Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Following highly publicized cases of violence such as the murder of James Bulger, the media effects debate reached a crescendo, with many forms of media routinely scapegoated as the causes of such brutality. This volume challenges conventional notions of effects, questioning not only whether the media is really capable of directly influencing people's views and actions but also whether this form of debates is the most useful way of conceptualizing the relationship between the media and the audience. With chapters drawn from differing viewpoints, covering issues such as the historical development of the effects tradition, the remarkable power of common sense arguments, children's actual responses to media texts, and the orchestration of popular public anxieties about the media, the book provides a re-examination of so-called media effects and the ways in which they are interpreted for public consumption.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Notes
• Introduction
• From bad research to good - a guide for the perplexed
• 1 The Newson Report: a case study in 'commonsense'
• 2 The worrying influence of 'media effects' studies
• 3 Electronic child abuse? Rethinking the media's effects on children
• 4 Living for a libido; or, Child's Play IV: the imagery of childhood and the call for censorship
• 5 Just what the doctors ordered? - Media regulation, education and the 'problem' of media violence
• 6 Once more with feeling: talking about the media violence debate in Australia
• 7 I was a teenage horror fan: or, 'How I learned to stop worrying and love Linda Blair'
• 8 'Looks Like it Hurts': Women's Responses to Shocking Entertainment
• 9 Reservoirs of dogma: an archaeology of popular anxieties
• 10 Us and them
• 11 Invasion of the Internet Abusers: Marketing Fears About the Information Superhighway Thomas Craig and Julian Petley
• 12 On the problems of being a 'trendy travesty' Martin Barker with Julian Petley
• Index