Trade magazine or scholarly articles

Comstock, G. (2008). A sociological perspective on television violence and aggression. American Behavioral Scientist, 51(8), 1184-1211.

Comstock, a professor of communication at Syracuse University, examines sociological effects including one's predisposition regarding media and violence. The article also analyzes the size of what some people consider effects and others do not. Comstock states that media have a great influence on society and that media causation is a factor. This is from a scholarly journal and is well-written and well-researched. A journalist would have a great source that looks as social factors that go beyond the normal debate. This is a different perspective that would be very useful to a journalist.


Eyal, K., Metzger, M., Lingsweiler, R., & Mahood, C. (2006). Aggressive political opinions and exposure to violent media. Mass Communication and Society, 9(4), 399-428

All the authors involved in this scholarly work are professors at esteemed universities. In their work, they look at how people's exposure to violent media compares to their aggressive political opinions. They attempt to find any connection between people who use violent media and also are in favor of using force for political solutions. The study showed that violent televisionexposure led to people being more likely to have aggressive and violent political views. Violent video games did not produce the same results, however. This source would be good because it asserts there is a difference between violent video games and television. A journalist could use this to connect political opinions to his or her story, which would add to the breadth of the article.


Browne, K. D. (2005). The influence of violent media on children and adolescents: A public-health approach. Lancet, 365(9460), 702-710.

Browne works at the Centre for Forensic and Family Psychology, and in this article, he argues that media have only a short-term effect on children, a small or little effect on older people and no long-term effects on anyone. He also says that there is only weak evidence that supports a connection between media violence and crime. Browne's article is a good source because it brings up a new approach: public health. He offers to a journalist an investigation into the difficulties of proving causation and the inconsistencies of correlation.