Television Violence in Prime-Time Dramas in Pakistan: A Study of Type, Amount and Perpetrator Attributes in Violence

Abstract

Abstract

Exposure to violent media content can lead to aggressive behavior. Violence on television (TV) can encourage people to act out on violent impulses. Violence in Pakistani television requires research to quantify violent content because it can have a profound effect on the audience as Pakistan is a country where violent crimes take place frequently. The focus of this study is to investigate whether violence on television has an empirical standing in Pakistani dramas or not. A quantitative content analysis was conducted for a constructed week sample of the time period: June 2020- May 2021. The study analyzed the amount of violence, type of violence, and perpetrator attributes and was conducted for primetime dramas of three leading entertainment television channels in Pakistan (ARY, GEO, and HUM). The results indicate that the amount of violence for each channel is almost equal and significant enough to have effects on the audience(s). Emotional violence took place mostly in the form of control. Females committed emotional violence more than males. Most of the violence was committed by the middle class. Future researchers can get data from 5 to 10 years to yield more information.

       Keywords: violence; violence in Pakistani dramas; amount of violence; violence index; perpetrator attributes; type of violence; ARY; GEO; HUM