National Television Violence Study

The National Television Violence Study, a three-year research project begun in 1994, was funded by the National Cable Television Association and administered by Mediascope, a nonprofit media education organization. The study involved the efforts of media scholars at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The following viewpoint is excerpted from the researchers’ initial report, which was issued in February 1996. The study’s authors conclude that not only is television violence common, but it is also frequently presented in ways that could harm viewers. For example, they argue, programs rarely show negative consequences of violence and television characters who use violence often go unpunished. Violence presented in such a...