TV violence is a message about violence, not a violent act.

Evidence

At either end of the communicative chain, the use of the semiotic paradigm promises to dispel the lingering behaviorism which has dogged mass media research for so long. Though we know the television program is not a behavioral input, like a tap on the kneecap, it seems to have been almost impossible for researchers to conceptualize the communicative process without lapsing back into one or other variant of low-flying behaviorism. We know, as Gerbner has remarked, that representations of violence on the TV screen “are not violence but messages about violence”: but we have continued to research the question of violence as if we were unable to comprehend the epistemological distinction. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 788

Categorization

• SEED: Angles for an argument that communication research keeps re-mistaking representations for behaviors despite knowing better.