by Mary A. Hepburn

About the author: Mary A. Hepburn is a professor of social science education and head of the Citizen Education Division at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia in Athens.

With an average national TV viewing time of 71/4 hours daily, the prevalence of violence in broadcasts is a serious concern. Television programming in the United States is considered the most violent in advanced industrialized nations. Violence is common in TV entertainment—the dramas that portray stories about crime, psychotic murderers, police cases, emergency services, international terrorism, and war. The dramas are played out in highly realistic scenes of violent attacks accompanied by music and other sounds that churn up emotions.

Violence Sells

As the realism and gore in the screen images of TV entertainment have intensified, local news cameras have...