Media Violence, One More Time!

Although it seems as though the whole video games making kids psycho killers being untrue point is slowly being made (recent story), we've still got a few people out there hanging on to that whole thing. Here's a really interesting article by Henry Jenkins who has testified in front of the Senate Commerce Committee and FCC among other places about media influence (or lack of) on younger kids. He pretty much blew it recently on a Donahue showing, but here's what he feels he should have said..

I was ready to tear them apart on the evidence. Despite all of the publicity about school shootings, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is currently at a 30-year low. When researchers interview people serving time for violent crimes, they find that they typically consume less media than the general population, not more. A 2001 surgeon general's report concluded that the strongest risk factors for school shootings centered around the quality of the child's home life and their mental stability, not their media exposure.