Page 281 - Media Effects Advances in Theory and Research

270 SPARKS AND SPARKS

does consumption of media violence lead directly to subsequent aggres-
sive behavior? What does scientific research have to say about the rela-
tionship between exposure to media violence and various negative out-
comes involving cognitions, emotions, or behaviors? What questions
should scholars be attempting to answer in their future studies on the
effects of media violence? These are the main questions that we take up in
this chapter. The first task is to briefly outline the history of research on
media violence. Unlike other areas of media effects, the violence contro-
versy is not new, and it is important to have some historical context
before examining the research in more detail.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MEDIA VIOLENCE CONTROVERSY

Hoberman (1998) discussed one of the earliest cases of controversy sur-
rounding media violence (1908) that is not unlike the modern-day case
involving the Japanese film Battle Royale. In this case, Chicago police
refused to issue the permit required to run the film The James Boys in Mis-
souri in a public theater. As in the controversy over Battle Royale over
90 years later, the perceived problem with the film was the potential influ-
ence that its content might have on criminal behavior. Although the tradi-
tion of scientific research on the impact of media violence does not extend
back quite as far as the public controversy, it does extend back nearly
75 years. Most scholars see the Payne Fund Studies as the formal begin-
ning of scientific inquiry into media impact. These studies were carried
out in response to growing public concern about the possible deleterious
effects of sex and violence in the movies.

The Payne Fund Studies

The Payne Fund Studies were conducted as a result of private funding
from a philanthropic foundation and the invitation to scholars issued by
William Short, the Executive Director of the Motion Picture Research
Council (a private educational group). Not all of the studies focused on
media violence, but two in particular helped to reinforce the notion that
violent media content might be a serious public concern. First, Dale (1935)
conducted a content analysis of 1,500 movies that revealed a heavy
emphasis on crime. Second, a survey of nearly 2,000 respondents con-
ducted by Blumer (1933) revealed that many people were conscious of the
fact that they had directly imitated acts of violence that they had wit-
nessed in violent movies. In the aftermath of these studies, public concern
about media violence was high. Those concerns were exacerbated in the
1950s when Wertham (1954) published his analysis of comic book content.