Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id XAA11280 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 21 Mar 2001 23:55:56 GMT Subject: Fwd: Survey connects graphic TV fare, child behavior Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 18:52:22 -0500 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable Message-ID: <20010321235219.AAA26192@camailp.harvard.edu@[205.240.180.163]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Survey connects graphic TV fare, child behavior
By Richard Saltus, Globe Staff, 3/21/2001
Just as MTV said it would censor the new music video by Madonna, a
sweeping new survey of research on media violence, sex, and risky
behavior over the last 10 years concludes that what children watch can
directly influence their behavior.
The survey by a Johns Hopkins University psychiatrist, published
yesterday, reflects the growing concern of mental health specialists
about the impact on youngsters of the sexually suggestive, violent, and
aggressive content that frequently permeates television today.
The classic studies linking TV violence and aggression and youth behavior
were done in the 1970s and '80s, ''with material that wasn't very
violent'' by today's standards, said Dr. Susan Villani.
But now, ''it's more violent and more graphic and more sexual,'' she
said. ''Children are being exposed to more graphic content at younger and
younger ages.''
Villani proposes that health care professionals treating disturbed
children compile a ''media history'' of what they've watched, as well as
the traditional medical history.
Concerns about television sex and violence have led to a fierce debate
about the government's role in regulating content, a voluntary ratings
system to warn viewers about subject matter, and increasing sensitivity
about content among some networks and producers. But for the most part,
networks have been reluctant to concede that their shows can influence
behavior.
Yesterday, however, the popular music network MTV, which was embroiled in
controversy over its animated series ''Beavis and Butt-head'' when
several young viewers allegedly mimicked risky behavior depicted on the
show, said it would broadcast the new music video by pop star Madonna
only once, late at night, and would include a warning about its content.
The video for ''What it Feels Like For a Girl'' shows the singer in a
fantasy as an angry woman on a violent crime spree.
Though anecdotal evidence abounds, the real link between televised sex
and violence and actual behavior has been difficult to prove. Villani
said the research in the past decade has strengthened previously reported
links between television violence and increased aggressive behavior in
preschoolers. Risky behavior depicted in entertainment media has been
associated with increases in sexual activity, drinking, smoking, and drug
use, she said.
One major study cited by Villani showed that viewers of violent TV
content learned aggressive behaviors and attitudes, became desensitized
to violence, and became fearful of being victimized.
Villani's review of a decade's worth of research on the media's impact on
children and adolescence is published in the April issue of the Journal
of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
A number of researchers in the 1990s probed the impact of rock music and
music videos, she finds. In one study, patients in a hospital for
mentally ill offenders became less likely to get embroiled in assaults
after a television showing MTV music videos was removed.
Other research linked a preference for heavy metal music in the 1990s to
reckless behaviors like stealing, driving fast, using drugs, and being
sexually promiscuous, in adolescents. Again, cause and effect could not
be proved.
Even children's cartoons are becoming violent, said Kimberly Thompson of
the Harvard School of Public Health. She studied G-rated animated films
from 1937 to the recent past, and found that depictions of violence
increased steadily - to the point that, Thompson says, children could be
disturbed.
Thompson said she is studying the content of video games. Villani, in her
survey, said there's been little research on the impact of the games, but
she did mention studies in Japan that found little support for the theory
that video games cause aggressive behavior.
Harvard researcher Jay Winsten, who heads the Center for Health
Communication at the School of Public Health, cautioned that media
exposure is only one factor shaping behavior, and that some children are
more vulnerable because they live in an abusive or unsupportive family.
''We have to be cautious in interpreting these studies,'' he said.
Winsten said his concerns are not so much about prime-time network
television shows as about feature films shown on cable TV that contain a
lot of violence. Winsten's center has developed ways to use the media to
shape behavior positively.
Villani believes parents should spend more time monitoring what children
are watching.
One trend she applauds is the development of ''media literacy'' programs
in schools. Teachers highlight the messages that are being conveyed in
movies and TV shows and music videos.
In a study published in the journal Pediatrics this year and cited by
Villani, researchers gave one group of California schoolchildren
instruction in media literacy, and saw their violent behaviors decrease
in comparison to a similar group that didn't receive the instruction.
This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 3/21/2001. © Copyright
2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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