Criticisms+of+the+Research

__ Some issues regarding research about the link between media violence and aggression. __

Scholars argue that the measurement tools involved are often unstandardized, sloppily employed and fail to report reliability. Examples include the "Competitive Reaction Time Test" in which participants believe that they are punishing an opponent for losing in a reaction time test by subjecting the opponent to noise blasts or electric shocks. There is no standardized way of employing this task, raising the possibility that authors may manipulate the results to support their conclusions. (Ferguson and Kilburn, 2009)
 * __ A failure to employ standardized, reliable and valid measures of agression and media violence exposure __**// . //

Some scholars contend that many of the articles findings regarding a link between media violence and subsequent aggression actually have negative or inconclusive results. (Anderson and Dill, 2000). The problem of non-reporting of non-significant findings is a problem throughout all areas of science but may be a particular issue for publicized issues such as media violence.
 * __ Failure to report negative findings. __**

Several recent studies have found that, when factors such as mental health, family environment and personality are controlled, no predictive relationship between either video games or television violence and youth violence remain (Ferguson, San Miguel & Hartley, 2009)
 * __ Failure to account for "third" variables. __**

Experimental measures of aggression have been questioned by critics (Deselms & Altman, 2003). The main concern of critics has been the issue of the external validity of experimental measures of aggression. Many experimental measures of aggression have been found questionable (Bushman & Anderson, 2002). Other studies fail to differentiate between aggression aimed at causing harm to another person, and aggressive play in which two individuals, usually children, may pretend to engage in aggressive behavior, but do so consensually for the purpose of mutual enjoyment. (Deselms & Altman, 2003).
 * __ Failure to adequately define "aggression." __**

One of the most convincing arguments that refutes a direct cause and effect for media violence and aggression involves a lack of correlation between the increase in violent media and the decrease of violent crime rates. For this theory to be true, media violence should be well correlated with violent crime. The homicide rate in the United States has never been higher than during the 1930s (Ferguson and Kilburn, 2009) There is also a lack of evidence that violent crime rates with the drop in the mid 1990s and have stayed low, during a time when media violence has continued to increase, and saw the addition of violent video games. (Ferguson, San Miguel & Hartley, 2009)
 * __ Media violence rates are not correlated with violent crime rates __**// . //

Many TV programmers argue that their shows just mirror the violence that goes on in the real world. Zev Braun, of CBS, in 1990 argued in a debate on the Violence Bill that, "We live in a violent society. Art imitates modes of life, not the other way around: it would be better for Congress to clean that society than to clean that reflection of society. (Anderson & Bushman, 2001)
 * __ Media violence on TV is a reflection of the level of violence that occurs in the real world __****__ . __**

References

Anderson, C. A. & Bushman, B. J. (2001) Media Violence and the American Public: Scientific Facts Versus Media Misinformation. //American Psychologist, 56, 123-131.//

Anderson C, & Dill K. (2000). [|Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings and behavior in the laboratory and in life]. [|Journal of Personality and Social Psychology], 78, 772–790

Deselms J & Altman J. (2003). "Immediate and Prolonged Effects of Videogame Violence". //Journal of Applied Social Psychology// **33** (8): 1553

Ferguson C & Kilburn J. (2009). "The Public Health Risks of Media Violence: A Meta-Analytic Review". //The Journal of Pediatrics// **154** (5): 759–763.

Ferguson C, San Miguel C, & Hartley R. (2009). A multivariate analysis of youth violence and aggression: The influence of family, peers, depression and media violence. Journal of Pediatrics, 155(6), 904–908.