NAB, NCTA, MPAA Discussing Anti-Violence PSA Campaign
Groups representing media and entertainment companies are considering developing a series of public service announcements (PSAs) aimed at addressing issues related to gun violence, industry officials told us this week. The preliminary discussions follow recent scrutiny from the legislative and executive branches into the effects that media violence could have on children, after December’s elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn. Videogame industry executives didn’t take part in the discussions, media industry officials said.
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NCTA has been “engaged in discussions with NAB and MPAA regarding a campaign to raise consumer awareness about parental controls and media literacy, and PSAs are part of that discussion along with other potential tactics, but the discussions are still preliminary,” an NCTA spokesman said. NAB also confirmed it’s considering PSAs. MPAA declined to comment. ESA and ESRB didn’t comment.
The industry campaign could resemble the parental control PSAs of 2006, said industry officials. They said it’s too soon to say what the price tag of such a campaign would be. The industry’s last parental control PSAs cost an estimated $300 million, assuming the ad time used for those spots was sold to commercial advertisers. In 2006, the start of the “TV boss” campaign (http://xrl.us/bodeic) was a reason why then-Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said he didn’t introduce a bill to require more action (CD July 28/06 p2).
Vice President Joe Biden met earlier this month with NAB President Gordon Smith, NCTA President Michael Powell and MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd to discuss policy proposals regarding violence. The next day, Biden met with representatives from the videogame industry, including the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), Electronic Arts and the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). Following the meetings, the White House Gun Violence Commission concluded that the entertainment industry has a responsibility to give parents tools and choices about the movies and programs their children watch and the games their children play. President Barack Obama subsequently issued an executive order that directed the Centers for Disease Control to conduct research into the relationship between videogames, media images and violence (CD Jan 17 p3). ESA and ESRB didn’t comment.
Lawmakers have also targeted the entertainment and videogame industries with legislation aimed at studying the connection between depictions of media violence and real violent acts. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., introduced a bipartisan bill last week to authorize a study of the impact that violent videogames and video programming have on children (http://xrl.us/bocbd8) (CD Jan 28 p8). Also this month, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, introduced a bill to prohibit the sale or rental of violent videogames to minors (CD Jan 18 p16). NAB, NCTA and MPAA said they supported further examination and consideration of the issue, in a joint statement earlier this month.
"It is always helpful for Congress to see efforts like these that show the industry is capable of regulating itself,” said Ross Lieberman, American Cable Association vice president of government affairs. “The media industry has a long, successful history of taking voluntary actions, like this, in response to events that trigger the concerns of Congress and others in the public. The MPAA Film rating system and the TV Parental Guidelines system are two such voluntary programs, that were established and/or updated in response, in part, to Congressional concerns. They are both successful programs in their own right that quelled concerns at the time."
The entertainment industry is likely seeking to deflect any blame for the Newtown shooting, said Melissa Henson, director of communications and public education for the Parents Television Council. The industry is “paying lip service to being concerned about the issue of media violence and then they turn around to produce these terrifically graphic, gory, violent programs,” she said. Henson noted that shortly after the White House meetings, New Corp.’s Fox debuted The Following, a show about a network of serial killers; NBC is planning to air Hannibal, a TV show about a cannibalistic serial killer; and Disney’s ABC Family cable channel is developing a show called I Hunt Killers. “It’s pretty clear they are not really all that worried about it,” Henson said. “And they are not really willing to accept that perhaps there is some connection” between simulated and actual violence, said Henson, unaware of any industry PSA campaign discussions.