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For Immediate
Release - December 5, 2001
For more information contact:
Marjorie Heins, Director - Free Expression Policy Project, 212/807-6222
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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.
To see a copy of the letter to the AAP click here.
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