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Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Dec. 5, 2001
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; Christopher Finan, director
of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; and David
Greene, director of the Oakland, California-based First Amendment Project.
For a review of the debate, click here.
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