Content Analysis of Violence Appearing in Japanese News Programs : It s Characteristic Features Compared to the Real World and Other TV Genres

The purpose of this study is to analyze Japanese TV news programs to determine the level of violent cont巴ntand to examine its relation to patterns of violence in th巴 realworld, The study also巴xaminesthe diference betwe巴nnews programs and other TV program genres-drama, animation, and vari巴ty-usinga content analysis method develop巴dby the National Television Violence Study. Fifty-four hours of TV news programs broadcast in Tokyo b巴tweenJ an uary 13 and 19, 2004, were selected and ass巴ssedby coders. Resulting news items on crime were the most frequently observed programs, and no correspondences were found between low rates of arrest and high rates of murder, with the patterns in the real world. These patterns may increase the likelihood that viewers perceive the real world negatively. Compared with the contextual patterns of other TV genres, news programs focused most frequently on punishing violence.