Studies of Media Influence on Youth

The Photoplay: A Psychological Study published 1916
the mind creates depth and movement from movie images
"the soul longs for the whole interplay" of spatial and temporal dimensions
audience feelings are heightened, concentrated, enlarged with a "high degree of their suggestibility during those hours in the dark house."
power of movies to speed up the action, simplify social conflicts
audience may emulate crime and violence or may do good
The allure of movie power evident when Chaplin, Fairbanks, Pickford visited Chicago school, the "electrical, wonderful grasp" of the celebrities over children and teachers
Supreme Court 1915 upheld right of states to censor movies

William Short obtained grant from Payne Fund for 4-year study 1929-32
to be a weapon in the cultural struggle for social control by guardians of tradition
19 psychologists and sociologists from 7 universities - 12 research tasks
9 reports pblished 1933, 2 more by 1935
University of Iowa study - electrodes on children's bodies during love-making scenes
Herbert Blumer in his Movies and Conduct "put forward the most far-reaching hypothesis about the impact of movies on American society."
Blumer used student autobiographies - a boy "learned to kiss a girl on her ears, neck, and cheeks, as well as on the mouth" - a girl learned movie stars kissed with eyes closed - romance is something that happens quickly - "I kiss and pet much more than I would otherwise"
movies had "a profound effect upon fantasy life" - dreams and passions far removed from reality
Movies and Conduct "provided the most effective propaganda against the movies."
Henry James Forman wrote summary volume Our Movie-Made Children, argued that movies were a "gigantic educational system"

1953 study by Frederic Wertham of influence of crime comic books on youth, the result of 7 years investigation funded by National Research Council
"In some of the crime comic books kids pick up ideas. . . plenty of sex. They show you unexposed [sic] women, men beating up girls and breaking their arms. The fellows see that and they want to try it." - 15-year old girl (p. 73)

comic book ca. 1950