Symbolic politics: Congressional interest in television violence from 1950 to 1996

Journalism and Mass Communication Quaterly

Volumn 76, Issue 4, 1999, Pages 684-698

  Hoerrner, Keisha L ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0033474979     PISSN: 10776990     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/107769909907600406     Document Type: Review

References (66)

1. Terry Etter, "The Knock-Down, Drag-Out Battle over Governmental Regulation of Television Violence," CommLaw Conspectus 3 (1994): 31-41.
2. Richard Zoglin, "Chips Ahoy," Time, 19 February 1996, 58-61.
3. Frank Bruni, "Senate Looks for Clues on Youth Violence," New York Times, 5 May 1999, sec. A, p. 18.
4. Cynthia Cooper, Violence on Television: Congressional Inquiry, Public Criticism, and Industry Response (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1996), 135.
5. Cooper, Violence on Television, 6.
6. See, for example, Jonathan Emord, Freedom, Technology and the First Amendment (San Francisco, CA: Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, 1991), and Thomas G. Krattenmaker and Lucas A. Powe Jr., Regulating Broadcast Programming (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994).
7. See, for example, Jonathan Emord, Freedom, Technology and the First Amendment (San Francisco, CA: Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, 1991), and Thomas G. Krattenmaker and Lucas A. Powe Jr., Regulating Broadcast Programming (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994).
8. U.S. Congress, House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Subcommittee on the FCC, Investigation of Radio and Television Programs, 82d Cong., 2d sess., 1952.
9. Kenneth Meier, Politics and the Bureaucracy: Policymaking in the Fourth Branch of Government, 2d ed. (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, 1987). See also Lawrence Dodd and Richard Schott, Congress and the Administrative State (New York, NY: Wiley, 1979).
10. Kenneth Meier, Politics and the Bureaucracy: Policymaking in the Fourth Branch of Government, 2d ed. (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, 1987). See also Lawrence Dodd and Richard Schott, Congress and the Administrative State (New York, NY: Wiley, 1979).
11. Williard Rowland, The Politics of TV Violence: Policy Uses of Communications Research (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1983).
12. Cooper, Violence on Television.
13. Erwin Krasnow, Lawrence Longley, and Herbert Terry, The Politics of Broadcast Regulation, 3d ed. (New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1982).
14. Krasnow, Longley, and Terry, The Politics, 140.
15. Murray Edelman, Politics as Symbolic Action (Chicago, IL: Markham Publishing, 1971); and Murray Edelman, The Symbolic Uses of Politics (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1970).
16. Murray Edelman, Politics as Symbolic Action (Chicago, IL: Markham Publishing, 1971); and Murray Edelman, The Symbolic Uses of Politics (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1970).
17. Edelman, Symbolic Uses, 106.
18. Frank D. Gilliam Jr., "Exploring Minority Empowerment: Symbolic Politics, Governing Coalitions, and Traces of Political Style in Los Angeles," American Journal of Political Science 40 (February 1996): 56-81. See also David Sears, "Symbolic Politics: A Social-Psychological Theory," in Explorations in Political Psychology, ed. Shanto Iyengar and William J. McGuire (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993), 113-49.
19. Frank D. Gilliam Jr., "Exploring Minority Empowerment: Symbolic Politics, Governing Coalitions, and Traces of Political Style in Los Angeles," American Journal of Political Science 40 (February 1996): 56-81. See also David Sears, "Symbolic Politics: A Social-Psychological Theory," in Explorations in Political Psychology, ed. Shanto Iyengar and William J. McGuire (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993), 113-49.
20. Katherine Beckett, "Setting the Public Agenda: 'Street Crime' and Drug Use in American Politics," Social Problems 41 (August 1994): 425-48.
21. Earl Wysong, Richard Aniskiewicz, and David Wright, "Truth and DARE: Tracking Drug Education to Graduation and as Symbolic Politics," Social Problems 41 (August 1994): 448-72.
22. Ten legislative researchers from the political science department at the University of Georgia rated each activity on a scale from 1-10. The researchers were sent one-page surveys asking them to "assign numbers 1-10 to the following list of congressional actions with 1 being used for the action that is least important and 10 being used for the action that is most important. Please use all 10 numbers only once. Think of the importance of an action in terms of the ramifications it would have toward the regulation of the broadcasting industry. So, an action that would likely no have impact on producing regulation would be numbered low on the scale, while an action likely to have a direct impact on producing regulation would be in the 8-10 range."
23. According to the Kendall W coefficient of agreement, the degree of agreement among the 10 judges regarding the 10 activities was 75.29.
24. Certainly context is important when determining an individual action's importance. For the purposes of this analysis, however, context was not included as a determiner of placement in the interval scale.
25. A reliability check was also conducted on the placement of actions in the correct categories of congressional actions. Forty-three actions, or 10% of the total actions, were randomly selected using a random numbers table and categorized by two master's students in mass communication. Using Holsti's formula, there was 100% categorization agreement among the two coders and 100% agreement with the author.
26. Nancy Signorielli, A Sourcebook on Children and Television (New York, NY: Greenwood Press, 1991), 88.
27. Gerbner's Violence Index is not simply an incident count but rather a formula that includes the percentage of programs with violence, rate of violence per program, rate of violence per hour, percent of major characters involved in violence, and percent of major characters involved in killing. See Signorielli, A Sourcebook, 91.
28. Beckett, "Setting the Public Agenda."
29. The FBI began compiling the Violent Crime Index in 1968; data from 1957-1967 was calculated by adding the number of crimes in the five categories per 100,000 members of the population from the general Crime Index.
30. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports (Washington, DC, 1958), 1,3.
31. Unemployment was chosen as a reflection of national economic strength because it most accurately displayed ups and downs in the economy. Indicators such as the gross domestic product, gross national product, and national income each show a steady increase per year from 1950-1996. While the rate of increase may have slowed during a particular year, the systematic increase is constant.
32. Economic Report of the President (Washington, DC, 1997), 248, and Economic Report of the President (Washington, DC, 1998), 321.
33. Economic Report of the President (Washington, DC, 1997), 248, and Economic Report of the President (Washington, DC, 1998), 321.
34. In each of the reference's index, search terms "television," "violence," "broadcasting," and "juvenile delinquency" were reviewed.
35. See U.S. Congress, House Committee on Rules, Creating a Select Committee to Conduct an Investigation and Study of Offensive and Undesirable Books and Radio and Television Programs, 82d Cong., 2d sess., 1952 and U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Rules, Authorizing the Printing for the Use of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary of Additional Copies of Its Hearing on "Effects on Young People of Violence and Crime Portrayed on Television," 88th Cong., 1st sess., 1963.
36. See U.S. Congress, House Committee on Rules, Creating a Select Committee to Conduct an Investigation and Study of Offensive and Undesirable Books and Radio and Television Programs, 82d Cong., 2d sess., 1952 and U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Rules, Authorizing the Printing for the Use of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary of Additional Copies of Its Hearing on "Effects on Young People of Violence and Crime Portrayed on Television," 88th Cong., 1st sess., 1963.
37. See U.S. Congress, House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Consumer Protection, and Finance, Children and Television, 98th Cong., 1st sess., 1983.
38. Even if one canvassed every congressional hearing summary listed in the CIS Annual Index for a mention of television violence, it would only provide information from 1970-1996. There is no single summary of hearings prior to 1970, so the data might still be incomplete.
39. A spreadsheet of all 431 actions, their dates, sponsors, and ranking on the interval scale is available from the author.
40. Sen. Thomas Dodd, D-Conn., (1.9%, n = 8); Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., (3%, n = 13); Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C. (1.9%, n = 8); Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., (2.6%, n = 11); Rep. John Murphy, D-N.Y. (4.9%, n = 21); Rep. Tom Railsback, R-Ill, (2.8%, n = 12); and Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill, (13.2%, n = 57).
41. There are two actions that occur in both houses and are listed as "both." These two actions account for only .05% of the total, and they are both laws from the 1990s.
42. Walter Oleszek, Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1996), 28.
43. See U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Communications, Impact of Television on Children, 94th Cong., 2d sess., 1976, where Sen. Moss from Utah holds the hearing in Salt Lake City.
44. See U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopolies and Business Rights, Television Violence Antitrust Exemption, 100th Cong., 1st sess., 1987, 136, where Sen. Simon of Illinois calls Professor David Strauss of the University of Chicago Law School as a witness.
45. Oleszek, Congressional Procedures, 26.
46. See, for example, U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, Juvenile Delinquency, Part 10: Effects on Young People of Violence and Crime Portrayed on Television, 87th Cong., 1st sess., 1961, 1685.
47. Joseph Gorman, Kefauver: A Political Biography (NY: Oxford University Press, 1971), 198.
48. Although there was little activity in 1987 or 1988 relative to other years, Sen. Simon accounted for 66% of the actions in 1987 by speaking out on the issue and introducing legislation (Senate bill 844, the Television Violence Act). He then testified at the 1988 legislative hearing on the House version of the bill and helped author the 1988 Senate report on the bill. Sen. Simon spoke on the issue of television violence, introduced two pieces of legislation, and placed four articles in the Congressional Record in 1986. From 1980 through 1988, Sen. Simon accounted for 11 of the 24 congressional actions, or 46%.
49. Breaking down congressional actions by home states rather than individuals reveals that concern about television violence is most concentrated in five states: CA (6.3%, n = 27), CT (4.6%, n = 20), IL (18.3%, n = 79), NY (7.7%, n = 33), and ND (5.1%, n = 22).
50. See for example, Rep. Murphy's statement on 21 Oct. in Congressional Record, 94th Cong., 1st sess., 1975, vol. 121, 33473.
51. Congressional Record. 94th Cong., 2d sess., 1976, vol. 122, 9511.
52. U.S. Congress, House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Subcommittee on Communications, Sex and Violence on TV, 94th Cong., 2d sess., 1976, 1.
53. House, Sex and Violence, 71.
54. House, Sex and Violence, 1.
55. Kefauver in 1955 and 1956 and Simon in 1988.
56. Sen. Robert Hendrickson (R-N.J.) did not seek re-election in 1954 so he could become Ambassador to New Zealand the following year.
57. Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C.A. 315[b][1]).
58. See, for example, statement of Rep. Murphy on 2 Feb. in Congressional Record, 95th Cong., 1st sess., 1977, vol. 123, 3882, and statement of Sen. Durenberger on 12 May in Congressional Record, 102d Cong., 1st sess., 1993, vol. 139, S5821-5823.
59. See, for example, statement of Rep. Murphy on 2 Feb. in Congressional Record, 95th Cong., 1st sess., 1977, vol. 123, 3882, and statement of Sen. Durenberger on 12 May in Congressional Record, 102d Cong., 1st sess., 1993, vol. 139, S5821-5823.
60. Collinearity tests suggested that multicollinearity was not a problem. There was an obvious relationship between crime and unemployment, but the correlation did not significantly impact the regression analyses. The correlations between the independent variables were as follows: Crime and the Violence Index (r = -.40, p = .04), Crime and Unemployment (r = .62, p = .001), Crime and Election Year (r = .07, p = .73), Violence Index and Unemployment (r = .09, p = .64), Violence Index and Election Year (r = .15, p = .45), and Unemployment and Election Year (r = .02, p = .92).
61. That consistency continues today. After the Littleton, CO, school shooting, Congress proposed a Surgeon General study on the effects of television violence on children, held a hearing, and introduced legislation to establish a "safe harbor" for violent programming. Paige Albaniak, "Media: Littleton's Latest Suspect," Broadcasting and Cable, 3 May 1999, 7.
62. Murray Edelman, Constructing the Political Spectacle (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1988), 12.
63. U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, Juvenile Delinquency, Part 16: Effects on Young People of Violence and Crime Portrayed on Television, 88th Cong., 2d sess., 1964, 3731.
64. U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, S. 1383, Children's Protection from Violent Programming Act of 1993; S. 973, Television Report Card Act of 1993; and S. 943, Children's Television Violence Protection Act of 1993, 103rd Cong., 1st sess., 1993, 2.
65. U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, S. 1383, Children's Protection from Violent Programming Act of 1993; S. 973, Television Report Card Act of 1993; and S. 943, Children's Television Violence Protection Act of 1993, 103rd Cong., 1st sess., 1993, 2.
66. U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, S. 1383, Children's Protection from Violent Programming Act of 1993; S. 973, Television Report Card Act of 1993; and S. 943, Children's Television Violence Protection Act of 1993, 103rd Cong., 1st sess., 1993, 2.