1999 Violence In The Media
Speakers: Lt. Dave Grossman and Dr. James T. Hamilton

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The 1999 Symposium, Violence in the Media, Teaching Our Children to Kill
The North Carolina Medical Society and the North Carolina Medical Society Alliance presented Violence In The Media: Teaching Our Children To Kill, a symposium on the health risks associated with exposure to violence in the electronic media.

The symposium began with a multi-media introduction to the world of media violence, as a local actor read excerpts from the graphically violent Lord of the Flies that was interspersed with unedited clips from the film Natural Born Killers, a montage of images from television shows and movies, and actual footage from a "first person shooter" video game played by two local youths.

The keynote speaker was Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, one of the world’s leading experts on interpersonal aggression and violence. He is a former West Point Psychology Professor and a former Army Ranger. His Pulitzer-nominated book, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, ( ISBN 0316330116) outlines his findings based on interviews with hundreds of combat veterans.
After the Jonesboro, Arkansas, school shootings in March 1998, Colonel Grossman was the lead trainer of mental health professionals at the school. He conducted the inbriefings to teachers the morning after the shooting.

Colonel Grossman has presented his findings at numerous colleges and universities in North America and Europe, has taught "Grand Rounds" at Dartmouth Medical Center, and was called as an expert witness and consultant in the Timothy McVeigh Oklahoma City bombing case and the Paducah, Kentucky, school shooting case, and has been a featured guest on many TV news shows.

Lt. Col. Grossman had the audience in rapt attention as he described the increase in violence, particularly among our youth, in recent years around the world. According to his research, there is a marked increase in youth violence about 15 years after television was introduced into any society, not just in the United States. He also pointed out that while politicians were pointing to a reduction in the murder rate, the number of aggravated assaults--people trying to kill each other--had actually gone dramatically up. He told the audience, predominantly medical/health professionals, that "politicians are taking credit for your work" in that the advances in medicine...not better laws...were lowering the murder rate.

Dr. James T. Hamilton, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics at Duke University discussed the reasons and implications of the financial incentives for violent programming. Dr. Hamilton's book, Channeling Violence approaches media violence in the same way that other economists approach the problem of pollution: as an example of media failure.

In this symposium, Dr. Hamilton summarized his findings about the microstructure of incentives that operate at every level of television broadcasting, from programming and advertising to viewer behavior, so that remedies can be devised to reduce violent programming without restricting broadcasters' right to compete.

Dr. Hamilton used economic theory that he developed in his book, Channeling Violence, The Economic Market for Violent Television Programming, (ISBN 0691048487) to describe how the rational pursuit of self-interest by viewers, programmers, and advertisers results in the current level of violent programming in news and entertainment shows. He also explained why violent television is akin to pollution, in that producers and directors are not led to consider the full social cost of their violent programs when they are making content decisions.

Edward Donnerstein, Ph.D. is well known in the field of media violence. He is a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara and has been a featured speaker before many groups, including the American Medical Association Alliance.


Dr. Donnerstein presented a slide show demonstrating the amounts and types of violence in various programming, pointing out that some violence should be considered more harmful to young viewers than other types of violence...ironically, this "worst" kind of violence is most prevalent in children's programming.

Kathleen Clarke-Pearson, MD. a North Carolina pediatrician and one of the founders of The NC Coalition for Pulling the Plug on Media Violence, was supposed to be a presenter, but in a tragic twist of fate, her brother was shot by a youth when he and two others attempted to hijack his car in Connecticut.

Stephen Jurovics, Ph.D.the President of LimiTV, a Raleigh, NC based organization that seeks to inform parents, educators, and children about the ways excessive TV watching can damage a child’s development and education, was the next presenter.

Dr. Jurovics reviewed findings related to TV and its effects on cognitive and language skills, imagination and attentiveness. He also identified several sources through which parents can learn more about these effects and suggested how to explain to children the need to reduce TV exposure, by using methods that vary according to the age of the child.

Whitney Vanderwerff, Ph.D., Executive Director of the National Alliance for Non-Violent Programming. Dr. Vanderwerff explained that media literacy education can be tailor-made for local communities by using already existing agencies and organizations that serve youth, religious congregations, parents and schools.

Dr. Vanderwerff also filled in for two missing presenters, Dr. David Walsh and Dr. Clarke-Pearson. In their stead she described the V-Chip technology and also told the physicians in the audience how to take a media history from their patients.

William Balthrop, professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, then described a major project in which several of the school's departments were collaborating on a curriculum that would enable educators and child advocates to present a media literacy program at the local level.

Jane Brown, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and John Lovin, President of the North Carolina Medical Society Alliance, moderated.

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