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the fewer the instances of violent themes. There were 220 instances of violent themes
appearing during the 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. time slot, 217 from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., and 184 from
10 p.m. to 11 p.m.. Therefore, although there were 345 synopses that contained at least
one violent theme, a grand total of 621 violent themes themselves were found in the
synopses, due to the fact that one synopsis could contain multiple violent themes.
Overall, synopses that contained violence averaged 1.8 violent themes per synopsis.
Furthermore, in the later time slots, multiple violent themes per synopsis were slightly
more common, whereas in the earlier time slot, when violence was mentioned there was
typically only one violent theme per synopsis. For example, 40.1% of the synopses from
the 8 to 9 p.m. time slot contained only one violent theme, compared to 33.1% in the 9 to
10 p.m. time slot and 25.3% in the 10 to 11 p.m. time slot. Similarly, only 4.9% of the 8
to 9 p.m. synopses contained three violent themes, compared to 9.3% from 9 to 10 p.m.
and 10.2% from 10 to 11 p.m.
Dramas and movies were the two genres in primetime television that contained
the largest number of violent themes. Dramas accounted for 36.2% of the total number of
violent themes in the synopses in the sample, whereas movies accounted for 20.3%.
Other genres whose synopses contained violent themes were reality programs (14.2% of
the total number of violent themes for primetime), sitcoms (4.1%), newsmagazine shows
(1.7%), science fiction programs (1.4%), and westerns (0.3%). Within the category of
dramas, the vast majority of program synopses containing violent themes were for police
or detective genres (75.2%). Within the category of movies on primetime television,
movies that were previously released in theaters accounted for 75.7% of those movies
with violent themes, whereas made-for-TV movies comprised the remaining 24.3%.
Convention