mass-communication-theory

THINKING
about
THEORY
Chapter 7 Moving Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on Functionalism and Children 199
In December 2003, a collection of the country’s most
prominent media effects researchers presented a
major overview of the current state of thought on
the influence of media violence on youth (Anderson
et al., 2003). Published in the journal Psychological
Science in the Public Interest, it attempted to do
three things: (1) assess current thinking on the
media-violence link in the wake of new interactive
media such as video games and the Internet;
(2) counter the “intransigent assertions made by a
number of vocal critics” and “various interest groups”
that the media-violence link does not exist; and
(3) respond to “recent news reports [that] imply the
scientific evidence is weaker” than it really is (p. 82).
In other words, the researchers wanted to set the
record straight. In fact, their report was to have
been part of a Surgeon General’s report on youth
violence in 2000 but was omitted from that government
study after “editors sought heavy revisions,”
presumably because of its critical stance on the issue
(Patterson, 2004, p. A4).
The researchers focused on five specific questions,
listed here and accompanied by their conclusions.
Can you find hints of social cognitive theory?
Aggressive cues? Priming effects? Do you accept
these findings? Why or why not? Do you fall prey to
the third-person effect (Chapter 1)? Try to remember
your reactions to these issues when you read later
chapters dealing with the most current understandings
of media influence. Revisit your thinking to see if
you develop a new or different view of the mediaviolence
link.
1. What does research say about the
relation—both short-term and longterm—between
media violence and violent
behavior? The researchers offered five general
observations:
a. Media violence has a modest direct effect on
serious forms of violent behavior.
b. There is documented research evidence of the
impact of media violence on aggression (including
violence).
c. The research base (scientific methods,
samples of people, media genres) for
these first two assertions is large and
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON MEDIA VIOLENCE
diverse, and the results are
consistent.
d. For many people, the negative effects of
heavy childhood exposure to mediated violence
extend well into adulthood, even in the
absence of continued consumption of violent
fare.
e. Even people who are not highly aggressive
are negatively affected by exposure to violent
media, both in the short-term and over
longer periods of time (Anderson et al., 2003,
p. 104).
2. How does media violence produce its effects
on violent behavior? “Media violence produces
short-term increases in aggression by activating
(priming) aggressive thoughts, increasing physiological
arousal, and triggering an automatic tendency
to imitate observed behaviors (especially
among children). Media violence produces longterm
increases in aggression and violence by
creating long-lasting (and automatically accessible)
aggressive scripts and interpretational schemas,
and aggression-supporting beliefs and
attitudes about appropriate social behavior”
(p. 104).
3. What characteristics of media violence are
most influential, and who is most susceptible
to such influences? The causal relationship
between media violence and behavior is influenced
by: (a) viewer characteristics such as age,
aggressiveness, perceptions of the realism of the
content, and identification with aggressive characters;
(b) viewers’ social environment, that is,
parents and family; and (c) aspects of the content
itself, for example, perpetrator characteristics,
realism of portrayal, justification of the violence,
and the depiction of its consequences.
4. How widespread and accessible is violence
in the media? The researchers identify “the
abundant presence of electronic media” in our
homes and the “extensive presence of violence”
across those media. They document the “expansion
of opportunities for children’s exposure to
media violence at home through the proliferation
of new media, including video games, music
videos, and the Internet.” They also suggest that
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