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Violence, Historical Trends and
Since 1952, there have been more than 30 separate hearings about television violence, roughly one hearing every 1½ years. These hearings often were held in response to real-life violence, including the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. However, concerns about the impact of television violence on children and adolescents have also played a part in attempts to determine the extent of television violence, to analyze effects of media violence, to educate parents, and to develop public policy in this area. In 1990s, television content rating systems and the V-chip were among the responses to television violence mandated by Congress.
Aside from network executives, witnesses at congressional hearings on television violence have included people from all walks of life and with numerous concerns—academics, industry officials, members of Congress, teachers, and children's activists. Unfortunately, the hearings rarely tried to reconcile divergent testimony. Typically, contradictory points of view were expressed with no attempt to ascertain validity. Keisha Hoerrner noted in 1999 that even though Congress had spent more than 50 years examining this issue, it had passed only two pieces of legislation.
Early Congressional Hearings
The first congressional hearing about television violence was held in 1952 before the Commerce Committee of the House of Representatives (chair, Oren Harris, D-Arkansas) and focused on whether radio and television programs contained offensive or immoral content or emphasized violence, crime, or corruption. The Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency (Chair, Robert Hendrickson, R-New Jersey) held hearings in 1954 to determine if the rise in juvenile delinquency was related to television's crime and horror programs. In April 1955, the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency (Chair, Senator Estes Kefauver, D-Tennessee) examined the question of television violence. In 1961, at hearings held by the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency (Chair, Senator Thomas Dodd, D-Connecticut), social scientists testified that television influenced viewers, particular teenagers and children.
Senator Dodd held another round of hearings in 1964. Although he started out with praise for the industry, Dodd's positive statements were quickly replaced with talk of the network's broken promises about lessening the amount of violence on television. Dodd and his committee cited evidence that network violence had not decreased since the last set of hearings and also presented evidence showing a causal link between aggressive behavior and watching violent television.
Presidential Commission on Violence
The mid to late 1960s saw considerable turmoil, civil disobedience, and urban unrest in the country. After the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President Lyndon Johnson established the Presidential Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence to examine and hold hearings on issues relating to violence, including the impact of the mass media. Scholars were asked to review the existing research, and one new project—a content analysis to isolate the amount of violence in prime-time and weekend-day-time network dramatic programming—was funded.
Cynthia Cooper (1996) notes that the commission's final report suggested that the constant diet of violent behavior on television had an adverse effect, especially on children, encouraged violent behavior, and fostered unacceptable values about violence. Although the report did not say that violence on television was a principal cause of violence in society, it suggested that television violence was an important contributing factor.
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