title: Impact of television news exposure on children's perceptions of violence in Northern Ireland.
abstract: The present study assessed the impact of television news exposure on Irish children's perceptions of the level of violence in their neighborhoods. Estimates from children (N = 570) of the local levels of violence in three areas (high-, low-, and no-violence) were subjected to a four-way analysis of variance (Area x Sex x Age x News Exposure) that showed a main effect for area and sex with respect to the high-violence area and boys. Two two-way interactions also reached statistical significance. The first suggested that the perception of lower levels of violence by girls was confined to the high- and low-violence areas. The second concerned the level of actual violence and the amount of reported news exposure. Only in the high-violence area were these two variables related: Accurate estimates of actual violence levels were associated with more frequent news exposure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cairns
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009660:Northern Ireland; D012938:Social Perception; D013690:Television; D014754:Violence