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RESEARCH NEWS

Volume 1, Number 11  --  December 5, 1997

Prevention Works!

The Public Health Perspective in Portrayal of Violence by the Media

Study Reviewed

Dorfman, L.; Woodruff, K.; Chavez, V.; & Wallack, L. (1997). Youth and violence on local television news in California. American Journal of Public Health 87(8): 1311-1316.

Study Focus

Dorfman et al. examine the degree to which a public health perspective is more likely to be reflected in local television news coverage of violence involving youth. The public health perspective is defined by the authors as coverage that includes considerations of underlying causes and possible prevention strategies.

Study Methodology

The contents of local television news broadcasts aired in California were used to examine media portrayal of youth violence. Once stories were identified as being about youth, violence, or both, they were coded as either episodic (focused on one or more specific incidents with little attention to the context or broader implications of the event) or thematic (focused primarily on the context of the incident, themes, trends, or root causes). The authors believe that a public health perspective is reflected in the thematic stories because of the emphasis on underlying causes and possible prevention strategies.

Study Findings

Approximately 214 hours of news programs were recorded, including 8,021 news stories. More than three-quarters of the stories were not about youth or violence, but violence alone was the most frequent story topic. Of the stories that focused on both youth and violence (n = 783), 70 percent concentrated on specific crimes such as shootings, abductions, and child abuse (n = 444) and their subsequent court trials (n = 108). Less air time was allotted to stories about crime in schools; crimes youth might commit (e.g., rumored gang activities); security and prevention issues; guns; law enforcement; community responses; the portrayal of violence in movies, television shows, and video games; and other topics.

Stories on violence alone (n = 372) also focused primarily on crimes and trials (78 percent). Stories on youth alone (n = 636) focused mainly on school issues (e.g., sports reports, individual school controversies), followed by unintentional injury, community events, youth accomplishments, substance abuse, child safety, and the like. Significantly more stories about youth, violence, or both were episodic in nature (82 percent); 34 of the 330 thematic stories (10 percent) focused on crime.

Limitations of the Study

The authors note that the findings are limited--the sample spanned a short period of time, the data only included one State, and only local news stories were examined.

The Bottom Line

Dorfman et al. found that episodic coverage of violence was the most prevalent type of story in local television news, and even when stories were thematic in nature, those that included a public health perspective on violence (e.g., primary violence prevention) were extremely scarce. The authors suggest that the lack of violence being portrayed as a public health issue may be partly due to public health professionals’ limited involvement in violence prevention. For example, the most in-depth story on violence as a public health issue was from a county where the health department is working on innovative strategies for preventing violence.

Dorfman et al. suggest two strategies that public health practitioners can use to help change the way youth-involved violence is portrayed in the news. First, they suggest using social data to create a context for crime stories when talking with reporters. Data from California were used to illustrate that over one-half of all violent offenders are under the influence of alcohol or other drugs when they commit crimes, and crime and violence do not occur by chance (e.g., most homicides happen between acquaintances, a small number of offenders commit a large percentage of crimes). Including such data would highlight the role that alcohol and other drugs play in violence, as well as enable audiences to gain a better understanding of the economic, educational, and criminal justice implications of the event.

The authors also suggest educating journalists about the risk factors for violence, which would allow them to ask appropriate questions about the possible causes of violent incidents (e.g., Was the crime alcohol- or drug-involved? Were the victim and offender acquainted? Was a weapon used in the crime?). Providing journalists with such information would allow them to provide the public with more timely, contextually appropriate reports.

To receive a complimentary copy of this PreventionAlert, call SAMSHA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI) @ 1-800-729-6686, TDD 1-800-487-4889 (for the hearing impaired.) PREVENTIONAlert is supported by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and may be copied without permission with appropriate citation. For information about PREVENTIONAlert, please contact CSAP by phone (301) 443-0581 or e-mail gensley@samhsa.gov

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