Professional Documents
Culture Documents
may often intrude on good science and damage the fields credibility in the process (Hall, Day &
Hall, 2011.)
Evidence from societal data also do not support evidence of a clear harmful media
effect. Youth violence has been declining for decades and some studies (Cunningham et al., in
press; Markey, French & Markey, 2015; Markey Markey & French, 2015) suggest that the
release of violent media corresponds with immediate declines in societal violence. Similarly,
youth pregnancy rates are at an all-time low (CDC, 2016), and other areas of youth behavior
indicate absence of evidence for a crisis in youth behavior despite the plethora of media available
to them (Childstats.gov, 2015).
We, of course, do believe that reevaluation of ratings systems can be positive and there
may be legitimate areas for improvement. But we also believe that any initiative prompted by a
misrepresentation of media as harmful when the evidence is, at best, mixed, may be
unproductive. Parents deserve to have honest, clear information about the media their children
use in an easy-to-understand format. But ratings based on the potential for harm inherently
lack validity given unclear scientific evidence for harm. Further, we suggest caution in selecting
scientific advisors for any ratings system improvement initiative, given difficulties our field too
often has in representing our own data clearly and honestly (Hall, Day & Hall, 2011). Such
advisors should equally represent all scientific views regarding media effects.
We hope that our comments are helpful in clarifying the current state of science in our
area. We would be happy to answer any questions you might have, either individually or as a
group.
Signed
Paul Adachi, University of Rochester
James Anderson, University of Utah
Espen Aarseth, IT University of Copenhagen
Mary Ballard, Appalachian State University
Anthony Bean, Framingham State University
Kevin Beaver, Florida State University
Fran Blumberg, Fordham University
Walter Boot, Florida State University
Wolfgang Bsche, Technische Universitt Darmstadt
Johannes Breuer, University of Cologne
Nicholas Brown, West Virginia University
David Buckingham, Loughborough University
Lorne Campbell, University of Western Ontario
Christopher Chambers, Cardiff University
John Colwell, University of Westminster
Mia Consalvo, Concordia University
Allen Copenhaver, Lindsey Wilson College
Mark Coulson, Middlesex University
James C. Coyne, University of Pennsylvania
Whitney DeCamp, Western Michigan University
References
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Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/p0428-teen-birth-rates.html
Childstats.gov. (2015). Americas children: Key national indicators of well-being, 2015.
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