Violence bombarding our kids
It seems like the argument over the effects of violent content on television, in motion pictures, and video games, has been going for such a long time. Everybody from Bill (The Gambler) Bennett to the Moral Majority to Tipper Gore has argued about the rawness, brutality, and even hate found in the very media the young buy by the millions of dollars every year.
Now, it’s music’s violent lyrics that have been studied, and the results seem to be falling in place with other studies saying that violent song lyrics and feelings of aggression and hostility can lead to violent behavior.
The historic counter-point has been that these media images and songs don’t cause violent behavior and, often, offer the young a form of cathartic release, a venting of their frustrations, fears, angst, and depression.
This study’s findings prompted Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and an announced candidate for president, to say he’ll propose a federal program to fund more research into the positive and negative consequences of electronic media use. In fairness, he’s been concerned about media links to violent behavior for many years.
Recording Industry Association of America’s spokeswoman Amy Weiss didn’t publicly attack the research, but placed the ultimate burden on parents: “We agree that parents should be educated so they can make their own determinations about what media content is appropriate for their children.” But, she told the Associated Press that the ultimate responsibility is with parents.
Certainly, these powerful media do deeply influence children and teenagers, especially. But they have responded to criticism by rating movies and putting warning labels and age guidelines on video games and recorded music. The problem is, frankly, neither the parents nor the industries will be able to totally control any medium.
You may remember one of our biggest attempts at controlling access to questionable content – promoted by Al Gore, among others – was the V-Chip, which is now installed in all television sets. It empowers the adult to block channels. And all cable channels will block a particular channel for you upon request if you have an older set.
So, what do we do, here? Censorship of content won’t pass Supreme Court review. The top federal court has historically fought controls on content because of the power, and the importance, of free speech in developing and maintaining our democracy. And the court has been very sensitive to the role a free press and all media play here.
With government censorship blocked, and all of the other post-publication devices either ignored or circumvented, the only constitutional recourse seems to be self-censorship by the media. Well, forget it. They could release sanitized versions of all of their products and watch their stocks’ value drop like Enron’s.
Frustrated? Well, there’s a way. Embattled and worried parents and our young struggling to go through the very difficult years of adolescence deserve our concern and our help. MTSU has a course in its general education core called “Understanding Media” which addresses many of the issues generated by this research.
It can be done, if there’s a will to do so and add it to the curricula of Schools of Education. But with education, especially public, battered and struggling, it’s really almost asking too much of the teaching corps to add another course. But it seems that now, more than ever, this might be the best of times to try some pilot projects to better prepare our very young.
(Ed Kimbrell is a professor in MTSU’s School of Journalism.)