Teaching Students About Violent Media Effects

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-206
Author(s):  
Brad J. Bushman
Keyword(s):  
Media Effects ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Common Theme ◽  
Violent Media ◽  
Pain And Suffering ◽  
The Media ◽  
Harmful Effects

Although violent entertainment has existed for centuries, the media have made it more accessible than ever before. In modern societies, people are immersed in media, like fish in water. Using hand-held devices, people can consume media just about anywhere they want, anytime they want. Moreover, violence is a common theme in the media, and research has consistently shown that violent media can have harmful effects on consumers, such as making them more aggressive and more numb to the pain and suffering of others. Teaching students about the harmful effects of violent media is challenging because many students love to consume violent media, and believe they are somehow immune to any harmful effects. This article reviews the scientific evidence on violent media effects, discusses some reasons why people deny violent media effects, and offers suggestions for how to teach students about violent media effects.

Global Perspectives on Solitary Confinement—Practices and Reforms Worldwide

2019 ◽  
pp. 43-58
Author(s):  
Manfred Nowak
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Solitary Confinement ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Special Rapporteur ◽  
Global Perspectives ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
Mental And Physical Health ◽  
Harmful Effects

This chapter puts the practice of solitary confinement in the context of and distinguishes it from other aggravated forms of deprivation of liberty, such as incommunicado detention, secret detention, and enforced disappearance. Thereafter, the case law of international and regional monitoring bodies and courts in respect of solitary confinement will be analyzed and compared with the author’s own experience as UN Special Rapporteur on Torture as well as with the experience of Juan Mendez who succeeded the author in this function. On the basis of medical and psychological research showing the harmful effects of solitary confinement on the mental and physical health of detainees, both the author and Juan Mendez contributed to the development of soft law standards, such as the Istanbul Statement and the Mandela Rules, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015. By taking powerful scientific evidence into account, these soft law standards, which in principle prohibit every form of solitary confinement for more than fifteen days, are much more advanced than the fairly permissive standards of hard law, as interpreted by regional human rights courts and universal treaty monitoring bodies.

Conclusions and extensions

2021 ◽  
pp. 136-146
Author(s):  
Erik Bleich ◽  
Maurits van der Veen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Group Time ◽  
The Media ◽  
Harmful Effects ◽  
Comparative Measure

The final chapter summarizes the main findings, the most important of which is that coverage of Muslims in the United States is strikingly negative by any comparative measure, whether group, time, country, or topic. It draws on these core findings to reflect on whether American newspapers—and the media more broadly—may be fostering Islamophobia, and how they serve to reinforce boundaries between social groups that contribute to ongoing stigmatization of Muslims. It suggests that journalists and citizens develop the instinct to tone-check the media in an effort to limit the harmful effects of the deep and abiding negativity so commonly associated with Muslims and Islam.

scholarly journals Delphi study among international expert panel to develop waterpipe-specific health warning labels

2019 ◽  
pp. tobaccocontrol-2018-054718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taghrid Asfar ◽  
Michael Schmidt ◽  
Mohammad Ebrahimi Kalan ◽  
Wensong Wu ◽  
Kenneth D Ward ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Delphi Study ◽  
Expert Panel ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Warning Labels ◽  
International Expert ◽  
Health Warning ◽  
Harm To Others ◽  
Harmful Effects ◽  
Target Country ◽  
Specific Health

BackgroundWaterpipe (WP) smoking is increasing globally. The rise of WP has been fuelled by widespread misperception of reduced-harm compared to cigarettes. Health warning labels (HWLs) are one strategy to communicate smoking-related risks and address reduced-harm misperceptions. Therefore, the development of WP-specific HWLs represents a priority for WP control.MethodsA panel of experts in WP science developed 28 WP-specific HWLs corresponding to five themes (health risks, addiction, harm to others, WP-specific harm, WP harm compared to cigarettes). Subsequently, a three-round Delphi study was conducted among international expert panel to reach consensus on a set of the most effective HWLs for each theme. Levels of agreement between participants were assessed using interquartile deviations, and the rank between the tied HWLs was based on the median.ResultsStarting with 28 candidate HWLs stratified according to five WP-related themes, our international expert panel reached consensus on the 13 most important WP-specific HWLs. Labels with the highest agreement were related to oral and heart disease, WP’s harmful effects on newborn children and the amount of smoke inhaled from WP compared to cigarettes.ConclusionThis study is the first to systematically develop and evaluate potential WP-specific HWLs based on the scientific evidence about WP’s harmful effects, scientific understanding of HWL for cigarettes and the opinions of experts in WP science, tobacco control and health communication. The final selected HWLs can be adapted based on the context and policy landscape of the target country and can be further fine-tuned based on feedback from WP smokers and non-smokers.

scholarly journals Public health benefits and risks of fish consumption: current scientific evidence v. media coverage

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 1885-1892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico A Pasquaré ◽  
Roberta Bettinetti ◽  
Sonia Fumagalli ◽  
Davide A Vignati
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Fish Consumption ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Health Benefits ◽  
Fish Intake ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media

AbstractObjectiveTo evaluate if and how the current degree of scientific uncertainty about the safety of fish consumption is incorporated at the media level.DesignWe used a dedicated software (TalTac®) to investigate the content of 169 news articles related to ‘mercury and fish consumption’ that appeared from 1990 to 2010 in the two Italian broadsheets with the highest circulation figures, in order to identify journalistic frames used in the coverage of benefits v. risks associated with fish consumption. Hypotheses were made on how the public might change fish consumption patterns as a result of media coverage.SettingItaly.ResultsThe two newspapers have different agendas in covering the issue. La Repubblica appears to support the view that, besides health benefits, there may be risks associated with fish consumption, while Corriere della Sera emphasizes health benefits more than possible risks. Depending on the preferred information source, the public could: (i) reduce its fish intake; (ii) increase its fish intake; or (iii) become confused about the problem and sceptical towards the media, as a result of conflicting journalistic frames.ConclusionsThe Italian media, in cooperation with scientists, public health nutritionists and dietitians, should place more emphasis on the existence of a few fish species with high to very high Hg levels and relatively low contents of beneficial n-3 fatty acids (e.g. swordfish and shark). This would enable consumers to make more educated purchasing decisions to maximize the benefits of n-3 intake while reducing possible risks from consuming Hg-contaminated fish.

A Content Analysis of the Media Effects Literature

2007 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. James Potter ◽  
Karyn Riddle
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Media Effects ◽  
The Media

A Typology of Media Effects

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanto Iyengar
Keyword(s):  
Media Effects ◽  
Attitude Change ◽  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
News Programs

This chapter discusses the progression of mass media effects research from early preoccupation with attitude change through minimal effects paradigms to the current resurgence in persuasion research. Implications of contemporary changes in the media environment on media effects research are considered. After surveying and classifying definitions of media effects, the chapter discusses how fundamental transformations in the media environment brought about by information technology may work to reshape scholarly understandings of the relationship between news sources and audiences. The availability of multiple sources makes it possible for consumers to be more selective in their exposure to news programs. Selective exposure means that people with limited interest in politics may bypass the news entirely, while the more attentive may tailor their exposure to suit their political preferences. Both these trends imply a weakening of persuasion effects.

Philosophical orientations and theoretical frameworks in media effects

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gennadiy Chernov ◽  
Maxwell McCombs
Keyword(s):  
Media Effects ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Important Distinction ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Media ◽  
Setting Theory ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Philosophical Orientations

Abstract This paper explores the philosophical orientations within which agenda setting operates, and agenda setting’s place within the broader framework of the media effects tradition, specifically in comparison with framing and priming. It also responds to earlier criticisms of agenda setting for its supposed lack of theoretical richness and narrowly understood underlying mechanisms. Both ontological and epistemological statuses of the agenda-setting theory are analyzed in order to place agenda setting into the communication discipline’s broader context. This paper demonstrates that the most important distinction between framing and agenda setting is that they are based on different ways of knowing. While the epistemological bases of priming are similar to the theory of agenda setting, the paper argues that further progress will depend not only on practical studies of different aspects of agenda setting, but also on theoretical and philosophical conceptualizations in the future.

Media and Emotion

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin L. Nabi
Keyword(s):  
Media Effects ◽  
Behavioral Outcomes ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Media Exposure ◽  
Media Influence ◽  
Media Messages ◽  
Processing Depth ◽  
Feeling States ◽  
The Media ◽  
Emotional Effects

Emotion has been incorporated into media effects research in multiple ways, which can be broadly summarized as considering emotion as a predictor of media selection, an outcome of media exposure, and a mediator of other psychological and behavioral outcomes resulting from media exposure. Specifically, evidence suggests that the desire for particular feeling states influences the media that people choose to consume. Much research also considers the feeling states resulting from exposure, including fright reactions and enjoyment. Finally, there are well-established lines of inquiry into how emotional responses to media influence the processing of those messages in terms of attention, processing depth, and cognitive and behavioral outcomes. More contemporary research is extending these research programs, examining how emotional media messages are socially shared with others as well as the positive emotional effects that may emerge in response to media exposure.

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