Whether or not exposure to media violence causes increased levels of aggression and violence in young people is the perennial question of media effects research. Some experts, like University of Michigan professor L. Rowell Huesmann, argue that fifty years of evidence show “that exposure to media violence causes children to behave more aggressively and affects [...]

No one would deny that the mass media is big business. According to the American Motion Picture Association, Hollywood films alone pulled in $9 billion in 2001, and that doesn’t include the renting and selling of videos and DVDs. However, media executives argue that the economics of the industry make it impossible to avoid stereotypes [...]

The pressure put on women through ads, television, film and new media to be sexually attractive—and sexually active—is profound. The National Eating Disorders Association reports that one out of four TV commercials send some kind of “attractiveness message,” telling viewers what is and is not attractive. Children Now reports that 38 per cent of the [...]

Each year, a typical young person in the United States is inundated with more than 1,000 commercials for beer and wine coolers and several thousand fictional drinking incidents on television. Alcohol is involved in 50% of all driving fatalities. In the United States, every 30 minutes someone is killed in an alcohol related traffic accident. [...]

Behaviors that Put Teens at Risk Nearly half of U.S. high school students have had sexual intercourse; the average age of first intercourse for boys and girls is 15. Although teenagers tend to have sexual relationships with only one partner during any given time, their number of sexual partners adds up over time; almost 25 [...]

American Association of Pediatrics states “New evidence points to the media adolescents use frequently (television, music, movies, magazines, and the Internet) as important factors in the initiation of sexual intercourse,” notes the statement. “There is a major disconnect between what mainstream media portray — casual sex and sexuality with no consequences — and what children and [...]

Over the last few decades, landmark legal cases, medical discoveries, and movies and TV shows have done much to increase acceptance toward homosexuality in American culture. The American public’s recognition of homosexuality as a lifestyle, although still relatively limited, has never been more widespread than it is now, largely because of the opinions of young [...]