ABSTRACT
Media violence is unquestionably the most thoroughly studied and hotly debated media effects topic. Public controversy over the issue waxed and waned in salience over the second half of the 20th century, reemerging in full force during the 1990s. Renewed interest in the problem was due in part to the apparent escalation of violence in both media entertainment and news outlets, and in part to the furor over the increasing number of prominently publicized school shootings in the United States.
