TV Ratings Code Said Highly Flawed

Scholars from four universities delivered a double blow Wednesday to the television industry, releasing a study that found serious flaws in the new ratings code and pervasive levels of TV violence, despite the public outcry against it.

In their second annual National Television Violence Study, the researchers said that there has been no decline in the amount of violence shown on television in the last two years. They found that 61% of all shows in the 1995-96 television season contained violent scenes, compared to 58% during the preceding season.

Moreover, the researchers concluded that the new television ratings system is likely to have a “forbidden fruit” effect, enticing children to watch the violent programs that their parents want to keep from them. They urged the industry to dump the 3-month-old code--which evaluates programs based on the age of potential viewers--in favor of one that labels shows according to content.

“These ratings should come with their own advisory,” said Joanne Cantor, professor of communications at the University of Wisconsin and one of the study’s lead authors. “Warning: These ratings may make parenting harder.”

The $3.3-million study, financed by the National Cable Television Assn., is important because it employed scientific methods and was conducted by independent researchers from well-known institutions: UC Santa Barbara, the University of North Carolina, the University of Texas and the University of Wisconsin. In the wake of its release, television industry critics hailed the work as too significant to ignore.

“If this doesn’t put the death knell in Jack Valenti’s plans, nothing will,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Media Education, referring to the architect of the new ratings system. “I really think that people in Hollywood and New York need to be deeply embarrassed. It’s like they just got a report card from their favorite professor and they got an F.”

As head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, Valenti devised the 28-year-old movie ratings system, on which the TV ratings are patterned. On Wednesday, he issued a terse statement that said in part: “This kind of a survey will give research a bad name. What’s more, after 28 years, 79% of parents find the movie ratings system very useful to fairly useful. Next survey, please.”

Other industry executives were reluctant to comment. Said Michael Silver, a CBS official in New York: “Valenti said it all.”

The television ratings have come under sharp attack since they went into effect Jan. 1 from advocates, parent groups and some members of Congress. While Valenti has pleaded for time to iron out the kinks in the new system, several lawmakers have suggested that they will try to mandate a content-based ratings system if the industry does not create one.

“After today’s report, the Grand Canyon between what the industry is pushing versus what parents want is likely to grow deeper and wider,” said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), one of the industry’s staunchest critics. “The industry must heed these warnings.”

The university researchers did not directly examine the effects of the television ratings on children’s viewing habits. The code was not in place during the period covered by the study. But they looked at eight different ratings systems, including the age-based movie code, and found that of the eight, only the movie ratings seemed to actually whet children’s appetite for violent shows.

This is not because children are inherently interested in violence, said Cantor. She said that when children were told a certain movie contained violence, they did not necessarily want to see it. But when they were told it was rated PG-13 or R, they were attracted to it out of a desire to feel older.

In analyzing the content of television shows, researchers at UCSB identified more than 18,000 violent incidents in a sample of more than 2,000 hours of programming drawn from 23 cable and broadcast channels. Using random sampling techniques, they created a composite week of programming to analyze the 1995-96 television season.

They found that television continues to portray violence as glamorous. Of the programs that depicted violence, very few--just 4%--portrayed it in a way that would convey an anti-violence theme. And television violence frequently is sanitized. More than half of the violent incidents on television depict no physical injury or pain to the victim, the study found.

The scholars also uncovered a troubling paradox: The most egregious examples of violence were concentrated in programs targeted specifically to children under age 7--cartoons.

The study analyzed all programming for “high-risk” portrayals of aggression, in which several violent plot elements come together all in one scene. It found that the vast majority of these high-risk portrayals were contained in cartoons. Of all channel types, child-oriented basic cable--the Cartoon Network, the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon--posed the highest violence risk for children, the researchers concluded.

Asked about that finding, Torie Clarke, a spokeswoman for the cable television group that paid for the study, said: “We wanted it to be the most comprehensive, the most rigorous and honest assessment of television violence. And they have certainly lived up to that objective.”

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Violence on TV

The new TV rating system is likely to attract youngsters to restricted programs, a study of the new system found. It also noted that TV programs rarely depict the real consequences of violence and often glorify the attacker.

% of programs with violence

1994-95 season: 58%

1995-96 season: 61%

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% of violent scenes with no remorse, criticism or penalty for the violence

1994-95 season: 73%

1995-96 season: 75%

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% of violent interactions that show no pain

1994-95 season: 58%

1995-96 season: 55%

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% of violent programs that show long-term negative consequences

1994-95 season: 16%

1995-96 season: 13%

Source: National Television Violence Study