Media Violence

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. launched yesterday a campaign against violence in the media, calling on parents, doctors and television stations to help steer children away from violent television shows.Noting 30 years of research that shows violence in the media promotes aggressive behavior in children, Curran asked local television stations to promote safer programming for children and warn viewers about violent shows."We find most American children will watch 28 hours of television a week," said Curran, noting that "by the end of elementary school, our children have seen 8,000 murders on television and 100,000 other acts of violence."

As we begin a new year with new resolutions, I think it is important we move forward toward a more proactive society and less reactive one. One particular event that I believe truly points to this is the tragic shooting that occurred in Newtown, Conn. As a pediatrician and a mother myself, my heart goes out to the families in Newtown. The most basic, instinctive need of parents is to protect their children. As pediatricians, so much of what we do is meant to help parents and caregivers do this.

THE SEDUCTIVE appeal of violent role models was recently underscored in an essay by Harold Jackson in The Sun's Perspective section. Mr. Jackson, an Evening Sun editorial writer, wrote: "Young black men who want to be accepted as gang members try so hard to fit the mold that they don't see the strangulating limits of the stereotype they have decided to accept."Of course, violent stereotypes are hardly limited to black men, as the popularity of such superstars as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone readily attests.

What an ignorant, dishonest and pathetic response to Sandy Hook today from the National Rifle Association. As a media critic, I will limit myself to the disingenuous attack on the media from Wayne LaPierre, chief executive of the organization. Of course, it's a shameless attempt to avoid accepting any responsibility by his organization. But in the interest of a sane discussion about media violence -- rather than the demagogued, crazy-right-wing-paranoid speechifying of LaPierre -- some social science research, facts and context need to be presented.

AS CONGRESS puts the finishing touches on the juvenile justice bill, it is time to ask ourselves: Who is teaching our kids to kill?In the United States, per capita aggravated assaults are up almost sixfold since 1957.I sat beside U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher on "Meet the Press" after the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colo. He was asked if he could do a report on the link between media violence and violence in our kids."Sure, I can do another surgeon general's report," he said, "but why don't we start by reading the 1972 surgeon general's report?"

In the suburbs, the stylishness of violence is still largely a decadent fantasy. In the inner cities, it has become a death-dealing reality. Yet in both settings, young people desperately need to be educated, not just about the physical damage done by bullets, but about the psychic damage done by the seductive voices of popular entertainers who know how to sell shock. This is why, even at the grassroots, the problem must be addressed in cultural terms.How to do this? In the inner city, the lead has been taken by religious leaders.

A town meeting to discuss youth violence drew a small crowd in Columbia last night, but U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin had a message for those who stayed away."

What an ignorant, dishonest and pathetic response to Sandy Hook today from the National Rifle Association. As a media critic, I will limit myself to the disingenuous attack on the media from Wayne LaPierre, chief executive of the organization. Of course, it's a shameless attempt to avoid accepting any responsibility by his organization. But in the interest of a sane discussion about media violence -- rather than the demagogued, crazy-right-wing-paranoid speechifying of LaPierre -- some social science research, facts and context need to be presented.

As we begin a new year with new resolutions, I think it is important we move forward toward a more proactive society and less reactive one. One particular event that I believe truly points to this is the tragic shooting that occurred in Newtown, Conn. As a pediatrician and a mother myself, my heart goes out to the families in Newtown. The most basic, instinctive need of parents is to protect their children. As pediatricians, so much of what we do is meant to help parents and caregivers do this.

If you are a Maryland parent, your child may soon come home from school with a "Media Violence Inventory: A Parent's Diary." In it is this pressing message from Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr.:"Unlike many other factors placing kids at risk of crime, we can exert better control over our children's exposure to media violence. So I encourage you to fill out this Media Violence Inventory to understand better what your children are watching and how it may affect them."Starting this month and continuing for the next several months, the inventory will be distributed to 500,000 students in schools across the state as part of a public health initiative to reduce media violence.

The first rule of an American tragedy: Exploit it for your own ends. Perhaps you have an agenda, pro or con, involving guns. Perfect. Shout it out while the victims' bodies are still warm. That'll get the public's attention. Perhaps Virginia Tech reminds you of Iraq and the fact that most Americans, in your view, are too insensitive to notice. Don't miss your chance to point out our blindness. If at all possible, thrust your moral superiority into our faces before the killer has even been ID'd.

AS CONGRESS puts the finishing touches on the juvenile justice bill, it is time to ask ourselves: Who is teaching our kids to kill?In the United States, per capita aggravated assaults are up almost sixfold since 1957.I sat beside U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher on "Meet the Press" after the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colo. He was asked if he could do a report on the link between media violence and violence in our kids."Sure, I can do another surgeon general's report," he said, "but why don't we start by reading the 1972 surgeon general's report?"

A town meeting to discuss youth violence drew a small crowd in Columbia last night, but U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin had a message for those who stayed away."

President Clinton put the relationship between media violence and real-life acts of carnage like the one at Columbine High School on the front burner yesterday when he urged the nation's parents, teachers and pupils to consider whether graphic violence on television and the Internet plays a role in such tragedies."

With the recent spate of school shootings, there has been renewed public concern over how violence is depicted in the media, particularly on television.Television's influence is obvious: An estimated 98 percent of U.S. homes have at least one television; two-thirds have three or more. In the average home, the television is turned on seven hours and 12 minutes per day.Studies have shown that the average child has witnessed 8,000 murders on television by the time he or she graduates from elementary school.

Sissela Bok, a Distinguished Fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, has just published her fourth book: "Mayhem: Violence as Public Entertainment." Bok, who holds a doctorate in philosophy from Harvard University, talked with reporter Arthur Hirsch about the book during a recent visit to Washington.You devote quite a bit of attention in the book to the way Americans talk about media violence. Why is that?So often in discussing the subject of entertainment violence I ran into very much the same questions over and over.

ASK YOURSELF -- would you ever invite someone into your home to teach your children that violence is a good way to solve problems, that it will likely be rewarded and that it causes no pain?Of course not. Yet we effectively do this every day. Our children watch an average of 28 hours of television each week. By high school graduation, most teen-agers have spent more time in front of television than in school.And what are they watching? Kids leaving elementary school have seen 8,000 murders and more than 100,000 other acts of televised violence.

President Clinton put the relationship between media violence and real-life acts of carnage like the one at Columbine High School on the front burner yesterday when he urged the nation's parents, teachers and pupils to consider whether graphic violence on television and the Internet plays a role in such tragedies."

The yellow journal that thousands of Carroll elementary school students took home last week is homework, but not the typical kind: Parents are supposed to do it -- while the television is turned on.The 15-page Media Violence Inventory has been going home with children across the state, in public and private schools, since November. Carroll students received them Wednesday.Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. is asking parents to keep a diary for one week of all the television shows, music, computer games and other media to which their children are exposed.

If you are a Maryland parent, your child may soon come home from school with a "Media Violence Inventory: A Parent's Diary." In it is this pressing message from Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr.:"Unlike many other factors placing kids at risk of crime, we can exert better control over our children's exposure to media violence. So I encourage you to fill out this Media Violence Inventory to understand better what your children are watching and how it may affect them."Starting this month and continuing for the next several months, the inventory will be distributed to 500,000 students in schools across the state as part of a public health initiative to reduce media violence.