Reports on violence study claimed to be distortion

Press, 31 March 1983, Page 3

Reports on violence study claimed to be distortion

PA Wellington Concern that a Mental Health Foundation report on television violence had been made to look “somewhat ridiculous” was expressed by the foundation’s director, Dr Max Abbott, yesterday. He was referring to published reports that the foundation’s study had found programmes such as “The Muppets” and “The Pink Panther,” contained high levels of violence. “Broadcasting broke embargoes on copies of the report we sent it and the way in which the release was worded gave a distorted and inaccurate picture of what we said. There was nothing in the report about ‘The Muppets’ or ‘The pink Panther’ being violent,” Dr Abbot said. “They are fantasy progammes and we have indicated that there is only a very weak link between fantasy violence and reality. Our claim is that violence on television is dangerous when it is shown in a reallife way. “In our report we give a

careful breakdown to show that to some extent we can identify types of television that have bad effects. “The corporation’s release pulled out two programmes we indicated had violence but not well established links with behaviour. “It is a distortion of the study, and my fear is that by the time everyone in the news media has actually read the report it will be too late,” Dr Abbott said. “There was nothing in the release that is not in the Mental Health Foundation’s report,” said the public affairs spokesman for the 8.C.N.Z., Mr Charles Martin. “We just read the report and quoted from it.” “Whatever distortions may be claimed, the fact remains that the study lists progammes with more than five episodes of violence and ‘The Muppets’ are well up with 11 episodes of violence in a programme. “It is a big report divided into three sections, the first dealing with material that has already been published on television violence; the

second of the methodology used for this study, and the third section has the report’s conclusions. “As we have said, the corporation is well aware of concerns in the community about violence on television and we are taking the report seriously and studying its conclusions,” Mr Martin said. The Mental Health Foundation set up a media watch group last year to monitor the number of violent episodes on television. The study was organised by Dr Hilary Haines with assistance from members of the newly formed Auckland branch of Monitor, the society for better broadcasting. The definition of violence used was to treat a whole fight, rather than an individual punch, as an episode of violence. In a repliminary report published last December, the foundation claimed that 500 bouts of violence could be seen in a week. The final report has not yet been made available.