Surgeon general's youth-violence report backs media, experts say
By Alicia Benjamin-Samuels
The Freedom Forum Online
01.19.01
Although a report issued this week by Surgeon General David Satcher mentions
a link between media violence and youth violence, several First Amendment
experts say the report does more to vindicate, rather than condemn, the media.
"The report well establishes, contrary to the media-violence campaigners'
claims, that we (the media) are not creating a culture of violence among our
youth, nor are there any substantial adverse long-term effects," said Robert
S. Peck, a Washington, D.C., constitutional lawyer.
The report "found that it was extremely difficult to distinguish between the
relatively small long-term effects of exposure to media violence and those of
other influences," according to a press release issued by the surgeon
general's office on Jan. 17. However, the report does say, "Research to date
justifies sustained efforts to curb the adverse effects of media violence on
youths."
"The issue of the role of the media in youth violence is an important one,
and some people expected it to be a major focus of our report," Satcher said
in a Jan. 17 CNN chat room discussion. "But, in the report, while we point
out that exposure to violence in the media — especially television — can
significantly increase aggressive behavior in youth, it is not a major
long-term factor in violent behavior." He said more research should be
conducted to discover what causes youth violence.
The White House and Congress requested that the youth violence study be
conducted in 1999 after two Columbine High School students in Colorado killed
12 students and a teacher before committing suicide. A shooting at a
Baltimore high school happened about an hour before Satcher released the
report's findings, according to an Associated Press article.
A team of researchers, assembled by the National Institutes of Health,
prepared the report.
The report suggests that factors, other than media violence, threaten to
cause violence among young people. "The major factors today fall into the
categories of individual and environmental factors," Satcher said in the CNN
chat room discussion. The report also says that a failure to recognize the
true nature of the youth violence problem can "obscure the need for informed
policy or for interventions."
Joan Bertin, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship
agrees with Satcher's assessment that other factors contribute to youth
violence.
"The report recognizes that violence is an extremely complex issue and quick
fixes won't do and can actually be harmful and distract attention from more
profitable avenues and research," Bertin said. "The report leaves media
influences in a very marginal place," she added.
Bertin said Satcher's report is similar to one issued in 1994 by the National
Academy of Arts and Sciences on violence that pointed to environmental,
biological, social, economic and personal factors that influence violent
behavior among all people, not just youth.
Peck says that those who use the surgeon general's report to support
government limitations on media violence would be misusing it.
"Even the surgeon general, who obviously was seeking to find a significant
connection between media violence and real violence, could not, and instead
recommended 'efforts to curb adverse effects,' " Peck said. "I read that as
support for more media education, not for censorship."
Bertin says she hopes the surgeon general's report will allow people to
discuss the debate over whether media violence influences youth violence more
dispassionately and clearly.
"It's simply wrong-headed to take the shootings at Columbine High School and
say if kids don't watch violence on television and don't play video games
then they won't commit violent acts," she said.
Marjorie Heins, director of the Free Expression Policy Project in New York,
says the causes of youth violence are complex and grow out of family and peer
group relationships. "Media violence is not a significant factor and
censoring media violence will do nothing to resolve the problems of troubled
youth," she said.
The report "focuses on real causes of problems of youth violence," Heins
said. "The media is a very minor insignificant factor in this report, which
criminologists have been saying for 10 years or more."
In the press release issued by Satcher's office, the surgeon general said
it's important that the nation confront youth violence "systematically using
research-based approaches and to correct damaging myths and stereotypes that
interfere with the task at hand."
Heins agrees.
"Hopefully, the report will help focus policy makers on real solutions to
this problem rather than headline-grabbing, but ultimately senseless,
censorship proposals."
