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Broadcast network television is the major focus of this study. Every television series, made-for- television movie, theatrical film and on-air promotion of the 1994-95 television season was monitored. There were no exceptions. Every series was examined at least four times and many were examined for the majority of the season or the entire season. Series were the only area in which we used any sampling and even here this was minimal. The number of hours examined and the minimal amount of sampling used places us in an excellent position to make a definitive analysis of the broadcast network season. None of that analysis is subject to whether we sampled a typical week or an exceptional week.
From the beginning, we intended our analysis of local, syndicated and public television, as well as cable, home video and video games, to be supplemental to our broadcast network focus. Our goal was to offer a comparison to the broadcast networks to see if the content differed and, if so, in what ways. The supplemental programming was sampled in order to provide a snapshot of the content necessary for this comparison. Local stations, syndication and the Prime Time Access Rule programming were all examined for two randomly selected weeks. Eight cable networks and public television were also monitored for randomly selected two-week periods. The analysis of home video was based on the top ten rental titles each quarter during the past year; the top five video games of the year were also examined.
This sampling does allow us to make informed, and, we believe, intelligent judgments about this programming. But it does not allow us to make the definitive analysis that we have conducted in the broadcast network area.
It is all too common in the media world for broadcasters to claim that all the real problems in regard to sex and violence are in cable, or for cable programmers, in defense, to cite their higher level of first amendment protection and pitch the bulk of the burden of reform back on broadcasters. Everyone easily faults the video game industry as one of the major sources of the problem.
Our goal is not to place blame or responsibility for any of the media content problems on any particular medium. Each of these industries has different levels of protection and freedom. Some are easier for the government to regulate than others. Some are easier for parents to control than others. Using broadcast television as the base, we looked at other programming such as pay cable, not to judge whether that programming raises concerns for cable, but rather to see whether that programming would raise concerns if judged on the standards applied to broadcast television. For example, we look at an HBO or Showtime program to decide whether ABC, CBS, Fox or NBC could air the same program applying their standards. The program might be of no concern to the world of pay cable applying their standards, but of great concern to the broadcast network world. We use this approach of whether supplemental programming would raise concerns if broadcast television standards were applied to it for all programming including cable, home video and video games.
Not surprisingly, local and cable television contains more programming raising concerns about violence than is found on the broadcast networks. This is primarily due to fact that theatrical films make up the largest portion of those channels' programming. Previous sections of this report show this is where most of the violence is found and the local and cable channels have more of it. Even when comparing the same films, they tend to be edited more thoroughly and raise less concerns on broadcast network television than on local or basic cable television. Of course, pay cable does not edit its films.
The non-network television media can be summarized as follows:
Local television raises more concerns than broadcast network television both in its theatrical and original programming. As mentioned above, local television runs more theatrical films than the networks and they are edited somewhat less than by the networks. This may be because local stations do not have a large practices and standards department as is found at the networks. Syndicated series also raise more concerns on a percentage basis than network series do. Syndicated series are mostly one hour-dramas, a type much more likely to contain violence than half-hour network comedies. Furthermore, these syndicated dramas also run at many different time periods throughout the country, sometimes even in the daytime.
Public television is full of drama, films and documentaries, but practically no programming raises any issue of concern.
Cable television also runs more theatrical films than found on the broadcast networks. Since pay cable channels do not edit their films, they contain more violence than found on broadcast network television. Our job is not to evaluate whether running unedited scenes of violence on a pay service is a problem, but instead to compare the content of the two media. When pay cable airs original series with violence, that violence is likely to be more graphic and raise more concerns than the original programming of the networks. Compared to the networks, pay cable runs fewer original shows.
Basic cable also runs theatrical films raising concerns about violence. These films are less likely to be as edited as the same films shown on the broadcast network. More graphic and shocking scenes of action-film violence are found on basic cable. Basic's original series (though also far fewer than the networks') are more likely, on average, to raise concerns than network series.
Home video runs content mostly identical to that found in movie theaters. Over half of the videos examined would raise concerns if run unedited on broadcast television. This area was also studied to provide a comparison with the content of broadcast television, not to make judgments about the environment of home video.
Video games represent a world different from other television programming. The games featuring deadly combat, such as Mortal Kombat II, raise considerable concerns about violence. Most games, however, display scenes of tame combat, such as characters chasing or bumping into each other.
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