MEDIA EXPOSURE AND SENSITIVITY
TO VIOLENCE IN NEWS REPORTS:
EVIDENCE OF DESENSITIZATION?
By Erica Scharrer
This study explores whether amount of exposure to entertainment television violence, local newspapers, and local television news relates to reactions to reading news stories that recount violent events. Survey results from three regions in the United States show bivariate connections between average media exposure levels and each of three indicators of desensitization. Multivariate results provide partial support for the idea that heavy local news consumption—presumably due to the presence of violent content—can contribute to a blunted response to news stories regarding real-life violent events when individuals have low trait empathy.
While social scientists agree that violent television exposure leads
to desensitization/ research cited to support this claim relies consistently
on a small number of studies, many conducted decades ago. The current
study examines whether individuals develop desensitized views of
violence from their everyday interactions with various forms of media
exposure. If this does, indeed, occur, it is a critically important issue
because of the tendency of desensitization to thwart helping behaviors
when one encounters aggression^ and to facilitate the learning of aggression.'
Violence in News Content Content analyses have established convincingly
that violence is a frequent theme in news content in numerous media forms. Clark and Blankenburg* studied four prominent daily newspapers and found 17.6% of all news items across forty years contained violence, at a rate of 2.3 violent items per page. In more recent analyses, crime stories typically accounted for one-third of all newspaper
items, and violent crime tended to be covered more prominently
than non-violent crime.' Williams and Dickinson^ found that, on average, 12.7% of the "newshole" in the daily newspaper was devoted to crime, the majority of which (65%) involved violent crime against people. Finally, Sorenson, Manz, and BerF found that the Los Angeles Times covered 29% of all the homicides that occurred in Los Angeles
County between 1990 and 1994.
Erica Scharrer is an associate professor in the Department of Communication, University
of Massachusetts Amherst.
MEDIA EXPOSURE AND SENSITIVITY TO VIOLENCE IN NEWS REPORTS
Literature
Review
J&MC Quarterly
Vol. 85, No. 2
Summer 2008
291-310
®2007AEIMC
291
Crime is the most frequently included topic in both local" and
national television news.' Dorfman and colleagues'" examined 214 hours
of local television news and found that more time was allotted to violent
crime stories than any other topic, with such stories appearing in the first
or second segments of the newscast. Randall, Lee-Sammons, and
Hagner" examined ABC, CBS, and NBC nightly newscasts over thirteen
years and determined that crime stories averaged approximately sixty
seconds per newscast. Finally, scholars have determined that during
wartime, war coverage—which frequently, of course, includes violence—
dominates the newshole.'^ Violent events pertaining to wars are also generally
viewed as highly newsworthy."
Media Violence and Desensitization. Desensitization has been
defined as a short-term, immediate drop in concern or sympathy about
violence" as well as a long-term, incremental effect due to repeated violent
media exposure.'^ Heavy television exposure has been associated
with increased susceptibility to desensitization."" Because the current
study's focus is on daily exposure to various media forms (including television),
desensitization is considered here as a long-term cumulative
process.
Desensitization is a complex phenomenon with physiological, cognitive,
and affective roots and manifestations. The current study focuses
on the cognitive and affective dimensions of desensitization, an approach
with considerable precedent.'^ For example, research participants' self-
reports of how disturbing, shocking, or troubling they found particular
depictions have decreased following media exposure in past research.'*
While individuals perceive less violence in media stimuli after repeated
exposure, they also perceive violence to be commonplace and normative."
In the present study, sensitivity to violence (or de-sensitivity) is presumed
to be evident in self-reports of emotional responses to news items
containing violence as well as in perceptions of the "normalcy" (or, conversely,
the uniqueness) of the events covered in those news items.
These cognitive and affective elements of desensitization are also
closely linked to its physiological aspects. In fact, the work of Zillmann^"
suggests that over time and with repeated exposure, individuals experience
habituation, no longer registering with increased heart rates or blood
pressure the usual arousal that accompanies violence exposure. That
habituation creates an affective or emotional tolerance for violence that is
considered a key element of desensitization.
The Role of Empathy. Oliver^' has called for greater attention to
individual differences in studies of media effects, and the current study
examines the centrally relevant personality trait of empathy. Nezlek and
colleagues^ have defined empathy as "the capacity to recognize, comprehend,
and re-experience another person's emotions." Gender differences
in empathy begin to emerge in adolescence.^
Empathy has been linked to both aggressive and desensitized outcomes
stemming from violent media exposure. For instance, Bartholow,
Sestir, and Davis^'' found that trait empathy mediated the relationship
between violent video game exposure and aggression. Funk, Buchman,
Jenks, and Bechtoldt^ found previously existing levels of empathy were
¡OURNALISM & MAS S COMMUN/C/ITÍON QUARTERLY
related to aggression among children in responding to vignettes following
exposure to video game violence. Degree of sensitivity toward violence
has been linked with empathy toward victims,^' and empathy has
also been found to be inversely associated with the enjoyment of fright
and violence in media.^'
The link between empathy and desensitization is so close that
some researchers have used empathy as an indicator of desensitization.
For example. Funk and colleagues^** have used a combination of empathy
and attitudes toward violence as "proxy measures" of desensitization
stemming from violent video game use among young people.
Similarly, empathy and sympathy for victims were measured along with
negative affective responses (including anxiety and depression) to operationalize
desensitization by Linz, Donnerstein, and Penrod^' following
exposure to films featuring violence against women. In the current
study, the potential problem of tautology in measuring empathy and
desensitization separately is addressed by treating empathy only as a
personality trait or individual difference.
HI: The more respondents are exposed to violent
entertainment television, the less sensitive their emotional
responses to violent news stories will be.
H2: The more respondents are exposed to local newspaper
news, the less sensitive their emotional responses to
violent news stories will be.
H3: The more respondents are exposed to local television
news, the less sensitive their emotional responses to
violent news stories will be.
Just as Van der Voorb"" and Thomas and colleagues^' found that
violent television and film exposure led subsequently to decreased emotionality
and "blunted" affect in response to subsequent violent media
texts, high levels of exposure to various media forms containing violence
are expected to do the same in response to news media texts featuring
violence. Thus, according to desensitization theory, repeated
exposure to violence in the news media creates a response in the audience
member in which one more news story featuring violence registers
less as a matter of concern, due likely to news media reliance on violence
in stories pertaining to war and crime.
H4: The more respondents are exposed to violent
entertainment television, the less likely they will be to perceive
the events covered in the news stories as violent.
H5: The more respondents are exposed to local newspaper
news, the less likely they will be to perceive the events
covered in the news stories as violent.
Hypotheses
and
Theoretical
Linkages
MEDIA EXPOSURE AND SENSITIVÎTY TO VIOLENCE IN NEWS REPORTS
H6: The more respondents are exposed to local television
news, the less likely they will be to perceive the events
covered in the news stories as violent.
In the Linz and colleagues^^ and Zillmann and Bryant^' studies,
repeated exposure to a violent media stimulus was associated with declining
perceptions of the amount of violence present in the stimuli.
Therefore, in the current study it is predicted that high levels of average
exposure to media containing violence will lead the individual to expect
a certain degree of violence as normative, and therefore make him or her
less likely to label the news reports used in the study as violent.
H7: The more respondents are exposed to violent entertainment
television, the more likely they will be to perceive
the events covered in the news stories as commonplace.
H8: The more respondents are exposed to local newspaper
news, the more likely they will be to perceive the events
covered in the news stories as commonplace.
H9: The more respondents are exposed to local television
news, the more likely they will be to perceive the events
covered in the news stories as commonplace.
Finally, Linz and colleagues^ and Potter^^ have argued that another
essential element of desensitization is its ability to gradually convince
individuals that violence is a common part of social life. Thus, hypotheses
also predict levels of exposure to television violence and news will contribute
to perceptions of the violent events covered in the news stories as
commonplace.
RQl: Will trait empathy interact with exposure to these
media forms to predict emotional responses to violent news
stories?
RQ2: Will trait empathy interact with exposure to these
media forms to predict perceptions of the news stories as violent?
RQ3: Will trait empathy interact with exposure to these
media forms to predict perceptions of the events covered in
the news stories as common rather than rare?
The interactions with trait empathy may occur because previously
existing levels of empathy have been shown to shape responses to
violent films, video games, and television programs.^' Highly empathetic
respondents may consider the story from the perspective of the
victim and therefore register a stronger and more profound response to
the story.
294 JOURNALISM & MASS COMMUNICATION QUARTERLY
Sampling Procedure. A questionnaire was administered to 476
adults using a non-random quota sample drawn from three regions in
the United States chosen to represent a diverse cross section of locales:
urban Florida, rural Alabama, and rural/suburban Massachusetts. In
each of the three sites, the goal was to collect at least seventy-five surveys
from men and seventy-five from women, as well as to equally represent
three age groups, 18-35, 36-53, and 54 and older. In each site, university
students were asked to survey one or more year-round resident(
s) of the community as part of a class lesson on research methods.
The students were given an age and gender category that they needed
to fulfill and were encouraged to ask residents of color and to avoid asking
fellow students to complete the questionnaire. Within those parameters,
the individual students recruited subjects to complete the questionnaires.
Respondents supplied contact information and one of every ten
questionnaires was verified. A sampling period of three weeks in spring
2005 was used in all three sites. The 130 completed Florida questionnaires
were combined with 158 questionnaires from Alabama and 188
from Massachusetts. All multivariate statistical results were analyzed
for differences by region and none emerged. Items used for this particular
study were placed among other items in an omnibus survey titled
"Media in American Life." Importantly, each of the three main sets of
measures for the current study was separated from the other by additional
questions on a different subject pertaining to media. Thus, it is
unlikely that the respondents connected these sets of items and therefore
anticipated the purpose of this particular study.
Measures. Exposure to particular television programs was measured
by providing a list of seventy-seven primetime television programs
from the five major networks then broadcasting (ABC, CBS, Fox,
NBC, the WB, and UPN) and asking respondents to indicate how frequently
each was watched (0 = never, 1 = rarely, 2 = sometimes, 3 =
often, 4 = regularly). Respondents could also write in up to four additional
entertainment programs. The programs were then identified in
five consecutive issues of TV Guide issued during the data collection
stage (April 3 to May 1, 2005). If the program earned a "V" for
"Violence" on two or more of the five days covered in the TV Guides or
if its description contained two or more accounts of physical attempts
committed by one character against another with the intent to harm, the
program was considered to contain violence. Examples of words in the
TV Guide synopses that resulted in categorizing a program as containing
violence included "murder," "killing," "stabbed," and "shot to death."
Twenty of the seventy-seven programs met one or both of these criteria.
An additive scale indicating respondents' typical viewing of each of
these particular programs (again from 0 "never" to 4 "regularly") was
formed.
Respondents also indicated the average number of days per week
they read a local newspaper as well as the average number of days per
week they view a local television newscast.
MEDM EXPOSURE AND SENSÍTIVITY TO VIOLENCE IN NEWS REPORTS
KesultS
296
Three actual news stories, complete with headline, byline, and copyright
date, taken from the New York Times were provided to the respondent
with the following instructions: Please read each of these brief news stories
and then tell us about your reaction. These are actual news stories published
in the New York Times that describe real events. The first story details the
shooting death of a 21-year-old teacher from Orange County, California,
resulting from a dispute with an ex-boyfriend. The second story told
of the shooting death of a 24-year-old man from Pittsburg, Kansas, after
he and his friends got into a fight with other young men at a fast food
drive-through. The third and final news story is an account of the beheading
of a 48-year-old Georgia man by "militants" in Iraq. The stories were
chosen to represent violent crime and war, two of the most frequent
sources of violence in news content, and were also chosen because they
occurred in locations that would be equally distant for all of the respondents
(see Appendix A for the complete news stories).
Following each story, respondents were asked a number of questions
with semantic differential responses. First, they were asked "How does reading
this news story make you feel?" with responses ranging from 1 = "not