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17A
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
IT TAKES A VILLAGE
275
the study was repeated just two years later, the center
and neglect. The lurid accounts tend to eclipse positive
found that the incidence of television violence had in-
stories about priests and other clergy who help people
creased by 41 percent, with the greatest rise occurring in
come to terms with loss and find meaning in their lives,
news shows. Another recent study found that local news
teenagers who feed the homeless, clean up our parks, and
coverage of murders tripled last year, even though there
help the elderly, and families who pull together in times
was no corresponding rise in the recorded murder rate.
of stress.
The explanation is obvious. News executives are acting
Small wonder, then, that many children grow up skep-
more single-mindedly from the same motive that drives
tical that organized religion can offer guidance and sus-
their colleagues in the entertainment business: violence
tenance, that they or their peers can be a force for good,
sells. Ellen Hume, a senior fellow at the Annenberg
that families can be a lasting source of strength and sta-
Washington Program in Communication Studies, points
bility. The merciless, minute scrutiny of crimes and vic-
out in her recent report, "Tabloids, Talk Radio, and the
tims emphasizes and exaggerates the powerlessness of
Future of News," "News about crime and violence is
individuals, especially in the minds of children, whose
cheap and easy to cover."
own lack of power in the world is all too plain to them.
The exhaustive coverage of violence and bad news in
More insidiously, it undermines their faith in institu-
general contributes to young people's increasing sense of
tions, their belief that individuals can band together for
alienation and to the dysfunctional, antisocial behavior
good as well as for evil.
that accompanies it. Many kids become depressed or
Leonard Eron, a psychology professor at the Univer-
have nightmares because of the barrage of bloodshed
sity of Michigan and a leading expert on the effects of
they see on TV. It numbs them to the pain and destruc-
television, warns: "In the same way television teaches vi-
tiveness of actual violence, encouraging a stance of ironic
olence, it now teaches youngsters that dysfunctional
detachment. At worst, it contributés to what social sci-
families are par for the course." Professor Froma Walsh
éntist George Gerbner has identified as "the mean world
of the University of Chicago echoes him. Consistently
syndrome," where children internalize the negative at-
seeing the sensational way families are portrayed on
tributes of the world as they see it portrayed in the media.
most talk shows and many prime-time programs encour-
Children also learn from television that we prize cele-
ages people to "view their own families through a glass
brity above all else, regardless of how it is achieved. At the
darkly and look for pathologies," even when families are
same time, television may leave them with the impres-
"just trying to cope as well as they can." Such research
sion that people hardly ever do anything good or right
suggests that whatever is provided as a steady diet on
and that few, if any, adults are worthy of respect. We are
television becomes reality in the minds of frequent view-
saturated with stories about priests who molest children,
ers. That's not good news for any family, given what's
gangs of young thugs who vandalize and victimize indis-
currently on the menu.
criminately, and families that are nightmares of abuse
And the menu is expanding. Video games have trans-
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