Abstract
Do film and television portrayals of violence cause aggressive behaviour in children, juvenile delinquency, increased crime? For more than fifty years this has been one of the most heavily studied - and heavily funded! - topics of communication research. In the United States and, to some extent, in Britain, no other question of media content has been such an important political issue. The public debate about media violence has offered to media researchers one of their most important opportunities to be directly involved in media policy discussions.
Yet, the continuing analysis of programme content by communication researchers such as George Gerbner shows that the levels of gratuitous violence in television are as high as ever. There has been no substantial change in the pattern ofTV programming. The media industry in the US cont inues to claim that there is no conclusive evidence of serious social harm. Why, one must ask, is media violence such a central issue in the US, but much less so in France, Latin America or in other parts of the world?
This number of Communication Research Trends summarizes accumulated evidence regarding the effects of media violence and current ideas of why some children and adults are more affected than others. Most important is the view that researchers, reformers and politicians have been asking the wrong questions about media violence and, consequently, have not been able to understand correctly the significance of media violence in our culture or establish a coherent public media policy.
Recommended Citation
(1984)
"Violence in the Media,"
Communication Research Trends: Vol. 5:
No.
4, Article 1.
Available at:
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/crt/vol5/iss4/1
