Mass Communication and Society 2001 Abstracts
Mass Communication and Society Division
Marginalized Groups in Society: The “Coolie” Barrister: Mahatma Gandhi as a Leader of Racially and Socially Marginalized Groups in South Africa (1888-1914) • Debashis “Deb” Aikat, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) had an eventful career as a lawyer-turned politician-journalist working for racially and socially marginalized groups in South Africa By identifying the problems of socially marginalized groups, Gandhi fought against systematic oppression, reductions in social services for the needy, and other inequitable social trends. This paper documents the evolution of Gandhi as a journalist in South Africa and his early experience with the press from 1888 to 1914. While exploring the early journalistic career of Gandhi, this historical study focuses upon Gandhi’s introduction to newspapers and earliest writings; the political background of his entry into journalism, especially his struggle against racism m South Africa; his contributions as the guiding spirit of the Indian Opinion, the weekly newspaper he helped launch in South Africa in 1903; and the ethical issues raised by him, the very issues that were to become his primary concerns as an international leader of non-violence and socially marginalized groups.
Believability and Satisfaction: Media Credibility in a Midwestern Community • Christopher E. Beaudoin, Esther Thorson and George Kennedy, University of Missouri-Columbia • The current study explores media credibility in light of declines being experienced by both daily newspapers and television news programs. Credibility is operationalized in terms of media believability and satisfaction. Mass media use is measured, via 27 items, for the four main news media: newspapers, television, Internet, and radio. Contrary to previous research, the study finds few demographic antecedents to media believability and satisfaction. The study does, however, second prior studies by finding strong associations between mass media use and both believability and satisfaction. The study demonstrates that Internet news satisfaction levels are higher than the other media—but lower when it comes to believability. The findings rise from a telephone survey of adults in a Midwestern community.
Ugly for Life: Exposure to Sports Coverage of the Olympic Games, Sports Participation and Body Image Distortion in Women 18-75 • Kimberly L. Bissell, University of Alabama • Many studies offer clear evidence that exposure to TDP (thinness depicting and promoting) media leads to distorted body image perceptions in school-age females and college women. This study examined the relationship between sports media exposure during the Olympic Games and sports participation to body image attitudes in women between 18-75. Women in this age group were used in this study because most studies of this nature typically look at effects on college women or young girls. Age was directly related to sports participation and sports exposure, and more importantly, it was found that many older women were as unhappy with their body shape as younger women. Both sports media exposure and sports participation were predictors of body image attitudes, with exposure and participation in lean sports leading to more negative attitudes.
Web and Traditional Media Use in the 2000 Presidential Election • Thomas P. Boyle, Susquehanna University • This study focuses on the web and traditional media sources during the 2000 presidential campaign. A random telephone survey of Pennsylvania state residents (N=392) in the month before the general election indicated the televised debates and a visit to a candidate web site lead to greater knowledge about candidate issue positions. Visiting candidate web sites and attention to traditional sources were predictors of campaign interest while attention to radio increased likelihood to vote.
Media Participation: A Legitimizing Mechanism of Mass Democracy • Erik P. Bucy and Kimberly S. Gregson, Indiana University-Bloomington • This paper reconsiders civic involvement and citizen empowerment in light of interactive media and elaborates the concept of media participation. Departing from conventional notions of political activity that downplay the participatory opportunities inherent in communication media, we argue that new media/formats have, since 1992, made accessible to citizens a political system that had become highly orchestrated, professionalized, and exclusionary. A typology of active, passive, and inactive political involvement is presented to accurately distinguish civic involvement from political disengagement and to categorize the types of empowerment and rewards—both material and symbolic—that different modes of civic activity afford. Even if only symbolically empowering, civic engagement through new media serves as an important legitimizing mechanism of mass democracy.
Bridging the Gap Between Perception and Behavior: Psychological Distance in First-Person Perception • John Chapin, Penn State University • The third-person perception hypothesis posits that people believe others are more influenced by media messages than they are. The existing literature consistently documents that individuals make self vs. other distinctions when assessing media effects, but not how such distinctions are made. The current study sought to document the self/other distinction in third-person perception and to assess differences in how individuals separate their own personal risk from that of others. Findings of a survey of 180 urban minority youth conform the presence of third-person perception and significant self/other distinctions in media effects. A clear split between cognitive and social predictors emerged when assessing differences in self/other distinctions. Participants relied on cognitive factors when assessing their own risk, while relying more heavily on self-esteem when assessing the relative risk of others. Liking and trust of the media was the only shared correlate of self/other distinctions in third-person perception.
A Structural Analysis of the Mediated Civic Participation on Human Rights Issues: Comparing the Mainstream with the Alternative Newspapers in Korea • Bum Soo Chon, State University of New York at Buffalo, Yun Sook Song, Korean Press Foundation and Won Yong Jang, State University of New York at Buffalo • Using the network analysis, this paper examines how two newspapers, the mainstream and alternative, have represented interactions between civic organizations and various under-represented issues such as human rights in the news coverage. The results suggest that although most human rights issues and organizations were clustered at peripheral positions for the mainstream newspaper, they formed a dense cluster for the alternative newspaper. Simply, the alternative newspaper’s coverage of civic participation oil human rights issues represents the various discourses of civil society in a more connected way, while the mainstream newspaper tended to cover them separately.
Sports Exposure, Identification and Viewer Aggression • Steve Collins, University of Texas-Arlington • Survey data (n=624) were used to test the relationship between exposure to televised sports and viewer aggression. The results indicate there is a correlation between exposure to certain sports and viewer aggression. For example, professional wrestling exposure correlated with physical aggression for the entire sample and predicted verbal aggression among men. Consistent with social cognitive theory, one’s level of identification with athletes on television is among the strongest predictors of physical and verbal aggression.
Misrepresentations of the Race of Juvenile Criminals on Local Television News • Travis L. Dixon and Cristina Azocar, University of Michigan • A content analysis of a random sample of local television news programming in Los Angeles and Orange counties was conducted to assess representations of Black, Latino and White juvenile law-breakers. “Intergroup” comparisons of perpetrators (Black and Latino vs. white) revealed that Black and Latino juveniles are significantly more likely than White juveniles to be portrayed as law-breakers on television news. “Inter-reality” comparisons of law breakers (television news vs. crime reports from the California Department of Justice) revealed that Black juveniles are overrepresented, Latino juveniles are underrepresented and White juveniles were neither over- nor underrepresented as perpetrators on television news. Society’s understanding of public issues changes over time. Here, we use media indexes to systematically and reliably account for such change and to measure social context. We systematically represent the classification systems and subject headings the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature uses to archive media coverage of poverty from 1929 – 1998 and test whether these representations replicate the findings of social historians regarding the development of American poverty policy and discourse. We believe this measure has value for scholars interested in agenda-setting, framing, the dynamics of public and media discourse, and public opinion.
In Search of the Zeitgeist: A Systematic Approach to Measuring Social Context• Jill A. Edy, Middle Tennessee State University, and Regina G. Lawrence, Portland State University • Society’s understanding of public issues changes over time. Here, we use media indexes to systematically and reliably account for such change and to measure social context. We systematically represent the classificiation systems and subject headings the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature uses to archive media coverage of poverty from 1929 to 1998 and test whether these representations replicate the findings of social historians regarding the development of American poverty policy and discourse. We believe this measure has value for scholars interested in agenda-setting, framing, the dynamics of public and media discourse, and public opinion.
Assessing Causality: A Panel Study of Motivations, Information Processing and Learning During Campaign 2000 • William P. Eveland, Jr., Ohio State University, Dhavan V. Shah, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Nojin Kwak, University of Michigan • This two-wave panel study was designed to test the causal claims of the cognitive mediation model. The data indicate strong support for these claims. Motivations influenced information processing, information processing influenced knowledge, and motivations influenced knowledge only indirectly through information processing. Additional analyses demonstrated that our theoretical variables are not related in a simple unidirectional causal pattern. Future research should consider the reciprocal nature of relationships between information processing and knowledge.
Learning from the News in Campaign 2000: An Experimental Comparison of TV News, Newspapers, and Online News • William P. Eveland, Jr., Mihye Seo and Krisztina Marton, Ohio State University • This study contributes to research on learning differences across media by extending television news versus newspaper comparisons to include online news and seeking to produce a more ecologically valid result from experimental findings. Results suggest that medium has only a limited direct impact on the amount of learning. Attention, however, is significantly influenced by characteristics of the medium and the experimental stimulus, and this in turn influences learning.
Media Ownership and ‘Bias:’ A Case Study of News Magazine Coverage of the 2000 Presidential Election Campaign • Craig Flournoy, Danielle Sarver and Nicole Smith, Louisiana State University • The hypothesis of this paper is that a publicly held media property-such as Newsweek or Time-will be more likely to display objectivity in its news coverage than a privately held media company such as U.S. News and World Report. To test this, the authors conducted a content analysis of the three major news magazines’ coverage of the 2000 presidential campaign. The results of the content analysis of the three magazines support the hypothesis.
Violence vs. Sex: Differences in Rap Lyrics by Male and Female Artists • Rhonda Gibson and Joe Bob Hester, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Popular rap songs were coded for artist gender, genre, female images, and violent themes. Female artists were more likely to perform “booty” rap, while male artists primarily performed “gangsta” rap. Lyrics often contained references to women as sex objects; however, female artists were more likely to refer to women as strong. Female artists were less likely to use violent themes. Gangsta rap was more likely than booty rap to contain violent themes. The authors argue that it is unwise to lump all rap artists together when criticizing lyrics for violent, sexual, and misogynous themes.
Mobilizing Information in Newspaper Editorial Pages: An Endangered Species? • Gary Gray and William F. Griswold, The University of Georgia • This study analyzes newspaper editorial pages from three newspapers in 1959, 1969, 1979, 1989 and 1999 to determine how much mobilizing information was offered to readers of these pages at different times. Results indicate that the level of mobilizing information in these pages, after rising from 1959 to 1969, has declined steadily since then. The authors suggest that this trend may be one factor contributing to a decline in civic participation in the United States.
Video Games and the Elusive Search for their Effects on Children: An Assessment of Twenty Years of Research • James D. Ivory, University of Wyoming • This paper assesses 20 years of research into the effects of video games on children. Studies reveal dispute over effects, with findings of negative effects disputed by other research. Further complicating the issue is the fact that the medium has rapidly evolved technologically, making problematic any comparisons of video game studies over time. The author concludes that a workable or precise model of video game effects on children seems unlikely in the near future.
DO NEWSPAPERS KEEP AUTONOMY IN TIMES OF NATIONAL CRISIS? : A CASE STUDY OF THE IMF CRISIS IN KOREA 1997-1999 • Irkwon Jeong, Ohio State University • This study investigated whether newspapers keep autonomy in times of national crises based on content analysis. Toward this, it examined the editorials concerning the IMF crisis in Korea that lasted from Nov. 1997 to Oct. 1999 in two Korean newspapers with different ideological positions. The content difference between the newspapers in the editorials relevant to the IMF crisis was in accordance with their ideological stance, which infers that newspapers keep autonomy in times of national crises.
Redefining homelessness: How Tucson recyclers resist the media’s stereotyping • Deborah Kaplan, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper is an ethnographic case study of how five homeless recyclers in Tucson experience, and possibly challenge or resist, the dominant discourse on homelessness. The study found that the informants struggled daily, both in their discourse and dumpster-diving routines, to redefine the terms that stigmatize them as the market’s “failures.” They redefined themselves in the process as self-sufficient, self-determining workers. As “survivors,” in a word.
A Web for All Reasons: Uses and Gratifications of Internet Resources for Political Information • Barbara K. Kaye, University of Tennessee and Thomas J. Johnson, Southern Illinois University • This study surveyed politically interested Internet users online during the 2000 presidential election to examine their motives for using Web, bulletin boards/electronic mailing lists and chat forums for political information and to determine whether political attitudes, Internet experience and personal characteristics predict Internet use motivations. The findings indicate that each Internet resource satisfies slightly different needs, which can be predicted by certain variables. Additionally, results from this study are compared to findings from an earlier study of politically interested Web users during the 1996 presidential election.
Internet Technology Empowers Marginalized Labor Movements in South Korea: A Case Study • Tae-hyun Kim, Washington State University • This study employed Resource Mobilization (RM) theory to study how the Internet provided a marginalized South Korean social movement organization (SMO) with a means to mobilize resources. The study found that unique transmission properties of the Internet, particularly with the World Wide Web feature, allowed an SMO to publish, contact, and interact with external audience at a reduced cost. In-depth interviews were conducted to provide accounts about how an SMO actually used the Internet to carry out strike activities and mobilize support from sympathetic international non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Better Informed, No Say: Internet News Use and Political Efficacy • Young Mie Kim, University of Illinois-Urbana, Champaign • At the apogee of the democracy, the decline of political efficacy is regarded as one of the most prominent problems. Given that the essence of democracy is citizens’ autonomous control over political decision making and trust in representative government, restoration of political efficacy is an urgent concern to both policymakers and academic researchers. Embracing normative concern, many scholars pay attention to the Internet as a new form of news media, expecting the Internet news use to play a role in restoring political efficacy. Yet, few studies have tapped the relationship between Internet use and political efficacy with earnest theory and method. By differentiating the sub-concepts of political efficacy, that is, internal and external political efficacy, and by looking at the distinctive features of the Internet as a new form of news media, the present paper explored the relationship between Internet news use and political efficacy. Using a survey data, the present study examined whether the Internet news use enhanced the internal and the external political efficacy. The study found that Internet news use uniquely contributed to increase of internal political efficacy, even after controlling for basic possible explanatory variables including tradition news media use. However, Internet use did not make a contribution to increase of external political efficacy. Implications of the results were discussed.
Agenda Setting & Attitudes: An Exploration of Political Figures During the 1996 Presidential Election • Spiro Kiousis, Iowa State University • The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudinal consequences of agenda setting on political figures during the 1996 presidential election. In particular, the analysis probes the relationships among media coverage, public salience, and the strength of public attitudes towards a set of 11 political figures. Using literature from agenda setting, attitude strength, and the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion, we explore such relationships. Findings indicate that increased media attention to political figures is correlated with higher levels of public salience and attitude strength. Further, the data suggest that these linkages vary according to levels of audience motivation. Finally, the implications of the results are discussed.
Media and Democracy: News Media’s Political Alienation Effect in Both Election and Non-Election Settings • Tien-tsung Lee, Washington State University • Many studies about news media’s alienation effects are limited to an election framework. One may wonder whether the news media politically alienate the general public during non-election times. Also, most political alienation studies rely on a relatively small local sample. In order to go beyond the limited paradigm of elections, as well as to provide a more representative sample, this study analyzes both a national political survey and a national consumer research data set. Contrary to what many other studies have suggested, our findings suggest that the news media do not lead to political alienation in either settings.
Exploring the Digital Divide: Internet Connectedness and Age • William E. Loges and Joo-Young Jung, University of Southern California • “Digital divide” is usually defined as access or lack of access to the Internet. This study demonstrates differences in Internet connectedness, a multi-dimensional concept that includes the scope and intensity of people’s Internet use. Age is shown to be significantly associated not just with access, but with a narrower range of personal goals and a smaller range of places for connecting to the Internet. Nonetheless, older respondents evaluate the Internet to be as central to their lives as younger people do.
Word People vs. Picture People: Normative Differences and Strategies for Control Over Work among Newsroom Subgroups • Wilson Lowrey, Mississippi State University • Tensions between “word journalists” and “picture journalists” support the notion that journalism is not a singular, monolithic occupation, but instead is subdivided into occupational subgroups, representing different areas of expertise. This study asks a number of questions: Which norms do members of occupational subgroups involved with news presentation observe and to what degree? By what strategies do subgroups attempt to gain greater legitimacy and control over their work? Interview findings suggest news workers follow three sets of norms in news presentation work: integrative norms, which represent the values of internal consistency and efficiency, journalistic norms and artistic norms.
Setting the Stage for the Hutchins Commission: Pre-1947 Government Restrictions on Free Expression • Jane S. McConnell, University of Oklahoma • This paper examines press criticism and First Amendment law in the first half of the twentieth century as significant parts of the cultural backdrop for the Hutchins Commission’s conclusion in 1947 that government control might be necessary to ensure press responsibility. It also demonstrates that government restrictions on free expression may have been an important influence on the way Americans – and the commission members in particular -viewed journalistic autonomy in a democracy.
The Effects of Campaign Advertising Coverage on Candidate Evaluation, Candidate Preference, and the Likelihood of Voting An Experimental Analysis • Young Min, University of Texas-Austin • Attending to the increase in campaign ad coverage, the present experimental study examines the joint effects of advertising and campaign news. More specifically, this study investigates the impacts of the tone of the ad under review and the tone of the news analysis of the ad in ad-watch reports on individuals’ candidate evaluations, their candidate preferences, and their likelihood of turning out to vote. Findings indicate that both advertising tone and news-analysis tone have significant effects on individuals’ evaluations of candidate credibility; the subjects exposed to a negative ad or a deflating tone of news analysis perceived the candidate sponsoring the ad as less honest and less believable than did those exposed to a positive ad or a reinforcing tone of news analysis. More importantly, the tone of the news analysis did significantly swing individuals’ likelihood of voting for the sponsoring candidate; a deflating tone of journalistic comments on a campaign ad substantially decreased the audiences’ preferences toward the sponsor. Furthermore, the data do not support an across-the-board “negativity-demobilizing” hypothesis; neither negative advertising nor deflating news analyses significantly depressed individuals’ participatory intentions.
Perception vs. Reality: Comparing actual newspaper coverage of lesbian and gay issues with readers’ impressions • Sheila T. Murphy and Leroy Aarons, University of Southern California • The present research used both surveys and focus groups to assess readers’ perceptions of the coverage of gay and lesbian-related issues by four major newspapers – The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Los Angeles Times, The Saint Louis Post Dispatch, and The New York Times. In general, both gay and straight readers felt that coverage of gays and lesbians was extremely sparse, event-driven, conflictual in nature, did not provide a sufficient local context and, consequently, did not reflect their own lives. These reader perceptions were then contrasted against the results of a month-long content analysis of these same newspapers.
Newspapers & the Internet: A Comparative Assessment of News Credibility • Gregg A. Payne, David M. Dozier and Afsheen J. Nomai, San Diego State University • An experiment examined differences in credibility assigned to news stories read in paper form and an identical story read on a web site. Randomly assigned control and test groups exposed to six identical news stories assessed the credibility of the articles they using an established, reliable credibility index. News appearing on a web site was evaluated as less credible for all three categories of news, when compared to paper distribution. However, only two were statistically significant. Credibility judgments differed as a function of news topics.
Can Using Qualifiers Initiate Active Processing of Exemplars? • Stephen D. Perry, John Beesley, Dave Jorgensen, Dave Novak and Kari Catuara, Illinois State University • Studies of exemplification effects have regularly found that the distribution of exemplars can alter perceptions of opinion in news coverage. This study attempts to negate the impact of exemplars through using qualifying statements that suggest that either exemplars are non-representative, or that they represent things that are happening more and more. Results indicate that the impact of the distribution of exemplars is too strong to be overcome by using such statements.
From Wall Street to Main Street: An Analysis of Stock Market Recommendations on TV Business News Programs • Bruce L. Plopper and Anne F. Conaway, University of Arkansas-Little Rock • Mass media business news coverage grew significantly in the last 20 years, American stock ownership proliferated in the 1990s, and stock analysts’ recommendations in 2000 were overwhelmingly positive. Based on these facts, this study analyzed experts’ stock recommendations as presented on four highly popular and easily accessible TV business news programs during the last quarter of 2000. Although results showed differences among programs, an overall positive bias existed when programs were viewed as a whole.
The Importance of Receiver Interpretation Variables In Media Effects Experiments • W. James Potter and Tami K. Tomasello, Florida State University • In this study, we argue that conventional media effects experiments exhibit a major limitation that prevents their findings from being more useful. This limitation involves the disregard of receiver interpretation variables. We hypothesize that viewer judgments about violent program content will be explained less by the treatment condition and receiver attribute variables than by individual interpretations of the contextual factors in the presentations. Results from an experiment designed to include receiver interpretation variables support this hypothesis.
Raising another voice: Framing the civil rights movement through ads in The New York Times • Susan D. Ross, Washington State University • Framing and social movement theories and research find that news coverage critical to movement success tends to ignore, marginalize, or undermine social movements. This study examines twenty-six ads sponsored by civil rights groups in The New York Times between 1954 and 1970 to analyze advertising as a means of positive self-framing by the movement. Findings suggest the benefits of advertising framing may be limited by factionalism within the movement or deceptive advertising by movement opponents.
When no news is not good news, ignorance is not bliss, and your mama may not have told you: Female adolescent information holding and seeking about sexually transmitted diseases • Donna Rouner and Rebecca Lindsey, Colorado State University • Health researchers acknowledge a limited understanding of the social context of adolescents regarding their decision-making behaviors about serious health issues, such as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and pregnancy prevention, as well as other concerns. Communication research suggests inadequate knowledge about interpersonal and mediated communication patterns of adolescents, particularly on matters related to sexual decision making. This study looks at one adolescent subgroup, 18-year-old females, and explores their perceptions of themselves regarding their ability to make sound health decisions, their information holding and use about STDs, media and interpersonal communication channel use, their knowledge and perceived knowledge levels. Fifteen first-year college students from a Western university engaged in depth interviews. Findings suggested strong confidence, but weakly developed self-concepts relative to this subject area; low amounts and inaccurate information holding, difficulty finding information from mediated sources and limited interpersonal communication. Suggestions for pursuing this line of research are included.
“A Tale of Two Presidents”: Media Effects and Divergent Trends in Mass Evaluations of Clinton • Dhavan V. Shah, University of Wisconsin-Madison, David Domke, University of Washington and David P. Fan, University of Minnesota • Public opinion about Bill Clinton as President, particularly during his second term in office, was notable for two markedly divergent time trends: (a) remarkably high approval of his job performance, and (b) remarkably low evaluations of his honesty and trustworthiness. With these differing public opinion trends in mind, several pollsters, pundits, and scholars have argued that news coverage of the President must have been largely irrelevant, or influential in ways that are incongruent with traditional political communication models. We disagree. Specifically, we advance a theory that argues that citizens’ political preferences are influenced substantially by heuristics, particularly “cues” and “frames” provided by news media. To test our ideas, we draw upon two types of data: (a) a longitudinal content analysis of major news media January 1993 to January 2001, and (b) corresponding time-trends of opinion polls on the President’s job approval and his honesty. Analyses reveal that over-time news media emphasis upon and framing of certain issue domains coverage of the economy, presidential character, and the Monica Lewinsky scandal can explain changes in mass evaluations of Clinton’s approval and honesty throughout his presidency, including the marked divergence in these trends during the “Lewinsky period.”
The Effects of Warning Labels on Cellular Phones in Korea • Sung Wook Shim, University of Florida, and Jongmin Park, Pusan National University • The present study sought to determine the effectiveness of warning labels about cellular phones in different conditions. This study found a difference between high-credibility source and low-credibility source of the warning label. However, there were no significant differences between high-fear appeal and low-fear appeal and use time (low, medium, high). Even though there is no significant difference between high fear appeal and low fear appeal, high fear appeal might have an impact on the perception of subjects about warning labels in terms of mean score. Finally, source might be an important factor to make warning labels on the cellular phones in Korea. Also, using high credible source might have a positive impact on warning labels.
A Two-Way Interaction Channel with Voters or A New Political Marketing Tool?-The Role of Candidates’ Campaigning Websites in Taiwan’s 2000 Presidential Election • Tai-Li Wang, Shih-Hsin University • This study intended to understand how the presidential candidates used their campaign websites to communicate with their voters in Taiwan’s 2000 presidential election. An eight-week content analysis of the candidates’ websites, a series of in-depth interviews with the campaign managers, and an e-mail survey of the campaign website users, all together, helped to understand whether or not two-way interactive campaigns were undertook in this historical election. Results showed that the “interactivity” between presidential candidates and voters was more of an illusion in Taiwan’s 2000 campaign than a reality. Both the candidates and the voters seemed not ready for an “interactive communication model” promoted by advocates of “electronic democracy”. Discussions are offered to explain the findings, and suggestions are made for future studies.
Modern Gladiators: A Content Analysis of Televised Wrestling • Hyung-Jin Woo and Yeora Kim, University of Georgia • The purpose of this study is to explore how antisocial factors on televised wrestling are represented in match/non-match time and in the three different television time zones such as prime time, after midnight time, and weekend morning time. Based on previous violence studies, the antisocial factors (aggressive acts, desensitization of violated rules, and glamorization of violence) that need to evaluate televised wrestling are selected. The results indicate that the major and popular televised wrestling programs (WWF, WCW, and ECW) are more frequently showing antisocial factors than local-oriented ones (NWA & IWU). The antisocial factors are also frequently represented in non-match time as well as match times. There is no significant difference of frequency of antisocial representation among prime time, after midnight time, and weekend morning time zones so that this study infers that children might be exposed the similar amount of antisocial behaviors regardless of different time zones.
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