Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
On the following pages, the Journal of Broadcasting presents five researchers’ dialogue on the relative merits of a number of so‐called indices of violence on television programming. The dialogue began with submission of the first article, written by Drs. Coffin (vice‐president of research planning) and Tuchman (director of research projects) of the National Broadcasting Company. Noting its basic thrust, and feeling the topic to be important and timely, we requested a “reply” piece from Dr. George Gerbner (see page 21), and eventually, both sides had brief final rebuttal comments (pages 31 and 34). Tuchman served as a member of the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior, while Gerbner was one of a number of participating researchers who contributed to that program, the results of which were released early in 1972 (see Journal of Broadcasting 16:21–35 (Winter 1971–72), for a review of the Surgeon General's research findings).
Coffin et al. (Fri,) studied this question.