Literature Review and Methodology for the Case of Violence on TV

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Table of Contents

Literature Review
Methodology
References

Literature Review

The case topic is on violence on TV. This concerns the programs that are aired on television like violent movies that have been increasing in the recent past. Violence in TV has been considered as factor that contributes to violent behaviors among teenagers in the US (Teen Drug Abuse, 2011, para.4).

Various literatures are available that reveal exposure to television in as significant reason behind aggression and violence among children (Centerwall, 1992, para.7; Cline, Croft and Courier, 1973, p.360; Eron et al, 1972, p.253).

Tanner (2011) has observed that children who watch nighttime violent television shows have troubles in sleep (para.7). As a result, various initiatives such as the Parents Television Council have been started that aim at regulating the types of television shows that are exposed to children (Colbert, 2011, para.1).

The management of KTDS has received complaints in the recent past over increased level of violence in their programs. The manager has noted that violence has increased in the television shows in the last two decades. However, he suspects that the recent complaints that have been received by the management regarding violence in their programs are not genuine ones.

These complaints are likely to be attributed to some politician who has developed, as some of the political policies, an attack on the increasing level of violence in America.

The manager believes that the politician has mobilized most of the discontented viewers to send their complaints to the management (Case Study). The politician believes that this increased level of violence is largely caused by the violent programs that are aired in television especially KTDS.

In order to establish the validity of the claim, it is necessary to obtain the views of other individuals. There is a possibility that a good proportion of the viewers are contented with the kind of programs aired by this station. The management is concerned with the satisfaction of the needs of all of its customers.

It may not be possible to conduct a survey and obtain information on all the viewers of the programs and thus there is need for sampling (Singh & Mangat, 1996, p.5). Conducting a survey on a number of viewers of the television programs will provide the necessary information from which a valid conclusion can be made.

A sample of the viewers that is selected randomly from some sampling frame can be used to represent the population of the viewers. The information so obtained will suffice to represent the whole population (SAS Institute, 2011, para.1).

The management will then decide on the appropriate course of action based on this information. However, the telephone directory that was used in the survey may not be a true representation of the population (Trochim, 2006b, para.3; Esslemont, Petersen, and Selvakumar, 1992, p.1)

Methodology

Research questions/objectives

Television has been seen to be the most popular information medium where majority spend their time (Citak, 2009, p.268). The survey is intended to provide the opinions of the viewers on the level of violence on the programs shown by KTDS. It will also provide an insight on other factors that are likely to be associated with the individuals’ perception of violence in the television programs.

To achieve this, a number of questions are administered to the respondents. The first question is on gender. This information will be necessary in the analysis. For instance, it will be necessary to consider if the viewers’ perception of violence in KTDS programs are associated with gender.

This also explains the need for an answer to the second question on “Age” and the third question on “Marital status.” It will be interesting to study the responses in relation to their ages and marital status.

The fourth question inquires if the respondents have children at home. This is also necessary since the respondents could judge the level of violence in relation to the effects that such programs have on their children. The income of the household determines the living standards and the exposure to these television programs. The ownership of television by the respondents will be determined by their household income.

This will be necessary in the analysis since it will be important to compare the views of individuals of similar economic status. The sixth question is on the level of “Education” of the respondents. An individual’s judgment of a given concept can be influenced largely by the level of education.

The next question is on the average time dedicated to television programs per week. The time that one dedicates to the programs can also influence his/her evaluation of the program.

The final question seeks to meet the objective of the survey and asks for the respondents’ opinions on the level of violence of the television programs. In general, the first seven questions t be administered to the respondents seek to obtain other details on the respondents that ma explain the pattern of the responses.

In the analysis, it would be appropriate to consider the responses from some homogenous category, say age groups, males or females, or individuals with the same educational standards. More meaning is derived from the analysis if all these other factors are considered.

Discussion of sample data

In the survey, a sample of two hundred KTDS patrons was selected for a telephone interview. Two hundred telephone numbers were randomly selected from the Tidusville phone book. The interview was conducted through telephone. Out of the two hundred selected viewers, a hundred and six viewers turned down the request to be interviewed (Case Study).

This failure could be avoided through convenience sampling (e.g. Haslam & McGarty, 2003, p.112). Two other respondents did not provide an answer to the question on the level of their household income. The responses from ninety-four viewers are to be used in the analysis except for the case that may relate the other responses to the level of income in which case the two incidences are to be excluded.

The unit of analysis refers to main entity in the study and can be individuals or groups (Trochim, 2006a, para.1; The Writing Center, 2007, para.13).The survey is intended provide the opinions of the viewers on the level of violence on the television programs.

In this case, the individual respondents form the unit of analysis since data is obtained pertaining to each of them. The proportion of the sample with a given opinion will be representative of the whole population.

The survey contains eight questions that translate to eight variables. Most of the questions require a range of responses that have already been defined except for the question on age and time allocated for television that are left open for the respondents. The variables are also of different types. The first variable on gender is nominal (Babbie, 2008, p.149).

The respondents are categorized as either male or female and the category has no further implication like some level of satisfaction or achievement. The other variables with nominal category are “Marital status” and “children at home.”

Nominal data variables are the most primitive types and have the lowest level of measurement (De Vaus, 2002, p.168). Only the frequencies of the variables can be obtained Foster (2001, p.218).

The “Education” and “Opinion on level of violence” are ordinal data types. The responses are categorized in a manner that reveals some form of ranking or grade (Agresti, 2010, p.1; Which Test, n.d, para.1; Foster 2001, p.218). For instance, high school education is ranked ‘1’ whereas graduate education ranked ‘4’. This implies that education level increases with the numerical values of the category.

Similarly, the opinions that the programs are ‘much too violent’ are categorized as ‘1’ as compared to ‘5’ for ‘not very violent.’ These responses could be translated onto Likert Scale (DeVellis, 1991, p.78) based on the agreements with the statement that “television programs are characterized by violence.” The respondents’ perception on the level of violence will be provided in this range.

The variable “Household Income” is an interval data that has been reduced to ordinal data. Finally, “Age” and “time dedicated for TV” are ratio data. The responses to be received are numerical values that could allow for more analyses than the data types defined earlier.

References

Agresti, A. (2010). Analysis of Ordinal Categorical Data. Second edition. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.

Babbie, E. (2008). The basics of social research. Fourth edition. Thompson-Wadsworth: Cengage Learning.

Centerwall, B. (1992). Television and Violence: The Scale of the Problem and Where to Go From Here. JAMA, 267(22). Web.

Citak, G. (2009). Constructing an Attitude Scale: Attitudes toward Violence on Televisions. International Journal of Social Sciences, 4(4); 268-273. Web.

Cline, V., Croft, R. and Courier, S. (1973). Desensitization of Children to Television Violence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27(3); 360-365. Web.

Colbert, C. (2011). Parents Television Council. Hoover’s Company records. Web.

De Vaus, D. (2002). Surveys in social research. Fifth edition. London: Routledge.

De Vellis, R. F. (1991). Scale Development: Theory and Applications. London: SAGE

Eron, L. et al. (1972). Does television violence cause aggression? American Psychologist, 253-263. Web.

Esslemont, D., Petersen, S. and Selvakumar, K. (1992). Telephone Directories as Sampling Frames. Marketing Bulletin, 3; 38-45. Web.

Foster, J. (2001). Data analysis for using SPSS for Windows versions 8 to 10: a beginner’s guide. Second edition. London: SAGE.

Haslam, S. and McGarty, C. (2003). Research methods and statistics in psychology. Second edition. London: SAGE.

SAS Institute. (2011). Sample Survey Design and Analysis. Web.

Singh, R. and Mangat, N. (1996). Elements of survey sampling. Dordrecht: Springer.

Tanner, L. (2011). Your kids can’t sleep? Check TV Study says violent or nighttime television shows could be to blame. Houston Chronicle. Web.

Teen Drug Abuse. (2011). Factors affecting violent behaviors in teen girls. Web.

Trochim, W. (2006a). Unit of Analysis. Research Methods Knowledge Base. Web.

Trochim, W. (2006b). Sampling Terminology. Web.

The Writing Center. (2007). Sociology. University of North Carolina. Web.

Which Test. Ordinal Data. Web.

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