May 11, 2016

Chairman Tom Wheeler

Commissioner Mignon Clyburn
Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel
Commissioner Ajit Pai
Commissioner Michael ORielly
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554
RE: Television Content Ratings System
Dear Chairman Wheeler and Commissioners,
We are a group of scholars active in examining the role of media effects, television,
violence, sexual behavior and other issues important in the lives of children, adolescents, and
young adults. We are aware that another group of scholars recently wrote to you about the
ratings given to television shows. We are writing now to express the concern that this first group
of scholars misrepresented the research in our field, presenting the evidence for harm as more
consistent than it is. Although we are certainly in favor of examining and improving rating
systems, we feel this should not occur under a false scientific premise that may do more to
misinform than inform parents and viewers. Below, we discuss our concerns.
The previous letter by our colleagues stated Research has also documented harmful
effects of violent content; indeed, this is by far the most thoroughly researched area of media
effects. Although we agree that research into media violence is prolific, we disagree that
harmful effects have been well documented. Increasing evidence has suggested that media
violence effects are minimal and are often exaggerated by a vocal group of scholars (Kutner &
Olson, 2008; Savage & Yancey, 2008, Ramos et al., 2013; Schwartz & Beaver, in press). Several
recent surveys of media scholars and clinicians found that a large number of active researchers in
this area do not endorse the belief violent media is an important predictor of real-world violence
(Ferguson, 2015; Quandt et al., 2016; Ivory, et al., 2015). There are also significant concerns
about poor scientific practices and the ecological validity of much of this research (Elson et al.,
2014; Tedeschi & Quigley, 1996). Thus, although many of the authors of the current letter differ
in regards to our concern about media effects, we believe it is difficult to make conclusive
statements based on inconclusive and often controversial data. We are saddened that our
colleagues chose to make such conclusive statements in a misinformative way. Research in other
areas of media effects is also often controversial (Hittner, 2005; Holmstrom, 2004; Hayes &
Tantleff-Dunn, 2010; Marshall et al., 2004; Steinberg & Monahan, 2011).
In presenting the research in their letter, our colleagues unfortunately only informed you
of evidence supporting their personal views, and did not inform you of evidence suggesting
media effects may be minimal or difficult to quantify. This practice of citing only one side of a
contentious research field is a typical problem for media effects research, where moral advocacy

may often intrude on good science and damage the fields credibility in the process (Hall, Day &
Hall, 2011.)
Evidence from societal data also do not support evidence of a clear harmful media
effect. Youth violence has been declining for decades and some studies (Cunningham et al., in
press; Markey, French & Markey, 2015; Markey Markey & French, 2015) suggest that the
release of violent media corresponds with immediate declines in societal violence. Similarly,
youth pregnancy rates are at an all-time low (CDC, 2016), and other areas of youth behavior
indicate absence of evidence for a crisis in youth behavior despite the plethora of media available
to them (Childstats.gov, 2015).
We, of course, do believe that reevaluation of ratings systems can be positive and there
may be legitimate areas for improvement. But we also believe that any initiative prompted by a
misrepresentation of media as harmful when the evidence is, at best, mixed, may be
unproductive. Parents deserve to have honest, clear information about the media their children
use in an easy-to-understand format. But ratings based on the potential for harm inherently
lack validity given unclear scientific evidence for harm. Further, we suggest caution in selecting
scientific advisors for any ratings system improvement initiative, given difficulties our field too
often has in representing our own data clearly and honestly (Hall, Day & Hall, 2011). Such
advisors should equally represent all scientific views regarding media effects.
We hope that our comments are helpful in clarifying the current state of science in our
area. We would be happy to answer any questions you might have, either individually or as a
group.
Signed
Paul Adachi, University of Rochester
James Anderson, University of Utah
Espen Aarseth, IT University of Copenhagen
Mary Ballard, Appalachian State University
Anthony Bean, Framingham State University
Kevin Beaver, Florida State University
Fran Blumberg, Fordham University
Walter Boot, Florida State University
Wolfgang Bsche, Technische Universitt Darmstadt
Johannes Breuer, University of Cologne
Nicholas Brown, West Virginia University
David Buckingham, Loughborough University
Lorne Campbell, University of Western Ontario
Christopher Chambers, Cardiff University
John Colwell, University of Westminster
Mia Consalvo, Concordia University
Allen Copenhaver, Lindsey Wilson College
Mark Coulson, Middlesex University
James C. Coyne, University of Pennsylvania
Whitney DeCamp, Western Michigan University

Paul Delfabbro, University of Adelaide

Robert Andrew Dunn, East Tennessee State University
Malte Elson, Ruhr University Bochum
Peter Etchells, Bath Spa University
Christopher J. Ferguson, Stetson University
Kelly Frailing, Loyola University New Orleans
Isabella Granic, Radboud University Nijmegen
Peter Gray, Boston College
Mark Griffiths, Nottingham Trent University
James Hittner, College of Charleston
Rani Hoff, Yale University School of Medicine
Jerri-Lynn Hogg, Fielding Graduate Institute, Past-President, Division 46 (Media
Psychology and Technology) of the American Psychological Association
Amanda Holmstrom, Michigan State University
James D. Ivory, Virginia Tech
Daniel Johnson, Queensland University of Technology
Daniel Kardefelt-Winther, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Faltin Karlsen, Westerdals Oslo School of Arts, Communication and Technology
Linda Kaye, Edge Hill University
Daniel King, The University of Adelaide
Rachel Kowert, University of Muenster
Julia Kneer, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Jonas, Linderoth, University of Gothenburg
Mike Males, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
Charlotte Markey, Rutgers University
Patrick Markey, Villanova University
Randy McCarthy, Northern Illinois University
Kathryn Mills, University of Oregon
Oana Mitrofan, University of Exeter, UK
Marcus Munaf, University of Bristol
Rune Kristian Nielsen, IT University Copenhagen
Christopher Oswald, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Steven Pinker, Harvard University
Patrick Prax, Uppsala University
Andrew K. Przybylski, University of Oxford
Thorsten Quandt, University of Muenster
Albert Rizzo, University of Southern California
Pamela Rutledge, Media Psychology Research Center, Fielding Graduate Institute
Harold Schechter, City University of New York
Joseph Schwartz, University of Nebraska, Omaha
John Sherry, Michigan State University
Morgan Tear, London School of Economics
Antonius J. van Rooij, Ghent University
June Wilson, Walden University

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