For over twenty years, I have been on the faculty in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine. For the past five and a half years, I served as the Director of the Arkansas Department of Health. As a result of my background, education, training, and experience, I have become a strong advocate for programs that will strengthen families, reduce risky behaviors, improve health and enable children to become healthy, educated, motivated and to have hope for the future. You have asked me to talk about the effects of violence in the media on our communities and children. To understand the effect of media violence on our children we must look at how it fits into that larger picture of violence in our society.
Violence is a very complex problem for which there are no simple solutions.
The prominence of violence in the movies, on TV, and in the news should make us all realize how central a place violence has come to occupy in our society. The media mirrors our culture, and we need to take a hard look into that mirror. Our culture tends to glorify violence. Courageous alternatives, such as talking things out and peacefully resolving conflicts, are considered cowardly. We need to look carefully at our culture to see the many places where these misguided values are set and conveyed, and we need to think hard about the many ways we can go about changing these norms and values.