Guy Cumberbatch, Sally Gauntlett and Victoria Littlejohns
Summary
- Findings are reported for the 2002 monitoring of sex, nudity and talk about sex and nudity on television. The two week sample was of all five terrestrial channels.
- Scenes of sexual activity were infrequent, occurring on average at a rate of 1.4 scenes per hour and having a total duration of 0.3% of all broadcast time.
- Since 1993 the frequency of sexual scenes has increased two fold.
- Most sex scenes are mild: in 2002 six in ten involved only kissing. However, there has been a rise in serious scenes with depictions of the sex act doubling in frequency since 1997.
- Observance of the watershed was clearly shown with sexual activity before 9 pm being mild. There has been little change pre watershed in recent years.
- Nudity scenes also increased overall in 2002 due to one channel (Five). On the remaining channels the frequency remained unchanged since the last sample in 1999.
- Female nudity increased from six in ten (62%) depictions in 1997 to three quarters (74%) in 2002.
- Nudity in the context of adult entertainment increased fivefold between 1997 and 2002.
- Rates for nudity have declined before 9 pm since 1998 revealing a sharp watershed divide.
- References
to sex and nudity showed an overall increase year on year to peak at
over five references per hour in 2002. References to sex
generally outnumber those to nudity by almost three to one.
Introduction
The 2001 ITC/BSC
survey of public attitudes to television revealed that, while
almost one half (45%) of television viewers thought that the amount of
coverage of sex was ‘about right’, among the remainder more than seven
times as many thought there was too much coverage (44%)
as said there was too little (6%). Moreover, of those saying there was
too
much coverage of sex, more than four in ten (43%) said that it offended
them. The slight majority – 52% - said it did not really bother them.
Elsewhere, some newspaper reports have argued that there has been an increase in the amount of sexually explicit material on television and that there is a rising tide of public opinion about this. This monitoring report deals only with prime time television and so cannot evaluate any changes which may have taken place in day-time programming. However it can illuminate whether changes have taken place during the programming which is most watched and discern patterns in that representation.
The BSC has, for almost a decade now, monitored various issues of social concern including the portrayal of sex and nudity (and talk about these issues) in regular samples of television. This monitoring has been in the form of snapshots of two weeks output, taken in the spring/summer and autumn/winter and helps provide some objective data in this controversial area. This data base is surprisingly unique in broadcasting research since any similar studies have been quite sporadic and differences in the samples chosen, the definitions used and research teams involved make it very difficult to draw any conclusions about trends over time.
Elsewhere, some newspaper reports have argued that there has been an increase in the amount of sexually explicit material on television and that there is a rising tide of public opinion about this. This monitoring report deals only with prime time television and so cannot evaluate any changes which may have taken place in day-time programming. However it can illuminate whether changes have taken place during the programming which is most watched and discern patterns in that representation.
The BSC has, for almost a decade now, monitored various issues of social concern including the portrayal of sex and nudity (and talk about these issues) in regular samples of television. This monitoring has been in the form of snapshots of two weeks output, taken in the spring/summer and autumn/winter and helps provide some objective data in this controversial area. This data base is surprisingly unique in broadcasting research since any similar studies have been quite sporadic and differences in the samples chosen, the definitions used and research teams involved make it very difficult to draw any conclusions about trends over time.
Monitoring Report No 7
reviewed findings from 1993 through 1999 covering both satellite
television and all the terrestrial channels BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel
4. This current report provides a further update on these
terrestrial figures with results from 2002. It also includes previously
unpublished findings to include Channel 5 (now Five) which began
terrestrial broadcasting in 1997. Sex and nudity were not
included in the 2000 and 2001 analyses.
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