[Has Sexual Content in Primetime Television increased or decreased over the Past Decade]
by
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW3
Background3
Content Analyses3
Prime Time Television4
The “Family Hour” Report4
Movies5
Soap Operas5
Music Videos5
Magazines6
Media Use and Functions6
Media Use6
Media Functions8
Media Effects9
Theory10
What the Studies Show11
Factors Moderating the Effect of Viewing Sex12
What Outcomes Are Important?14
Healthy Sex or Sexual Health?14
Health Risks15
Controlling for Key Variables16
Sexual Development16
Infancy and Early Childhood16
Adolescence17
Initiating Sexual Intercourse18
Sexually Risky Behavior18
Pregnancy19
Conclusion20
CHAPTER IV: RESULTS & DISCUSSION21
Measuring Media Content: Content Analysis21
Basic Features of a Properly Conducted Content Analysis21
Linking Content With Behavior22
Measuring Media Use and Functions22
Measuring Sexual Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior24
Types of Effects24
Media Use and Functions26
Media Content Analyses27
Media Effects27
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS33
Conclusion33
Recommendations37
Study limitations and suggestions for future research41
REFERENCES43
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
Background
Media effects have been demonstrated for many aspects of social behavior, including aggression, social stereotyping, prosocial behavior, and social attitudes. Effects of television violence have been studied most extensively, and most social scientists agree that exposure to violent television has a causal effect on aggressive behavior (cf. Comstock, 2001; Huston et al., 2002). Although the effects of sexual content have received relatively little attention from researchers, there are strong theoretical reasons to believe that media may play an especially important role in the socialization of sexual knowledge, attitudes and behavior (Arson, 2001). These were well summarized by Elizabeth Roberts (2002): “(1) the adult nature of most programming children watch; (2) children's limited access to or experience with countervailing information or ideas; (3) the 'realism' with which roles, relationships, and lifestyles are portrayed; and (4) the overwhelming consistency of the messages about sexuality that are communicated” (Roberts, 2002, p. 209).
Each of these points is even more pertinent in 2008 than in 2002. Children watch a great deal of adult programming, and there has been a steady increase in the frequency and explicitness of sexual content on broadcast television. Young people have access to a much wider range of video content as well as to other entertainment media than they did in the early 2000s. Many of these portrayals show glamorous, young individuals with whom many children and adolescents are likely to identify. Young people in this age range often name media figures as the people whom they would like to emulate. Finally, the United States has not moved very far toward providing sex education or other sources of sexual information for young people, leaving them to get sexual information largely from peers and mass media (Arson, 2001).
In this section, we consider what is known about the role of sexual media content in children's and adolescents' sexual development. First, we examine content analyses to determine what is available to ...