At Issue Series - Is Media Violence a Problem? (paperback edition)

Authors debate whether the level of violence in popular television shows, movies, music, and video games is cause for concern among parents and lawmakers.

Grade 8 Up-Brief essays highlight major arguments surrounding the portrayal of violence in the popular media. Eight of the 13 selections from news services, periodicals, books, and Senate testimony proclaim media violence's harmful effects on children and young adults. The remaining five essays do not defend violence as beneficial, but state that claims of its potential damage are exaggerated. All articles included were published between 1999 and 2001, making this a compilation of current opinion. The selections pay more attention to video games and "gangsta" rap than Carol Wekesser's Violence in the Media (1995; o.p.) and William Dudley's Media Violence (1999, both Greenhaven). Judicious use of white space, boldface headings, and pull quotes break up large blocks of text, making this one of the more visually inviting volumes on this controversial subject. Its annotated listing of "Organizations to Contact" shares only one quarter of its entries with that in Media Violence. A fine index and a bibliography offering equal numbers of recent books and periodical articles make this relatively slim volume meatier than it first appears to be.
Ann G. Brouse, Steele Memorial Library, Elmira, NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 6-12. In light of the attacks on September 11, this volume in the At Issue series is sure to generate heated debate. The 13 essays cover many of the topics that students will most want to explore. Three focus on violence on television, both in general programming and on the news. Violence in movies is the subject of one essay. Several selections deal with graphic visual images in video games and explicit references to violence in rap music, and the final entries corral previous subtopics to explore whether media violence makes viewers violent, the marketing of violent media to children, and media violence as a censorship issue. The contributors are mostly professors or journalists; their works are largely academic assertions supported by research or opinions based on professional experience. Roger Leslie
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