--- From: "FEN Newswire" <freeex.newswireat_private> Subject: Scholars Ask American Academy of Pediatrics to Reconsider Misstatements About Media Violance Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 14:42:18 -0500 For Immediate Release - December 5, 2001 For more information contact: Marjorie Heins, Director, Free Expression Policy Project - 212/807-6222 x12 - heinsat_private SCHOLARS ASK AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS TO RECONSIDER MISSTATEMENTS ABOUT MEDIA VIOLENCE A group of media scholars asked the American Academy of Pediatrics today to reconsider its November 2001 Policy Statement on Media Violence because of its "many misstatements about social-science research on media effects." The scholars cited both the Policy Statement's factual inaccuracies and its "overall distortions and failure to acknowledge many serious questions about the interpretation of media violence studies." The AAP is one of a number of professional organizations that have claimed for years that studies have shown media violence to cause violent behavior. But, as the scholars' letter says, "correlations between aggressive behavior and preference for violent entertainment do not demonstrate that one causes the other. Laboratory experiments that are designed to test causation rely on substitutes for aggression, some quite far-fetched. Punching Bobo dolls, pushing buzzers, and recognizing 'aggressive words' on a computer screen are all a far cry from real-world aggression." Researchers have also manipulated data to achieve "statistically significant" results. This issue of scientific accuracy is important, the scholars say, because the "unending political crusades on this issue, abetted by professional organizations like AAP, have crowded out discussion of proven health dangers to kids, such as child abuse, child poverty, and family violence. This may make our politicians happy, but we should expect more of physicians." The scholars signing the letter are: Professor Jib Fowles, University of Houston; Professor Henry Giroux, Pennsylvania State University; Professor Jeffrey Goldstein, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands; Professor Robert Horwitz, University of California - San Diego; Professor Henry Jenkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Professor Vivian Sobchack, University of California - Los Angeles; Michael Males, Justice Policy Institute, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice; and Richard Rhodes, Science Historian and Pulitzer Prize Laureate. The letter was also signed by Marjorie Heins, director of the Free Expression Policy Project at the National Coalition Against Censorship; Christopher Finan, director of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; and David Greene, director of the Oakland, California-based First Amendment Project. -- end -- (letter to follow) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - LETTER TO AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS December 5, 2001 Dr. Louis Z. Cooper, President American Academy of Pediatrics 141 North Point Blvd. Elk Grove Village, IL 60607-1098 Re: AAP's New Policy on Media Violence Dear Dr. Cooper: We write to ask you to reconsider the AAP's November 2001 Policy Statement on Media Violence. It contains many misstatements about social-science research on media effects. Your organization's views about the mass media's impact on children are entitled to respect, but professional opinion should not be confused with scientific evidence. It is not true, for example, that "more than 3500 research studies have examined the association between media violence and violent behavior [and] all but 18 have shown a positive relationship." The source you cite for this assertion, ex-Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman's Teaching Our Kids to Kill, is not a scholarly work, nor does your Statement even transcribe Grossman's claims accurately. In fact, there are probably fewer than 300 empirical studies that try to measure the effects of violent media - with uneven and ambiguous results. Even more troubling than the AAP's factual inaccuracies are its overall distortions and its failure to acknowledge many serious questions about the interpretation of media violence studies. For example, correlations between aggressive behavior and preference for violent entertainment do not demonstrate that one causes the other. Laboratory experiments that are designed to test causation rely on substitutes for aggression, some quite far-fetched. Punching Bobo dolls, pushing buzzers, and recognizing "aggressive words" on a computer screen are all a far cry from real-world aggression. Some studies have found increased aggressive behavior among children after watching nonviolent programs such as "Sesame Street" and "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood." Others have found "null" effects. Many studies that claim "positive" findings actually consisted of multiple subtests with divergent and ambiguous results. The researchers then manipulated the data, subdividing the categories of subjects in various ways until they found at least one "statistically significant" result. As the Federal Trade Commission noted in its recent report on marketing violent entertainment, "violence" has been defined by researchers in many different ways; aggressive play as measured in a laboratory experiment or even in a schoolyard is far different from real-world aggressive behavior; and the many different risk factors that lead to aggression make it difficult "to isolate the independent effect of media violence." The FTC concluded that no firm conclusions can be drawn from the ambiguous and problematic empirical research on media effects. Your Statement's use of violent crime statistics is also highly misleading. You rely on a limited and outdated period (1984-94) for your claim that juvenile crime rates are increasing. In fact, the FBI's 2000 Uniform Crime Report figures show that for youths aged 10-17, rates of violent crime are at their lowest level since 1987. In the ten-year period between 1990 and 2000, juvenile violence arrest rates fell 27% (including a record 68% drop in homicides). Yet throughout the 1990s, there was if anything an increase in fantasy violence on TV and in films, music, and video games. Far from suggesting a relationship between violent media and real-world violence, the crime statistics for the last decade suggest the opposite. Many scholars believe that trying to understand the media's impact on human development through laboratory measurements and other numerical methods is inherently flawed. Instead, they look at the content of popular culture in the larger context of children's and adolescents' lives. As your Policy Statement itself acknowledges, the effect of violent entertainment depends on context: Macbeth and The Iliad are not the same as Bugs Bunny or Superman. Similarly, much depends on the mental equipment and background that viewers bring to TV, movies, or video games. Your Policy Statement, in short, not only disserves science, it disserves youth. The unending political crusades on this issue, abetted by professional organizations like AAP, have crowded out discussion of proven health dangers to kids, such as child abuse, child poverty, and family violence. This may make our politicians happy, but we should expect more of physicians. We would be happy to meet with you at any time to discuss this subject. There is a solid body of literature detailing all of the uncertainties and ambiguities surrounding media violence research, which we wold be glad to share with you. We await your response. Sincerely, Marjorie Heins, Free Expression Policy Project Professor Jib Fowles, University of Houston Professor Henry Giroux Pennsylvania State University Professor Jeffrey Goldstein, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands Professor Robert Horwitz, University of California - San Diego Professor Henry Jenkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Vivian Sobchack, University of California - Los Angeles Michael Males - Justice Policy Institute, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice Richard Rhodes - Science Historian, Pulitzer Prize Laureate Christopher Finan - American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression David Greene - First Amendment Project ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. 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