MEDIAEXPOSUREAND SENSITIVITY

TO VIOLENCEIN NEWSREPORTS:
EVIDENCEOF DESENSITIZATION?
By Erica Scharrer

This study explores whether amount of exposure to entertainment televi-

sion violence, local newspapers, and local television news relates to reac-
tions to reading news stories that recount violent events. Survey results
from three regions in the United States show bivariate connections
between average media exposure levels and each of three indicators of
desensitization. Multivariate results provide partial support for the idea
that heavy local news consumption -presumably due to the presence of
violent content-can contribute to a blunted response to news stories
regarding real-life violent events when individuals have low trait empa-
thy.

While social scientists agree that violent television exposure leads

to desensitization,’ research cited to support this claim relies consistent-
ly on a small number of studies, many conducted decades ago. The cur-
rent study examines whether individuals develop desensitized views of
violence from their everyday interactions with various forms of media
exposure. If this does, indeed, occur, it is a critically important issue
because of the tendency of desensitization to thwart helping behaviors
when one encounters aggression2and to facilitate the learning of aggres-
sion?

Violence in News Content. Content analyses have established con- Liteyahye

vincingly that violence is a frequent theme in news content in numerous ~~i~
media forms. Clark and Blankenburg studied four prominent daily
newspapers and found 17.6%of all news items across forty years con-
tained violence, at a rate of 2.3 violent items per page. In more recent
analyses, crime stories typically accounted for one-third of all newspa-
per items, and violent crime tended to be covered more prominently
than non-violent crime.5Williams and Dickinson6found that, on aver-
age, 12.7%of the “newshole” in the daily newspaper was devoted to
crime, the majority of which (65%) involved violent crime against
people. Finally, Sorenson, Manz, and Berk7 found that the Los Angeles
Times covered 29% of all the homicides that occurred in Los Angeles
County between 1990 and 1994.
Erica Scharrer is an associate professor in the Department of Communication, Univer- J6MC Quarterly
sity of Massachusetts Arnherst. Vol. 85, No.2
Summer 2008
291-310
02007 AEIMC

MEDIAEXPOSUREAND SENSITlVf7Y TO VIOLENCE IN NEWSREPORTS 291

 Crime is the most frequently included topic in both locals and
national television news? Dorfman and colleagues1oexamined 214 hours
of local television news and found that more time was allotted to violent
crime stories than any other topic, with such stories appearing in the first
or second segments of the newscast. Randall, Lee-Sammons, and
Hagner" examined ABC, CBS, and NBC nightly newscasts over thirteen
years and determined that crime stories averaged approximately sixty
seconds per newscast. Finally, scholars have determined that during
wartime, war coverage-which frequently, of course, includes violence-
dominates the newshole.12Violent events pertaining to wars are also gen-
erally viewed as highly new~worthy.'~
Media Violence and Desensitization. Desensitization has been
defined as a short-term, immediate drop in concern or sympathy about
violence14 as well as a long-term, incremental effect due to repeated vio-
lent media expos~re.'~Heavy television exposure has been associated
with increased susceptibility to desensitization.16Because the current
study's focus is on daily exposure to various media forms (including tel-
evision), desensitization is considered here as a long-term cumulative
process.
Desensitization is a complex phenomenon with physiological, cog-
nitive, and affective roots and manifestations. The current study focuses
on the cognitive and affective dimensions of desensitization, an approach
with considerable precedent.17 For example, research participants' self-
reports of how disturbing, shocking, or troubling they found particular
depictions have decreased following media exposure in past research.ls
While individuals perceive less violence in media stimuli after repeated
exposure, they also perceive violence to be commonplace and norma-
tive.19In the present study, sensitivity to violence (or de-sensitivity)is pre-
sumed to be evident in self-reports of emotional responses to news items
containing violence as well as in perceptions of the "normalcy" (or, con-
versely, the uniqueness) of the events covered in those news items.
These cognitive and affective elements of desensitization are also
closely linked to its physiological aspects. In fact, the work of ZillmannZ0
suggests that over time and with repeated exposure, individuals experi-
ence habituation, no longer registering with increased heart rates or blood
pressure the usual arousal that accompanies violence exposure. That
habituation creates an affective or emotional tolerance for violence that is
considered a key element of desensitization.
The Role of Empathy. OliveF has called for greater attention to
individual differences in studies of media effects, and the current study
examines the centrally relevant personality trait of empathy. Nezlek and
colleagues" have defined empathy as "the capacity to recognize, compre-
hend, and re-experience another person's emotions." Gender differences
in empathy begin to emerge in adolescence.u
Empathy has been linked to both aggressive and desensitized out-
comes stemming from violent media exposure. For instance, Bartholow,
Sestir, and Davisz4found that trait empathy mediated the relationship
between violent video game exposure and aggression. Funk, Buchman,
Jenks, and BechtoldP5found previously existing levels of empathy were

292 JOURNALISMb MASSCOMMUNICATION

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related to aggression among children in responding to vignettes follow-
ing exposure to video game violence. Degree of sensitivity toward vio-
lence has been linked with empathy toward and empathy has
also been found to be inversely associated with the enjoyment of fright
and violence in media.27
The link between empathy and desensitization is so close that
some researchers have used empathy as an indicator of desensitization.
For example, Funk and colleaguesa have used a combination of empa-
thy and attitudes toward violence as "proxy measures" of desensitiza-
tion stemming from violent video game use among young people.
Similarly, empathy and sympathy for victims were measured along with
negative affective responses (including anxiety and depression) to oper-
ationalize desensitization by Linz, Donnerstein, and PenrodZ9following
exposure to films featuring violence against women. In the current
study, the potential problem of tautology in measuring empathy and
desensitization separately is addressed by treating empathy only as a
personality trait or individual difference.

H1:The more respondents are exposed to violent Hypotheses

entertainment television, the less sensitive their emotional and
responses to violent news stories will be. Theoretical
Linkages
H 2 The more respondents are exposed to local news-
paper news, the less sensitive their emotional responses to
violent news stories will be.

H 3 The more respondents are exposed to local televi-

sion news, the less sensitive their emotional responses to
violent news stories will be.

Just as Van der VoorP and Thomas and colleagues31found that

violent television and film exposure led subsequently to decreased emo-
tionality and "blunted affect in response to subsequent violent media
texts, high levels of exposure to various media forms containing vio-
lence are expected to do the same in response to news media texts fea-
turing violence. Thus, according to desensitization theory, repeated
exposure to violence in the news media creates a response in the audi-
ence member in which one more news story featuring violence registers
less as a matter of concern, due likely to news media reliance on violence
in stories pertaining to war and crime.

H 4 The more respondents are exposed to violent

entertainment television, the less likely they will be to per-
ceive the events covered in the news stories as violent.

H5: The more respondents are exposed to local news-

paper news, the less likely they will be to perceive the events
covered in the news stories as violent.

MEDIAEXPOSUREAND SENSITIVITY TO VIOLENCE IN NEWSREPORTS 293

 H 6 The more respondents are exposed to local televi-
sion news, the less likely they will be to perceive the events
covered in the news stones as violent.

In the Linz and colleagues3*and Zillmann and BryanT3 studies,

repeated exposure to a violent media stimulus was associated with de-
clining perceptions of the amount of violence present in the stimuli.
Therefore, in the current study it is predicted that high levels of average
exposure to media containing violence will lead the individual to expect
a certain degree of violence as normative, and therefore make him or her
less likely to label the news reports used in the study as violent.

H7: The more respondents are exposed to violent enter-

tainment television, the more likely they will be to perceive
the events covered in the news stones as commonplace.

HS:The more respondents are exposed to local newspa-

per news, the more likely they will be to perceive the events
covered in the news stories as commonplace.

H 9 The more respondents are exposed to local televi-

sion news, the more likely they will be to perceive the events
covered in the news stories as commonplace.

Finally, Linz and colleaguesMand Potters have argued that another

essential element of desensitization is its ability to gradually convince
individuals that violence is a common part of social life. Thus, hypotheses
also predict levels of exposure to television violence and news will con-
tribute to perceptions of the violent events covered in the news stones as
commonplace.

RQ1: Will trait empathy interact with exposure to these

media forms to predict emotional responses to violent news
stories?

RQ2: Will trait empathy interact with exposure to these

media forms to predict perceptions of the news stones as vio-
lent?

RQ3: Will trait empathy interact with exposure to these

media forms to predict perceptions of the events covered in
the news stories as common rather than rare?

The interactions with trait empathy may occur because previous-

ly existing levels of empathy have been shown to shape responses to
violent films, video games, and television programs.36 Highly empa-
thetic respondents may consider the story from the perspective of the
victim and therefore register a stronger and more profound response to
the story.

294 JOURNALISMb MASSCOMMUNICATION

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 Sampling Procedure. A questionnaire was administered to 476
adults using a non-random quota sample drawn from three regions in
the United States chosen to represent a diverse cross section of locales:
urban Florida, rural Alabama, and rural / suburban Massachusetts. In
each of the three sites, the goal was to collect at least seventy-five sur-
veys from men and seventy-five from women, as well as to equally rep-
resent three age groups, 18-35,36-53, and 54 and older. In each site, uni-
versity students were asked to survey one or more year-round resi-
dent(s) of the community as part of a class lesson on research methods.
The students were given an age and gender category that they needed
to fulfill and were encouraged to ask residents of color and to avoid ask-
ing fellow students to complete the questionnaire. Within those param-
eters, the individual students recruited subjects to complete the ques-
tionnaires.
Respondents supplied contact information and one of every ten
questionnaires was verified. A sampling period of three weeks in spring
2005 was used in all three sites. The 130 completed Florida question-
naires were combined with 158 questionnaires from Alabama and 188
from Massachusetts. All multivariate statistical results were analyzed
for differences by region and none emerged. Items used for this partic-
ular study were placed among other items in an omnibus survey titled
"Media in American Life." Importantly, each of the three main sets of
measures for the current study was separated from the other by addi-
tional questions on a different subject pertaining to media. Thus, it is
unlikely that the respondents connected these sets of items and there-
fore anticipated the purpose of this particular study.
Measures. Exposure to particular television programs was meas-
ured by providing a list of seventy-seven primetime television pro-
grams from the five major networks then broadcasting (ABC, CBS, Fox,
NBC, the WB, and UPN) and asking respondents to indicate how fre-
quently each was watched (0 = never, 1 = rarely, 2 = sometimes, 3 =
often, 4 = regularly). Respondents could also write in up to four addi-
tional entertainment programs. The programs were then identified in
five consecutive issues of TV Guide issued during the data collection
stage (April 3 to May 1, 2005). If the program earned a "V" for
"Violence" on two or more of the five days covered in the TV Guides or
if its description contained two or more accounts of physical attempts
committed by one character against another with the intent to harm, the
program was considered to contain violence. Examples of words in the
TV Guide synopses that resulted in categorizing a program as containing
violence included "murder," "killing" "stabbed," and "shot to death."
Twenty of the seventy-seven programs met one or both of these criteria.
An additive scale indicating respondents' typical viewing of each of
these particular programs (again from 0 "never" to 4 "regularly") was
formed.
Respondents also indicated the average number of days per week
they read a local newspaper as well as the average number of days per
week they view a local television newscast.

EXPOSUREAND SENSITIVITYTO VIOLENCE

MEDIA I N NEWSREPORTS 295
 Three actual news stories, complete with headline, byline, and copy-
right date, taken from the New York Times were provided to the respon-
dent with the following instructions: Please read each of these brief nezus sto-
ries and then tell us about your reaction. These are actual news stories published
in the New York Times that describe real events. The first story details the
shooting death of a 21-year-old teacher from Orange County, California,
resulting from a dispute with an ex-boyfriend. The second story told
of the shooting death of a 24-year-old man from Pittsburg, Kansas, after
he and his friends got into a fight with other young men at a fast food
drive-through. The third and final news story is an account of the behead-
ing of a 48-year-old Georgia man by ”militants” in Iraq. The stones were
chosen to represent violent crime and war, two of the most frequent
sources of violence in news content, and were also chosen because they
occurred in locations that would be equally distant for all of the respon-
dents (see Appendix A for the complete news stories).
Following each story, respondents were asked a number of questions
with semantic differentialresponses. First, they were asked ”How does read-
ing this news story make you feel?” with responses ranging from 1 = “not
particularly distressed to 5 = “extremely distressed.” Next, they were asked
”How shocking do you find this news story?” with responses ranging from
1= ”not particularly shocking” to 5 = ”extremely shocking.” They were also
asked “How violent do you think the events described in this story are?”
with responses of 1= ”not particularly violent” to 5 = “extremely violent,”
as well as ”How common do you think the events described in this story
are?” with responses of 1 = ”not particularly common” to 5 = “extremely
common.” Next, they were given three forced choice measures to indicate
their emotional response to reading the story. First, they chose between
”Reading this story does not affect my emotions very much” and “Reading
this story has a profound emotional effect on me.” Second, they chose
between “When I read a story like this, I find it hard to get it off my m i n d
and ”When I read a story like this, I’m usually able to forget about it soon
after.” Finally, they chose between ”Thingslike this happen all the time, and
I can’t get upset each time I read about them” and ”Thingslike this are very
rare and it upsets me each time I read about them.” Both the semanticdiffer-
ential items and the forced choice items were original items created to tap
into the respondents’ sensitivity to the story. Lower responses on the seman-
tic differentialsand the ability to forget the story and not let it upset oneself
were considered indicators of desensitization to the violence in the story.
The respondents were also given the eight-item Mehrabian and
E p ~ t e i emotional
n~~ empathy scale to measure trait empathy. The scale has
been previously tested for validity and reliability and includes such items
as: ”It makes me sad to see a lonely stranger in a group,” ”Seeing people
cry upsets me,” and “I am very upset when I see an animal in pain.”
Finally, a number of demographic descriptors were measured, including
gender, race, Latino ethnicity, age, and education.

Results Descdptive Statistics and Data Reduction. Of the 476 respondents,

53% were female and 47% male; the average age was 39, with respondents

296 JOURNALISM& MASSCOMMUNICATION

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ranging from 19 to 94 years old; and 82% of respondents reported their
race as white, 5.0%as black or African American, 3.6% as Asian or Asian
American, 2.2% as multiracial, another 2.2% as a race not listed, and
6.1% did not answer the question. Of those reporting a race not listed,
responses to a follow-up question included West Indian, Russian,
Brazilian, and Sri Lankan. In a separate item, 7.3%identified themselves
as Latino. About one-third of respondents (34.3%)had obtained bache-
lor’s degrees, while 24.1% reported some college, 12.8% a master’s
degree, 12.6%a high school or equivalent education, and 10.9% an asso-
ciate’s degree.
The items comprising the trait empathy scale were combined into
an additive index, resulting in a Cronbachs alpha reliability statistic of
.60. Dropping one item from the index, ”It’s hard for me to see how
some things upset people so much,” raised the Cronbachs a to .63;
therefore, that item was eliminated. In the index, higher scores indicate
lower trait empathy. The resulting trait empathy index consisted of seven
items, M = 16.89 (sd = 3.45). Next, like items were combined across each
of the three news stories to collapse data into forms appropriate for test-
ing the hypotheses. First, the twelve items specifically measuring emo-
tional responses to the news stories (how distressing, how shocking,
how likely the story would affect one’s emotions, and how easily forgot-
ten such an emotional response would be for each of the three stories)
were reduced to an additive index (a= 35, M = 28.17, sd = 6.28). Se-
cond, the three items measuring perceptions of degree of violence in
each of the three stories were reduced into an additive index (a= .75, M
= 12.33, sd = 2.31), in which higher scores indicate perceptions of more
violence. Finally, the six items that measured respondents’ perceptions
of events as common in the three news stories were also combined into
a reliable additive index (a= .65, M = 12.88, sd = 2.91), in which higher
scores indicate perceptions as more common.
Testing Hypotheses and Exploring Research Questions. Pearson‘s
correlations were used to determine whether violent entertainment
television exposure and the two types of local news media exposure
were associated with responses to and perceptions of the news stories
(see Table 1).Respondents with heavy exposure to the violent entertain-
ment television programs reported weaker emotional responses after
reading news stories that contained violence, thereby providing support
for H1 (r = -.16, p = .OOl). Exposure to violent entertainment television
did not achieve statistical significance in its relationship with percep-
tions of the degree of violence in the news stories (r = -.09, p = .07) and
perceptions of how common the events covered in the stories tend to be
(r = .09, p = .07). Results were in the predicted direction, but because
they failed to reach statistical significance, support cannot be claimed
for H4 and H7.
The greater respondents’ amount of local newspaper reading, the
weaker their emotional response to reading the news items in question
(r = -.20, p < .001) and the less likely they were to perceive the items to
be violent (r = -.19, p < .Ol), supporting H2 and H5.H8 receives no sup-
port because local newspaper reading was not associated with percep-

MEDIAEXPOSUREAND SENSITIVITY
TO VIOLENCE
IN NEWSREPORTS 297
 TABLE 1
Correlation Matrices, N = 435-461

Emotional Responses Perceptions of Perceptions as

to News Items Violence Common

Trait Empathy (Reverse Coded) -.28*** -.29*** -.13**

TV Violence Exposure -.16** -.09 .09

Local Newspaper Exposure -.20*** -.19** .04

Local TV News Exposure -.15** .05 .15**

TV Violence x Empathy -.17* .07 -.08

Local Newspaper x Empathy -.16** .05 -.02

Local Television News x Empathy .07 -.a -.12*

p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p <

tions of how common the events in the story were perceived to be ( r = .04,
n.s.).
Finally, respondents with high levels of local TV news viewing
reported weaker emotional responses to the news stories ( r = -.15, p < .Ol),
supporting H3. H9 also receives support; respondents with higher levels
of local television news viewing were more likely to perceive the events
in the news stories as common rather than rare (r = .15, p < .01).H6, on
the other hand, was not supported. Amount of local TV news viewing
was not related to perceptions of amount of violence in the stories (r = .05,
n.s.).
As a first step to explore the research questions, Pearson’s correla-
tions determined whether trait empathy correlated with the responses to
the news reports. Empathy was negatively correlated with emotional
responses to ( r = -28, p < .001) and perceptions of violence in the stories
( r = -.29, p < .001), so that higher trait empathy was associated with
greater emotional response to the stories and stronger perception of vio-
lence within (recalling that higher scores on the empathy scale indicate
less trait empathy), as would be expected. Trait empathy was also nega-
tively correlated with perceptions of the events covered in the stories as
common ( r = -.13, p < .Ol), so that high empathy individuals perceived the
events in the story to be more common than rare. This last result goes
against what would logically be predicted for empathy.
As a second step, Pearson’s correlations were examined for the
interaction terms for empathy and the three types of media exposure. The
interaction between entertainment television violence exposure and trait
empathy was significantly related to emotional responses to the news
items ( r = -.17, p < .05), as was the interaction between local newspaper

298 JOURNALISM& MASSCOMMUNICATION

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 TABLE 2
Hierarchical Regression Equafions

Dependent Variable
Emotional Emotional Emotional Perceps. Perceps.
Responses Responses Responses of Violence Common

B B B B B
Block 1
Gender (1 = female) .06 .08 .06 -.06 -.19'
Race (1 = of color) -.05 .01 -.06 -.19' .04
Latino? (1 = yes) .2@ .16b .19' .16b -.02
Education -.14b -.17' -.15b -.02 .12'
Age .23' .21' .24< .13" -.lOA

R2 Change .15' .15' .14' .06' .09c

Block 2 TV Violence Newspaper TV News Newspaper TV News
Media Exposure -.36 -.42 -.05 -.01 .51A
Trait Empathy -.20b -.38' -.30b -.24b .24a
R2 Change .07< .OF .06' .05' .02*
Block 3
Media Exposure x -.24 .54" .08 .08 -.w
Empathy Interaction
R2 Change .oo .01" .oo .oo .02

Total R2 .22 .23 .21 .10 .12

Adjusted R2 .20 .21 .19 .09 .10

N 357 362 365 396 353

Note: These are the final, standardized Ps. p < .lo, a p < .05, p < .01 , p < .001.

exposure and trait empathy (r = -.16, p < .01).The interaction between

local TV news exposure and trait empathy was associated with percep-
tions of how common the events in the story were (r = -.12, p < .05).
Therefore, respondents' typical amounts of exposure to these media
forms appear to work in concert with their level of trait empathy in
terms of their responses to the violent news stories.
Finally, hierarchical regression tests were run to explore the role of
demographic variables and determine whether the significant bivariate
relationships that emerged in the Pearson's correlations remain (see
Table 2). In the first step, dummy coded gender (1 = female), race (1 =
person of color), Latino ethnicity (1= Latino), education, and age were
entered. In the second step, the media exposure variable in question
(entertainment television violence, local newspaper, or local television
news) was entered, as was trait empathy, as individual (main effects)
variables. In the third step, the interaction between the media exposure
variable in question and trait empathy was entered. To correct for inter-

EXPOSURE AND SENSITIVITYTO VIOLENCE

MEDIA IN NEWSREPORTS 299
 collinearity, the interaction term was kept out of the equation until the
final step.
The first hierarchical regression test employs emotional responses to
the news stories as the dependent variable and explores entertainment tel-
evision violence as a predictor. The final standardized Betas are reported
here and in the table, while significant demographic variables will be ana-
lyzed collectively below. Exposure to violent entertainment television
approaches but does not achieve significance as a predictor of emotional
responses after taking the additional variables into account (/3 = -.36, p =
.14), yet trait empathy retains statistical significance (/3 = -.20, p < .01).
Finally, when entered in the third step, the interaction between entertain-
ment TV violence exposure and trait empathy is not a significant predic-
tor of emotional responses to the stories (/3 = -.24, n.s.). Thus, trait empa-
thy exerts a stronger influence than entertainment TV violence on emo-
tional responses-with high empathy individuals having a stronger emo-
tional response than low empathy individuals-and does so independent-
ly rather than in concert with exposure.
The next model also employs emotional responses to the news
stories as the dependent variable and isolates local newspaper exposure
rather than entertainment television violence exposure as the key variable.
In the second step, exposure to local newspaper news does not meet
standards for statistical significance as a main effects predictor (/3 = -.42,
p = .16) while trait empathy easily surpasses such standards (/3 = -.38,
p < .001). Therefore, main effects results show heavy newspaper expo-
sure suggests and high empathy definitively predicts greater emotional
responses. The interaction between trait empathy and exposure to local
newspaper news is statistically significant when entered in the last step
(/3 = .54, p < .05).
Post-hoc subgroup analyses were performed to interpret the interac-
tion, dividing the sample among those low (33%of the sample), moderate
(an additional 34%), and high (the remaining 33%)on trait empathy, and
then looking at correlations between emotional responses to the stories
and local newspaper use in each group. Such a correlation is significant
only in the lowest trait empathy group, r = -34 ( p < .001), suggesting that
among those low in trait empathy, higher newspaper use is more likely to
predict reduced emotional responses.
Local television news exposure is explored in the next regression
equation, and emotional responses to the news stories again serves as the
dependent variable. Entered in the second step, the trait empathy index is
a significant main effects predictor (/3 = -.30, p < .Ol), whereas exposure to
local television news is not (B = -.05, n.s.). Finally, the interaction between
local TV news exposure and empathy when entered in the third and final
step fails to achieve statistical significance (/3 = .08, n.s.).
In the next regression equation, perceptions of the degree of violence
in the news stories is the dependent measure, and the role of local news-
paper reading is, once again, explored. In this case, neither the main effect
of exposure to local newspapers (B = -.01, n.s.) nor the interactionbetween
such exposure and trait empathy (/3 = .08, n.s.) are significant predictors of
perceptions of violence in the stories after accounting for the preceding

300 JOURNALISM& MASSCOMMUNICATION

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variables, whereas trait empathy as a main effect achieves statistical sig-
nificance (p = -24,p < .01).
The final regression equation employs the perception of the events
in the stories as common as the dependent variable and explores the role
of local TV news exposure. In this test, exposure to local television news
approaches standards for statistical significance as a main effects predic-
tor (p = .51, p = .08) while trait empathy surpasses such standards ( p =
.24, p < .05). This suggests that, as main effects, both variables predict
perceptions of the events as common (again recalling that higher scores
on the empathy index indicate less trait empathy). Finally, the interac-
tion between local television news and trait empathy significantly pre-
dicts perception of the events as commonplace (p = -.64, p < .05). The
same subgroup analysis as performed above for the prior significant
interaction was used here, with results showing a significant correlation
between television news exposure and perceptions of the events in the
story as common only among the one-third of the sample lowest in trait
empathy, r = .27, p < .01.

This study has explored the potential for news and entertainment Discussion
media exposure to be associated with desensitized responses to actual
violent events as encountered in the news. In doing so, it has furthered
the theoretical explanation for desensitization as occurring through the
long-term development of emotional tolerance, in which individuals
become inured through repeated exposure to violence, ultimately regis-
tering a diminished physiological response as well as a higher threshold
at which to label something as violent and a greater tendency to think of
violence as simply part of the everyday fabric of
Evidence of significantbivariate relationships between typical lev-
els of media exposure and such responses does, indeed, emerge from the
data, suggesting blunted emotional responses to violence as desensitiza-
tion theories s~ggest.3~ Use of some of the media forms in question (local
newspaper and local television news, respectively) was also associated
with being less likely to perceive the events covered in the stories as vio-
lent, suggesting habituation to or tolerance of violencea and perceiving
the events in the news stories as common,41 two additional indications
of desensitization that likely stem from the prevailing role of violence in
the news." Despite this initial support, however, in the hierarchical
regression tests, no media variable held up as a significant main effects
predictor of any of the three indicators of desensitization after account-
ing for demographics and trait empathy, although some approached
significance and were arrayed in the predicted direction.
Yet, in two of the five tests, the media exposure variable did inter-
act with trait empathy, an important variable in violence ~tudies,4~ to
predict responses to and perceptions of the stories. Local newspaper
exposure interacted with empathy to predict emotional responses and
local television news interacted with empathy to predict perceptions of
the events in the story as common, even after controlling for demo-
graphics and for the main effect of trait empathy. The post hoc follow-

MEDIAEXPOSUREAND SENSITIVITYTO VIOLENCE

I N NEWSREPORTS 301
 up results suggest low empathy in individuals may act in connection
with heavy exposure to local news sources to result in a desensitized
response to real violent events as encountered in the news. Indeed, the
central role of trait empathy is a key theoretical contribution of this
research which suggests this individual difference has an important role
in determining which among media audience members are most likely
to experience desensitization. Those with a strong capacity to consider
another’s feelings and point of view44 are possibly more resistant to
desensitized reactions to news accounts.
Interesting results emerged regarding the role of the demographics
of the respondents in predicting their responses to and perceptions of the
news stories. It is rather surprising that women in the sample were no
more likely to find the stories to be disturbing, shocking, and emotional-
ly impactful than men, considering gender differences in empathy45 and
in tolerance for or enjoyment of violence.&Also somewhat surprising is
that those with less education had stronger emotional responses to the
stories compared to those with more education. This may be due to the
less educated not having developed a more jaded view of the world.
Older respondents were also more likely than younger to have strong
emotional responses, perhaps explained by the cynicism of youth.
Finally, Latino ethnicity was consistently associated with stronger emo-
tional responses to the news stories.
There are a number of limitations to this study that should be con-
sidered when interpreting its results. First, since data were collected via
survey, no claims of causation can be made. However, the nature of the
procedure in which respondents were asked to first read and then
respond to three news stories makes the reverse causation explanation
very unlikely. A second limitation is that it is possible that self-reports of
emotions are inaccurate and may be shaped by social desirability or
other biases. Third, the sample is not representative, and, therefore, one
cannot generalize from these results. As seen in Appendix B, the sample
overrepresented white and underrepresented black respondents and
overrepresented those with more education. Fourth, no attempts were
made to control order effects. Fifth, the trait empathy scale and the
degree of rareness measure were both only marginally reliable indexes.
Despite these drawbacks, the results of this study suggest that
heavy daily doses of news can be associated with weaker emotional
responses and perceptions of these types of events as common upon
reading about real-life violent events from newspaper excerpts among
those low in empathy. The potential for not just ”extreme” violent media
forms such as horror films but rather daily exposure to ordinary news
media outlets to contribute to a blunted response to violence in some
individuals is profound. The consequences of those effects for aggressive
behavior, for intervening as a bystander to a violent event, and even, per-
haps, for support (or lack of concern) for war, the death penalty, and
other violent phenomena should be the focus of future research.

Appendixes and Notes follow.

302 JOURNALISM& MASSCOMMUNICATION

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 APPENDIX A
News Items Used as Stimuli
HEADLINE Victim's Words Open O.C. Trial; An ominous diary entry of the Placentia woman is
read as the murder trial of her ex-boyfriend begins.
BYLINE: Claire Luna, Times Staff Writer
Copyright 2004 The New York Times, All Rights Reserved

BODY:
"He's gonna kill me," Sarah Jennifer Rodriguez wrote in her journal on March 27, 2003, hours after
her ex-boyfriend allegedly tried to strangle her. The next day, after handing him a restraining order,
she wrote: "He told me I didn't want to do that, that I was just making it worse for myself."

Two weeks later, the 21-year-old Placentia preschool teacher's aide was dead, shot as she drove
home from McDonald's with her new boyfriend. The two planned to have a quick take-out dinner
before going to Bible study.

In his opening statement Thursday in Orange County Superior Court, Deputy Dist. Atty. Dennis
Conway read passages from Rodriguez's diary to show jurors how Richard Joseph Namey's escalat-
ing anger drove him to stalk and kill his ex-girlfriend.

Namey, 27, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he murdered Rodriguez and tried to kill her
boyfriend, Matthew Reid Corbett of Westminster, then kidnapped a driver in Santa Ana and stole
his car.

HEADLINE PITTSBURG; Man killed in fight at fast-food restaurant

BYLINE Janine DeFao
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
The New York Times

BODY:
A 24-year-old Pittsburg man was shot and killed early Saturday after he and his friends got into a
fight in the drive-through area of a fast-food restaurant.

After his shift Saturday night as a cook at Snooker Pete's Bar & Grill in Pittsburg -- where his father,
Tom, was working as a waiter -- Eric Lewis went to hang out with friends, his father said.

At 3 a.m., they pulled into the drive-through at the Jack in the Box on CaliforniaAvenue, and a light
brown Ford Aerostar minivan pulled in behind them. According to police, three occupants of the
van got into a verbal, then physical, confrontation with Lewis and his two friends.

It was unclear from police accounts what the fight was about or whether the two parties knew each
other.

The suspect returned to the van, retrieved a shotgun and shot Lewis once in the stomach. He was
taken to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, where he died.

In addition to his part-time job at Snooker Pete's, Eric Lewis also worked part-time installing mod-
ular office furniture. He liked to play basketball and bowl.

HEADLINE: THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ; Second Beheading Reported; Militants say they killed
another American. Iraqi official says a female prisoner will be freed, but denies link to kidnappers'
demands.
BYLINE Ashraf Khalil, Times Staff Writer
Copyright 2004 The New York Times, All Rights Reserved
Appendix A cont. next page

EXPOSUREAND SENSITIVITYTO VIOLENCE

MEDIA I N NEWSREPORTS 30.3
Appendix A cont.

BODY: Militants said Tuesday that they had beheaded a second American hostage in as many days
and threatened to kill a British captive, increasing pressure on President Bush and British Prime
Minister Tony Blair to confront a recent wave of kidnappings of foreigners in the Iraqi capital.

The kidnappers had demanded the release of all female Iraqis being held by the United States, and
a Justice Ministry spokesman said this morning that the Iraqi government had decided to release
one of the two women known to be held.

The spokesman, Noori Abdul Raheem, denied that the decision to grant bail to Rahib Rasheed Taha
-nicknamed "Dr. Germ" for her biological weapons research-had anything to do with the kidnap-
pers' demands. He gave no alternativeexplanation for the decision but said her case had been under
review for some time.

The kidnapping group, Jamaat a1 Tawhid wal Jihad, announced on a website Tuesday that it had
killed Jack Hensley, a Marietta, Ga., man who would have turned 49 today. The announcement came
almost 24 hours after a grisly video on the Internet depicted the beheading of Eugene "Jack
Armstrong, a Michigan native who was among three construction contractors abducted Thursday
from their Baghdad home.

On Tuesday, the FBI confirmed that Armstrong's body had been recovered, but declined to provide
details.

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 APPENDIX B
Census Figures (from year 2000)for the Population Compared
to Sample Characteristics for Each Data-Gathering Site
Population Sample Difference

Alabama Site
Age
65 Years Old or Older 11.3% 60 years or older 8.3% -3.0%
Median 32 years old 37 years old +5 years
Race
White 68.1% 88.2% +20.1%
Black 29.3% 5.9% -23.4%
American Indian 0.2% 0.0% -0.2%
Asian/ Asian American 0.9% 3.3% +2.4%
Other Race 0.6% 3.2% +3.2%
2 or More Races 0.8% 2.6% +1.8%
Ethnicity
Hispanic/Latino 1.3% 1.4% +0.1%
Gender
Females 51.9% 51.9% 0.0%
Education
High School Graduates 78.8% 93.3% +14.5%
College Graduates 30.9% 35.8% +4.9%
Florida Site
Age
65 Years Old or Older 11.3% 60 years or older 4.0% -7.3%
Median 33 years old 31 years old -2 years
Race
White 61.1% 77.7% +16.6%
Black 26.7% 8.0% -18.7%
American Indian 0.3% 0.9% +0.6%
Asian/ Asian American 2.9% 3.6% +0.7%
Other Race 5.4% 6.3% +0.9%
2 or More Races 2.5% 3.6% +l.l%
Ethnicity
Hispanic/Latino 17.8% 21.5% +3.7%
Gender
Females 51.5% 58.1% +6.6%
Education
High School Graduates 82.2% lOo.OO% +17.8%
College Graduates 28.2% 36.2% +KO%
Massachusetts Site
Age
65 Years Old or Older 6.6% 60 years or older 2.9% -3.7%
Median 22 years old 43 Years Old +21 years
Race
White 79.3% 91.2% +11.90/0
Black 5.1% 2.2% -2.9%
American Indian 0.2% 0.0% -0.2%
Asian/ Asian American 9.0% 3.8% -5.2%
Other Race 2.9% 1.6% -1.3%
2 or More Races 3.3% 1.1% -2.2%

Appendix B cont. next page

MEDIAEXPOSUREAND SENSITIVITY
TO VIOLENCE
I N NEWSREPOKTS 30.5
Appendix B cont.

Population Sample Difference

Ethnicity
Hispanic/Latino 6.2% 2.3% -3.9%
Gender
Females 52.0% 50.3% -1.7%
Education
High School Graduates 95.1% 96.7% +1.6%
College Graduates 68.7% 52.8% -15.9%

Sources:http:/ / quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/01/0177256.html,
http:/ / tuscaloosa.areaconnect.com/ statistics.htm,
http:/ /en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuscaloosa,-Alabama,
http:/ /en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando,-Florida,
http:/ /quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/l2/ 1253000.htm1,
http:/ / en.wikipedia.org/wiki / Amherst,_Massachusetts,
http:/ / www.epodunk.com/ cgi-bin/ popInfo.php?locIndex=2851,
http:/ / censtats.census.gov/ data / MA /0602501501325.pdf

306 JOURNALISM & MASSCOMMUNICATION

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NOTES

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3. W. James Potter, On Media Violence (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage,
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4. David G. Clark and W.B. Blankenburg, "Trends in Violent Content
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 24. Bruce D. Bartholow, Marc A. Sestir, and Edward B. Davis, ”Cor-
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to Portrayals of Real-Life Aggression.”
32. Linz, Donnerstein, and Penrod, ”Effects of Long-Term Exposure.”
33. Zillmann and Bryant, ”Pornography, Sexual Callousness.”
34. Linz, Donnerstein, and Adams, ”Physiological Desensitization.”
35. Potter, On Media Violence, 42.
36. Bartholow, Sestir, and Davis, ”Correlates and Consequences of
Exposure”; Funk et al., ”Playing Violent Video Games”; Linz,
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Linz, ”Desensitizationand Resensitization to Violence.”
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“Television Viewing and Physiological Arousal.”
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“Physiological Arousal”; Thomas et al., ”Desensitization to Portrayals of
Real-Life Aggression”; Van der Voort, Television Violence: A Child‘s Eye
View.
40. Linz, Donnerstein, and Penrod, ”Effects of Long-Term Exposure”;
Zillmann and Bryant, ”Pornography, Sexual Callousness”; Clark and
Blankenburg, “Trends in Violent Content”; Stepp, “The Fallout from Too
Much Crime Coverage”; Williams and Dickinson, “Fear of Crime”;
Sorenson, Manz, and Berk, “News Media Coverage.”
41. Linz, Donnerstein, and Adams, “Physiological Desensitization”;
Potter, On Media Violence, 42.

MEDIAEXPOSUREAND SENSITIVITYTO VIOLENCE

I N NEWSREPORTS 309
 42. Klite, Bardwell, and Salzman, “Pavlov’s TV Dogs”; Dorfman et al.,
”Youth and Violence on Local California Television News”; Center for
Media and Public Affairs, “Network News in the Nineties”; Randall, Lee-
Sammons, and Hagner, ”Common Versus Elite Crime Coverage.”
43. Bartholow, Sestir, and Davis, ”Correlates and Consequences of
Exposure”; Funk et al., “Playing Violent Video Games”; Linz,
Donnerstein, and Adams, ”Physiological Desensitization”; Mullin and
Linz, “Desensitization and Resensitization to Violence.”
44.Nezlek et al., ”Day-to-Day Variability in Empathy.”
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Embree, “The Role of Emotion in Social Support Provision.”
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Horror,” in Horror Films: Current Research in Audience Preferences and
Reaction, ed. James Weaver and Ron Tamborini (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates, 1995).

310 JOURNAUSM & MASSCOMMUNICATION

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