media violence report in Science

From: Ray Recchia (rrecchia@mail.clarityconnect.com)
Date: Sat Apr 13 2002 - 08:18:49 BST

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    Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2002 03:18:49 -0400
    To: Memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    From: Ray Recchia <rrecchia@mail.clarityconnect.com>
    Subject: media violence report in Science
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    Just something that caught my eye

    >Science - 29 March 2002
    >
    >The effect of Media Violence on Society (excerpted)
    >Craig A. Anderson and Brad J. Johnson
    >
    > Concerns about the negative effects of prolonged exposure to
    > violent television programming emerged shortly after broadcasting began
    > in 1946. By 1972 sufficient empirical evidence had accumulated for the
    > U.S. Surgeon General to comment that ...televised violence, indeed, does
    > have an adverse effect on certain members of our society. Other
    > scientific bodies have come to similar conclusions. Six
    > major professional societies in the United States -- the American
    > Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the
    > American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Medical
    > Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American
    > Psychiatric Association - recently concluded that "the data point
    > overwhelmingly to a causal connection between media violence and
    > aggressive behavior in some children". In a report on page 2468 of this
    > issue, Johnson and colleagues present important evidence showing that
    > extensive TV viewing among adolescents and young adults is associated
    > with subsequent aggressive acts.
    > Despite the consensus among the experts, lay people do not seem
    > to be getting the message from the popular press that media violence
    > contributes to a more violent society. We recently demonstrated that
    > even as the scientific evidence linking media violence to aggression has
    > accumulated, news reports about the effects of media violence have
    > shifted to weaker statements, implying that there is little evidence for
    > such effects. This inaccurate reporting in the popular press may account
    > for continuing controversy long aster the debate should have been over,
    > much as the cigarette smoking/cancer controversy persisted long after the
    > scientific community know that smoking causes cancer.

    Ray Recchia

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