Citation

Ferguson CJ. Am. Psychol. 2014; 69(3): 307-309.

Affiliation

Stetson University.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/a0036357

PMID

24750087

Abstract

Replies to comments made by Hoffman (see record 2014-13696-011) and Bushman and Pollard-Sacks (see record 2014-13696-012) on the author's original article, "Violent video games and the Supreme Court: Lessons for the scientific community in the wake of Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association" (see record 2013-04752-001). Ferguson appreciates their thoughtful tone and hopes that this exchange may serve as a model for dialogue in this area to come. In this response Ferguson's identifies some continued areas of disagreement but also aims to sketch out some early ideas for how we might move this area of research forward. Ferguson concludes by saying that he believes we can move past debates on media violence and that scholars on both sides of the issue must be part of this advancement. We can't be satisfied with the way things were, particularly as new data emerge to reveal ways in which our thinking can be improved. This does not mean we should lambast the past, but neither should we reify it. It is time to move forward with a more sophisticated perspective on media effects that focuses less on moral objections to certain content and more on media consumers and their motivations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Language: en