Medias link to violence clear but unreported | Opinion | Eugene...

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

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Medias link to violence clear but

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NOV. 6, 2015

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ere is a frightening case of journalistic amnesia on an issue, sadly, too relevant

to Oregonians today: media and violence. Amnesia? Maybe worse.

On Oct. 17 I was reading a colleagues powerful essay about how the media industry
relentlessly targets young men with the message: To be a man is to be violent.

But one line gave me pause: while there is no proof that violent media are a direct
cause of violent behavior.
No proof?
As a long-time media educator, that didnt sound right. So I did my own quick fact
check. I quickly retrieved an amazing document signed by six of the most prestigious
medical groups in the United States.
The Joint Statement on the Impact of Entertainment Violence on Children, released
in July 2000 at a U.S. congressional summit on public health, said that a review of
more than 1,000 scientiXic studies points overwhelmingly to a causal connection
between media violence and aggressive behavior in some children.
Further, the statement said, while opinions may vary about the import and impact of
entertainment violenceoutside the public health community, within it, there is a
strong consensus on many of the effects on childrens health, well-being and
development.
The joint statement was signed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the
American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Psychological
Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family
Physicians and the American Psychiatric Association, which represent more than
250,000 practicing medical doctors. One thousand studies.

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My Xirst thought was, how could my colleague have missed that?

My second thought was, how could I have been unsure that a consensus exists in
the medical community about such an overwhelmingly documented causal
connection?
So I decided to do a search for any and all news coverage of the statement for six
months following its release. In all media in North America, there was one yes,
that would be one story that covered the statement. And it wasnt even a story, it
was an opinion piece in a small Canadian newspaper.

I mentioned this to another colleague. He didnt believe me. Instead, he did a Google
search of Media violence and aggression and said it generated more that 2.35
million hits. So how could anyone say the issue wasnt being covered?
I was puzzled. Had I really missed 2.35 million articles about the causal effects of
violent media?
I had been concerned about a major lapse in media responsibility to closely and
carefully examine this hard issue. Maybe I was wrong. Time for a closer look. So I
re-Googled media violence and aggression.
Yes, there were millions of hits, but in, say, the top 40 hits there were only Xive
mainstream news-related hits. Three of them questioned the causal connection
between media violence and aggression. They contained phrases such as the
connection is still murky, the evidence just isnt there, the question of causation
remains contested.
The fourth news piece, in Time magazine, reported that the vast majority of parents,
pediatricians and media researchers all believe that violent movies, video games and
television shows can lead to increased aggression in children. Interestingly it
reported about beliefs rather than evidence.
Only the Xifth story, from Britains conservative Daily Telegraph, reported on the
overwhelming scientiXic evidence of a causal connection. The international study

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cited, reviewing 50 years of investigations, concluded, research clearly shows that

media violence consumption increases the relative risk of aggression, deXined as
intentional harm to another person that could be verbal, relational, or physical.
Among the investigations referred to was the joint statement.
The other 35 hits were contemporary articles and reports from medical journals and
organizations offering the same conclusion.
Is this amnesia, or is it something else? Consider a research piece looking at 50 years
of news coverage (1950-2000) of exactly this issue published in the journal
American Psychologist.
There were three striking Xindings. One, the scientiXic consensus about the causal
connection between media violence and aggression is strong and has only continued
to grow. Two, the level of connection between media violence and aggression exceeds
other public health issues (such as passive smoking and lung cancer and exposure to
lead and IQ scores) where public health action has been taken. And three, As it
became clearer to the scientiXic community that media violence effects were real and
signiXicant, the news media reports actually got weaker on the connection.
Is this a media ethics issue? If we care about the events that just took place in
Roseburg, about the quality of the reporting and about media responsibility with
regard to our violent culture, should we be talking about the link or the scientiXic
consensus on causal connection? Which will make for more responsible public action
and policy?
Professor Carl Bybee is director of the Oregon Media Literacy Project in the University
of Oregons School of Journalism and Communication.

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ICamel

3 hours ago

@Outsider77 - Ding, ding, ding.........we have a winner. The news MEDIA is not going to
kill their golden goose. "Garbage in garbage out" applies to peoples minds as well as
information technology. Unfortunately the violent garbage the media(TV, Movies,
Gaming, News) makes so much money from is spewing that garbage right back out in the
actions of too many individuals.
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listening2grasshoppers

5 hours ago

I took a couple of your classes Prof. Bybee and always walked away questioning. You've
not disappointed w/this opinion piece. Too much information in this Information Age is
proving to have created a bunch of disinterested and overwhelmed citizens. Incompetent
journalism? We've demanded less and less accountability for accuracy and facts and
today's median, in MO, is more about getting opinions across than facts. l2g
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Outsider77

6 hours ago

Carl, forget it. Of course, we learn from violent influence. Your studies seem to concur.
But so what? There is money to be made by the media and the media, journalists, will not
let scientific consensus about the connection to violence interfere with making money.
The RG is a good example of how they focus on the Roseburg violence and flaunt the face
and name of the killer. No need to, but the RG does to attract attention and make money.
Our society is filled with contradictions. Yes, smoking gets dissed but violence is accepted
and in fact embraced. This reflects the modern American culture - a culture largely
formulated by the media and journalists who control virtually everything Americans
know about their cities, states, country, and world. I suspect that the net impact of
journalism is extremely negative given its focus on violence, death, and negative things of
all kinds. Personally, I have very little respect for the media and those who practice it.
Journalists disavow responsibility.
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