Television and Social Behavior

Beyond Violence and Children / A Report of the Committee on Television and Social Behavior, Social Science Research Council

Stephen B. Withey, Ronald P. Abeles

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781135018771
• Subtopic: Developmental Psychology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book, published originally in 1980, addressed the needs for a profile of televised violence which considered the advantages and disadvantages of various measures and for a furthering of research directions beyond the then-popular emphasis on children. The Committee on Television and Social Behavior was formed in1972 and stimulated new research in order to provide a multidimensional profile of the social effects of television programming. Chapters here look at the effect of television on adults as well as children, particularly special audiences such as the elderly and minority groups. An excellent summary of the various conceptual, substantive and methodological issues around television's influence.

1	Beyond Violence and Children

Ronald P. Abeles

National Institute on Aging, (Bethesda, Md.)

People are attracted to the subject of television and social behavior for a variety of reasons. Some are challenged by the promise of the medium and point to its potential for expanding our experiential horizons through our almost instanteous and simultaneous exposure to people and events around the world. There are others who express concern about the possible harmful effects of television. They raise the specter of its potential for constricting our intellectual and social horizons by converting active human beings into passive and highly influenceable “vidiots.” However, both critics and proponents share the perspective that we are all embroiled in mass media environments that require improved understanding if we are to comprehend complex societies and if we are to propose sensible public policies for the mass media.

The present volume is a reflection of this common perspective and is offered in the hope that it may stimulate others toward a better understanding of television and social behavior. It is not meant to be a comprehensive overview of the field but rather a set of selected contributions that have been informed by and grown out of four years of discussions among the members and consultants of the Social Science Research Council's Committee on Television and Social Behavior. For the most part, the following chapters are speculations about the problems of doing research on television, about the contributions that particular perspectives might make to the study of television, and about the directions that television research might most productively take.

The major theme to emerge from the committee's deliberations was a strong interest in moving beyond the traditional focus on violence and children. Although continued research on this topic was considered to be still valuable, it was also believed that the time was ripe, if not overripe, for expanding the range of independent and dependent variables and for enlarging the heterogeneity of the populations studied. Thus, beyond the consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of a profile of televised violence (Appendix I), the topic of violence and children is almost completely absent from the program of the committee and from the chapters comprising this volume. Instead a variety of other substantive and conceptual issues were considered as examples of the array of topics awaiting the media researcher's attention. In the following pages, synopses of these substantive and conceptual issues are offered as a means of introducing the chapters comprising this book and as a means of summarizing the committee's other activities.

ENTERTAINMENT AND TELEVISION

Although most of the research dealing with the mass media generally, and television in particular, has focused on direct or mediated learning from communications messages, it has overlooked one of the more salient facts of media consumption: Most of the deliberate exposure of most people to television is motivated not by a desire to “scan the environment in order to seek information” but rather in search of something vaguely referred to as “entertainment.” Given this, it is surprising that there has been so little work on the cleaning of entertainment in everyday life, especially in regard to the factors leading to exposure to television and hence its potential influences on vast numbers of individuals.

Consequently, Percy H. Tannenbaum (University of California, Berkeley) organized a study group to develop and to share their thoughts on this issue. Among the questions that the group was asked to consider were: What is meant by “entertainment” and what is to be included under and what excluded from this rubric? What is it about entertaining materials that provides positive incentives for people to seek it out, often at the expense of other desired activities? Is there anything special about television that enhances these positive functions (other than the obvious fact that it provides a less costly means of access)? What are the by-products of “being entertained”? Are they a set of conditioned responses we produce to certain patterns of stimuli; reactions experienced, labeled for the moment, and then promptly set aside; or do the effects of “entertainment” tend to linger on and affect one later? In what ways, if any, does the purely entertainment function help or hinder the mediation of other effects of the message and subsequent behavior?

Obviously these are questions that could not be answered in a single meeting. The purposes of the sesssions were to stimulate thinking on the topic and, it was hoped, to encourage empirical research. One direct product of the discussion was the preparation of a set of commissioned papers, which will be published as a companion volume to this book. A summary of the study group discussions is included in the present volume as Appendix III.

TELEVISED PORTRAYAL OF ETHNICITY

In American society, television programming may be a major source of information about other racial and ethnic groups. Unfortunately this information is often incomplete and stereotyped and hence may lead to misconceptions about one's own and about other racial or ethnic groups. In addition, television presentations may influence the self-concepts of children and adults whose racial or ethnic groups are depicted in simplistic or stereotyped fashion. These attitudes and self-concepts may or may not promote the mental health and positive social functioning of television viewers. Although there is a growing literature on the televised portrayal of minorities and on the consequence of that portrayal, little is as yet known about the functional importance of television in the formation of such attitudes and self-concepts or about the way in which people deal with such information, much of which is presented through subtle cues within a television program.

With these issues in mind, Aimée Dorr (University of Southern California), Irving L. Janis (Yale University), and Chester M. Pierce (Harvard University) convened a study group of researchers and television industry members to schematize the types of cues that may influence self-concepts and attitudes; to explore the ways in which viewers recognize (or fail to recognize) and process these cues; to consider content characteristics, viewer characteristics, and relationships between the two that may predict differential outcomes; and to suggest strategies for promoting research on this topic. In order to limit the discussions to some degree, the study group confined its considerations to the forces within the television industry shaping the portrayal of blacks and to the potential consequence of such portrayals for black and white Americans. (A summary of the meeting is presented as Appendix IV to this volume.)

However, additional funding was made available to the study group participants and to others to convene smaller meetings under their guidance. These meetings were intended to broaden the participation in these discussions and to encourage further consideration of these issues in regard to other minority groups. Such smaller meetings were eventually convened by Gordon L. Berry (University of California, Los Angeles), James Blackwell (University of Massachusetts, Boston), Mary S. Harper (National Institute of Mental Health), and Domingo Nick Reyes (Institute for the Study of the Hispanic American in U.S. Life and History, Alexandria, Virginia). In addition, as a result of his participation in the committee's study group, Berry convened a two-day conference with funds obtained from NIMH.

The committee's interest in television's portrayal of blacks is also reflected in three chapters of the present volume. The triad begins in chapter 10 with Gordon Berry's summary of the historical background of blacks in the United States, his description of their portrayal on television over recent decades, and his consideration of some implications for research resulting from his analysis.

The middle chapter (11) in this triology is by Chester Pierce and can be read in three ways. From one point of view it describes a black psychiatrist's acute sensitivities to nuances in the television treatment of blacks. Whether or not large numbers of black viewers perceive these nuances at a conscious level is unimportant. From another point of view the chapter reflects the difficulties of television executives, producers, and directors in negotiating their way from the climate of the early portrayals described by Berry to one that attempted to avoid offending the sensibilities of a highly perceptive viewer. Finally, the chapter may be read as a set of hypotheses about the subtle ways in which television fare may influence its viewers. From this last perspective the chapter suggests how models drawn from medicine may clarify the study of the effects of television.

The final chapter on television and blacks offers a good springboard for anyone coming into the field. In chapter 12 Sherryl Browne Graves (New York University) describes thoroughly the current research on the psychological effects of black portrayals on black and white children and adults. Although her discussion addresses the images of blacks presented on television and their effects on black and white viewers, it is probably valid to draw lessons and ideas from this material for the understanding of the effects of television portrayals of other American minorities.

TELEVISION AS AN INDUSTRY

Early in its deliberations the committee emphasized that the study of how television content comes to be what it is represents a critical part of the larger problem of determining television's social and cultural effects. The committee's major concern was how the organization of the television industry influences the nature of television programming. The principal assumption underlying its discussions was that the organizational arrangements peculiar to American television have resulted in particular types of programs (e.g., action-adventure, situation comedies), in particular formats (e.g., 30-minute presentations with commercial breaks), in particular thematic content (e.g., violence), in particular target audiences (e.g., mass appeal), and in particular goals (e.g., entertainment over education).

Given this concern and this assumption, the committee's discussions addressed two broad topics. The first centered on the institutional structure of the television industry in terms of its relationships to other media (e.g., radio, movies) and to other organizations (e.g., governmental regulatory agencies, citizen pressure groups). The second focused more on the internal organization of the industry (e.g., the organization chart of a television network). In both instances the key question was how decisions are reached about what types of programs will appear on television.

Despite great interest in this topic, it proved extremely difficult to organize a sustained, productive activity focusing on the television industry. A few informal and exploratory contacts were made between the committee and television industry personnel, including a productive discussion as part of the Study Group on Television and Ethnicity (see Appendix IV). However, it became evident that the investigation of such a sensitive topic as program decision-making would require the development, over a long period of time, of a sense of trust in the research community by members of the television industry. This is probably best accomplished through the establishment of individual relationships between researchers and television personnel. Unless members of the committee were either willing themselves to undertake a research program or could identify others who were, it seemed counterproductive to pursue the initial overtures. That is, if the committee appeared to have been “investigating” the television industry, this might have aroused the suspicions and fears of individuals in that industry and made access by other researchers more difficult.

Consequently the committee opted not to pursue the topic through such a formal mechanism as a conference or study group. Instead, it invited Elihu Katz (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Paul M. Hirsch (University of Chicago) to discuss their research on organizational aspects of television. In addition it arranged Hirsch's attendance at an informal discussion with two television executives that was sponsored by the committee. The formal products of this line of interest are four chapters in this volume.

In chapter 4 Herbert H. Gans (Columbia University and the Center for Policy Research) probes the relationships among television, its audience (not just individuals) in the larger society, its suppliers, and its researchers. This fresh examination of contexts, settings, and interactions adds to the skepticism surrounding some of today's currently held conclusions but also adds provocative perspectives on where research on television might go. In the following chapter (5) Hirsch examines the organizational and economic context in which the television industry operates and arrives at several implications for research. Much of his treatment of audiences complements those of the preceding chapter as does his general humanistic approach to the study of the television industry.

Leo Bogart (Newspaper Advertising Bureau, New York) goes deeply into the television industry in action by tracing the course of events related to the multisided debate over television violence since the publication of the surgeon general's 1972 report. Chapter 6 offers a detailed account of these events, and also provides insights into the general functioning of the television industry. In the final chapter (7) on this subject, Hilde T. Himmelweit (London School of Economics and Political Science) presents a conceptual model of the interdependence among the television industry, other social institutions, and its audience. This model is developed and examined within the context of the British television industry, which offers a cross-cultural context for considering the consequences of different institutional arrangements for television broadcasting.

CHILDREN

Although its emphasis was on adults, the committee also considered the continuing need to study the interplay between children and television, but within the context of behavioral domains besides violence. Two of the chapters reflect this concern with broadening the field of study to include cognitive and social-emotional aspects of behavior.

In chapter 8, Irving L. Janis (Yale University) draws our attention to two areas: the influence of television on young people and the “picture of the world” provided by entertainment programs. He considers in some detail the possible influence of television on both the process whereby people make decisions and the options posed and the decisions made in such major choices as careers, marriages, and life styles. The major question addressed is whether or not television programs provide models or scenarios for how to make decisions and for the desirability of certain options over others.

In chapter 9 Aimée Dorr addresses the limits to a child's understanding of television and the implications of those limits for the possible effects of television. By taking us into the mind of the child viewer, she explores the child's growing sophistication and understanding of the medium and its messages. In so doing, she outlines the state of the art in this area as well as suggesting the direction of current research.

CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

A recurring theme in committee discussions was the problem of conceptualizing “television effects.” It is quite easy to develop a large list of potential effects, ranging from changes in the behavior of individual persons to alterations in the structure and functioning of whole societies. The difficulty lies in conceptualizing how these effects might operate. Are they direct or mediated by other variables such as eth...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• 1. Beyond Violence and Children
• 2. An Ecological, Cultural, and Scripting View of Television and Social Behavior
• 3. On the Nature of Mass Media Effects
• 4. The Audience for Television—and in Television Research
• 5. An Organizational Perspective on Television (Aided and Abetted by Models from Economics, Marketing, and the Humanities)
• 6. After the Surgeon General's Report: Another Look Backward
• 7. Social Influence and Television
• 8. The Influence of Television on Personal Decision-Making
• 9. When I Was a Child I Thought as a Child
• 10. Television and Afro-Americans: Past Legacy and Present Portrayals
• 11. Social Trace Contaminants: Subtle Indicators of Racism in TV
• 12. Psychological Effects of Black Portrayals on Television
• 13. An Aerial View of Television and Social Behavior
• Appendixes
• Author Index
• Subject Index