirs.
Of all the violent episodes on the networks for both years, 35 percent were
transmitted by ABC, 37 percent by NBC, and 28 percent by CBS. Although
1967 figures show ABC leading (41 percent). NBC second (36 percent, and
CBS third (23 percent), in 1968, NBC led (37 percent), CBS was second (35
percent), and ABC third (28 percent). A reduction in the number of cartoon,
crime, and other action programs and perhaps in the general level of violent
spisodes on ABC and an increase in cartoon violence on both CBS and NBC
appear to have been the major sources of these relative shifts.
The rate of violent acts per play was 11.1 in 1967 and 10.5 in 1968. The
only substantial change was a reduction of the rate of violent acts from 10.9
to 7.1 per play on CBS programs. In other words, although CBS increased its
share of dramatic violence, it reduced the frequency of violent acts on those
programs .
d. The "Seriousness" of Violence
It can be argued that violence is always relevant to personal existence,
well-being, and integrity. To that extent, violence is always serious. Whether
presenting it in a humorous way makes it more or less acceptable or part of a
given framework of knowledge are issues that measures of presentation alone
cannot resolve.
Measures of "seriousness" can indicate dramatic convention, convenience,
320 Mass Media and Violence
and intent. They show that even when we include cartoons (which are
saturated with violence), the great bulk of all violence occurs in a serious or
sinister context.
Three-fourths of all violent programs and nearly nine out of every ten
violent episodes were found in the crime, western, or action-adventure
categories. Nearly all such programs contained some violence. Separate
observations in all program categories showed that eight out of every ten
violent episodes occured in a serious or sinister context. Eight out of every
ten violent acts were also judged as "serious." In other words, overtly
humorous (slapstick, sham, satirical) intent was apparent in only two out of
every ten violent episodes or acts in all program categories. However, there
appeared to be a shift (of perhaps one in every ten) toward a higher
proportion of "humorous" types of violence between the two study periods.
2. The Nature of Violence
What happens in violent incidents, and how? What are some personal and
social characteristics and consequences of violent behavior in television
drama? The portrayal of violence may be at least as relevant to the cultivation
of public assumptions as the amount of violence presented. We turn,
therefore, from general questions of amount to more specific questions about
the nature of violent representations.
Two different approaches were focused on selected characteristics of
violent behavior. One was the observation of violent episodes in all plays,
concentrating on the agents and means of violence, witnesses and group
relations among violent opponents. Another set of observations dealt with
acts of violence in plays in which violence was significant to the plot (112
out of 183). The focus here was on the nature of the interaction between
sources and receivers of violence.
Any reference to persons involved in violent episodes and acts is not to
individuals as such, but to their participation in the incidents observed. A
single individual may participate in several capacities. Participation as both
source and receiver tends to equalize figures in those categories and lends
greater significance to such differences as may occur.
Three-fourths of all violent episodes involved human agents (both "live"
and cartoon). The rest involved "humanized" (speaking) and other animals,
creatures (a robot), and "accidents" (which, in fiction, are of course not
accidental). There was no "act of nature" found as an agent of violence. 7 All
violent acts involved human or human-like sources and receivers. 8
a. Means and Personal Aspects
Weapons were used in at least six out of every ten violent episodes and
acts. Small instruments were used to commit one-third of all violent acts, and
more complex instruments, ranging from machine guns and explosives to
elaborate devices of torture or mass destruction, were used in 26 percent of
the acts.
In the majority of acts (six out of ten), those who committed violence
The Television World of Violence 32 1
perceived it as in their own personal self-interest rather than as a service to
some other cause.
Was it effective? In terms of immediate response, yes. Six out of ten
violent acts evoked no response from their victims; they could not or did not
resist. Counter-violence was the response 36 percent of the time and
non-violent resistance six percent of the time.
Was it personal? In seven out of ten acts the violent opponents were close
enough to speak to one another, 24 percent of the time, they were more
distant but still within sight; and in four percent they were out of sight of
each other.
Violent encounters occurred primarily at close range, but rarely among
intimates. Half of all violent acts took place between strangers.
In at least eight out of every ten violent acts, both the source and the
receiver was male. The source of violence was female in seven percent of all
acts and the receiver was female six percent of the time. The rest were
indeterminate or mixed as far as the sexes of sources and receivers were
concerned. A sexual aspect to the relationship between sources and receivers
was noted in four percent of all violent acts.
b. Group Aspects
Nationality, ethnicity, or family membership of the opponents was
observed in two-thirds of all violent episodes. Approximately one-third of the
time violent opponents were from the same ethnic background. Violence
between different national or ethnic group members was observed in 28
percent of all violent episodes. Violence between members of the same family
was rare (two percent).
An analysis of acts coded separately by sources and receivers gives an
indication of the group structure of violent encounters, and of the effect of
group membership upon chances of generating or suffering violence. Isolated
individuals, group leaders, and groups themselves each generated about
one-fifth of all violent acts, and individual group members generated more
than one-third. On the receiving end, however, group leaders suffered less and
group members more than their share. Group leaders generated 21 percent
and received eighteen percent of all violent acts while group members
committed 37 percent and suffered 40 percent of all violent acts received. If
there is any pattern in these slight differences, it suggest that, among those
involved in violence, there is greater safety in isolation from, leadership of, or
total immersion in a group than in being an identifiable group member.
Group members committed sixteen percent more of all violent acts than did
the leaders, but became the targets of 22 percent more than did the leaders.
C. Witnesses to Violence
Is violence presented as acceptable in the social context of the portrayal
itself? One approach is to observe witnesses and their reaction or relation to
the violence.
It is difficult to pinpoint witnesses on television. Frequent closeups and
medium shots tend to exclude them. The presence and reaction of witnesses
in drama is not an independent occurence, but part of the whole structure
322 Mass Media and Violence
and intent of the play. Even if witnesses are assumed to be present, showing
them and their reactions adds to the cost and complicates the scene; this is
done only to make a specific point in the story.
Half of all violent episodes did not show any witnesses. When witnesses
were shown, they were usually passive. In thirty three percent of all violent
episodes, witnesses were present but did not or could not react. In eight
percent, witnesses attempted to prevent violence. In nine percent, witnesses
assisted or encouraged violence. On the whole, violence is rarely overtly
objected to or punished by witnesses in the world of television drama.
d. Physical Consequences
At least three-fourths of all violent acts had no permanent physical effects
upon the victims. Some incapacity was observed in seven percent of the acts,
and death in nine percent. Focusing on acts rather than on individuals tends
to emphasize the more repeatable (and, therefore, less serious) consequences;
a victim may suffer several acts of violence, but only one fatality.
A study of violent episodes revealed that half of all episodes resulted in
physical injury or fatality. The average rate was almost two casualties per
violent episode. Three-fourths of all episodes with any injury resulted in a
single casualty, thirteen percent in two casualties, another eight percent in
three to eight casualties, and six percent in eight or more (including mass)
casualties.
Gory details of physical injury (blood and wounds) were shown in
fourteen percent of all programs,
e. "Good" vs. "Bad" and "Winner" vs. "Loser"
In at least eight out of every ten violent acts, the opponents were clearly
recognizable as "good" or "bad" and as ultimate "winners" and "losers." On
the receiving end, the "good guys" suffered in five out of every ten acts,
while the "bad guys" suffered in only three out of every ten. The difference
between "winners" and "losers" as targets of violence was less pronounced,
but in the same direction; "winners" were subjected to violence in 35 percent
and "losers" in 31 percent of all acts received.
The pattern remained the same with "good guy winners" and "bad guy
losers." Violent acts tended to engage the two combined types equally as
sources, but not as receivers. Violent virtue suffered more than violent evil,
but triumphed in the end.
3 . The People of Violence
Violence is a form of conflict in which lives are at stake, and force governs
the outcome. Who is given the power to inflict violence upon whom in
television drama? What are some characteristics of the killers and their
victims? What roles do the forces of law or lawlessness play in the distribution
of violence? What part does violence play in the fate of the fictional
characters?
These questions guided the analysis of all major characters in all plays,
both violent and non-violent. A total 455 such characters were found in the
The Television World of Violence 323
plays analyzed for both 1967 and 1968. Nearly one out of every four (23
percent) were cartoon characters; nearly nine out of every ten (89 percent)
were human (both "live" and cartoon); the rest were "humanized"
(speaking), other animals, and a robot.
Unmarried white males in the prime of life were cast in the majority of
dramatic leads and violence was the dominant theme of life in their fictional
world.
a. "Violents," Killers and their Victims
At least half of all characters inflicted some violence upon others. The
proportion of these 'Violents" was 56 percent in 1967 and 50 percent in
1968.
At least one out of every ten leading characters (twelve percent) was a
killer. More than one in every five (22 percent) of those who committed any
violence was a killer. The proportion of killers remained unchanged from one
study period to the other.
Widespread victimization was evident, but again difficult to specify unless
resulting in death. At least five percent of all characters, eight percent of all
violent characters, and fifteen percent of all killers met violent ends.
Most of those who were killed also committed violence, but most killers
did not die violent deaths. Of the 25 major characters killed in all television
plays, twenty inflicted violence upon others and eight were killers. Of all 54
killers, 46 did not pay for their acts with their own lives.
b. Males and Females
Male characters dominated the world of television drama by a four-to-one
ratio, and committed six times more violence than females. Males killed eight
times more frequently than females, and were killed seven times as often. To
look at these figures another way, 58 percent of all male leading characters
and 33 percent of all female leading characters committed some violence. 23
percent of violent males, (or, of all males, 13 percent) were killers. Finally,
6 percent of all males and 3 percent of all females suffered violent deaths.
c. Age and Marriage
The average character had 50 percent chance of committing some violence.
The likelihood increased with age, but declined in old age. Middle-aged
characters and those of indeterminate age (mostly cartoon characters) were
the most probable "violents." More specifically, 'Violents" comprised
one-third of all preschool and primary school-age characters, 45 percent of
secondary school-age characters, 48 percent of young adults, 56 percent of
middle-aged character , 42 percent of those in old age, and 65 percent of
indeterminate or "ageless" characters.
Young adults and middle-aged characters portrayed nine of every ten
killers and eight of every ten victims of fatal violence. Each of these age
groups had a greater share of killings than their proportion of the total
population might suggest. The adolescent was less likely than the middle-aged
to play violent roles, but more likely to commit fatal violence. However, the
324 Mass Media and Violence
older characters were much more likely to be killed than the younger.
Of all violent young adults, one-third became killers, while only 24 of all
violent middle-aged characters did so. However, most fatal victims (60
percent) were middle-aged. The violent fatality rate among young adults was
3.4 percent, but among middle-aged characters was 7.3 percent.
Marriage reduced the chances of violent involvement. Married characters
played 29 percent of all major parts, 22 percent of 'Violents," nineteen
percent of violent killers, and twelve percent of fatalities. The bulk of
'Violents," killers, and their victims came from among the unmarried
characters or those whose martial status could not be determined. More single
than married people engaged in violence (58 percent against 40 percent),
turned killers (fourteen percent against eight percent), and died violent deaths
(seven percent against two percent).
d. Forces of Law and of Lawlessness
The forces of law and of lawlessness together made up one-fourth of the
total lead population of television drama, one-third of all violent characters,
and half of all killers.
Criminals numbered 10 percent of all characters, 15 percent of violent
characters, 20 percent of killers, and 24 percent of those killed. Arrayed
against them were public and private agents who portrayed nine percent of
the total lead populations, 11 percent of the 'Violents," 13 percent of the
killers, and none of the killed.
Two of every ten violent acts included criminals, and one out of every ten
public and private law agents. While criminals inflicted 22 percent of all
violent acts and suffered in only 17 percent, the agents were equally balanced
at both ends of the scale. The imbalance between virtue and evil on the
receiving end may be due, in part, to the fact that criminals suffer less
frequent but more lethal violence than others.
Most criminals (82 percent) engaged in some violence; 25 percent of all
criminals and 31 percent of violent criminals were killers, and 14 percent of
all criminals were killed.
Police and other law enforcement agents were almost as violent but they
rarely, if ever, paid with -their own lives. Seven of every ten agents committed
violence and 20 percent of these actions resulted in a fatality. Those who
committed violence were as likely to kill as were violent criminals.
Fewer private agents were violent (67 percent), and they rarely killed or
were killed.
The armed forces of various nations made up six percent of the total lead
population, about the same percentage of 'Violents," 15 percent of the
killers, and 12 percent of the fatal victims.
A somewhat smaller percentage of members of the armed forces (60
percent) committed violence than did either agents or criminals. However,
when they did, they killed more often and suffered fewer casualties. Half of
all soldiers involved in violence killed, but only one in ten was killed.
e. Outcome: "Happies "and "Unhappies"
Most of the "good guys," usually also the "winners," are by definition
those who achieve a happy outcome. "Bad guys losers" come to an unhappy
The Television World of Violence 325
end. Six of every ten major characters reached an unmistakably happy end,
and two of ten an unhappy end; the rest were mixed or indeterminate. 58
percent of all characters achieved "happy" endings, while only 52 percent of
"violents" did; 20 percent of the total achieved "unhappy" endings, as
opposed to 25 percent of the 'Violents." The figures did not vary
significantly for those whose ending was uncertain.
The pattern extends to killers. The proportion of "nappies" among all
killers declines by another six percentage points, and the proportion of
"unhappies" among killers increases by 5 more percentage points.
Although more than half of all "violents" and nearly half of all killers may
be destined for a happy ending, violence and killing each make a happy
outcome less likely for one out of every ten major characters.
Nearly half (147 percent) of the "happies" commit violence, nearly one in
ten (nine percent) turns killer and not one "happy" was killed; the
proportions are only slightly below those for the total lead population. For
the "unhappies," the proportions are much higher: seven of every ten commit
violence, two of ten become killers, and three of ten die violent deaths.
4. The World of Violence
What is the setting of the fictional world in which violence is prevalent?
What kind of people inhabit that world? How is the law enforced in that
world? Dimensions of the analysis addressed to these questions compared
violent and non-violent television plays with respect to the time and place of
action, nationality and ethnicity of population, and aspects of law
enforcement portrayed.
a. Time of Action
Most television plays were set in contemporary America, and 80 percent
contained some violence. The "present" (the sixties) was the setting in 85
percent of the non-violent plays, but only 55 percent of the plays that
contained violence. The past was the setting in only a negligible portion
(three percent) of non-violent plays, but 26 percent of the violent plays. The
future (the setting in ten percent of the plays) was never shown without
violence, and the time of action was indeterminate in one out of ten plays
regardless of violence.
Ninety -eight percent of all plays set in the past contained violence, the
future was always violent, only 74 percent (less than average) of plays set in
the present contained violence, and the plays set in several or no identifiable
time periods contained an average share of violence (79 percent).
b. Places and People
Violence tended to shift the action toward other places, as well as to other
times. The location was varied, indeterminate, or totally outside the United
States in 38 percent of violent, but only fifteen percent of non-violent plays.
326 Mass Media and Violence
Other countries and foreign or minority groups were significant themes in
four out of ten violent plays, but only two out of ten non-violent plays.
Space travel was twice as frequent in violent as in non -violent plays.
Uninhabited or mobile settings provided the locales of 44 percent of violent,
but only 21 percent of non -violent plays. Urban and rural settings, on the
other hand, were the primary locales of the great majority of non-violent
plays.
In other words, whenever the place of action was not limited to the United
States alone or not localized to a city, town, or village, or whenever foreign
themes or people other than majority-type Americans were significant
elements in the story, violence prevailed in nine out of every ten plays.
We have noted before that intergroup violence was nearly as frequent as
ingroup violence. Now we see that foreign themes and people are more
frequent in the fictional world of violence than of non-violence. It is not
surprising, therefore, to find that a violent world of other times and places
also involved in violent action a disproportionate number of "others."
Major characters playing violent roles included half of all white Americans,
six out of every ten white non-Americans, and nearly seven out of every ten
non-whites.
While all "others" were more violent, white foreigners killed more, and
non-whites less, than white Americans. Both foreigners and non-whites
suffered proportionately higher fatalities than did white Americans.
Twenty -eight percent of all violent whites inflicted fatal violence, and white
killers outnumbered whites killed two-to-one, but only two of the twenty
violent non-whites were killers, and for each non-white killer there was a
non-white killed.
c. Law and Its Enforcement
Legality was seldom portrayed as being violated unless criminal themes
were involved. Such themes were featured as significant elements in one-third
of all and less than half (45 percent) of violent plays. When crime was
featured, however, the plays nearly always involved violence.
Due process of law l\Q%a\ apprehension or trial) was indicated as a
consequence of major acts of violence in only two out of every ten violent
plays. Official agents of law enforcement, (seven percent of all major
characters), were thus confined to a small segment of the population of the
fictional world of violence. These agents played a discernible role in one out
of every ten violent episodes. When they did play a part, it was violent on two
of every three occasions. The violence was initiated by agents of law 40
percent of the time. Agents of law responded to violence in a violent manner
on three of every ten occasions. Police restraint in the face of violence was
rare (one out of every ten such episodes), and law agents suffered violence
but could make no response in two of every ten such episodes.
The level of violence employed by agents of law appeared to be no more
than that necessary to accomplish their objectives on eight out of every ten
occasions. Their actions were portrayed as justifiable on seven of every ten
occasions.
In conclusion, television drama presents a lawless world in which due
The Television World of Violence 327
process plays a small part. It is a wild world of many violent strangers, with a
mostly violent past and a totally violent future.
D. The World of Television Entertainment: 1967 and 1968
This section will be devoted to interpretation of the findings reported in
the previous section. The content analysis research carried out by the Gerbner
research team provides us with information about the extent, nature, and
presentation of violence on television. This information permits us to
decipher the messages about violence being sent to television audiences on the
basis of factual, objective, and reliable information. Thus, we do not have to
rely on selective impressions, biased opinions, or subjective judgments about
the nature and extent of violence on prime-time television.
1 . Extent of Violent Programs
The first issue to be considered is the extent to which violent programs
appear in the total entertainment package offered by the three major
television networks during prime-time viewing hours (4 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Monday through Friday and Sunday, and 8 a.m. - 1 1 a.m. Saturdays).
Table 1 programs containing violence
{Percent of total programs presented J *
1967
All Net>
TV
( 78)
vorks ABC
Percent TV
81.3 (31)
81.6 (20)
81.4 (51)
Percent
88.6
90.9
89.5
CBS
N
(21)
(27)
(48)
Percent
65.6
77.1
71.6
NBC
TV
(26)
(24)
(50)
Percent
89.7
80.0
84.7
1968
( 71)
Total
(149)
*TV=Number of violent programs
The figures presented in Table 1 are conservative estimates of the extent of
violent programming. This is because (a) only explicit threats or acts of
violence were included, and (b) the number of programs counted by Gerbner
exceeds the actual number of programs as defined by half-hour segments.
If television is compared to a meal, programming containing violence
clearly is the main course being served. The total volume of violent
programming on the three networks did not decrease from 1967 to 1968.
ABC programming contained the second highest percentage of violent
programs in 1967 (88.6 percent) and the highest in 1968 (90.9 percent). A
person tuned to ABC who wished to avoid programs containing violence 9
would have had a difficult time in 1967 and even more trouble in 1968.
CBS had the lowest percentage of programs containing violence in both
1967 (65.6 percent) and 1968 (77.1 percent). However, the percentage of
violent programs increased from 1967 to 1968. Dr. Frank Stanton, president
of CBS, indicated shortly after the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy
that the extent of violence in CBS programs would be reduced (in a letter to
Dr. Milton Eisenhower, Chairman of the Violence Commission).
If CBS had reduced the amount of violent scenes in the following months,
it would have affected the results of the 1968 content analysis. It is difficult
to know how much higher the percentage of CBS programs containing
328 Mass Media and Violence
violence might have been if the 1968 content analysis had been conducted
before instead of after Senator Kennedy's assassination. In any case, a regular
viewer of CBS would have trouble finding non-violent programs.
NBC had the highest percentage of programs containing violence in 1967
(89.7 percent), and the second highest in 1968 (80.0 percent), and was the
only network to show a decrease in the percentage of violent programs.
Despite this fact, a regular NBC viewer who seeks to avoid violent programs
for his or his children's viewing during prime-time is in the same situation as
ABC and CBS viewers.
On the other hand, if a person seeks to watch programs containing
violence, as is entirely conceivable, he would probably be able to do so during
all of prime-time television. Those who wish to avoid violent programming
have an extemely difficult task, while those who seek it have little trouble.
2. The Incidence of Violence for Different Types of Programs
Within the total entertainment programming package, different types of
programs vary in terms of the presence or absence and frequency of violence.
All entertainment programs were classified into three general categories (for
the purposes of this section of the report): (1) Comedy Tone, (2)
Crime-Western-Adventure Style, and (3) Cartoons Format. 10
a. Programs with a Comedy Tone
Comedy programs constituted 45.8 percent of all entertainment
programming analyzed for 1967, and 48.3 percent of that analyzed for 1968.
In Table 2, the extent and intensity of violence in comedy programs in 1967
and 1968 is presented.
Table 2. - Violence in programs with a comedy tone
1967 1968 Total
Percent containing violence 65.9 66.7 66.3
Average number of violent episodes:
Per program 2.8 3.2 3.0
Per program containing violence . 4.2 4.8 4.5
Of the three program types, we might expect to find the least violence in
comedy programs. While this expectation is supported, approximately
two-thirds of all comedy programs analyzed contained some violence.
A viewer of comedy programs broadcast during prime-time hours can
expect to see an average of three violent episodes per show, and if he is
watching a comedy program containing violence, he will see an average of
four violent episodes per show. The percentage of comedy type programs did
not change significantly from 1967 to 1968, although the average number of
violent episodes increased slightly. Thus it appears that violence plays a
significant role in television comedy.
The Television World of Violence 329
b. Crime-Western Action-Adventure Style Programs
When the topic of violence on television is raised, people customarily think
of the crime-western action-adventure type of program. The content analysis
findings show that the majority of all television entertainment program types
during prime-time hours contained violence, but the crime-western adventure
style does indeed contain the highest percentage of violent programs. The
findings are presented in Table 3.
Table 3. -Violence in crime, western, action-adventure style
1967 1968 Total
Percent containing violence 95.3 98.1 96.6
Average number of
violent episodes
per program 6.5 6.3 6.4
Per program containing violence .... 6.9 6.4 6.7
Per hour 8.8 8.7 8.7
This kind of program constituted a large portion of the total presented
during prime-time hours, in 1967 (66.7 percent), and again in 1968 (62.1
percent).
According to Table 3, crime-western, action-adventure type programs: (1)
almost always contain violence; (2) did not decrease in the percentage
containing violence from 1967 to 1968; and (3) have a high incidence of
violent episodes, the intensity of which decreased slightly from 1967 to 1968.
In other words, little change occurred in the extent of violence in these
programs between 1967 and 1968.
Entire battle scenes, as well as all other instances in which a group was
involved in violence, were counted as only one violent episode. In light of this
fact, the methods used to count the number of violent episodes are certainly
conservative. Had individual acts of violence in a war, gang fight, or other
scenes been counted, the overall incidence of violent episodes would certainly
have been much greater.
c. Programs with a Cartoon Format
Of all of the types of television entertainment, cartoon programs are the
most specifically directed toward an audience of children. For example, the
Saturday morning (8 a.m. - 1 1 a.m.) programming format, regardless of which
network is being watched, is almost exclusively cartoon-type programs, and a
large part of the advertising presented during cartoon programs is specifically
directed toward children.
In almost every public or governmental expression of concern about the
effects of television entertainment programming, a primary focus is on the
possible effects upon children. Recent studies of childrens' media habits show
strong indications that children are viewing more and more prime-time
programming. 1 1 Thus, the decision was made not to do separate content
330 Mass Media and Violence
analyses of child and adult programming. However, the extent and intensity of
violence contained in cartoon programs can give a clear indication of how
often and how much violence is presented when the known and expected
audience is almost exclusively composed of children. We can thus get a
reasonably clear indication of the emphasis placed upon violence for child : ,
audiences by network personnel.
Table 4- Violence in programs with a cartoon format
1967 1968 Total
Percent containing violence 94.3 92.8 93.5
Per program 4.7 6.5 5.5
Per program
containing violence 5.0 6.7 5.8
Per hour 21.6 23.5 22.5
The findings in Table 4 are underestimates of the extent and intensity of ,
violence occurring in a fifteen-minute or half-hour cartoon show, because a
cartoon program, as defined for purposes of this content analysis, means a
single cartoon story (e.g., one "Bird Man" cartoon).
Cartoon programs made up 33 percent of all programming analyzed for
1967, and 29 percent for 1968. Though there is a decrease in the percentage
of cartoon programs from 1967 to 1968, the largest increase in intensity of
violence occurred in cartoon programming. Violence was pervasive and
intense in cartoon programs broadcast in prime time hours for the periods
studied.
Some observers may discount these findings on the grounds that: (1)
cartoon programs are fantasy, not reality; (2) children know the difference
between fantasy and reality; and (3) fantasy programs can have no harmful
effect upon child viewers.
Without going into the crucial question of the messages being sent via
cartoon and other program types, the following points should be made in
regard to the real or potential effects of violence presented in cartoons and
other programs which are thought to fall within the realm of fantasy.
1 . There is no conclusive evidence that children can differentiate between
fantasy and reality in television programs.
2. It remains to be proven that fantasy programs have no effect upon child
viewers harmful or otherwise.
3. Some psychologists suggest that television, with its capacity to
stimulate audiovisual senses, has properties of perceptual reality which
blur the distinction between fantasy and reality. 12
4. For many children, the first contact with violence probably occurs while
viewing television. For many children, their only contact with several
types of violence may be from exposure to television programs.
3. Do Television Audiences Get What They Want?
For many years the claim has been made that the extent and nature ol |
violence in television entertainment programming prevails because it is what
the public wants. In support of this claim, the television networks point tc
The Television World of Violence 33 1
studies of audience size. It is not easy to determine just how these studies are
carried out, thereby making it difficult to assess the scientific validity of the
sampling process.
Two important points should be made which bear directly on audience
preferences:
a. Manifold Functions of Television
Social scientists have noted that the mass media do more than merely
fulfill the desire for acquisition of information and entertainment. In the case
of radio, soap operas give many female listeners 1 3 lessons in family-related
problem-solving; lower income persons often think they are learning the style
and etiquette of middle-class society from television programs. 14
Television also serves as a baby-sitter. Almost all American families own a
television set. It is a fair guess that many harried parents are relieved when
their children are busy watching television, and some parents encourage this
so that parental work and other activities may be accomplished in relative
peace and quiet.
Television also serves a "companion function." For many persons who are
alone for long periods of time, television can act as a substitute for the
presence of loved ones or the company of other people.
The point to be made is that many persons may not watch television solely
for the inherent appeal of its entertainment or informational content. For
them, television viewing may result directly from a variety of factors
essentially unrelated to program content.
b. Habitual Nature of Television Viewing
Television viewing, like newspaper reading, may be a habitual activity.
When some subscribers do not receive their newspaper, they become irritated
and upset. 15 The irritation does not result solely from the inability to keep
up with current events, but also from the disruption of a habitual daily
routine. Given the numbers of hours of television that Americans watch daily,
it appears reasonable to speculate that television viewing, regardless of the
content, may be a habitual activity for some Americans. This hypothesis
could be tested by measuring people's reactions when their set is out of order,
or by systematically preventing some communities from watching television
for various lengths of time.
c. The TV Public's Choices
Regardless of the merits of audience appeal, studies, network officials claim
that these studies represent what the viewing public chooses to watch from
what is available.
What are these choices? First of all, the public can decide whether or not
to watch television at all. We know that most American families have at least
one set, and that most of them watch some television. The question remains,
however, as to why these persons choose to become members of the
television viewing public.
332 Mass Media and Violence
One obvious reason is that it seems wasteful not to use a television once it
has been purchased. Many may choose to watch television simply because it is
an inexpensive form of entertainment. Sports and news programs, which were
not included in the content analysis, often provide the viewer with a better
vantage point than persons who are actually on the scene.
Another possible factor may be termed the "Jones' effect": "If everyone
else is watching television, why should we be different?" Sometimes, a
television serial becomes a topic of discussion at social gatherings or even a
full-fledged fad. In these instances, some persons, especially children, may
watch that program in order to know what people are talking about or to be
able to participate in discussions related to the program.
In any case, many factors probably affect the decisions of persons to
become members of the viewing public.
The television public also makes choices about which channels and
programs to watch. For the viewer whose criterion is the absence of violence,
choice is limited to less than nineteen percent of all programs broadcast
during prime-time hours, according to our study. By way of contrast, viewers,
seeking to watch programs containing violence have little difficulty.
d. The Public 's Views on TV Violence
In view of the above discussion, it is important to know how Americans
view the amount and kinds of violence they find available in television
entertainment programming. Two items bearing directly on this question
were included in the Violence Commission National Survey. The first
inquired:
How do you feel about the amount of violence portrayed in
television programs today, not including news programs do you think
that there is too much, a reasonable amount, or very little violence?
A representative sample of adult Americans gave the following responses
to this question: (1) fifty-nine percent said there was too much violence, (2)
thirty -two percent said there was a reasonable amount, (3) four percent said
there was very little, and (4) four percent were not sure.
Thus a majority of adult Americans think there is too much violence on
television.
A second item was asked of the same sample :
Apart from the amount of violence, do you generally approve or
disapprove of the kind of violence that is protrayed on TV?
Responses (Percent)
Approve 25
Disapprove 63
12
100
The Television World of Violence 333
Americans may not be getting what they want in television programming
when the issue is the kind of violence portrayed. 16
e. Summary
Whether audiences get the programming they want is an issue which
should be assessed in light of all the relevant factors associated with television
viewing and program selection. It has been suggested that the inherent appeal
of television programming is not the only factor affecting conscious or
unconscious decisions to watch television in general or a given program in
particular.
With regard to violence, our findings indicate that a majority of adults are
not getting what they want with respect to the amount and kind of violence
on television. In addition, to the extent that the two weeks of entertainment
programming analyzed are typical, the entertainment choices available to the
viewing public appear to be reduced either to watching programs containing
violence or watching very little television.
Major findings of the analysis include the following:
1. Violence is pervasive, occurring in eighty-one percent of all 1967
programs analyzed and eighty-two percent in 1968.
2. The extent of violence varies by type of program, but a majority of all
types of programs contain violence. Programs with a
crime-western-action adventure style have the highest proportion
containing violence, with cartoons a close second, and comedies third.
3. Networks vary in the proportion of their schedule allocated to given
types of programs. This largely accounts for the differences between
networks, and changes from 1967 to 1968. However, no network had
less than seventy -seven percent of all its programming (prime time,
October 17) containing violence in 1968.
4. The majority of adult Americans not only think there is too much
violence on television, but also disapprove of the kind of violence
portrayed.
4. Messages for Violence Contained in TV Entertainment Programming
In order to investigate the real or potential effects of television violence, it
is not sufficient to know only the extent of violence; these effects are most
directly determined by the messages sent to the viewing public. To use a
medical analogy, we might say that the extent of violence is the dosage given
and the message sent is the medication. So far we know the "dosage" is very
high, but we need to know the nature of the medication.
Each of the norms for violence listed below has been inferred from one or
more of the findings summarized in the preceding pages. This process involves
identification of the substantive meaning of an event on the basis of
incomplete information. For example, when a boy has received three
consecutive refusals for a date from a girl, he may draw the inference that the
girl is not interested in ever dating him. Although she has not categorically
stated that she is not interested, her actions imply this meaning. Thus the boy
"gets the message," and makes an inference made on the basis of incomplete
information.
334 Mass Media and Violence
This procedure was involved indeciphering some of the norms for violence
which are implied by television messages. The problem is to infer what the
substantive meanings of these messages of violence could be (e.g., norms). It
is likely that more than one norm could be inferred from the same message,
and it is conceivable that an inference made by one investigator would not
be made by another, or that contradictory inferences could be drawn from
the same message.
The fact that inference does involve judgments means that there can be
legitimate differences in judgment between two or more investigators within
reasonable limits.
We can return to the boy-girl situation to illustrate this point. The boy
who receives three consecutive refusals may make the inference that the girl is
not interested in him. On the basis of exactly the same facts, he could also
draw the inference that the girl is very popular, so that if he keeps trying,
eventually he will get a date with her. However, there are practical, if not
logical, limits to the inferences which he can make: for example, he could not
infer that she has been eagerly waiting by the phone just for him to call and
ask for a date.
Inference, then is not haphazard or whimsical. It is a process of attributing
meaning on the basis of factual, but incomplete, data within the confines of
logic and trained judgment.
The most frequent and relevant messages about violence contained in the
programs studied are abstracted below. Accompanying each message are one
or more norms for violence which have been inferred from that message.
Messages are ordered from the most specific to the most general.
1. Message: Unmarried young to middle-aged males are usually violent.
Norm: Expect unmarried young to middle-aged males to be more violent than
others.
2. Message: Non-whites and foreigners are disproportionately more violent than
whites and Americans.
Norm: Expect violence more from non-whites or non-Americans than from
whites and Americans.
3. Message: The vast majority of violence occurs between strangers who are within
talking distance of one another.
Norm: When anticipating violence, be wary of situations in which you encounter
strangers at close physical range.
Norm: Violence is to be expected more from strangers than from friends,
acquaintances, or family members.
Norm: If you want to avoid being involved in or the victim of violence, avoid
strangers.
Combining Messages 1-3: In the U.S., expect violence from unmarried
young to middle-aged male strangers; if outside of the U.S., expect
violence from non-white or foreign unmarried young to middle-age
male strangers.
The Television World of Violence 3 35
4. Message: Non-whites kill less often than do whites, but are killed more often.
Message: Violent young males are more likely to kill than are violent middle-aged
males, but less likely to be killed.
Norm: The violent people, including killers, who should be the most concerned
about getting killed are middle-aged men and non-whites.
5. Message: Law enforcement officers are frequently involved in violent encounters
with segments of the American public.
Message: A law enforcement officer's response to violence is more often violent,
than non-violent.
Norm: It is to be expected that law enforcement officers will be as violent as the
most violent citizens.
6. Message: The future is pervasively violent.
Norm: Although the past and present are heavily saturated with violence, the
future will be more extensively so.
7. Message: Although violence can lead to death, physical injuries are not often
accompanied by visible gore.
Norm: Physical injury caused by violence can kill, but is sanitized and does not
hurt.
8. Message: When there are witnesses to violence, the most typical reaction is
non-reaction or passivity.
Norm: If you are a witness to a violent episode, do not get directly involved by
intervening, and do not publicly disapprove; just watch quietly.
9. Message: The use of violence, even killing, often goes unpunished by formal means
of due process of law or by informal means of public or private
expression of disapproval.
Norm: If you use violence, do not be too concerned about being formally or
informally punished.
10. Message: "Good guys" and "winners" use as much violence as "bad guys" and
"loser."
Norm: The use of violence has nothing to do with the distinction between "good
guys" and "bad guys" and "winners" and "losers."
Message: Violence is used by "good guys" and "bad guys" as means to an end, and
"good guys" generally attain their goals.
Norm: Violence is a legitimate and successful means of attaining a desired end.
Norm: There is no inconsistency between achieving a desired goal through
violence and being a "good guy."
336 Mass Media and Violence
The above messages and norms have been selected as the most relevant for
the present discussion. The overall impression is that violence, employed as a
means of conflict resolution or acquisition of personal goals, is a predominant
characteristic of life. Cooperation, compromise, debate, and other non-violent
means of conflict resolution are notable for their relative lact of prominence.
A general impression gleaned from the selected messages and implicit
norms presented above is that violence often accompanies conflict, is a
successful means of reaching personal ends (especially for individuals cast in
the role of "good guy"), and is not usually punished. These findings are
consistent with those obtained by Larsen, Grey, and Fertis in a content
analysis of popular television programs. 17
5. Research Implications
Even though findings and inferences from content analysis may give rise to
serious concerns about the effects of exposure to television violence, they do
not provide conclusive evidence about them. Exposure alone does not
automatically mean that the viewer will be affected. The degree to which
exposure is likely to have a direct effect depends, in large part, upon the type
of effect being considered.
If our concern is solely to determine whether or not persons have an
emotional reaction to television violence research shows that they do. We are
dealing with a relatively direct and simple effect of exposure. 18 In this case,
messages and implicit norms for violence have little, if any, bearing.
However, if we wish to determine what persons can and do learn from
their exposure to television portrayals of violence, range of messages and
norms for violence which can be inferred are a salient concern.
In chapter 12, experimental studies provide consistent evidence that
people, especially children, can and do learn complex and novel acts of
aggression from observation of television and film portrayals, 19 However,
learning novel acts of aggression is less complex than the process involved in
acquiring implied norms for violence. If a group was exposed to the same
series of messages about violence for the same length of time, we would
expect different individuals to perceive the portrayals of violence in relatively
different ways. This expectation is based upon the well-established principle
of selective, perception.
In some respects, the implications of selective perception are greater when
the issue is learning norms rather than acts. Learning norms requires a
complex symbolic process of attributing normative meaning to an observed
event. To the extent that people differ in their perceptions of a television
portrayal of violence, we would expect different normative inferences to be
made. Differences in inferred norms would probably lead to differences in the
nature of probable effects.
The inferral of the same norms by a group still does not prove that the
process of making a normative inference has an effect. If audiences were to
draw similar inferences, under what conditions will they incorporate the
norms implied in that television program as their own norms for violence?
The next question is: What are the behavioral implications for persons who
incorporate television norms for violence as their own?
The questions which must be answered before we can definitively assess
The Television World of Violence 337
the effects of exposure to messages about violence on television are: (1)
under what conditions does learning of norms for violence occur from
exposure to television?; (2) under what conditions are inferred norms for
violence adopted, once they are learned?; and (3) under what conditions are
the norms for violence, when learned and adopted, acted upon?
Studies cited in Chapter 1 2 point to the following conditions in which
learning of aggressive acts is demonstrated: (a) when a situation is
encountered similar to the portrayal situation in which aggressive acts were
learned; (b) when there is an expectation of being rewarded for performing
the learned aggression or escaping detection; 20 and (c) when no disapproval
of the portrayed behavior is shown by another person who is exposed to the
same portrayaK 2 1
These three conditions are by no means the only ones which must be
considered, but they lend themselves most easily to evaluation through
content analysis.
The likelihood that viewers who were exposed to the two weeks of TV
programming analyzed would face similar situations is somewhat reduced by
the fact that only fifty-five percent of all programs containing violence were
set in the 1960's. Time of action, of course, is only one aspect of a portrayal
situation. Thus, a different time of action does not remove the possibility
that the portrayal situation could be quite similar to those encountered by
persons in the 1960's.
For example, the portrayal of a teenage boy in frontier times encountering
a situation where he must decide whether or not to resolve conflict with
another teenager by the use of violence may influence a teenage boy living in
the 1960's who encounters a similar situation.
To the degree that portrayal situations are different from those the
viewing audience are likely to encounter, learning of violent acts and norms
may occur, but are less likely to be acted upon than when such situations are
similar.
The content analysis findings bear directly upon the second research
condition; there is an increase in the likelihood that subjects in experiments
will act upon their learning of aggressive acts when subjects expect to be or
see actors in television portrayals rewarded for aggressive behavior. One of
the clearest content analysis findings is that violent characters in television
portrayals are often rewarded for their behavior. Reward comes most directly
to "good guys," who often achieve success through violence. In addition, the
use of violence is not often punished in the television world. Thus, if viewers
infer from their exposure that violence not only goes largely unpunished but
is rewarded, they may be more likely to transfer this inference into an
expectation that they might be rewarded or go unpunished for using violence.
Although the rewarding and non-punishment condition does occur in the
programs analyzed, it is not known whether this condition will have the same
effect (significantly increasing the probability that learned aggression will be
performed) on audiences who are not subjects in a laboratory experiment. In
other words, we cannot assume that the effects occurring under the
controlled setting of an experiment will also occur in home settings.
The importance of considering the social contexts in which television
viewing typically takes place is pointed up in the third condition whether or
not approval or disapproval is expressed by one viewer in another viewer's
338 Mass Media and Violence
presence. The content analysis research does not provide any information on
the degree to which children view television in the presence of others, or how
often others, when present, verbally approve or disapprove of portrayals of
violent acts. Future research is required before we will know if the effect of
this condition will be the same in a home as in laboratory experiments i.e.
increasing the probability of learned acts of aggression being performed.
Future research is also required to determine if the conditions which are
found to increase the probability of persons performing learned aggression
also increase the probability of persons acting in accordance with norms for
violence learned from exposure to television programs. The present
assumption is that it will, but future research is needed to corroborate or
disprove the hypothesis.
E. Summary
The world of television violence is a place in which severe violence is
commonplace. The main characters are unmarried young to middle-age males
who became involved in violent encounters with strangers. Violent encounters
are often unwitnessed, but when they are, the predominant reaction is passive
observation and non-intervention. Violence, regardless of the identity of the
initiator, goes largely unpunished. The central role played by violence in this
cold world of strangers and passive observers is to provide a successful means
for individuals or groups to resolve conflicts in their favor or self-interest.
Forces of law enforcement are undistinguishable from others insofar as they
also use violence as the predominant mode of conflict resolution. Legality, in
many instances, is not a relevant dimension or concern.
An examination of some of the most frequent messages being sent to mass
audiences and norms for violence inferred from these messages leads to a
serious concern about the effects upon audiences of television entertainment
programs. At the very least, it can be said that the messages being sent about
violence are inconsistent with a philosophy of social behavior based upon
involved cooperation, non-violent resolution of conflict, and non-violent
means of attaining personal ends.
The next series of questions which needs to be addressed is (1) Are the
messages which are sent actually received by TV audiences? (2) Are these
messages learned? (3) Can norms for violence implied in these messages be
learned and adopted as the audience's norms for violence? This series of
questions lies at the crux of the issue of the social and psychological effects
of mass media portrayals of violence.
REFERENCES
1. See Bradley Greenberg, "The Content and Context of Violence in The Mass Media,"
paper submitted to the Violence Commission, Fall, 1968. This paper can be found in
Appendix II C.
2. Jack Lyle, "Contemporary Functions of the Mass Media," paper submitted to the
Violence Commission, Fall, 1968.
3. We would like to thank ABC, CBS, and NBC for their cooperation.
4. A study of network programs transmitted October 1-7, 1967 and 1968, conducted
in October and November 1968 for the Mass Media Task Force, National
Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence.
The Television World of Violence 339
Associate investigators: Marten Brouwer, visiting professor of communications;
Cedric C. Clark, post-doctoral fellow in Communications; Supervisor of data
processing: Klaus Krippendorff, Assistant Professor of Communications.
Administrative Assistant and Staff Supervisor: Michael F. Eleey.
Technical Director: Vernon J. Wattenberger, Director of Facilities and Engineering
Assistants: Barry Hampe, Supervisor of Film Laboratory Services; John Massi,
Supervisor of Broadcasting Laboratory Services
5. Appendix K describes the selection of programs, terms, units, and other conditions
of analysis, and the methods used to control and measure the extent to which
unreliable observations or prior judgements might affect the usefulness of the results
in providing a basis for fresh judgment. The structures of interpretation noted
should be kept in mind in reading and using the results.
6. In other words, an accurate and meaningful capsule statement of the story requires
one or more references to violent acts.
7. A category for an act of nature as the agent of violence was included, but none were
observed.
8. Three-fourths of all sources and receivers were human beings, and one fourth were
human-like (animals or human-like cartoon characters that can and did speak, and
one robot who also could speak).
9. It is difficult to know how many viewers actually include the violent or non-violent
nature of television programs as a criterion of program selection. However, if this
criterion were employed, the range of available non-violent programs is quite
limited.
10. In Appendix K, analysis is made of more detailed program types. Note that one
program can be classified as one, two, or three types; e.g., a cartoon format with a
comedy tone.
11. See Eleanor Macoby, "Effects of Mass Media, " in M. L. and L. W. Hoffman, (eds.),
Review of Child Development Research (Russell Sage Foundation, 1964), pp.
323-348.
12. See Alberta Siegal, "Effects of Mass Media Violence on Inter-Personal Relations, "
paper submitted to the Violence Commission, Fall, 1968.
13. Herta Herzog, "What Do We Really Know About Daytime Serial Listeners?" in P.
F. Lazarsfeld and F. N. Stanton (eds.), Radio Research (New York: Duell, Sloan &
Pearce, 1942), pp. 3-33.
14. W. M. Gerson, "Social Structure and Mass Media Socialization," Unpublished
doctoral dissertation, University of Washington, 1963.
15. Bernard Berelson, "What 'Missing the Newspaper' Means," in Wilbur Schramm (ed.),
The Process and Effects of Mass Communications (Urban, Illinois: Univ. of Illinois
Press, 1954), pp. 3647.
16. Social desirability could have affected these responses-i.e., some respondents may
have felt that the expected or desirable response was to say that they disapproved of
the kind of violence or that there is too much violence in television entertainment
programming.
17. Otto Larsen, Louis Grey, and J. Fortas, "Achieving Goals Through Violence on
Television," in O. N. Larsen (ed.), Violence and the Mass Media (New York: Harper
& Row 1968), pp. 9.7-1 11.
18. For example, see Leonard Berkowitz, 'The Effects of Observing Violence,"
Scientific American, vol. 210 (Feb. 1964), pp. 2-8.
19. See Chapter 12, for a review of research concerning observational learning from
exposure to audiovisual portrayals of aggression.
20. See Chapter 12.
21. Ibid.
Chapter 16
THE ACTUAL WORLD OF VIOLENCE
A. Norms for Violence
Thus far it has been shown that (1) television programming is and has been
saturated with violence; (2) the norms implicit in the television world of
violence support the use of of violence as a means of conflict resolution and
as a successful and legitimate means to an array of personal ends; (3) many
social scientists conclude that audiences exposed to media violence over a
period of time can absorb norms and attitudes of violence which are
implicitly or explicitly contained in media entertainment programming; and
(4) many social scientists conclude that the media can stimulate aggressive
tendencies which, under some conditions, can lead to aggressive behavior. 1
No scientists would argue that the media are the sole determinants of past
or present violence in America. However, there appears to be a growing
consensus of opinion that the mass media cannot be ignored when an attempt
is made to explain the phenomenon of violence in contemporary America.
Social and psychological phenomena are not caused by one and only one
factor. Thus, the search for an explanation of violence must be directed at an
investigation of many factors, including mass media presentations and
practices.
The Commission staff did not restrict itself to an examination of the
television world of violence; they also investigated the actual world of
violence as experienced by Americans. This study is important as a basis for
comparing real and fictional worlds of violence. It is, then, a factor which
must be considered in an attempt to explain why some people are violent and
others are not. Perhaps those who have had direct experience with violence
are affected differently by exposure to violence as portrayed on television.
Thus, experience with violence may be both an independent source of
learning and an intervening factor between exposure to and the effects of
violence on television.
Comparison of the two is extremely complex. The impetus for research on
the actual world of violence stemmed in part from the fact that the effects of
mass media portrayals of violence upon audience attitudes and behavior
necessarily involve both (1) the nature of media portrayals of violence in this
case, the television world of violence and (2) the nature of the norms of and
direct experience with violence.
341
342 Mass Media and Violence
1 . Survey of Adult and Teenage Americans
The Media Task Force portion of the national survey constituted
approximately one-half of the questions given in a one-hour interview. Area
probability samples of the adult (eighteen and over) and teenage (fourteen to
nineteen) population of the United States were drawn by Louis Harris
and Associates. 2 The samples of 1,176 adult Americans and 496 teenagers
are broadly representative of the total adult and teenage population of this
country.
The three major parts of the interview provide detailed information on (a)
the respondent's norms for violence; (b) the extent and nature of his actual
experiences with violence; and (c) his media habits and preferences. 3 A copy
of the Media Task Force portion of the interview schedule is presented in
Appendix I.
2. Norms for Violence: Adult and Teenage Americans
Norms set standards for behavior and define the limits between acceptable
and unacceptable behavior. It is generally, assumed that most persons will
seek to act in accordance with these norms in order to avoid disapproval.
However, applicable norms in a given situation may not coincide either with
personal norms or with norms of others, and therein lies the opportunity for
deviance and conflict. Persons who deviate from their own norms may lose
self-esteem. Persons who deviate from the norms held by others, such as
friends and family members, may lose the respect of these people or be
otherwise sanctioned or punished for their deviance. Thus, norms have an
explicit control function over behavior; conformity is rewarded and deviance
elicits punishment.
a. Description of Findings
Both samples were asked to respond to a series of questions, phrased as
hypothetical situations, which were intended to ascertain their norms for
violence. Sixteen of these situations, containing minor and major (low level
and severe) instances of violence occurring between eight different
assailant-victim relationships were presented to the respondents. 4 An example
of the question format is presented below:
39a. Are there any situations that you can imagine in which you would approve of a
public school teacher hitting a student?
Yes . . 1
No 2
Not sure 3
40a. Are there any situations that you can imagine in which you would approve of a
public school teacher punching or beatings student?
Yes 1
No 2
Not sure .... 3
The Actual World of Violence
343
Thus, each role relationship, in this case teacher-student, was repeated
twice -once with a relatively low-level or minor act of violence (hitting) and
once with a relatively severe act of violence (punching or beating).
Adult and teenager general approval of violence patterns were assessed by
this procedure for the following role relationships:
(a) Parent and Child (at least one year old and healthy).
(b) Husband and Wife*
(c) Wife and Husband
(d) Public School Teacher and Student
(e) Male Teenager and Male Teenager
(f) Man and Adult Male Stranger
(g) Policeman and Adult Male
(h) Judge and Citizen
The adult responses to the general question of "are there any situations
that you can imagine in which you would approve of X doing B to Y?" are:
Yes
1. Parent spanking his or her
child assuming the child is
healthy and over a year old .... 93
2. Parent beating his or her
child 8
3. Husband slapping his wife's
face 20
4. Husband shooting his wife 3
5. Wife slapping her husband's
face . 22
6. Wife shooting her husband 4
7. Public school teacher hitting
a student 49
8. Public school teacher punching
or beating a student 5
9. Policeman striking an adult male
citizen 73
10. Policeman shooting an adult
male citizen 71
1 1 . Teenage boy punching another
teenage boy 66
Percent
Not sure
1
1
2
2
(*)
4
2
5
5
4
No
6
91
78
97
76
95
47
93
22
24
30
*In (b) the husband acts violently against his wife, while in (c) the wife acts violently
against her husband.
344 Mass Media and Violence
Percent
Yes Not sure No
12. Teenage boy knifing another
teenage boy 3 (*) 97
13. Man punching an adult male
stranger 52 5 43
14. Man choking an adult male
stranger 24 4 72
15 . Judge sentencing a person to
one or more years of hard labor .84 6 10
16. Judge sentencing a person to
death 53 7 40
Only two of the eight role relationships (policeman-adult male and
judge-citizen) received approval from a majority of the American adult
population, regardless of severity of the act of violence. Policemen and judges
may engage in minor or severe acts of violence with the general approval of a
majority of adult Americans. Parents, teachers, teenagers, adult males,
husbands, and wives may engage in minor violence with varying degrees of
approval, but severe acts of violence are disapproved by a majority of the
adult population.
The major difference between policemen and judges and the other roles
studied is that policemen and judges have institutionalized legal authority to
use violence. The policemen is authorized to use whatever force, including
violence, necessary to apprehend lawbreakers, while judges have the authority
and responsibility to mete out punishment consistent with the dictates of the
law, including punishments which may be acts of violence.
In light of the incidence of television programs in which policemen play a
significant role and the apparent increases in domestic disorders which
directly involve law enforcement agencies, it is important to understand the
specific conditions under which adult Americans approve of the use of
violence by policemen.
b. Norms for the Use of Violence by Policemen
Seventy-six percent of the adult sample and 78 percent of the teenage
sample in general approved ("y es " an ^ "not sure" responses) of a policeman
shooting an adult male citizen. A series of specific hypothetical situations
were presented to respondents who gave general approval in an attempt to
discover what level of provocation was necessary before these respondents
would approve of such an action. Percentages in this study are based only on
responses of general approval (i.e., 32 percent here means 32 percent of the
76 percent who gave general approval).
42a. Are there any situations you can imagine in which you would approve of a
policeman shooting an adult citizen?
*Less than one percent.
The Actual World of Violence 345
Adult responses Teenage responses
(N=1176) (N=496)
Percent Percent
Yes 71 Yes 74
No 24 No 22
Not sure 5 Not sure 4
42b. Would you approve if the citizen:
Percent of persons saying
yes or not sure above
Adults* Teens*
Yes Yes
Had said vulgar and obscene things to
the policeman 2
Was demonstrating against the war in
Vietnam and carrying a Vietcong flag 1 4
Was being questioned as a suspect in a
murder case 2 2
Was attacking the policeman with his
fists 32 28
Was attempting to escape from custody 55 59
Was threatening the policeman with a
gun 96 90
An extremely small minority would approve of a policeman shooting a
citizen for saying obscene things to the policeman, demonstrating against the
war in Vietnam, or for being a suspect in a murder case. However, a sizeable
minority of adults (32 percent) and teenagers (28 percent) would approve
of a policeman responding to an assault in this manner. A majority of adults
(55 percent) and teenagers (59 percent) approve of a policeman shooting
someone who was attempting to escape, while the great majority approve of
a policeman shooting someone who is threatening him with a gun.
Both class and race differences were found in this study. Those with higher
income and more education approve of policemen using violence, more than
those with lower income and less education. Non-blacks approve of police
violence more than blacks. 5 One possible interpretation is that lower-class
persons, especially blacks, have much more contact with policemen in a
violent context, and hence, see themselves as likely recipients* of such
violence.
It is particularly important to recall that police on television are very
violent. In a later section of this report, norms for police use of violence held
by adults and teenage Americans are compared with the norms for police use
of violence implicit in television programming.
Adult and teenage responses to the question involving a policeman striking
an adult male citizen are strikingly similar:
4 la. Are there any situations you can imagine in which you
would approve of a policeman striking an adult male
citizen?
W=894 adults, W=387 teens.
346 Mass Media and Violence
Adult responses Teenage responses
N=W6 N=496
Percent Percent
Yes 73 Yes 73
Not sure 5 Not sure 4
No 22 No 23
41b. Would you approve if:* Yes responses
Percent
Adults Teem
Had said vulgar and obscene things to the
policeman 27 21
Was demonstrating against the war in Vietnam
and carrying a Vietcong flag 19 27
Was being questioned as a suspect in a murder
case 8 9
Was attempting to escape from custody 83 84
Was attacking the policeman with his fists 97 97
* Asked only of persons saying "Yes" or "Not Sure" to general questions
(41a), Adults, #=917, teens, JV=382.
In this case, as with almost all the questions, there is very little discrepancy
between adult and teenage responses. Approximately three-fourths of the
adult and teenage populations can imagine a situation in which they would
approve of a policeman striking an adult male citizen.
A remarkable proportion of adults and teenagers approve of a policeman
striking a citizen if he has said vulgar and obscene things to the policeman
(adults, 27 percent; teens, 21 percent). Police use of violence thus is approved
in response to strictly verbal deviance, which does not involve breaking a
law.
Likewise, a substantial minority would approve of a policeman striking an
adult male who was demonstrating against the Vietnam war. Again, the adult
male is doing nothing illegal and is not endangering anyone's life or physical
well-being. These respondents are approving of police violence as a means of
punishing political deviance.
At one extreme, nearly one out of ten approved of "third degree"
methods of dealing with suspects. At the other extreme , a sizeable minority
of adults (22 percent) and teenagers (23 percent) do not approve of a
policeman striking an adult male in any situation imaginable. Approximately
the same percentage of adults (24) and teenagers (22 percent) cannot imagine
any situation in which they would approve of a policeman shooting an adult
male citizen. Thus, for a substantial minority of adult and teenage Americans
police violence is normative ly disapproved.
Thus, two sizable minorities are divided with respect to the use of violence
by policemen. One group disapproves of police violence regardless of the
provocation, while the other group gives almost unqualified approval to the
use of violence by policemen. Certainly, as noted earlier in this Report, the
norm that policemen should be non-violent is not being supported by the
television world of violence.
The majority of Americans, however, are consistent with legal norms,
approving of police use of violence only when the provocation is illegal,
The Actual World of Violence 347
potentially threatening to the life of the policeman, or directly hindering law
enforcement.
c. An Overview of Adult and Teenage Norms for Violence
Using just the "yes," "no," or "not sure" responses to the general question
of "Are there any situations that you can imagine in which you would
approve of X doing A to Y?," we can derive a summary profile of American
norms for violence. As one approach to this problem, the hypothetical
situations involving relatively low and severe violence have been ranked
separately on the basis of the percentage approval given by the sample of
adult Americans. 6
Rank Order of Low Violence Situations: Adults
Percent
Role relationship Violence act Approval* Rank
(a) Parent-child Spanking 94 1
(b) Judge-citizen 1-year hard labor 90 2
(c) Policeman-adult male Striking 78 3
(d) Teenage boy-teenage boy Punching 69 4
(e) Man-adult male stranger Punching 57 5
(f) Teacher-student Hitting 53 6
(g) Wife-husband Slapping face 24 7
(h) Husband-wife Slapping face 22 8
* Approval includes "yes" and "not sure "responses.
Rank Order of High Violence Situations: Adults
Percent
Role relationship Violent act Approval* Rank
(a) Police-adult male Shooting 77 1
(b) Judge-citizen Death sentence 60 2
(c) Man-adult male stranger Choking 28 3
(d) Parent-child Beating 9 4
(e) Teacher-student Punching or beating 7 5
(0 Wife-husband Shooting 4.5 6
(g) Teenage boy-teenage boy Knifing 4 7
(h) Husband -wife Shooting 3.5 8
Again, policemen and judges received high levels of approval regardless of
the severity of violence. None of the other six role relationships receives
approval from anywhere near a majority of the adults. Thus it seems that
most adult Americans only approve of institutionalized law enforcement
officials performing severe acts of violence. Furthermore, law enforcement
officials receive approval from a majority of adults for the use of violence
only when it is necessary to protect their lives or to carry out their legal
responsibilities.
The least approved role relationship is the most intimate, the relationship
between husband and wife. There is little difference between percentage
approval of violence on the part of husbands and wives in the same situations,
*Yes and not sure responses.
348 Mass Media and Violence
regardless of the severity. The vast majority of American adults disapprove of
violence between husbands and wives, no matter who was the instigator.
Perhaps the most relevant institutionalized aspect of family violence has to
do with parents' needs, rights, or responsibilities toward their children.
Physical punishment in the form of spanking is an act of violence, even
though common sense and our findings tell us that this is approved by all but
a small minority of adult Americans. However, when we consider beating, a
more severe form of physical punishment, we find that only nine percent of
adult Americans'approve of this action in any imaginable situation. 7
Another institutionalized relationship in which one party has authority
over the other is the public school teacher-student relationship. A slight
majority of adult Americans approve of corporal punishment in some
situations. A majority of these do not approve of a teacher hitting a student
for being noisy in class, but do approve if the student had been repeatedly
disobedient and uncooperative, destroyed school property, or hit the teacher.
The vast majority of American adults (ninety-three percent) would not
approve of a teacher punching or beating a student in any situation. Of the
remaining seven percent, a majority approved only when the teacher has been
hit by the student.
The teenage boy-teenage boy role relationship is an interesting one because
there is no difference in authority between the two parties, and neither party
has formal authority to use violence against the other. However, there does
seem to be a prevalent dilemma for teenagers and their parents in this
country, since two inconsistent norms apply here one, that conflict should
not be resolved with violence, and the other, that males should not back
down from a challenge, even if it might result in violence. In America,
violence is most often conceived as a male activity, whether the situation
involves crime, war, or private conflict.
A majority of adult Americans feel that it is all right for one teenage boy
to punch another, especially if the other boy has challenged him to a fistfight
or actually hit him; but knifing is never approved behavior. However, a
significant minority of adults (thirty-one percent) disapprove of violence
between teenage boys, regardless of the level of violence or the nature of the
situation.
The man-adult male stranger is especially interesting because the majority
of television violence takes place between adult male strangers. This is similar
to the above mentioned relationship in that both parties are equals with
regard to authority. Both have the legal right to use violence only in
self-defense or when the other is trespassing and all other possibilities have
been exhausted.
The man-adult male stranger relationship may also involve a normative
dilemma, which is evident in the two die turns that "men should not take the
law into their own hands" and "men have a right to defend themselves, their
loved ones, and their property."
The findings indicate that a slight majority of adults can imagine a
situation in which they would approve of a man punching an adult male
stranger, while a large majority cannot imagine a situation when they would
approve of a man choking a stranger. Low-level violence (in this case
punching), is approved, "specifically in response to violent or illegal
provocation.
The Actual World of Violence 349
45a. Are there any situations that you can imagine in which you would approve of a
man punching an adult male stranger?
Adult responses
(#=1,176)
Percent
Yes 52-1
No 43 -2
Not sure 5-3
45b. Would you approve if the stranger:
Percent of persons saying
Yes or not sure above
(#=670)
Percent
Yes
Was in a protest march showing opposition to the other
man's views 2
Was drunk and bumped into the man and his wife on the street 8
Had hit the man's child after the child accidentally damaged
the stranger's car 59
Was beating up a woman and the man saw it 81
Had broken into the man's house 93
46a. Are there any situations that you can imagine in which you would approve of a
man choking a stranger?
Adult responses
IN* 1,1 76)
Percent
Yes 24-1
No 72-2
Not sure 4-3
46b. Would you approve if the stranger:
Percent of persons saying
yes or not sure above
(N=329)
(Percent
Yes
Was in a protest march showing opposition to the other
man's views
Was drunk and bumped into the man and his wife on the street 2
Had hit the man's child after the child accidentally damaged
the stranger's car 27
Had broken into the man's house 71
Had knocked the man down and was trying to rob him 92
350 Mass Media and Violence
In general, adult norms for the use of violence by against a stranger
support low level violence when the man is playing a protective role, but
reject the use of high-level violence. Even the minority of adults (28 percent)
who can imagine a situation in which they would approve of a man choking
an adult male stranger, do so only when the stranger is beating up a woman,
has broken into the man's house, or has knocked the man down and is trying
to rob him.
d. Adult and Teenage Norms for Violence: Comparison and Summary
A simple method of measuring the degree of similarity between adult and
teenage norms is to compare the percentage of approval each group assigns to
the eight role relationships. Adult and teenage rankings of low violence items
are almost idential.
Table 1 -Adult and teenage rankings of role relationships: low violence items
Rank
Role relationship Act Adult Teenage
Parent-child Spank 1 1
Judge-citizen 1 year hard labor 2 2
Policeman-adult male Strike 3 3
Teenage boy-teenage boy Punch 4 4
Man-male stranger Punch 5
Teacher-student Hit 6 7
Wife-husband Slap face 7 6
Husband-wife Slap face 8 8
Spearman's rho=0.98.
Adult and teenage rankings of high violence items are also extremely
similar. Although there are important differences between each group's norms
for violence, the overall patterns of approval are very similar.
Table 2. -Adult and teenage rankings of role relationships: high violence items
Rank
Role relationship Act Adult Teenage
Police-adult male Shoot 1 1
Judge-citizen Death penalty 2 2
Man-male stranger Choke 3 3
Parent-child Beat 4 4
Teacher-student Punch or beat 5 6
Wife-husband Shoot 6 7
Teenage boy -teenage boy knife 7 5
Husband-wife Shoot 8 8
Spearman's rho=0.93.
The Actual World of Violence 35 1
The most notable aspect of adult and teenage American norms for violence
is that only legally constituted authorities are given approval by the majority
to use high-level violence. Judges and policemen may use high-level violence
when legally permitted and when the situation warrants it. Low-level violence
with the exception of the husband-wife role relationship is much more
broadly approved by the majority of adult and teen Americans.
3. Black and Non-Black Comparisons
Although there are some important differences between black and
non-black norms for violence (the most important is that a greater percentage
of non-blacks approve of the use of violence by policemen than do blacks),
there is a striking similarity between their rank orders of approval of the
low-level and severe violence items. Spearman's Rho, a statistical measure
which assesses the degree of similarity between two rank orders, is 0.84
between black and non-black rank orders of the low-level violence items, and
0.98 for severe violence items. In general then, black and non-black norms
with respect to violence are similar.
In the following section, exploration will be made of the demographic and
social characteristics of the minority of adult and teenage Americans who give
the highest overall approval of violence.
4. The Approvers of Violence: Low-Level Violence
The first group consists of those who approve of low-level violence
(slapping face) between husbands and wives.
Twenty-nine percent of the adults approved of a husband slapping his
wife's face and/or a wife slapping her husband's face. This minority can be
described in terms of four demographic characteristics which distinguish them
from the rest of the adult population: (1) sex, (2) age, (3) residence, and (4)
education. The most common group of high approvers of low-level violence
consists of: (1) male, (2) eighteen to thirty-five years of age, (3) residing in
cities having a population over 50,000 persons, and (4) without a college
education.
Thirty-three percent of adult males and twenty-five percent of adult
females are high approvers of low-level violence. Although more males than
females are high approvers of low level violence, the demographic patterns for
; males and females are identical. High approvers are young city people who do
not have a college education.
Teenagers are higher approvers (45 percent) of low level violence than
either male or female adults. The same demographic characteristics were used
, to identify teenage approvers, with the exception that race was substituted
' for education, with a higher percentage of blacks expressing approval.
There is no variation between male and female teenagers with respect to
percent approval of low level violence (45 percent of both males and females
!are high approvers). Teenagers were split into two age groups: 13 to 15 years
. f old and 16 to 19 years old. There is no significant variation in percentage
! approval between age groups for males or females.
352 Mass Media and Violence
The two characteristics which do distinguish teenage high approvers of
low-level violence from the rest of the teenage population are residence and
race. A greater proportion of teenagers living in metropolitan areas are high
approvers than teenagers living in rural, small city, or suburban areas. Of
teenagers residing in metropolitan areas, a greater proportion of blacks are
high approvers than non-blacks.
The subgroup of teenagers who are high approvers of low-level violence
consists of those living in metropolitan areas, especially blacks. It should be
noted that the majority of blacks live in metropolitan areas, especially
northern blacks. It is difficult to compare black residents of northern suburbs
with similar metropolitan residents, since there are too few suburban blacks
to make a meaningful comparison.
5. The Approvers of Violence: High-Level Violence
High approvers of high-level violence are defined as those who approve of a
high-level violence item which is approved by less than fifteen percent of the
total population. These items are (a) parent beating child, (b) teacher beating
student, (c) teenager knifing teenager, (d) wife shooting husband, and (e)
husband shooting wife.
Twenty percent of the adult population fall into this category. There is
variation in approval between the sexes, with twenty-five percent of the males
and fourteen percent of the females defined as high approvers. The
demographic group with the highest proportion of high approvers of severe
violence is exactly the same as the group approving of low-level violence: (1)
male, (2) eighteen to thirty-five years of age, (3) residing in a metropolitan
area, and (4) with less than a college education.
The group with the second-highest proportion consists of males thirty-six
to sixty years of age, living in metropolitan areas, and having less than a
college education.
Only fourteen percent of adult females are defined as high approvers of
severe violence, but an examination of their demographic characteristics
reveals the same pattern found among males.
The teenage group with the highest proportion of high approvers of
high-level violence is: (1) male, (2) between the ages of sixteen and nineteen,
(3) residing in metropolitan areas, and (4) black. Male teenagers between the
ages of thirteen and fifteen with the same residential and racial characteristics
constitute the second most approving group of high level violence.
There is a greater percentage of high-approving teenagers (twenty-eight
percent) than adults. Thirty-four percent of male and twenty-one percent of
female teenagers are classified as high approvers of high-level violence. Black
female teenagers living in metropolitan areas are the highest approving group
among females.
The fact that black teenagers are consistently higher approvers of violence
may be an indirect result of the fact that metropolitan residents are high
approvers of violence. Social scientists have pointed to many aspects of urban
living in an effort to explain why the rates of deviant behavior are higher in
large cities than in suburbs, small cities, or rural areas. Cultural differences
The Ac tual World of Violence 353
between blacks and non-blacks are probably less important than residential
differences with respect to approval of violence.
6. Summary
Adult and teenage Americans have similar patterns of general approval of
violence. The major characteristics of these patterns are: (1) the use of
violence, regardless of severity, is never unconditionally approved by a
majority of adults or teenagers; (2) low-level violence is approved behavior for
all the role relationships, except the husband-wife relationship, where
violence of any level is never approved by a majority of the respondents; (3)
the situational bases of approval of low-level violence vary from punishment
and control by parents of children and teachers over students, to self-defense
and protection of property, loved ones, or masculinity for teenage boys and
adult male strangers, and self-defense and law enforcement for policemen and
judges; (4) high-level violence is approved by a majority of adults and teens
only for the policeman-adult male and judge-citizen role relationships; and (5)
policemen and judges may employ high-level violence with the approval of
the majority of adults only when legally permitted (e.g., self-defense).
Two findings with particular relevance concern norms relative to the use of
violence:
(1) Two significant minorities of adults and teenagers hold opposing views
with regard to policemen using violence one approves of police violence
almost unconditionally, while the other never approves of it. This finding has
clear implications for the study of political polarization. From the content
analysis of the televison world of violence and the role played by law
enforcement officials in that world, it is clear that the norms for police use of
violence on television support the norms espoused by a minority who almost
unconditionally approve the use of violence by police. Conversely, the
minority who disapprove police use of violence receive no normative support
from television programming. It is important to note television norms with
respect to police violence are not supportive of those expressed by the
majority of Americans who approve of police violence only when it is legally
permitted and necessary, as well as the minority who never approve of it.
(2) A large proportion of teenagers are high approvers of violence,
regardless of the level.
In both teenage and adult populations, the highest proportion of high
approvers of violence was composed of metropolitan residents. High
approvers among adults were most often males between the ages of eighteen
and thirty -five residing in a metropolitan area and having less than a college
education. Black male metropolitan residents had the highest proportion of
high approvers in the teen population.
High approval of violence, then, is related to sex, age, residence, and
perhaps to race, although race did not distinguish adult high approvers from
the rest of the population. 8 However, when non-black and black
354 Mass Media and Violence
metropolitan residents were compared, a slightly greater percentage of blacks
were high approvers. In any case, race is not as closely associated with high
approval among teenagers as are sex and residence.
An interpretation of these findings will be deferred until the actual
experience of adult and teenage Americans with violence is examined.
B. Actual Experience With Violence: Adults and Teens
Adult and teenage respondents were asked if they had had direct personal
experience with any of five violent encounters. Direct personal experience
with violence was assessed by repeating the same series of violent encounters
for three different types of experience: (a) as the victim, (b) as the assailant,
and (c) as an observer. 9
The series of violent encounters is listed below. Presented next to the
series of violent encounters are the questions asked of respondents to assess
their experience as victim and observer.
Victim: Have you ever been (1) Slapped or kicked
(repeated 1-5) (2) Punched or beaten
(3) Threatened or actually
cut with a knife
(4) Threatened with a gun
Observer : Have you ever seen or shot at
another person (repeated 1 -5) (5) Choked
Measurement of experience with violence as an assailant required a slightly
different procedure. It was strongly suspected that very few persons would be
willing to admit that they had taken a severe act of violence against another
person. The questions asked to assess assailant experience are presented
below.
(1) Have you ever slapped or kicked another person?
(2) Have you ever punched or beaten another person?
(3) Have you ever been in the situation in which you had to defend
yourself with a knife?
(4) Have you ever been in the situation in which you had to defend
yourself with a gun?
Choking was deleted for the assailant role. The questions about use of a
knife or gun are put within the context of self-defense, which should not have
hindered the willingness of the respondent to give an honest answer. The use
of a knife or a gun for reasons other than self-defense is not reflected by these
questions.
The responses to the experience questions for all three types of roles are
presented in Table 3.
The Actual World of Violence 355
Table 3. -Percent of adults and teens who have had experience
with v 
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