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The Impact Of Media Effects And Receptionstudies On Censorship Laws

Reception and effects studies have had varying degrees of influence in generating change to media censorship laws over the last half decade. Effects studies, in general, have proved more influential than reception studies. However, for the most part all studies have only had the capacity to instigate new, or amend old, legislation and regulation if they reflect the most prominent public opinion or correspond with the governing political party's ideology.

Around fifty years ago, effects studies did influence censorship laws. From the beginning of the 1950s, many academics including Clara Logan (1950 cited in Klapper 1960:140) believed that media effects were a matter of rational thought. "Common sense tells us crime is not for children…we should protect children from these crime programs just as we protect them from physical danger." That affirmed what the majority of the public already believed, according to a 1994 United States Gallup survey (Bogart 1956 cited in Klapper 1960:135). The survey suggested that 70% of adults interviewed at least partially blamed crime comic books, television programs and radio shows for what was seen as an ‘upsurgeance in juvenile delinquency'. Effects studies, coupled with growing public concern, inspired more research into the effects of the media. The Report of the New York State Joint Legislative Committee to Study the Publication of Comics (1955 cited in Klapper 1960:137) presented much anecdotal evidence on media effects, including the story of a boy with no previous record, who planned and accosted a woman, taking lead from a pocket book. The Report presented this as "…additional evidence of the link between juvenile delinquency and the publication, distribution, and sale…" of crime and horror literature, reason for tighter censorship laws.

Whilst Australia had scarce effects research of its own, foreign studies still carried significance and influence on Australian laws. The establishment of the Commonwealth Film...