BET's Offensive Content: Raunchier by the Minute
The Black-based Enough is Enough Campaign
commissioned the 1.6 million member Parents Television Council (PTC) to
document the frequency and intensity of offensive programming on BET. Here's a
breakdown of their findings.
In a report prepared for the Enough is Enough Campaign, the
PTC analyzed adult content airing on BET's Rap City and 106 & Park and on
MTV's Sucker Free on MTV for a two-week period in December 2007. These
shows were chosen due to their daily new and recent video releases.
The content analyzed aired during afternoon or early
evening hours, when many children are at home after school. Because the
research data from the December content contained a strikingly high volume and
degree of adult-themed material, the PTC conducted an additional week of
analysis on the same three programs in March 2008 for purposes of
validation. The data revealed even higher levels of adult content in March
2008 than in December 2007.
Major Findings:
The PTC documented 1,647 instances of offensive/adult content in the 27.5 hours
of programming analyzed during the December 2007 study period, for an average
of 59.9 instances per hour, or nearly one instance every minute.
In March 2008, there were 1,342 instances of offensive/adult content in a mere
14 hours of programming, or 95.8 instances per hour, 1.6 instances per minute,
or one instance of adult content every 38 seconds.
To put this data in perspective, in the PTC's most recent analysis of prime
time broadcast TV Family Hour programming, the data revealed an average 12.5
instances of violent, profane and sexual content per hour. This is
equivalent to one instance every 4.8 minutes.
"There were 1,342 instances
of offensive/adult content in a mere 14 hours of programming."
Most of what children are seeing in these music videos are sexually charged
images - 45% of the adult content in the analyzed videos was of a sexual
nature, followed by explicit language (29%), violence (13%), drugs use/sales
(9%), and other illegal activity (3%. Although March data revealed higher
quantities of content, the percentages represented similar findings (42%, 37%,
10%, 9% and 2% respectively).
The PTC documented 746 sexually explicit scenes or lyrical references in the
27.5 hours of analyzed programming from the December study period for an
average of 27 instances per hour, or one instance every 2.2 minutes.
Sexual content was even more common in the March test period, with an average
40 instances per hour, or one instance every 90 seconds.
With respect to language, the PTC documented 475 uses of explicit language and
obscene gestures in December for an average of 17 instances per hour, or one
instance every 3.5 minutes, and 495 uses of explicit language and obscene
gestures in March, for an average of 35 instances per hour, or one instance
every 1.7 minutes.
The most commonly used expletive during both the December and March study
period was (muted) "n-word," which artists verbalized 148 times within a
two-week period in December and verbalized 136 times within the one-week study
period in March.
Vulgar slang references to sexual anatomy increased from a mere 3 instances in
December to 103 references in the one-week March test period. Other
categories of sexual content, such as direct/non-slang references to sex and
depictions of strippers also increased dramatically.
From the December broadcasts, the PTC documented 221 depictions of violence,
including deaths depicted or implied, explosions, implied violence,
punching/hitting, rioting, threats and weapons; this data equates to an average
of 8 instances per hour, or one instance roughly every 7.5 minutes. Violence also became more frequent in the March
analysis, averaging one instance every 6.3 minutes.
"The most commonly used
expletive during both the December and March study period was (muted)
‘n-word.'"
Of the violent content in the videos analyzed, 55% included the use or
depiction of weapons, the second largest category of violence was deaths
depicted or implied (16%), followed by threats of violence (11%).
The PTC also documented 205 depictions or discussions of drug sale or use and
other illegal activity during the study period, for an average of 7.5 instances
per hour, or roughly one instance every eight minutes. The depiction of
illegal narcotic use or sale dominated this category - 75% of references to or
depictions of illegal activity in the analyzed videos were drug-related.
All episodes of Sucker Free on MTV included in this analysis were rated
TV-14. By contrast, almost every episode of 106 & Park and Rap City
on BET carried only a TV-PG rating. An exception was found with one show
that aired in December, which was rated TV-14 and included descriptors for
suggestive dialogue, foul language, and sex.
During the two-week December 2007 study period, children under 18 made up
approximately 40% of the viewing audience for 106 & Park, 41% of the
audience for Rap City and 39% of the audience for Sucker Free on MTV.
Because all of these programs re-air throughout the day, study results
underestimate the percentage of unique children who are exposed or have been
exposed to these programs in total.
"There are several solutions. First of all, parents need to be more
involved in monitoring their children's media consumption, establishing and
sticking to household rules about media use, and discussing media content with their children. Advertisers need to be held
accountable for the content their advertising dollars pay for.
"Those companies that advertise on programs like 106
& Park, Rap City, and Sucker Free on MTV can and should use their unique
influence with BET and MTV to push for greater responsibility where program
content is concerned," Winter said.
"Advertisers need to be held accountable for the
content their advertising dollars pay for."
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