Pat Roxborough, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
LOCAL TELEVISION stations are willing to adjust their programming, if local intellectuals here can prove that the violence depicted on television is hurting the Jamaican society.
"If we were to be confronted with empirical evidence that violence on the TV screen is causing our society to be violent, then as responsible broadcasters we would sit down and begin to make those types of decisions," said Lincoln Robinson, general manager of Jamaica's second oldest TV station, CVM TV.
Mr. Robinson is leaving the station at the end of next month.
Gregory Wiggan, programmes supervisor at TVJ, formerly JBC, took the same position.
"If there is something that would affect the society in an adverse way we would take that into consideration before airing it," he said, explaining that the station previewed and edited all programmes before airing them.
Lobbies like the Women's Media Watch (WMW) have occasionally complained about the level of violent programmes that are aired on the local TV stations, but they have not presented scientific evidence to back up their claims.
Patricia Donald, one of the principals of WMW, told The Sunday Gleaner that the main concerns of her organisation included cartoons and local news programmes.
"It's very bad. Violence is presented a lot as entertainment and the local news has been carrying a lot of vivid images that upset children. We feel there is a need for greater sensitivity," she said last week. "The cartoons carry a lot of violent images and although there is an ongoing debate on whether children can separate the fantasy of these animated pictures from reality, we continue to be convinced that some children do not have the guidance to allow them to do so."
Complaint
However, Mr. Robinson and Mr. Wiggan said they could not recall anyone ever making a specific complaint directly to them.
"It's a sensitive issue and there is a general concern about it, but I have not had any specific representation on it," said Mr. Robinson.
"No, never," said Mr. Wig-gan.
Ms. Donald admitted that her organisation had not documented a letter on the issue to the managers. However, she explained that although her organisation sent invitations to all the media heads to attend the symposium on the societal impact of media messages, hosted by her organisation and the National Child month committee last month, most of them didn't attend.
"Events like that represent an opportunity for us to make representation the matter, while providing a wide range of literature on the issue," she said.
The literature in WMW's portfolio is largely American-based. However, the Tropical Metabolism Research Unit of the University of the West Indies along with UNICEF Jamaica and a number of other Government agencies are conducting a local study into children's media viewing patterns and aggressive behaviour.
The study has not yet been published. Additionally in a few weeks the Broadcasting Com-mission is expected to release a study on the levels of violence in television programmes. Entitled "A survey of audience behaviour and values relating to television violence, sex and use of language", the study aims to set up a rating system. It recommends that the stations tag the programmes they air so that viewers may be aware of the level of violence they are being exposed to.
"We hope to influence the legislation when this study is published," said Major Ian Miles, the executive director.
He said he was not in a position to speak on behalf of the other members of the commission on the validity of the school of thought that blames television for societal violence.
However, "speaking for myself, I think that violence and the cause of it is a complex issue. There are many factors and one can't single out any one in particular. I would put television violence on the list of factors that cause violence, but I couldn't say to what extent it is responsible," said Major Miles.
