Professor researches reactions
to media violence
By Anna Herkamp
Summer
Reporter
Because of high school massacres such as the one
at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., much attention has been
given to how media affects people's behavior.
Many people have only been following such coverage
since 1999, when the press began speculating the different "social"
causes of the teen-ager assailants' mentalities.
Professor of communication Glenn Sparks, however,
has been a scholar of media effects since 1978, when he was a doctoral
student at the University of Wisconsin.
Sparks' adviser was interested the area of "scary"
media reaction, and with a grant from the National Institute of Mental
Health, Sparks began to study children's reactions to different types
of media.
"I took that opportunity and got involved in that
area," Sparks said.
Ever since Sparks has been an expert in the area
of not only scary media, but also of supernatural phenomena in the media.
"The thing about this area is that everyone has
had some experience with media that has frightened them," he said.
He said for parents, this topic of study is especially
practical for helping their children react and interpret "scary" things
on television or in the movies.
After different lectures, Sparks said he found
the number of parents who came to him with questions on how to help
their children deal with frightening media "intriguing." As a parent
himself, Sparks said his studies have always been practical.
Sparks' most recent studies have not involved frightening
media as much as they have involved media violence, and the question
of attractiveness of violence in the media.
Questions Sparks has explored include whether or
not people are attracted to violence in the movies, whether or not people
prefer to have violence in movies as opposed to not and how popular
violence is in movies and television.
The other topic Sparks investigates is the impact
of paranormal phenomena on viewers.
What Sparks said he wanted to explore was how exposure
to supernatural phenomena affected what people believed about them,
and not so much their emotional reactions to it.
Sparks said there are a couple major reasons why
people are attracted to violence or supernatural phenomena in movie
or television. One is that people get some gratification when the "good
guys" win.
Sparks said there is also an aesthetic appeal for
watching violence. He gave the example of watching fireworks. Fireworks
show explosions that satisfy people at a sensory level, he said.
Another reason people choose to watch violent movies
or television is that violence is "arousing." Violence, he said, intensifies
the emotions.
This theory is particularly true of couples who
go on a date and see a "scary movie." He said the emotions the couples
feel for one another might be intensified even if the emotions themselves
have nothing to do with the content of the movie.
Despite the appeal to violence, the popularity
of top-grossing films tends to suggest that violence is not the most
sought-after genre of film. The reason that it is produced has more
to do with how easily and cheaply it can be produced and how well it
sells overseas, he said.
As for incidents such as the Columbine High School
shootings, Sparks said it is difficult to say how much of a role media
played in the actions of the assailants.
He said individual action is the result of a "whole
lot of different things."
"We can never know how much of an impact media
had on (the assailants)," Sparks said.
"What we can know is that in general, the more
media violence saturates the culture, it's a general sign of what people
are taking in," he said.
Even Ted Bundy said the reason he was a serial
killer was because of pornography, but in reality, said Sparks, no one
will ever know for sure because there is evidence that Bundy was a disturbed
child from an early age.
Though Sparks has spent a significant part of his
career studying the impacts of violence and the supernatural, he said
he is generally "very skeptical" about supernatural phenomena such as
ghosts, aliens and people's ability to talk to the dead.
"I would say it's not clear to me that there really
is any compelling evidence on any paranormal claim for its (supernatural
phenomena) validity. When you get a claim, there is good reason in any
given case to come upon an alternative explanation," he said.
As far as how media affects the behavior of society,
Sparks said there is not a question that media messages exert a considerable
force for beliefs and attitude, values, etc. "At the same time, I would
not have people leave with the idea that it's the most significant force."
John Greene, a professor of communication, whose
main studies are in interpersonal communication, agrees that while they
have an effect on people, media do not encompass a great deal of what
people believe.
Greene said media — especially television
— affects the way people think about things primarily because it
is not only a visual media but also a verbal one.
"Certainly it alters purchase behaviors for some
people under some circumstances; beyond that there is only speculation
that it affects values," he said.
"While there are a lot of different things that
determine beliefs, the most important are the people you spend time
with — family and friends," said Sparks. "They determine how you
think and feel. While the media is significant, it is only one force."
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