How Much Is Too Much?: Violent Content In Television News (2009)

Undergraduate: MacKenzie Babb

Faculty Advisor: Francesca Dillman Carpentier
Department: Journalism & Mass Communication

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This study sought to investigate the paradox between the public sentiment of wanting less violence on television and the seemingly contradictory correlation between violent content and audience interest. One possible explanation was the third-person effect, or the idea that viewers may believe others will be more affected by the negative ramifications of television violence than themselves. To examine whether a third-person effect existed that explained individuals’ views of violence, an experiment was conducted, in which participants completed a pre-test questionnaire and were then exposed to one of three news stories. One story condition depicted no violence, the second showed low violence, and the third contained moderate violence. After viewing this, respondents completed a post-test questionnaire. The third-person effect was found in individuals’ acceptance level of violent content for distant others. Also, positive perceptions of the news source decreased as the level of violence increased. Finally, the amount of violent content seemed to influence individuals’ views of news source credibility—the more violent content was shown, the higher individuals rated the credibility of the news source. To enjoy the benefits of both the public’s trust and its liking of news content, findings suggest that station gatekeepers should show a low or moderate amount of graphic violent footage.