TV & violence & studies

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Sun Mar 31 14:25:31 PST 2002


On Sat, 30 Mar 2002, Dennis Robert Redmond wrote:


> On Sat, 30 Mar 2002, Miles Jackson wrote:
>
> > I'd say it's much more precise and testable than any of Freud's
> > concepts: exposure to violence in mass media will tend to increase
> > aggressive behavior in everyday life. Researchers have clearly
> > tested this hypothesis in many ways: experiments, surveys, observational
> > studies, case studies, archival research.
>
> Nonsense. Japan has one of the most violent media cultures around, and it
> remains a remarkably non-violent, cooperative culture. In the US,
> contemporary TV is chockful of gore, but murder rates have been falling
> for some time. Folks who play violent videogames are often peaceable
> types.
>
> -- Dennis
>

If this is your idea of systematic scientific research that contradicts a hypothesis, get back to the woodshed. Aggression is caused by multiple psychological and social factors. The Japan case is not a clear test of the media aggression hypothesis, because the U. S. and Japan differ in many, many ways, not just in frequency of exposure to media violence. People need to think a bit more rigorously about this stuff.

Miles



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