REEL LIFE / FILM AND VIDEO FILE : UCSB to Launch Study of Television Violence : The three-year, $3-million project will look beyond numbers to the context in which acts take place.

The tempest over television violence blew into Santa Barbara with the announcement that the UCSB communications department will direct a three-year, $3 million study about tempers on the tube.

The study, funded by the National Cable Television Assn., will go beyond simply cataloguing acts of violence and instead try to place violence in context of plot, said Edward Donnerstein, head of the UCSB communication department.

“The problem is that often all you get is counts. That’s what you hear at congressional hearings--X number of violent acts portrayed on television during a time period,” Donnerstein said. “We want to get away from that and define what constitutes violence that’s harmful to children.

“Traditionally if someone shot a gun, that was considered violence. But under that system, if ‘Schindler’s List’ was shown on television, it would be the most violent program of the week. Well, our intent is to consider that it would be the most educational program of the week. We want to work with the industry to come up with a coding system that really takes context into consideration.”

The study starts in September and will monitor 25 channels. The shows will be taped and the tapes reviewed by Donnerstein and his staff. The results will be published annually during each of the three years of the study.

Donnerstein said the study is by far the largest ever--2,700 hours. Previously, the largest study was just 180 hours, he said.

To counter criticism that the cable industry is influencing the study by its sponsorship, MediaScope, a Los Angeles nonprofit organization funded by the Carnegie Corp. and the California Wellness Program, will appoint an advisory board to act as a buffer between researchers and the industry.

Broadcast networks have opted to fund studies of their own. All of this is to counter government complaints about violence in the media.

Ten or more pieces of anti-violence legislation are being drafted in Congress, including a bill calling for the Federal Communications Commission to set formal violence standards.

Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), a long-time critic of violence in television, praised the cable study, saying that it goes beyond even what he’s called for.

Donnerstein said the issue is important because studies show that media violence can affect behavior in those already predisposed toward violence.

Nearly four out of five Americans believe violence in television entertainment programs directly contributes to violence in society, and 54% say they would support government guidelines to limit the amount of mayhem on TV, according to a Los Angeles Times poll taken in December.