Keyword: Media effect research

Jenkins, Henry; Lessons from Littleton: What Congress does not want to hear about youth and media
... Several weeks after the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, the United States Senate ... launched a series of hearings ...on the "marketing of violent entertainment to children." ...
The senators were feeding a "cultural war" which was more and more focused on teenagers. ... "We need Goth control, not gun control." ...
A more careful analysis would read video games as one cultural influence among many, as having different degrees of impact on different children, and as not sufficient in and of themselves to provoke an otherwise healthy and well-adjusted child to engage in acts of violence. ...
Most children are not at risk from the media they consume. Parents, not governments, are in the best position to know what kinds of culture their children should consume. ...
Media effects research has had little to say about why children are drawn towards violent entertainment, ... Humanistic research, on the other hand, offers useful tools for understanding why children find media violence attractive and meaningful. ...
The author suggests a more constructive response to these issues.