In June 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that video games enjoy full free speech protections and that the regulation of violent game sales to minors is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court also referred to psychological research on violent video games as "unpersuasive" and noted that such research contains many methodological flaws.…

While infanticide or sex selective abortion in rural areas of the world may seem to have little to do with a famous musician who is a domestic abuser from the first world who avoids criminal punishment while being applauded and glamourized, the message going out to girls is consistent: they are not valued in the same way that boys are. In order to…

Background: Media culture touches most aspects of the lives of children growing up today, beginning at the earliest ages. It is profoundly the lessons children learn as well as how they learn, thereby contributing to what this article characterizes as "remote control childhood." Educators need to understand remote control childhood so…

Introduction: Historically, terrorism has occurred in various regions of the world and has been considered a local problem until the September, 11 terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001. After 9/11, terrorism has become a global concern. The definition of terrorism has changed from a violent act of a group of local people against their…

Unrealistic as they may have been, television shows like Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet served important social purposes during an age of tumult and anxiety. The domestic sit-coms of the 1950s played an educative function by reinforcing and disseminating traditional values at a time when forces of change were becoming quite disruptive.…

The author admits that he has watched Jerry Springer on occasion. It is a guilty pleasure. The Springer show has come to represent the extremes in the society--perversion, unlikely pairings, lying, and cheating. Liberal Hollywood has been roundly criticized, and justifiably so, over the direction it has taken with much of the entertainment to the…

A study examined the relationship between Japanese adolescents' media exposure, images of the United States, and their attitudes towards the United States and its people by surveying Japanese junior high school students. By using cultivation theory, the study hypothesized that an image of a dangerous America would be partly attributed to Japanese…

This document is comprised of the year 2000 reports from the UNESCO International Clearinghouse on Children and Violence on the Screen. The two issues describe research findings concerning children and media violence, children's media use, and activities aimed at limiting gratuitous media violence. The first issue includes articles addressing…

This paper examines the dominant genre of the last American television season--the action/adventure/law enforcement show--and discusses differences between this genre and television shows in the 1950s to 1970s. Today's programs are described in terms of the similarities they exhibit with the strategies of the New Right and the apparent…

This document consists of three sources which compile research on the influence of media sex and violence on children's development. The first is a collection of articles on children and the media; the remaining two are bibliographies of research--one on pornography and sex in the media, the other on video and computer games. The articles in the…

American children spend an average of 6 hours and 32 minutes each day using various forms of media. Research has suggested that this high level of exposure has a negative impact on children's attitudes and behaviors. For example, media violence increases aggression in children, especially video games which allows children to be the aggressor and…

This report finds that adolescent smoking, drinking, misusing prescription drugs and using illegal drugs is, by any measure, a public health problem of epidemic proportion, presenting clear and present danger to millions of America's teenagers and severe and expensive long-range consequences for the entire population. This report is a wake-up call…

This report examines recent qualitative and quantitative research to determine how school-related violence was both measured and perceived among various social groups. It reviews sources that addresses such questions as: What is school-related violence? What do statistics reveal about school-related violence? How diverse is public opinion…