ABSTRACT
The history of research on media violence is frequently punctuated by new movies or TV programs that either push the envelope of violent content or attract attention because of their presumed “copy-cat” effects on some members of the audience. The fact that this trend continues unabated well into the new century may be disconcerting to some scholars who are concerned about the impact of media violence on societybut it probably reveals that the appetite for violent entertainment is relatively impervious to change. We opened the chapter in the previous edition of this volume by calling attention to the public controversy surrounding a violent movie made in Japan (Battle Royale). Japan’s education minister, Nobutaka Machimura, called for theater owners to refrain from showing this movie because of its possible harmful effects on the nation’s youth (Schaefer, 2000). As we seek here to update the scholarship on media violence, it is also worth noting some of the most recent media exemplars that have sparked controversy.
