IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0247780.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The association between the rise of gun violence in popular US primetime television dramas and homicides attributable to firearms, 2000–2018

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick E Jamieson
  • Daniel Romer

Abstract

Injuries and fatalities due to firearms are a major burden on public health in the US. The rise in gun violence in popular movies has been suggested as a potential cultural influence on this behavior. Nevertheless, homicide rates have not increased over recent decades in the US, suggesting that media portrayals have had little influence on gun violence. Here we challenge this interpretation by examining trends in the proportion of violence that are attributable to firearms, a measure that should be more sensitive to media violence. In addition, we examine trends in the portrayal of guns in popular television (TV) dramas, which are viewed more frequently than movies. We ask (a) whether gun violence has increased in these TV shows not only on an absolute basis but also as a proportion of violent scenes and (b) whether trends in gun portrayal on these shows are associated with corresponding trends in the proportion of real-world violence attributable to firearms in the US from 2000 to 2018. To answer these questions, we coded annual instances of violence, gun violence, and proportion of violence involving guns for each 5-minute segment of 33 popular TV dramas in the police, medical, and legal genres from 2000 to 2018. Trends in annual rates of violence, gun violence and proportion of violence involving guns were determined over the study period and were compared to annual rates of homicide attributable to firearms in three age groups: 15–24, 25–34 and 35 and older. Although violence on TV dramas peaked in 2011, gun use steadily increased over the study period both in absolute terms and in relation to other violent methods. The latter metric paralleled trends in homicides attributable to firearms for all three age groups, with the strongest relationship for youth ages 15–24 (R2 = .40, P = .003). The positive relation between relative amount of TV violence involving guns and actual homicides due to firearms, especially among youth, is consistent with the hypothesis that entertainment media are contributing to the normative acceptance of guns for violent purposes. Future research is needed to study the influence of media violence on gun acquisition at the individual level.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick E Jamieson & Daniel Romer, 2021. "The association between the rise of gun violence in popular US primetime television dramas and homicides attributable to firearms, 2000–2018," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-10, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0247780
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247780
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0247780
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0247780&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0247780?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel Romer & Michael Rich, 2016. "Afterword to the Issue “Adolescents in the Digital Age: Effects on Health and Development”," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(3), pages 90-94.
    2. Daniel Romer & Patrick Jamieson, 2014. "Violence in Popular U.S. Prime Time TV Dramas and the Cultivation of Fear: A Time Series Analysis," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 2(2), pages 31-41.
    3. Daniel Kim, 2019. "Social determinants of health in relation to firearm-related homicides in the United States: A nationwide multilevel cross-sectional study," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(12), pages 1-26, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Randy K Lippert & Jolina Scalia, 2015. "Attaching Hollywood to a Surveillant Assemblage: Normalizing Discourses of Video Surveillance," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(3), pages 26-38.
    2. Martha Chinomnso Okafor & Luke Ifeanyi Anorue & Paul Martin Obayi & Onyebuchi Alexander Chima, 2023. "Knowledge and Attitude Toward Media Campaigns Against Gender-Based Violence Among Nigerian Women in Southeast, Nigeria," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, October.
    3. Michael R. Ulrich, 2022. "Balancing Rights and Responsibilities: The Role of Government and Citizens in Combatting Gun Violence," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 704(1), pages 292-309, November.
    4. Shani A. L. Buggs & Nicole D. Kravitz-Wirtz & Julia J. Lund, 2022. "Social and Structural Determinants of Community Firearm Violence and Community Trauma," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 704(1), pages 224-241, November.
    5. Daniel Romer, 2016. "Introduction to the Issue “Adolescents in the Digital Age: Effects on Health and Development”," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(3), pages 1-3.
    6. Javier Ramos & Cristal Hernandez & Davis Shelfer, 2023. "Illuminating the Immigration–Crime Nexus: A Test of the Immigration Revitalization Perspective," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-17, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0247780. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.