Talk:Media violence research
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[edit] Organization
This article isn't very well organized. The header and body articles seem jumbled together. I would suggest expanding this article some more, and breaking it down into sub-sections. Also include a quick-finder box, or whatever it's called!
[edit] Neutrality of Article
I believe that this article is leaning far more on the criticism of the research, and fails to point out any of the conclusions of stated research.
That is true, but it seems any findings are rather vauge, even the most recent article I've read on the subject fails to say anything more than it has an effect on the brain. No where does it say if it's signifigant, premanent, or merely a change in brain activity, which happens anytime your doing anything stimulating. Writing up anything about conclusions would have to keep this in mind so as not to shift from one side to the other.
Word usage in the artice clearly shows emphasis on the critisism side, with no (or nearly no) information supporting the opposing view.
Adding ad-hominem attacks against media violence critics certainly wasn't going to help the article's neutrality was it?
Counterpoint: I think the definition of neutrality is to emphasize that there are criticisms of the current research. A causal link between media violence and actual violent behavior is unlikely. In the interest of getting politicians elected the idea has been shoved down our throats, but humans have been violent throughout our history without any media portrayal.
Further counterpoint:
Many of the concerns raised in the wikipedia article are the same that have been raised by various appeals courts in striking down media violence ordinances (most recently on video games) time and time again. The scientific arguments have consistently failed to meet Daubert standards of admissibility for scientific evidence. The courts have cited many of the same problems raised in the article...as such these concerns hardly seem "out of the blue"
Ok, I've tried to fix the article both for content and readability. It had become something of an "appologist" page for media violence researchers. I think some of the additions were good (particularly the external links, so that readers can link to various pages on both sides of the debate to help make up their minds). Others, such as the "ad hominem" attacks on Freedman (since media violence researchers themselves associate with "advocacy" groups at very least the objectivity of both sides should be discussed) were removed. The most recent version had also removed some of the critical arguments about media violence research, which I've tried to put back as best I could. The most recent version appeared to have been a "censored" version that minimized many of the criticisms of media violence research in favor of supporting the causal claim (there were also many POV references such as use of words like "determined" that don't reflect the debate on this issue). I'll probably continue trying to edit the page over the next few days, improve it's readability.
I've kept the POV tag for now so we can discuss this. Why don't we talk out here what changes may best represent a neutral POV (including representative information from both "sides" of the debate rather than making this a page that argues back and forth?).
Ok, still working on this. I think that the way to go to make this more neutral is to include a "media researcher response to criticisms" section to the article. I've returned the "criticisms" section more or less back to how it was to attempt to fairly portray the criticism and added a "response" section. I'm attempting in this section to get the "gist" of the previous editors inclusions without the POV.
Let me know if I appear to be "on the right track"
- It would be appropriate if you signed which allows users to keep track of chronology within this talk page and not to be confused with other users (insert four tildes). I understand that you restored texts that were deleted by other users, but you also deleted their edits as well which their information is referenced and therefore verifiable, except for a few NPOV statements which I agree to remove. Nevertheless, you must also find journal articles and references to support arguments from both sides in order to, at least, integrate both information into the article, that way both sides can have a say. Since media violence research is a thorny and complicated issue, leaving the POV notice should remind readers of that--Janarius 13:57, 19 March 2007 (UTC)