EMPOWERMENT PREFERRED OVER `MORALISTIC' TAKE ON TV RATINGS, STUDY SAYS.

Byline: Reed Johnson Daily News Staff Writer

Just the facts, ma'am.

That's the approach recommended in a study by a Studio City media research group on proposed television ratings.

As the TV ratings debate gathers steam nationwide, the report by Mediascope Inc. urges a system that would inform the viewing public about levels of sex, violence and adult language in programs while avoiding the pitfalls of judging television content. The study also advocates steering clear of any summary rating such as the ones the motion picture industry uses to label a picture PG vs. R.

Consumer empowerment rather than ``moralistic'' opinions would be the end product of such a ratings system, says the 152-page report, ``Media Ratings: Design, Use and Consequences,'' which has been sent to key players in the ratings debate in Hollywood and on Capitol Hill.

``I think what we tried to do, as dispassionately as possible, is look at the ratings system and ask some questions,'' said Joel Federman, the study's author and Mediascope's director of research.

Representatives of the four major television networks - NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox - did not respond to requests for comment on the study Tuesday.

The report, funded by the Carnegie Corp. of New York and the California Wellness Foundation, surveys media ratings practices in 31 countries, and concludes that the most effective ratings system would be ``descriptive,'' not ``evaluative.'' This would allow viewers to choose for themselves whether to allow ``NYPD Blue'' or ``Married ... With Children'' into their living rooms.

The report also explores the way ratings systems influence audience behavior and industry profits.

Federman likened the proposed ratings system to food labels.

``Food labels describe what's in the product, how much fat and carbohydrates, without making any comment on who should or shouldn't eat it,'' Federman said.

Reacting to viewer outrage and rising political pressure, the television industry has offered to implement its own ratings system by 1997. Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, is overseeing development of a system that would be modeled after the MPAA's movie ratings.

Barbara Dixon, the MPAA's vice president of public affairs, said that Valenti had not yet seen the new report and probably would not comment if he had.

``We're still at the working-group stage of this process,'' she said.

But one top congressional aide predicted that the report could shift the focus of the ratings debate.

``I would think it (the report) would become the foundation of discussion going forward from here, in conferences all over this country,'' said David Moulton, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. Markey has been Congress' principal sponsor of a so-called ``V-chip bill,'' which would allow users to block reception of television programming deemed offensive.

``You won't find, in one place, more information relevant to the MPAA committee's decision-making than you'll find in this report,'' Moulton added.

Descriptive ratings are preferable to evaluative ones for three reasons, the report argues.

First, research indicates that R and NC-17 ratings actually whet adolescent appetites to taste the forbidden fruit of sex and violence.

Second, descriptive ratings are more likely than evaluative ones to be applied consistently across regional and political lines.

Third, the report argues, because of their inconsistency, evaluative ratings are likely to be less helpful to beleaguered parents trying to safeguard their children's viewing habits.

Finally, Federman said, evaluative rating labels should be resisted because they ``take on the aura of a quasi-official values system for society.

``We should avoid putting warning labels on ideas, whether those ideas are in the form of political speeches or television programs,'' he said.

A nonprofit organization, Mediascope monitors depictions of social and health issues in film, television and electronic games. It also acts as an entertainment-industry information clearinghouse for writers, researchers, the media and the general public.