Reassessing the risks: an updated content analysis of violence on U.S. children’s primetime television

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study provides a comprehensive update investigating the amount and nature of violence contained in primetime television programming that targets children aged 17 and younger. Using the same sampling procedures and codebook as the original National Television Violence Study, we coded 765 primetime television programs airing on 21 broadcast and cable networks during the 2016/2017 season. We then separated children’s programs from nonchildren’s programs to compare violence by amount and context. Results indicate that programs targeted to youth continue to be more violent than programs made for adults, but the percentage of such programs was slightly lower than what was reported twenty years ago. Once again, violence in children’s programs is just as likely to be glamorized as shows for adults but continues to be more sanitized and trivialized. Implications for children’s learning of aggression are discussed.