Mass media and the construction of social reality: To grow up in Portugal with television violence

Abstract

Studied direct and indirect effects of television violence on 3,928 male and female children and adolescents (9–17 yrs) (TV viewing study) and 363 male and female adolescents (aged 14–18 yrs) (social reality study) in Portugal. In the TV viewing study, Ss answered a questionnaire about their TV viewing schedule and TV heroes and in the social reality study Ss answered a questionnaire about TV viewing as well as their perceptions of social reality concerning fear of victimization, locus of control, and trust of others. An ANOVA and other statistical tests were used. The results indicate that mean daily TV viewing is 2 hrs 12 min and that only 10 percent of younger children and 7 percent of older children view more than 4 hrs of TV per day. (...)