Subject Bibliographies (GPO)

Research findings indicate a positive association between television violence and aggressive behavior, and unfortunately much of today's television programs are violent. While television cannot be cited as the only source for aggressive or violent behavior, it is a contributing factor that cannot be ignored. Congress, the Surgeon General's Office, our courts, psychologists, and parents have agreed that the causal relationship between televised violence and anti-social behavior warrants appropriate and immediate attention. Perpetrators of television violence go unpunished and the negative effects of violence often are not portrayed, leaving children and adults with an unrealistic view of the consequences of violence. However, addressing this problem is not easy because we are committed to maintaining often conflicting rights protected under the First and Fourteenth Amendments - freedom of speech and civil rights.

Case Law

Action for Children's Television v. Federal Communications Commission, 58 F.3d 654 (App. D.C. 1995). Shielding minors from indecent radio and television programs.

Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969). Incitement to imminent, lawless activity.

DeFilippo v. Nat'l. Broadcasting Co., 446 A.2d 1036 (R.I. Sup.Ct. 1982). Child hangs himself while copying a stunt being performed on the Johnny Carson show.

Writers Guild of America, West, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission, 423 F.Supp. 1064 (C.D. Cal. 1976). Various directors, actors, writers, and producers of television programs challenge the family viewing policy.

Zamora v. C.B.S. Inc., 480 F.Supp. 199 (D.C. S.Fla. 1979). Plaintiff attributes child's sociopathic behavior to extensive viewing of television violence offered by the defendants.

Statutes

Public Communications Act of 1988, Pub. L. No. 100-626, 102 Stat. 3207 (1988), § 5. An Act, in part, addressing "the needs of unserved and underserved audiences, particularly children and minorities." 

Children's Television Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-437, 104 Stat. 996 (1990) (partially codified at 47 U.S.C. § 394). "An Act to require the Federal Communications Commission to reinstate restrictions on advertising during children's television, to enforce the obligation of broadcasters to meet the educational and informational needs of the child audience, and for other purposes."

Public Telecommunications Act of 1992, Pub. L. No. 102-356, 106 Stat. 949 (1992), § 16(a). An Act, in part, establishing regulations to prohibit the broadcasting of indecent programming during specified hours.

Telecommunications Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-104, Title V, Subtitle B, § 551, 110 Stat. 139 (1996). An Act, in part, directing the FCC to establish an advisory committee to recommend rating guidelines if program distributors have not voluntarily done so. 

Regulations

Broadcast Services; Children's Television, 61 Fed. Reg. 43,981 (1996) (codified at 47 C.F.R. pt. 73). Amends the children's television educational and informational programming requirements to strengthen enforcement of the Children's Television Act of 1990 ("CTA").

Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC is an independent federal agency which regulates interstate and international communications by television, radio, wire, satellite, and cable. The FCC web site can be found at http://www.fcc.gov/, where you can click on Hot Topics including: Children's Television, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and the V-Chip. Records of the FCC are published on the GPO Access Government Information Locator Service database at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/gils/gils.html.

Policies and Rules Concerning Children's Television Programming, 11 F.C.C.R. 10,660 (1996).

Digests

Numerous digests are published by West paralleling the format of the publisher’s case reporters. These digests do not constitute legal authority, but are helpful for locating relevant decisions. Opinions must be evaluated individually for relevance to the current need. Digests include those of federal court opinions: the United States Supreme Court Digest, Federal Digests, Specialized Digests (e.g., West’s Bankruptcy Digest); digests of state court opinions: State and Regional Digests, and the Comprehensive American Digest System. Topics and key numbers are consistent throughout. Updated by pocket parts.

West’s Federal Practice Digest, 4^th. Television and Radio—Programs. Topic and key numbers: Telecommunications 429-443.

West’s Texas Digest 2d. (1990). Includes the 1997 Cumulative Annual Pocket Part. Set is updated weekly by West’s Reporter Advance Sheets or WESTLAW. Constitutional Law. 90. Freedom of speech and the press. 90.4(3). Entertainment in general; telecommunications.

Guides

Yvonne J. Chandler, Neal-Schuman Guide to Finding Legal and Regulatory Information on the Internet. (New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 1998). Comprehensive guide to state and federal legal resources on the Internet. Chapters include URLs, detailed resource descriptions, web page illustrations, and "Chandler's Best Bets." Includes general index and web site index. Excellent reference manual.

Legal Encyclopedias

American Jurisprudence 2d. State and Federal. Lawyers Cooperative Publishing. 83 volumes, 1974. General Index, 1998 Edition. Updated by pocket part cumulative supplements, last issued April 1997. Includes references for Practice references, uniform laws, and case authorities. Index topic: Television and radio, generally. Volume 74. Telecommunications §§ 147-183. Telecom § 164.--Program content.

Law Reviews and Journals

Comment, Exclusion of Children from Violent Movies, 67 Colum. L. Rev. 1149 (1967)."Until 1952…movies were considered to fall outside the first amendment protections of ‘speech’ and ‘press’….since 1952, the Supreme Court has not approved a single act of movie censorship…" Age classification censorship versus the First Amendment.

Harry T. Edwards & Mitchell N. Berman, Regulating Violence on Television, 89 Nw. U. L. Rev. 1487 (c1995). "The legislative proposals with the most bite fall into four general categories: (1) banning or zoning; (2) balancing; (3) labelling; and (4) user blocking."

Thomas W. Hazlett, Comment, Explaining the Telecommunications Act of 1996: Comment on Thomas G. Krattenmaker, 29 Conn. L. Rev. 217 (1996). With all its flaws, "this [Act] is the best piece of communications legislation Congress has ever produced."

Reed Hundt & Karen Kornbluh, Comment, Renewing the Deal Between Broadcasters and the Public: Requiring Clear Rules for Children’s Educational Television, 9 Harv. J. Law & Tech. 11 (1996). "Just as the automobile industry invented a new family car, broadcasters can invent a new kind of family programming, renewing their deal with the American public."

Dennis R. Polivy, Comment, Virtue by Machine: A First Amendment Analysis of the V-Chip Provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, 29 Conn. L. Rev. 1749 (1997). The V-Chip is "nothing more than a temporary technological fix for societal ills; an attempt to impose virtue by machine."

David V. Scott, The V-Chip Debate: Blocking Television Sex, Violence and the First Amendment, 16 Loy. L.A. Ent. L.J. 741 (1996). A look at the "serious conflict between protecting children from the potentially harmful influence of exposure to violence, and the First Amendment rights of broadcasters."

Jonathan L. Wolff, Comment, The V-Chip: Giving Parents the Ability to Regulate Television Violence, 37 Santa Clara L. Rev. 785 (1997). "The V-Chip is not about censorship; it is about parental choice….The V-Chip is not…the only means of reducing violence on television, but it is a step in the right direction."

Forouzan M. Khalili, Comment, Television Violence: Legislation to Combat the National Epidemic, 18 Whittier L. Rev. 219 (1996). "Studies…demonstrate that young children have a high propensity to imitate what they observe on television or in film."

Looseleaf Services

United States Law Week. Reproduces full text of each slip opinion in a looseleaf binder format. Advantage: Faster print version of each new Supreme Court case. Added features: summaries of pending cases and information about the Court’s docket. While still widely used, not as popular as it used to be.

Legal Directories

ExpertPages, Advice and Counsel Corporation (visited 5/12/98): http://www.expertpages.com/. A directory of experts, expert witnesses, consultants, and service providers, which can be searched by subject topic, state, or country such as  Juvenile Violence

Books

Adam Dobrin et al., Statistical Handbook on Violence in America (Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1996). Includes survey statistics showing the public’s attitudes toward violence in society at large and violence in the media.

Internet

Facts for Families: Children & TV Violence, Fact No. 13 (11/95), American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (visited May 13, 1998). Children imitate violence they see on TV: http://www.aacap.org/factsfam/violence.htm.

Children and Media/TV Violence Resource List, Center for Media Education (visited May 13, 1998): http://epn.org/cme/cta/bib-viol.html.

NCTV, National Coalition on Television Violence (last modified Oct. 19, 1997): http://www.nctvv.org/.

Journals and Articles

Kirstin J. Hough & Philip G. Erwin, "Children’s Attitudes Toward Violence on Television," The Journal of Psychology 131, no.4 (1997): 411.

Greg Makris, "The Myth of a Technological Solution to Television Violence: Identifying Problems with the V-Chip," Journal of Communication Inquiry 20, no.2 (1996): 72.

Scott Stossel, "The Man Who Counts the Killings…," The Atlantic 279, no. 5 (1997): 86. George Gerbner's crusade of evaluating the effect of television on individuals and society.

"TELEVISION: Critics of TV Violence are Hailing the Little Chip that Could. But Will It Really Protect Our Kids?," Time 147, no.8 (1996): 58.

D.M. Veraldi & L. Veraldi, Television Violence: Does the Research Support the V-Chip?, American Journal of Forensic Psychology 16, no.1 (1998): 25.

Chris J. Boyatzis, Gina M. Matillo & Kristen M. Nesbitt, "Effects of 'The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' on Children’s Aggression with Peers," Child Study Journal 25, no. 1 (1995): 45. Study examining the effects of "The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" television show on children’s behavior.

Mary A. Hepburn, "T.V. Violence! A Medium’s Effects Under Scrutiny," Social Education 61 (1997): 244. Heavy viewing of television, violent content of programs, and the psychological and behavioral aspects of combining the two are examined.

Fred Molitor & Kenneth William Hirsch, "Children’s Toleration of Real-life Aggression after Exposure to Media Violence: A Replication of the Drabman and Thomas Studies," Child Study Journal 24, no. 3 (1994): 191. A study examining children’s tolerance of real-life aggression after being exposed to media violence on videotaped material.

Ron Payne, "The V-Chip – Victory or Vendetta?," Contemporary Education 68 (1997): 114. Will the safeguard of the V-Chip mean that more violence and sexually explicit programs will be offered on television?

C. Pereira & C. Watkins, eds., "Violence: On the Screen, On the Street," Social Education 61 (1997): 244. Symposium on violence, youth crime and public policy.

Louis H. Primavera, William G. Herron, & Rafael A. Jauier, "The Effect of Viewing Television on Aggression," International Journal of Instructional Media 23, no.1 (1996): 91. The lack of evidence of a causal relationship between violence on television and violent behavior does not provide an endorsement of television violence.

"National Television Violence Study: Key Findings and Recommendations," Young Children 51, no.3 (1996): 54. Summarizes findings of the study indicating that the context of much TV violence is dangerous to viewers; offers recommendations for television community, policymakers, public leaders, and parents.

 Patricia R. Palmerton & Jeff Judas, "Selling Violence: Television Commercials Targeted to Children," Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Communication Assn. (44^th, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, July 11-15, 1994). Commercials analyzed for violent content, gender of primary actors and recipients of violent action, primary persuasive theme or appeal, sex and age of primary audience of the commercial, type of product, visual format, and setting of the commercial.

 Marcel W. Vooijs & Tom H.A. van der Voort, "Teaching Children to Evaluate Television Violence Critically: The Impact of a Dutch School’s Television Project," Journal of Educational Television 19, no.3 (1993): 139. Altering the cognitive effects of TV violence by encouraging 10- to 12-year-olds to evaluate critically the portrayal of violence.

PROQUEST  

ProQuest/UMI CD-ROM product which indexes and abstracts articles from over 1,000 serial titles. Offers a wide range of topics of both general and special interest. Requires ProQuest software. Social Sciences Index used. Subject search term used: violence in television. Internet availability: see title lists at http://www.umi.com/hp/Support/Titles/cd-rom/.

Dale Kunkel, Barbara Wilson, & Edward Donnerstein, "Measuring Television Violence: The Importance of Context," Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 39 (Spring 1995): 284-291.

Bonnie A. Lazar, "Old Battles, New Frontiers: A Study of Television Violence and Social Work with Children," Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal 13 (Dec 1996): 527-540.

Anu Mustonen & Lea Pulkkinen, "Television Violence: A Development of a Coding Scheme," Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 41 (Spring 1997): 168-189.

W. James Potter, Misha W. Vaughan, & Ron Warren, "How Real is the Portrayal of Aggression in Television Entertainment Programming?," Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 39 (Fall 1995): 496-516.

Subject Bibliographies (GPO)

Information for sale from the U.S. Government Printing Office on the subject of Telecommunications (last update on Mar. 5, 1997): ($$) http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/sale/sb-296.html

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