While that's what we're led to believe, in fact violence depresses ratings. What's really behind TV violence is its global marketability. As TV producers find it increasingly difficult to break even at home, they are reaching for the global market. Violence is a dramatic ingredient that needs no translation. On the contrary, they are marketing formula imposed on program creators and foisted on the children of the world.
Citizens own the airways.
Gerbner's study was conducted in conjunction with the Cultural Indicators Research Project, a data bank and research base that investigates the relationship of long-term exposure to recurrent elements in television and viewer conceptions about the world. The Project periodically publishes a Violence Profile, and a Diversity Index comparing the cast of prime-time dramatic characters to the actual demographics of the American population. If you wish to quote from any part of this story, please credit Temple University as the original source.