A Place Where Violence Against Women Has Doubled: On TV

With Incidents Doubling In Five Years, It's Fair To Question Effect On Culture
By JEFFREY M. MCCALL
November 29, 2009
You might think any community would be outraged to discover that violence against its women had more than doubled during a five-year period. Our nation has seen such an increase in the on-air television community, but no outrage has yet materialized.

The results of a study by the Parents Television Council, which focused on the story lines of prime-time television and portrayals of victimization and violence against women, show a 120 percent increase in such portrayals in the past five years.

Stories about damsels in distress go way back in dramatic history, of course, but the council's study should give us pause for concern. Beyond the general jump in portrayals of violence against females is an even larger increase in violent story lines involving teenage girls. The big four networks all registered increases in violence against women. Much of the overall increase involved violence against women by intimate partners.

Moreover, the violent incidents portrayed against women on television are increasingly graphic.

ABC had the lowest increase and lowest total incidence of portrayals of violence against women. CBS had the most total violent acts, while NBC demonstrated the greatest percentage increase.

For years, media critics have described television as a cultural legitimizer. At some point, what is seen on television becomes normative. Studies consistently show that media consumers who view televised violence become desensitized to it. This trend is particularly evident for younger viewers.

While television is just one factor among many in the high incidence of violence in our society, it nonetheless is a factor that should be noted. Further, it is a factor that could be carefully monitored and managed by producers in the television industry.

Instead of viewing the council's data as a disturbing cultural trend, however, the media industry dismissed the study and blamed the messenger. TV Watch, a lobbying organization funded by big media corporations, accepted zero responsibility for mediated story lines involving violence toward women. Instead, TV Watch issued an official statement criticizing the council for "trying a new angle in its efforts to expand government control over what Americans choose to watch on television."

Translated, this means that a citizens organization should shut up about media content and leave big media corporations as the sole deciders of what is culturally acceptable. For an organization that supposedly promotes the First Amendment, TV Watch has little tolerance for opposing messages.

TV Watch went on to claim that some of the shows being criticized for graphic portrayals of violence against women are actually shows that "provide cautionary lessons." TV Watch would have us think that violent dramas involving women are similar to educational documentaries for a sociology class.

Apologists for big media helped explain away the networks' lack of concern.

Lisa de Moraes, a television writer for The Washington Post, pointed out that most violent acts on television are still directed toward males and mockingly asked, "Isn't half of the population of this country female?"

Essentially, this is saying that until women are beaten up or stabbed equally often as men, there is no need to worry about the increase. The Post writer went on to criticize the study because it focused only on major network programs and didn't research levels of similar violence on cable channels. Even though major network viewership is down in recent years, the big four networks are still quite relevant in establishing cultural standards. Besides, mediated violence in cable programming could well be even worse than that displayed on the networks.

Big corporate media outlets do not want to be second-guessed about cultural implications when they program whatever they think can make the most money with, with the cheapest programming. While posturing about free expression and "cautionary lessons," network executives think only about one thing: getting eyeballs in front of a television set and selling those eyeballs to advertisers.

How nice it would be if TV Watch expressed even the slightest concern for the cultural implications of television in our society. If TV Watch thinks mediated violence is of no consequence to our culture, then let's see its research studies or hear its arguments. To angrily dismiss the legitimate research and concerns of a citizens organization tells a lot about what the networks think of us, the viewing public.

•Jeffrey M. McCall is a professor of communication at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., and author of "Viewer Discretion Advised: Taking Control of Mass Media Influences."

LOS ANGELES (October 28, 2009) – In a new special report, the Parents Television Council® found that storylines depicting violence against females are increasing and being shown more graphically and in ways that have not been seen in the history of television.

The PTC’s report, Women in Peril: A Look at TV’s Disturbing New Storyline Trend, examined fatal and nonfatal female victimizations on prime time broadcast television and found that there was a significant increase in all forms of female victimization storylines; an increase in the depiction of teen girls as victims; an increase in the use of female victimization as a punch line in comedy series; and an increase in the depiction of intimate partner violence.

“Our new research points to a disturbing trend: by depicting violence against women with increasing frequency, or as a trivial, even humorous matter, the broadcast networks may ultimately be contributing to a desensitized atmosphere in which people view aggression and violence directed at women as normative, even acceptable,” said PTC President Tim Winter.

“Just last week, actresses like Nicole Kidman testified before the Congress that Hollywood probably has contributed to violence against women by portraying them as weak sex objects. We all must pay attention to the fact that this is a problem in our society. The fact is that children are influenced by what they see on TV and that certainly includes media violence,” said PTC Director of Communications and Public Education Melissa Henson.

The study compares the qualitative and quantitative differences in the treatments of violence against women on prime time broadcast television between 2004 and 2009. PTC analysts examined all primetime programming (excluding sports and news programs) on the major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC)* during the February and May 2004 and 2009 sweeps periods for a total of 209.5 hours of programming.

1. Incidents of violence against women and teenage girls are increasing on television at rates that far exceed the overall increases in violence on television. Violence, irrespective of gender, on television increased only 2% from 2004 to 2009, while incidents of violence against women increased 120% during that same period.
    
   • The most frequent type of violence against women on television was beating (29%), followed by credible threats of violence (18%), shooting (11%), rape (8%), stabbing (6%), and torture (2%). Violence against women resulted in death 19% of the time.
      
   • Violence towards women or the graphic consequences of violence tends overwhelmingly to be depicted (92%) rather than implied (5%) or described (3%).
      
2. Every network but ABC demonstrated a significant increase in the number of storylines that included violence against women between 2004 and 2009.
    
3. Although female victims were primarily of adult age, collectively, there was a 400% increase in the depiction of teen girls as victims across all networks from 2004 to 2009.
    
4. Fox stood out for using violence against women as a punch line in its comedies -- in particular Family Guy and American Dad -- trivializing the gravity of the issue of violence against women.
    
5. From 2004 to 2009 there was an 81% increase in incidences of intimate partner violence on television.

“Our study today serves as a clarion call to all Americans about a critical issue with dire consequences. We are calling on television producers and network executives, members of the advertising community, elected representatives and appointed government officials, and most importantly, the viewing public, to stand up against this disturbing trend. In a country where more than 60% of children have been exposed to violence in their daily lives, according to recent research by Justice Department, we must take the utmost care not to normalize violent behavior – especially violence against women – through our television programming,” Winter added.