UW prof finds TV ratings don’t always alert parents

Scene I: Cartoon dog bashes cat with garbage can lid. At “steak” is ownership of a large slab of meat liberated from delivery truck.

Scene II: Cat hops right back up, completely unscathed by dog’s onslaught. Cat grabs handy baseball bat, retaliates by clobbering dog. Dog pushes down ensuing head lumps, pursues cat.

If Joanne Cantor, UW–Madison professor of communication arts, were in charge of the television network showing this cartoon, it would most assuredly carry a warning advising parents of the violent content.

Cantor was one of the researchers on a newly released national study of television violence and its effect on children.

Overall, the report noted that TV rarely portrays negative consequences of violent actions. Instead, it shows that violence is an easy, effective problem-solver. Cartoons, often aimed squarely at children, proved one of the biggest sources of this type of violence. Researchers also said the amount of TV violence has remained the same over the last three years, although the proportion of violent prime-time programs has increased.

As a result of legislation mandating that new TVs be manufactured with a V- chip blocking device, the television industry has implemented the TV Parental Guidelines rating system. This age-based system, which includes ratings like TVG for general audiences and TV14 (parents strongly cautioned) recommends appropriate age levels for viewing but gives parents no clue as to program content.

At a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington last month, Cantor outlined her research, the first systematic investigation of the Parental Guidelines.

“For most programs, the rating a program received was completely unrelated to whether or not the program contained violence,” Cantor says. “Although the ratings of children’s programs in the sample distinguish between programs with vs. without violence, the ratings of general audience programs do not. The distribution of ratings in general audience programs is virtually identical for programs with and without violence.”

Cantor commended most networks and cable channels for adopting an amended system, which uses content letters to indicates programs containing violence, sex or coarse language. ABC, CBS, Fox and most cable networks use the new combination rating system; NBC runs its own advisories and says its viewers are satisfied with that system.

Cantor says NBC’s holdout will frustrate parents who try to use the V-chip. “The V-chip will not be able to do its job unless all networks adopt a system with content letters,” she says.

Cantor also identified the disturbing trend of showing violence without consequences — especially common in cartoons such as the dog-cat scenario. Of course, if Cantor were rewriting the cartoon, she says the dog and cat would consider sharing the steak. However, “if violence did occur, the characters might show some injuries and acknowledge that violence has a downside, too,” she adds.

The report, commissioned by the National Cable Television Association, studied 6,000 hours of programming on both broadcast and cable networks. The new findings conclude the three-year project, funded by the cable industry. However, Cantor says she will continue to study television ratings and the V-chip’s impact when it becomes available.

Cantor’s book Mommy, I’m Scared: How TV and Movies Frighten Children and What We Can Do to Protect Them, examines these issues and will be published by Harcourt Brace in September.