VIOLENCE IN THE MEDIA

October 1999
		Are depictions of violence on film and television on the increase? Center for Media and Public Affairs President Robert Lichter, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne and director Rupert Wainwright take your questions.

Forum introduction Are movies and T.V. accurately depicting reality? Should sex and violence be lumped together in ratings systems? Are Americans alone in blaming violent images for violence on the streets? What about violent images in news programs? Should parents or Hollywood decide what children see on screen?   Sept. 24, 1999: Three views on violence in the media. May 10, 1999: A discussion on the influence of media violence. Dec. 4, 1998: A report on the relationship between violent programs and commercial advertising. Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the media.     The Center for Media and Public Affairs NBC ABC CBS FOX The Motion Picture Association of America

Katherine Lai of Belmont, CA asks: People say that we should show our audience the "reality" of the world, but are these violent images truly realistic? Or is our society becoming what they see on TV and in the movies?   E.J. Dionne responds: Dear Ms. Lai: That's an excellent thought. Of course our society is not as violent as is depicted in violent movies or, for that matter, on the average local news program. Some local news programs seem willing to go 100 miles in any direction if that's what it takes to find a gruesome crime. When I was a student in England in the early 1970s, Kojak was one of the most popular TV shows in the country. (I confess, by the way, that I was a fan.) I used to joke that all English people would conclude that, 1.) Americans shoot each other all the time, and 2.) Americans always park their cars sideways, because that's what Kojak did. But there is a part of our reality that is violent. The issue, to me, is whether artists chose to treat this as something to be glorified, or as a problem our society needs to solve. Artists have a right to produce whatever they want under the First Amendment, but I think calling upon them to consider their public responsibilities and to criticize their work is also a fair use of the First Amendment.   Robert Lichter responds: Depictions of violence in entertainment media are more realistic these days in the sense of showing more graphic images of blood and gore. This is partly due to advances in special effects. But the same special effects lend themselves to depictions of fantasy violence in science fiction and "sword and sorcery" formats, many of which originated in video games. Images of extreme brutality are also often shown in very unrealistic ways, such as the martial arts fights in which combatants engage in stylized scenes of mutual mayhem that would soon deplete the energies of any real-life fighters. And there is certainly evidence that children sometimes attempt to emulate these activities; in that sense media images of a violent world can become self-fulfilling prophecies.   Rupert Wainwright responds: Without wishing to comment on what may or may not be "the reality" of this world, I would suggest that there was violence prior to this century, which is when TV and movies have existed.