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Foreward to the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues’ Research Summary on Media Violence
Author(s) -
Twose Gabriel
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
analyses of social issues and public policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.479
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1530-2415
pISSN - 1529-7489
DOI - 10.1111/asap.12094
Subject(s) - social media , citation , psychology , sociology , social psychology , media studies , criminology , political science , law
Early in 2013, in the wake of yet another act of violence in which the perpetrator was reported to have played violent video games, the Executive Committee of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) commissioned a report on the topic of media violence. Following the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut school shooting in which the perpetrator killed 20 young children, six school staff, his mother, and himself, the American public and policymakers expressed renewed concerns about the role of violent media consumption on aggressive and violent behavior. According to a 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll, 84% of Americans believed that depictions of violence in popular culture—through “movies and video games”—contribute to violence in society (CBS News, 2013). Major newspapers and TV networks, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, and NPR, also ran high profile stories or segments on violence in the media. President Obama called for more research on media violence, and the Violent Content Research Act (S. 134, 113th Cong.) urged the National Academy of Sciences to study the impact of violent television and video games on children. SPSSI aims to bring empirically sound research findings to bear on public policy. This goal is furthered in many ways, including active engagement in scientific study of human behavior in critical social situations, sharing the results of that research in scholarly settings, and providing relevant data to those engaged in developing public policy. Recent position statements have focused on, for