Family-oriented TV survey
The independent survey is being run by Murdoch chair in Mass Communication Dr Mark Balnaves with the cooperation of WA school principals.“This is not a sample, like ratings. This is potentially every family with a school-age child in WA,” Dr Balnaves said.
The study has been prompted by the dissatisfaction that viewers, particularly parents of young children, have been saying about the quality of programming, he said.
For instance, the level of violence in TV and films has been an issue of concern for many years. Though there may not be any one-way causal link between showing TV violence and violent behaviour of children, “it is impossible to believe that it is not having any effect and the research evidence has been consistent in showing that there is an effect,” he said.
Dr Balnaves said that public awareness and concern probably reached a peak over the UK incident in which two-year-old James Bolger was taken from a shopping centre by two 10-year-old boys and murdered. The older boys had watched more than 300 violent videos in their parents’ home in the previous six months before the killing, including Child’s Play 3, which portrayed a murder similar to that which the two later committed the day they saw the film.
The WA survey, which is expected to start in coming months, will ask questions about the current programming and, for the first time, ask people what they would like to see. Because the survey asks open questions about people’s ideas for better programs, it will be a “massive chore” to analyse, he said.
Dr Balnaves said TV programming had developed in Australia without the scrutiny on content that had been associated with, say, the US TV industry, which had had a number of Congressional inquiries looking into the effects of television and the media generally.
He said that there had been inquiries into violence in Australian media but there remains “no easy mechanism for people to express their dissatisfaction”.
“We know that people are interested in a new TV format, particularly parents of young children, who are making decisions about the programming their kids watch. When they get kids, parents tend to become more conservative and change their attitudes (towards TV programming).”
Already Dr Balnaves has been contacted by people who have shown an interest in setting up a family-oriented community pay TV station.
He said that it was unfortunate that Australian viewers’ perception of community TV was that it was associated with low-production values.
“But there’s a huge amount of good programming out there... the networks are not taking it up.”
The steering committee for the survey is made up of representatives from community, religious, business and school organisations.
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