Kaiser Family Foundation Report

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Rating Sex and Violence in the Media: Media Ratings and Proposals for Reform A Kaiser Family Foundation Report November 2002 By Joel Federman, Ph.D. Contents Film Ratings Motion Picture Association of America Classification and Ratings Administration Film Advertisements Public Opinion on Movie Ratings Studies of the MPAA System Criticisms of the MPAA System Movie Ratings Policy Options Television Ratings TV Parental Guidelines ABC Family Channel Advisories Premium Cable Television Advisories The V-chip Research on TV Ratings Public Opinion on the TV Parental Advisory System TV Ratings Policy Options Music Ratings The Recording Industry Association of America’s Parental Advisory System Research on Sound Recording Labels Public…show more content…
(Christenson, 1992) The study measured the reactions of 145 middle-school students, ages 11–15. The students were randomly assigned to two groups, one in which the album cover of the music they were asked to judge had a parental advisory label, and a control group in which students heard and judged the same music that did not have the advisory label. The students were then asked to indicate on a five-point scale how much they liked the music and how much they would like to own the recording. The results showed that labeled music was liked less and desired less than unlabeled music. (Christenson, 1992) Public Opinion on Sound Recording Labels A national survey of 800 parents of children ages 2–17, conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, asked whether parents “ever” used the parental advisory system for sound recordings to help guide their families’ choices. The survey found that half of all parents said they did use the labels. (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2001: 6) The survey also found that among those who had used the advisories, 52 percent found the system “very useful,” while 38 percent said it was “somewhat useful,” with 6 percent responding “not too useful,” and 3 percent found the system “not at all useful.” (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2001: 6) Sound Recording Labeling Policy Options Institute Comprehensive Rating System for Sound Recordings Many critics of the Parental Advisory System suggest that the program could be improved by instituting a comprehensive rating system for sound recordings. They argue that the current system provides insufficient information to parents regarding the content of music lyrics. Suggestions that the parental advisory system be replaced by a rating system for sound recordings date back at least as far as 1994, when the
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