THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN UNEMPLOYMENT IN SOCIETY AND THE POPULARITY OF CRIME DRAMA ON TV

This research explores the hypothesis that social stress, as indexed b y rising unemployment in society, leads to increased preference for cr ime drama on TV. This hypothesis is tested by relating the unemploymen t rates in the U.S., Canada, and Germany over several years with natio nal trends for the relative popularity of crime drama (i.e., as compar ed to the popularity of other program categories). Support for this hy pothesis is found in the U.S. and in Canada.