FC: Pediatrics academy accused of "misstatements" about media violence

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---

From: "FEN Newswire" <freeex.newswire () abffe com>
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 - heins () ncac org

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




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