How Does Violent Media Affect Youth?

A pivotal addition to the In Controversy series, Szumski and Karson’s text [How Does Violent Media Affect Youth?] renders an exasperating indecision on the consequences of too much violent fantasy on behavior. The authors survey an apples-and-oranges mix of themes—suicide, sexuality, firearms, justifiable violence—in a broad span of media, from television news to rap music and American and Japanese video games. Persistent second-guessing of v-chips and cinema ratings lapses into a limp conclusion that children should learn critical thinking.

Patricia D. Netzley’s definitive How Serious a Problem Is Cyber-bullying? adheres to a sensible outline. Chapters advance from real cases to retaliation by victims and tracking of cyber-victimizers by police. Sidebars featuring one-line summations by a young adult author, a blogger, and President Barack Obama lend strength to the book’s condemnation of hate crimes and endorsement of zero tolerance zones. Netzsky’s text for Is Online Addiction a Serious Problem? presents subtopics, for example “mood changes” and “addictive personalities,” as starting points for gauging dangers from overexposure to the Internet. Subject development isolates the fallacies in Facebook formatting that heighten envy and self-defeat; the author implies that young followers of social media should cultivate skepticism as to the purpose and value of regular posting. Chapter five proposes methods for treating individual imbalance, particularly sleep deprivation and school drop-outs. A pivotal addition to the In Controversy series, Szumski and Karson’s text renders an exasperating indecision on the consequences of too much violent fantasy on behavior. The authors survey an apples-and-oranges mix of themes—suicide, sexuality, firearms, justifiable violence—in a broad span of media, from television news to rap music and American and Japanese video games. Persistent second-guessing of v-chips and cinema ratings lapses into a limp conclusion that children should learn critical thinking.—Mary Ellen Snodgrass.