Television Broadcast

Questions about the amount of violence in the mass media, pa~ticularly television programming, have been voiced almost since the advent of the media. Senate hearings about television violence were held as early as 1954. These concerns stem from fears that television violence leads to aggres,sive behavior, particularly among the young. An equally controversial subject has been how to define, measure, isolate., and analyze that violence. This paper will examine ways in which television violence has been measured, including violence indices. The discussion will be limited to television, even though there has been research about violence in other mass media. It will also be limited to studies of American television. One of the richest sources of information about television -- its content and effects -- is the 1972 six volume report of the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee -- Television and Social Behavior. This report...