Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Talking Smack: Verbal Aggression in Professional Wrestling

2008; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 59; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10510970802257689

1745-1035

Ron Tamborini, Rebecca M. Chory, Kenneth A. Lachlan, David Westerman, Paul Skalski,

Media Influence and Health

Abstract The current study presents the results of a content analysis of the verbal aggression found in 36 hours of televised professional wrestling. The coding scheme was adapted from the National Television Violence Study and past research on television verbal aggression. Results show that an abundance of verbal aggression occurs in televised professional wrestling, with swearing, competence attacks, and character attacks being the most common types. In addition, the primary motives for verbal aggression use are amusement and anger. Furthermore, verbal aggression tends to be communicated and received by White, male individuals with no clear dispositional characteristics. The results are discussed in terms of potential effects of exposure to the verbal aggression found in professional wrestling. Keywords: Media EffectsProfessional WrestlingTelevision ViolenceVerbal Aggression This paper was presented to the Mass Communication Division of the International Communication Association at its 55th Annual Conference in New York, NY, May 26–30, 2005 Notes Note. Twenty-nine additional violent acts were identified as verbally aggressive but were not categorized according to type of verbal aggression. Perpetrators were coded as a "face," a "heel," or neutral based on positive or negative portrayals in the ongoing storyline. Face is an industry term used to describe characters imbued with positive dispositional attributes, while negative attributes characterize a heel. Wrestling characters typically have long-standing character portrayals that carry over from show to show, making it almost impossible to determine long-term disposition solely from the events in any one exchange or scene. For this reason, perpetrators were coded as faces, heels, or neutral based upon initial crowd reactions when entering the ring or scene based on the supposition that fans would know these long-standing characterizations and represent them in their initial reactions. Initial pilot coding efforts included the consideration of using one coder to identify unitizing and additional coders to identify contextual variables associated with the units of analysis. However, the researchers made the decision to train a team of two naïve coders for both unitizing and context in order to avoid potential bias in unitizing decisions. Additional informationNotes on contributorsRon Tamborini Ron Tamborini (PhD, Indiana University, 1983) is a Professor of Communication at Michigan State University. Rebecca M. Chory Rebecca M. Chory (PhD, Michigan State University, 2000) is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at West Virginia University. Ken Lachlan Ken Lachlan (PhD, Michigan State University, 2003) is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Boston College David Westerman David Westerman (PhD, Michigan State University, 2007) is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at West Virginia University. Paul Skalski Paul Skalski (PhD, Michigan State University, 2004) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at Cleveland State University.