Barrie Gunter and Jackie Harrison

Researchers who study media violence use a method known as content analysis to measure the "amount" of violence different programs contain. Barrie Gunter and Jackie Harrison, both professors in the department of journalism studies at England's University of Sheffield, summarize the two largest content analyses that have been conducted on television violence. The first is the Cultural Indicators Project, which monitored violence in prime—time television from the late 1960s to mid—1980s. The second is the National Television Violence Study, a three—year study begun in 1994 that measured the amount of violence on both cable and network programs.

TRADITIONALLY, THE MOST COMMONLY USED method for assessing how much violence television programmes contain is known as content analysis. When measuring violence on television, researchers using content analysis begin by setting up...