Violence & the Media Assignment

 AND THE
MEDIA












According to "Science Magazine," there are between three to five acts of violence in one hour of prime-time television and between 20 to 25 acts of violence in an average hour of children's television.  Furthermore, research has shown that viewing violent television is related to aggressive behavior.


ASSIGNMENT:  Part One
It's your job this week to watch one hour of very different types of programming.  First, take one half hour and watch some adventure children's cartoon such as Batman or Pokemon.  Content analyze the cartoons for violence.  The categories should be:  physical violence (hitting, shoving, striking, falling down, having something fall on a character, etc.), verbal violence (shouting, yelling, screaming, profanity, etc.) and intimidation.  Note also whether the violence perpetrators and victims are male, female or neither (may be an animal), and whether the violence is rewarded (do they win or escape) or punished in some way.

 
For Part One of this assignment I have chosen to watch "He-man and the Masters of the Universe."  The episode in particular is "The Diamond Ray of Disappearance."

In this episode, Skeletor summons his henchmen Trapjaw, Evil-Lyn, Merman, Beastman and Tri-Klops to Snake Mountain where Skeletor reveals he has "The Diamond Ray of Disappearance" a magic diamond that makes creatures and all living objects vanish, as part of Skeletor's latest scheme. When Trapjaw attacks the Royal Palace and He-Man and Battlecat puts a stop to him, Skeletor uses The Diamond Ray of Disappearance and vanishes King Randor, Queen Marlena, The Sorceress and Man-At-Arms. Can He-Man with help from Orco, Teela, Ram-Man and Stratos rescue King Randor, Queen Marlena, Man-At-Arms and The Sorceress and bring them back to Eternia? and Can He-Man stop Skeletor and destroy The Diamond Ray of Disappearance?

Full Episode: "The Diamond Ray of Disappearance"

Violent Characters in "The Diamond Ray of Disappearance"

Character	Violent	Non-Violent
He-man	X
Prince Adam	X
Ram-Man	X
Beast Man	X
Cringer		X
Battlecat	X
Man-At-Arms	X
Skeletor	X
Mer-Man	X
Orko		X
King Randor	X
Stratos	X
Trapjaw	X
Tri-Klops	X
Teela	X
Evil-Lyn	X
Queen Marlena		X
The Sorceress		X

According to the graph there were a total of 66 total portrayals of violence in the 20 minute and 50 second cartoon.  That means there are roughly 18.93 portrayals of violence each minute in the segmented cartoon.  We can also deduce from the graph that physical violence is the most portrayed with 37 incidents (56 percent), followed by intimidation at 30 percent and verbal violence at 14 percent.

From the above graph we can see that the male category leads in every category of violence in the cartoon with 68 percent of all violent portrayals, second is the neither category with 20 percent followed by the female category at 12 percent.  This evidence may indicate that males or more prone to aggressive behavior than females because there are more masculine symbols that partake in aggression in the cartoon than females.  Furthermore, women are vastly underrepresented in the cartoon with only four of the 18 characters being female. 

Moreover, only two of those four partake in violence in this particular episode.

From the above pie chart we can deduce that "Team He-man" was rewarded 73 percent of the time it acted in violence.

The pie chart, however, from "Team Skeletor" show that it was only rewarded 53 percent of the time and was punished 47 percent of the time.  From both graphs we can conclude that both the "good guys" and the "bad guys" were rewarded more often for violence, than they were punished for violence.

After further research, I found an interesting article about cartoons and violence by Marcie Young.  It explains why children think violence is "cool" based on theories proposed by George Gerbner and Jackson Katz.  The following is the link to the article:
http://newscafe.ansci.usu.edu/archive/feb2001/0206_violence3.html


ASSIGNMENT:  Part Two
Now for something different.  Violence on television has increased greatly over the past five years or so.  Most researchers blame that increase on the increasing popularity of televised sporting events such as cage fighting.  Content analyze a half-hour segment of cage fighting or televised wrestling using the same categories you used with the cartoons.

For part two of the assignment I decided to deviate away from the norm of wrestling and cage fighting and decided to content analyze women's wrestling--the WWE Divas to be specific.

According to Wikipedia, "Diva is a term used by professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling Entertainment to refer to its female talent."

Divas fighting in a battle royal at WrestleMania 25

A BRIEF HISTORY:

The first modern day Diva in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) was Sunny, who debuted as the manager for the bodybuilder-themed duo The Bodydonnas and went on to manage several other tag teams and singles wrestlers. Although the notion of a female manager had been popular throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Sunny's character was significantly sexualized, where as prior female managers were depicted as being involved in either platonic or romantic story lines.

Sunny (center) with the Bodydonnas

Between 1996 and 1997, Marlena, Sable and Chyna, joined Sunny as prominent female on-air talent in the promotion.

Marlena with her signature cigar

Marlena and Sable were as equally sexualized as Sunny, with Marlena suggestively smoking cigars at ringside during matches and Sable coming to the ring in form fitting leather catsuits.

Sable

Chyna was offered as an antithesis to the rest of the Divas, a masculine bodybuilder whose sexual identity was the subject of early story lines. Sunny, Sable, and Marlena were further marketed as sex symbols through WWF's "Raw Magazine," which featured monthly spreads of the women in suggestive poses while either wearing provocative clothing or semi-nude. In 1998, Debra debuted and shortly thereafter was featured in a "Raw Magazine" spread in which she shed a series of business suits to reveal lingerie.

Marlena was the manager of Goldust, her then real-life husband,  and Sable was manager for her then real-life husband, wrestler Marc Mero. Sable quickly eclipsed her husband in popularity.  Her popularity lead to the reinstatement of the WWF Women's Championship, as well as the hiring of more female wrestlers by the promotion. Sable became the first WWF female to proclaim herself as a 'Diva' during the April 19 edition of "Raw" in 1999; the term proved popular and shortly thereafter became the official title for WWF's female performers, be they managers or wrestlers. In February 1999, the WWF also debuted another veteran female wrestler Ivory.

Sable's popularity led to a shift in the role of women in the WWF, as the promotion began to rely less on its female performers as simply eye candy and placed a greater emphasis on female athletes who actually competed in matches. Having been one of the first female wrestlers to compete in such speciality matches as evening gown matches, inter-gender tag team matches as well as a strap match and the first ever bikini contest in which she competed against Jacqueline, she was also the first female wrestler to be a "Playboy" cover girl. Unlike Jacqueline, Ivory and Luna, the more physical Divas and experienced wrestlers at the time, Sable later admitted that it was written in her contract that she was not allowed to take bumps.

Her success also indirectly led to a push in popularity for Chyna.

Chyna

Her masculine features were de-emphasized and her clothing became more provocative. She was put into competition against male opponents, going on to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship two times. Chyna's popularity quickly grew to match that of Sable's, culminating in Chyna being featured as the centerfold in an issue of "Playboy" magazine.

FIGHT
In the 30-minute segment of the WWE Diva program there was a tag-team fight between two teams.  Team one was comprised of Divas Christy Hemme and Victoria, with Team Two comprising of Molly Holly and Trish.  Of the 30 minute segment the actual fight was only seven minutes and 40 seconds long.

 

 We can see from the graph that the amount of physical violence far outweighs that of verbal violence and intimidation.  In fact, of the 64 acts of violence portrayed, 51 were physical occurrences (almost 80 percent).  The other 20 percent were a combination of verbal violence and intimidation.

One hundred percent of the violence was enacted and acted upon by females because it was a female match.  There was not outside male verbal violence or intimidation in the segment.  

Upon completion of the match Christy Hemme and Victoria were rewarded as the winners for defeating Molly Holly and Trish.

Christy Hemme and Victoria

EFFECTS OF MEDIA VIOLENCE

My theory on the effects of media violence are similar to those of researchers Marina Krcmar and Kathryn Greene.  According to the researchers, "there is no doubt that television violence is causally related to negative behaviors such as increases in aggression.   Less is known, however, about the factors that contribute to viewers' interest in violent television and the needs violent television may fulfill for its audiences.  These issues clearly fall under the domain of the uses-and-gratifications model that attempts to investigate not what media do to people but what people do with media."  

First, let's recap what researchers Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch want us to understand about the uses-and -gratifications theory.  According to the researchers, "the social and psychological origins of needs which generate expectations of the mass media and other sources which lead to differential patterns of media exposure resulting in needs gratifications and other consequences, perhaps mostly unintended ones."

Adolescents also tend to model what they see on TV.  This means, they see a violent act in the media and later, as a result, behave more violently themselves than they otherwise would.

But what is the attraction of violent media?

According to Krcmar and Greene, "disinhibtion, which measures exposure to and acceptance of stimulation that is either illegal or at least not socially sanctioned, was positively related to exposure to some violent television, especially for males.  Specifically, realistic crime shows and contact sports sports were watched more by disinhibited males."

Teens Re-enacting Wrestling Match

For this to happen, first the relevant behavior of the model must be attended to.  Second, it must be retained, encoded into memory in some form, which occurs as it is being analyzed and interpreted through cognitive processing.  Whether the learned behavior is later actually produced by the viewer will depend on many factors, such as motivation and the strength of the prevailing inhibiting factors.

According to the clip above, the two teens learned the wrestling behavior through observational learning via televised wrestling matches.  They have also become disinhibited by watching media violence, or their normal inhibitions of violence have been broken down by watching televised violence.

Disinhibition may also occur through the teaching of more accepting attitudes toward violent behavior.  Although most people are raised with the general belief that violent behavior is bad, exposure to repeated media violence may break down the normal attitudinal inhibitions against thinking violence is acceptable.  This change toward a more accepting attitude about the appropriateness of using violence to settle disputes may subsequently and indirectly lead to violent behavior.

Two students arm-wrestle to solve in-class dispute.

The "Forbidden Fruit" Effect

According to a report produced by Dr. Joel Federman for the The Kaiser Family Foundation, there is a theory called the "Forbidden Fruit" effect that is taking place among adolescents.

"Some studies have indicated that the Motion Pictures Association of America's age-based ratings may attract the very audiences they are designed to protect.  The National Television Violence Study evaluated the effect of various rating systems on young people's media choices.  The NTVS found that the MPAA system's rating of 'PG-13' and 'R' increase young people's desire to veiw media content that has been given those labels.  In the study, children ages 5-14 were given a programming guide and instructed to select one of three programs or movies described on each page.  the children were told that the guides were 'ballots' for a vote to select television shows they would later watch.  The various programs and movies in the guides were randomly assigned MPAA ratings, premium televsion ratings, and a variety of parental and viewer advisories."

"The findings revealed that among children ages 10-14, and especially amond boys in this age group, the ratings of 'PG-13' and 'R' made a movie more attractive and the ratings of 'G' reduced its attractiveness.  For example, boys age 10-14 completely avoided a movie when they thought it was rated 'G', but at least half of them chose to watch it when it was rated 'PG-13' or 'R.'  The study also found that more aggressive children were more interested in movies that had restrictive ratings."