Violence on TV to be examined

Press, 23 February 1978, Page 15

Violence on TV to be examined

Violence on television will come under closer scrutiny this year. The Broadcasting Corporation’s head of programme standards (Mr Alan Patterson) has asked his censoring staff in Wellington and Auckland to keep a count of the number of times violence occurs in programmes.

“We will make a statistical survey over a range of programmes erf the incidence of violence," he said.

The survey would be over two periods this year, and was designed to give Broadcasting Corporation members an idea of the extent of violent scenes.

Mr Patterson hastened to say, however, that a record of the number of scenes in which violence occurred did not of itself mean a great deal.

Violence had to be seen in the context of the programme being shown. For example a film had been made which constituted a modern parable against pollution. The theme was an imaginary

situation in which the resources of the world and the environment had become exploited beyond remedy.

Life had been reduced to a violent and almost animal level for the humans left on the planet. "While the film itself depicts a great deal of violence, at the same time it actually preaches against violence to the environment and quality of life,” Mr Patterson said. Even the experts contradicted each other, and it seemed impossible to prove the effect of violence in films on children. It had been found, for example, that even fairy tales, full of violence, filled a deep psychological need in children.

The Broadcasting Corporation’s awareness of violence comes hard on the heels of a recent statement by the Minister of Justice (Mr Thomson).

He said he was convinced there was a link between television violence and violent offending among young people.

He said he would ask the new standing select

committee of Parliament on violent offending to study the possible correla tion between television violence in programmes such as “Starksy and Hutch” and “The Sweeney” and violent offending

The Minister noted that cigarette and liquor advertising was banned on tele vision.

Why would this be done unless there was a link between television advertising and cigarette addiction and alcohol abuse he asked. Many studies have been made overseas on the effects of violence on television and the results have been inconclusive. The most that can be said is that those with a propensity to irrational and violent behaviour may well be affected for the worse by television examples of such behaviour. Less attention has been paid to the possible harmful effects of other aspects of television — the unreality of most of the relationships it portrays, emphasis on striving for status and the artificiality of values. It would be simple to take the easy way out and for example blame violence on television for a more powerful influence than other demands and pressures on families. There are many other factors influencing young people in New Zealand, such as job opportunities, late closing of pubs, the changed moral climate and education which should be looked at. As Mr Patterson says, it is a matter of context.