Elizabeth Thoman

In the following viewpoint, taken from testimony before a U.S. Senate committee, Elizabeth Thoman argues that media literacy education can be an effective antidote to the negative social effects of media violence. She advocates programs that teach students of all ages to critically view and assess the media images they perceive, to distinguish between real and staged violence, and to make informed choices about what they read, hear, and see. Such education, Thoman asserts, will counteract the harmful lessons she believes many television programs teach about violence. In addition, she contends, media literacy education could raise future public support for reforms in America’s mass media institutions that might reduce the amount of media violence they produce. Thoman is the founder and director of the Center for Media...