In the recent years bullying has come into the limelight, particularly when it involves children. With the formation of anti-bullying groups and celebrity campaigns, the tough to discuss subject seems to have found an outlet for awareness.

At Iowa State, one psychology professor took a look at bullying and tried to see the link between violent media and children aggression or if there is one at all.

Douglas Gentile, associate professor of psychology, did a study to find out how violent media (such as TV shows, video games, etc.) has an effect a child’s tendency to violence. Gentile took short term longitudinal studies and surveyed children and teachers at the beginning and end of the school year.

“From the surveys, we’ve noticed that kids with more risk factors [such as watching violent shows] got into fights more often than others that didn’t have as much risk factors,” he said.

But what’s interesting isn’t just what they found in the study.

“What surprised me was the greatly polarized responses we got when we publish [the study], and people took it to an extreme,” Gentile said. “Some people wanted to ban video games, and some said the research was crap, and there was no effect. Then when I related it to bullying, no one made those negative claims, so people treat the media as a special sort of tool, when in fact, the media really have more influence than any other sources.”

Gentile said this effect can be modified, and if parents are more involved in what they allow their children to watch, the effects can be greatly reduced.

“So the only real difference with the media is that we can actually control how much of it children consume,” Gentile said. “If we pretend media has a special status, we don’t do it any good in controlling it.”

As for what Gentile has in mind next, he’s thinking of taking things to a bigger scale and doing some studies with media and its effects in Europe and Asia. Along with that, he also wants to research into how good educational TV really is.

“It’s much more powerful than people think,” Gentile said. “Beer ads are more effective than we think, too, so the focus is when does this media have positive/negative effects, and how can we use it for good.”