literature-review-the-effects-of-comics-as-a-learning-tool

The Effects of Comics as a Learning Tool: A Literature Review By: Eric Zimmerman Instructor: Christine M Stover COM/SOC 371: Forms and Effects of Mass Communication April 26, 2009 Oakland University Introduction Despite the recent growth of interest in comic books and graphic novels, as seen by the increased readership and explosion of movie adaptations, comics have been, and continue to be, a highly controversial subject Just two years ago for example, in March 2007, when Marvel Comics announced the death of Captain America, there was a public outcry of mixed emotions “Some commentators argued that comic books were becoming too violent,” wrote the article “Comic books and Graphic Novels” (2008) listed in the Issues & Controversies database, “while others praised their increased realism and sophistication.” According to comic expert Scott McCloud, “comics” can be defined as “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer”(McCloud in Berkowitz, Packer, 2001) In 2002, Columbia University launched the Comic Book Project, “a program designed to foster children’s reading and writing skills by encouraging them to create their own comics”(Bitz, 2004) Likewise, in 2004, the Maryland State Department of Education initiated a pilot program to teach reading with comic books (Alvermann, 2005) In addition, according to Leila Christenbury (2006) in her book, Making the Journey: Being and Becoming a Teacher of English Language Arts, “Scholastic, a wellrespected and long established publisher of young adult and other fiction, has launched Graphix, a division devoted solely to graphic novels and has begun the publication of a classic series, Jeff Smith’s funny and appealing Bone.” It’s fairly obvious that this field of research is, although rather new, actually broadening quite rapidly The debates over the merit of comic books and graphic novels as tools for learning have also broadened, and have in turn elicited valid arguments on both sides of the controversy On the one hand, a number of researchers argue that the best comics are both relevant and substantial, and that they are just as deserving of educational recognition as are traditional literatures According to an article by Rocco Versaci (2001) written in The English Journal, comics usually feature complex plots and prominent visual components that have attracted readers both young and old In fact, students who are typically bored by traditional literature find themselves much more disposed to reading comics (Norton, 2003) Perhaps the most prominent argument in support of comics however, is that they frequently incorporate topical social commentary along with intellectually-stimulating concepts (Versaci, 2001) To prove these values, researchers frequently reference Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel, Maus: a Survivor’s Tale, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 Braced with this supplement in their arsenal, many encourage the in-class use of “well-chosen” comics to initiate class discussions about relevant topics, such as racism, social justice, war, and global conflict (Christensen, 2006) As a last defense against the opposition, researchers note that advocates of comic books and graphic novels typically cite critics as oftentimes misunderstanding comics, and that, when viewed in context, seemingly violent and/or sexual images are more than justified (“Comic Books and Graphic Novels,” 2008) On the other hand, since the days of Frederic Wertham’s public condemnation of comic books in the 1950s and the resulting Comic’s Code of Authority seal/stamp of approval, comics have always been subject to much criticism Some researchers contend that comic books and graphic novels are immature, and often too violently and/or sexually explicit for either the classroom, or as a learning tool in general (Grandinetti in “Comic Books and Graphic Novels,” 2008) They argue that comics are usually too crude and unsophisticated to truly provoke students into becoming better readers (Gonzalez, 2006) In all actuality, the heart of the criticism seems to circulate around claims of simplicity and explicit content, labeling comics more as popular entertainment rather than educational devices (Lien-Cooper, 2007) As proof of these claims, critics often cite an incident in 2007 in which a Connecticut high school English teacher assigned his students to read a comic entitled Eight ball #22 When one of the student’s parents noticed what their child was reading, they complained that it was “borderline pornography,” and consequently forced the teacher to resign (Scarborough-King, 2007) Researchers further note that, to committed opponents, comic books are not any bit deserving of serious consideration in an educational environment, and they emphasize that educators should stick to more conventional methods for all purposes of teaching (“Comic Books and Graphic Novels,” 2008) Although research into the field of comics as a learning tool is fairly new, the introduction of comics into the educational community seems to be expanding rapidly The question has since become whether or not comics can be considered a respectable art form of effectually educational value, or if they are simply too violent and/or sexually inappropriate for learning-intensive purposes, such as in classrooms or libraries, especially when considering the potential availability to younger readers Literature Review Developing Visual Literacy Skills with Comics Most researchers agree that comics, specifically those which integrate text in with relative pictorial representations, can serve as a helpful tool for children working to develop visual literacy skills According to Claudia J McVicker (2007) in The Reading Teacher, “Comic strips are a text structure with a story to tell Just as a story in print requires comprehension by the reader, comics require the reader to blend the print and the graphics to comprehend the intended communication.” Even when learning to first read, teachers whether educational or parental typically equip children with picture books, “where text and picture cooperate within a narrative synthesis”(Giorgis et al in McVicker, 2007) In fact, “viewing” has become such an inherent part of our language as humans, that to be considered literate, “students must be taught to ‘read’ visual images in addition to connected text”(Semali in McVicker, 2007) In one analysis for example, researcher Angela Yannicopoulou (2004) conducted a visual literacy study on pre-textually-literate preschoolers in Rhodes, Greece, whereupon the children were “tested on their abilities to recognize certain multimodal conventions common in comics,” such as the relationship between voice volume vs letter size, speech bubbles vs thought bubbles, different alphabets such as hieroglyphics equaling different languages, and finally visual metaphors representing varying emotions The results of the study indicated that the most recognizable visual conventions proved to be “anger indicated by an angular and aggressive speech bubble, the attribution of politeness to a flowery speech bubble, and the increase in volume reflected in the bigger size of letters”(Yannicopoulou, 2004) Although the children seemed to have a slightly more difficult time interpreting the significance of speech vs thought bubbles, they were even more noticeably confused by the visual translation of foreign alphabets indicating the use of a foreign language According to Yannicopoulou (2004), “Preschoolers seemed to understand a great deal about visual language cues even before they know how to read conventional texts, and were familiar with the visual conventions of the form of text in their books and magazines.” In another analysis, a community college English teacher introduced a selection of comic books into his curriculum, and although the test subjects were perceived to have already developed most of their visual literacy skills, many students were reportedly caught “off guard in a positive way, …[leading] students to be more engaged by a given work”(Versaci, 2001) According to Versaci, this engagement can mainly be attributed to the structure of the comics themselves He cites comic books as being able to put a “face” on a subject, allowing students to not only read the characters’ words and thoughts but to actually see their behavioral actions and reactions Furthermore, he adds that, “a comic does not ‘happen’ in the words, or the pictures, but somewhere in-between, in what is sometimes known as ‘the marriage of text and image’”(Sabin in Versaci, 2001) Versaci therefore asserts that reading comics requires a more active participation acknowledging that it is usually of a subconscious nature on the part of the reader, which he calls “closure.” In this process of closure, the reader is forced to connect the text and images together, not only in their respective panels however, but also from one panel to the next, which purportedly “foster[s] an intimacy…between creator and audience”(McCloud in Versaci, 2001) According to Versaci (2001), closure allows readers to “sympathize and empathize with comic book characters in unique ways.” Not all researchers agree, however, that “closure” is a necessarily beneficial process According to Steven Kirsh and Paul Olczak (2002) of the State University of New York, Geneseo, violent scenes in comic books can have an even more adverse effect on readers than, for instance, video games They agree that a process similar to Versaci’s “closure” does occur when reading a comic, however they argue its seemingly positive effect with a detailed example, writing “if one frame depicts a muscular hero swinging an ax toward his crouching enemy, the next frame would show the victim’s head severed from his body, spurting blood Thus, it is up to the reader to visualize that actual decapitation This type of disconnected presentation of information forces the reader to engage his or her imagination and become an active participant in the violence-laden story line”(McCloud in Kirsh, Olczak, 2002) In an analysis, conducted by Colombia University Professor Michael Bitz, deemed The Comic Book Project one of the field’s most prominent experiments instructors were trained by specialists from Teachers College to use comics as a different, unique kind of learning tool Instead of specifically reading comics, students within various after-school education programs were first introduced to the medium, and then asked to create their own comic story arcs so as to demonstrate their respective reading and writing capabilities (Bitz, 2004) Many factors and outcomes were studied and recorded within this experiment, but one of the most notable results was its effect on children with limited English proficiency “Although the children struggled through the manuscript stage, they were able to rely on the pictorial components of the project” wrote Bitz (2004); in fact, “According to the instructors, these children’s manuscripts and comic books represent more writing than they had produced in English class throughout the entire school year.” McVicker (2007) further asserts that, “Using visual literacy with visual representations helps to develop better spatial concepts so readers are not forced to imagine details or descriptions in the text such as size, color or distance.” In effect, comic illustrations serve to broaden and enrich their accompanying textual information (McVicker, 2007) Why Comics Have an Effect Since their inception, comics seem to have always attracted young children, most notably boys Over the years however, the comic business has expanded greatly, and is now a “major presence in the lives of [both] children and adults”(Berkowitz, Packer, 2001) According to art teacher Jay Berkowitz and researcher Todd packer (2001), “Many adults, including teachers, grew up reading comic books, and they form a background for many cultural and visual references.” In fact, as of 2002, the average reader of comics was 24 years old (Duin in Foster, Gerde, 2008), and, “The estimated overall market for comic books in the U.S for 2005 was $400–$450 million dollars”(Miller, Steinberg in Foster, Gerde, 2008) Even more than that however, comic books are further increasing in popularity due to the now countless movie adaptations (Wax in Bitz, 2004) and the rising interest in Japanese animation (Toku in Bitz, 2004) Lockwood Memorial Library’s Business and Management Subject Specialist Michael Lavin (1998) quotes Jan Ballard and Christine Kirby for saying, “Why comic books? Because the kids are reading them Do we need any other justification?” In 2000, the International Reading Association declared that in order to make a difference in educational environments, the education itself must be different (McVicker, 2007) One factor researchers attribute the appeal of comics to is their “definitive attraction for all literacy abilities”(McVicker, 2007) According to C.W Hatfield, comics are “definite text structures for the literate (those who can read, write, and understand); the illiterate (those who cannot read or write but can view comics and possibly comprehend through the visual representation); and the alliterate (those who can read, write, and understand but chose not to, yet are drawn to comics as an enjoyable brief form of reading)”(Hatfield in McVicker, 2007) Comic books and graphic novels not only provide a new/unique medium through which to learn, but, more importantly, they address the impact of visuals (Bucher, Manning, 2004) According to Gretchen Schwarz (2002), comics and graphic novels “appeal to young people, are useful across the curriculum, and offer diverse alternatives to traditional texts as well as other mass media.” In fact, many researchers seem to agree, pointing out their multi-capable functions Bitz (2004) of The Comic Book Project gives one example, saying, “Infuse a comic book story into a grammar exercise, and the children may work on the exercise…at least a few seconds longer.” “I remember looking forward to reading the ‘real’ Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky after I read the Classic Comics version as a child” cites Schwarz (2002), continuing with, “Illustrated classics still exist, such as J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit (1989) and the 2001 translation of Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past: Combray.” Berkowitz and Packer (2001) offer art-related subjects as further examples According to them, “children who like the Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesTM will also be interested in learning about the artists after whom they were named (Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, and Leonardo) Batman fans would be interested to learn that his costume was originally based on a drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci.” They also suggest introducing students to Roy Lichtenstein and Roger Shimomura, whose works were heavily inspired by comics (Berkowitz, Packer, 2001) Aside from multi-subject related capabilities, comics also have multiple effects based on their varying genres According to Weiner, such genres include, “The Superhero Story, The Human Interest Story, Manga (i.e., translated into English), Nonfiction, Adaptations or Spin-offs (e.g., the Star Trek series), and Satire”(Weiner in Schwarz, 2002) English teacher Lila Christenbury (2006) delves deeper into this research, and even offers examples for how each of these respective genres have been effective as learning tools in her classroom; such as using a “superhero story” to compare its characters to classic epic heroes (i.e., Ulysses, Beowulf, King Arthur), deterring students from immediately turning to summary-based tools such as Spark Notes by offering them comic versions of classic literature (Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein), or even contrasting comics with their film or TV counterparts (The Adventures of the League of Extraordinary Gentleman) According to B Wilson, “children discover meaningful dimensions of their worlds when they can explore them through creative arts, including comic books”(Wilson in Bitz, 2004) Educational Effects of Comics According to The Journal of Popular Culture and The Reading Teacher, comics have been used in educational settings within the United States for over 75 years (Dorrell, et al, in McVicker, 2007) Comic books and graphic novels have solid, well-built storylines and usually demonstrate attributes of effectively-written supplemental classroom texts (Daniels, Zemelman, in Christensen 2006) Christensen (2006) even provides a list of these attributes, which includes: important/engaging content, characters we can relate to, a narrative or chronological structure, places we can visualize, danger, conflict, risks or choices, values, moral/ethical or political dimensions, and ideas that can be reasonably discussed In a study more like observed occurrence by Rocco Versaci (2001), he assigned his college-level English students to analyze an excerpt from Debbie Drecshler’s Daddy’s Girl, “a fictional work that follows a girl named Lily through adolescence.” According to Versaci (2001), students were forced to “look at a relatively confined space with such intensity,” that they were able to make “interpretive conclusions about Lily’s life based on Drecshler’s visual style and the interplay between word and picture.” Versaci provides numerous examples of such interpretive conclusions, but in the end interprets his own conclusions, citing his students as having become “more critical viewers.” He uses this term to indicate the effect of it almost becoming secondnature to engage one’s “critical faculties” while interacting with various media, such as movies, TV, video games, and the internet According to Versaci (2001), “Many of my students tell me-sometimes angrily that after one of our class activities they can no longer watch movies or look at magazine advertisements as they did before, and this comment lets me know that I have been doing my job.” This is not the only educational effect that Versaci (2001) recalls however, indicating that, “By using comic books in the classroom, we open up a vital avenue of questions concerning what ‘literature’ is, and in so doing we begin to ‘organize and effect’ important changes in several ways.” The first such change, he explains, is an expansion upon the students’ understanding of the forms and voices of literature According to Versaci (2001), “That is, because comic books are not typically perceived as ‘literary,’ they encourage us to step back and ask larger, important questions about canon formation that sharpen critical thinking skills: What is considered ‘literature’? What is not? Who decides this? What are their interests?” The second change that he asserts is an increased, meaningful participation in classroom discussions, saying, “If asked to critically evaluate a comic book, students might be much more forthcoming with their ideas and opinions than in a discussion of a more ‘traditional’ literary work Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities or Alice Walker's The Color Purple, for instance Too often, students perceive such works as occupying a space above their level of thought”(Versaci, 2001) The final educational effect of comics that Versaci (2001) discusses is teaching students about the dangers of literary presumption, demonstrating to students that, “they must never dismiss a type of work without fully understanding or searching for its possibilities and merits.” Jay Berkowitz, also a school teacher, conducted another informal study with comics and their effect on his students, this time in the subject of art education (Berkowitz in Berkowitz, Packer, 2001) In his study, Berkowitz used works by two different groups of students and had them evaluated by three art judges According to Berkowitz (2001), “While both groups of students received art training using materials from fine art master reproductions, anatomical studies, and photographs, in the experimental group comic books were emphasized as the source material for training.” The students’ works were evaluated on whether or not they expressed a “good grasp” on the following art principles: figure drawing, drawing the face, movement/action, color, and humor Although Berkowitz (2001) admits that the study sample may have been too small for “extensive analysis,” he also states that, “the evaluators tended to pick drawings from the experimental group as ones they liked best, and photos of drawings from the control groups as ones they liked least, based on art principles.” Not all research is indicative of an increase in educational value with respect to interest and humor in comics however In fact, most reader responses are often based on the content of the comic itself (Kirsh, Olczak, 2002) In a study piloted by Kirsh and Olczak (2002), reader reactions were measured through a controlled-environmental rating system in order to compare nonviolent and extremely violent comic book content citing examples such as Homicide, Spawn, and Evil Ernie On a 7-point Likert-type scale, zero being not at all and seven being as much as possible, the highest ratings of interest resulted with females who had read the nonviolent comic books and males who had read the extremely violent comic books, with average ratings of 4.2 and 4.1 respectively (Kirsch, Olczak, 2002) Interestingly enough, almost every reader of either comic book was still able to accurately rate the amount of violence/aggression they were subjected to, with an average rating of 2.15 for the nonviolent comic books and 6.55 for the extremely violent variety (Kirsh, Olczak, 2002) Another measured quality was humor, a characteristic which Berkowitz (2001) used as an educational value in his classroom study According to the results, the two extreme ratings were left to the females, with a 1.7 for the extremely violent comic book readers and a 3.6 barely exceeding the halfway mark for the nonviolent readers (Kirsh, Olczak, 2002) In their study, Kirsh and Olczak (2002) also explain and reference other research as to the effects of the exposure to violence, indicating their agreement with the common perception that exposure to extreme violence elicits hostile behavior Nevertheless, going back to Versaci (2001) for a second, he claimed that, “A common goal, regardless of the level we teach, is to help students read beyond the page in order to ask and answer deeper questions that the given work suggests about art, life, and the intersection of the two.” One outcome of The Comic Book Project, according to Bitz (2004), was the surprising accomplishment of such a goal “While professional comic books have traditionally been focused on superheroes, science fiction, and fantasized stories,” wrote Bitz (2004), “many of the children’s [self-made] comic books were based on the hard reality of living in an inner-city environment.” In fact, many of the children’s stories were very adult-oriented, writing about themes such as drug abuse, gang violence and harsh family situations, and sometimes even creating “very sad, yet very real conclusions”(Bitz, 2004) At the end of The Comic Book Project, each student and instructor was asked to complete a one-page survey focusing on its perceived impact According to Bitz, when asked if the students were getting better at writing as a result of The Comic Book Project, 86% of the students responded “agree” or “strongly agree” to the statement, and 90% of the instructors responded in kind Another goal, and consequently effect, of The Comic Book Project was to meet the New York State Learning Standards for English Language Arts, which includes reading, writing, and speaking for: information and understanding, literary response and expression, critical analysis and evaluation, and social interaction (Bitz, 2004) Bitz continues this portion of the results with a very detailed analysis of how this experiment successfully managed to meet each of these standards, stating for example, “The reading and writing components for all four standards were achieved through their introductory activities, comic book manuscripts, and final comic book productions The listening and speaking components were achieved through class discussions and group work”(Bitz, 2004) Similar to Bitz, George W Chilcoat (1993) also conducted research on the effects of student-generated comic books, but Chilcoat specifically focused on its use for teaching about the Civil Rights movement According to Chilcoat (1993), “As an inquiry technique to teach history, the comic book allows students to take verbal-linear-analytical information from various primary and secondary resources and, through a visual-aesthetic-creative means, construct this information into personal interpretations and conclusions.” Through his research, Chilcoat analyzes and presents what is, to him, an effective method for introducing and using studentgenerated comics within the classroom He also cites two specific educational effects that this project creates: a promising teaching technique, and a creative outlet, which, according to Chilcoat (1993), “can stimulate students’ curiosity about the past, … [And] help students to put historical facts into perspective and to understand the relationship of these facts to other historical events.” Comics as a Motivational and Cultural Text Structure Many researchers seem to agree that comic books and graphic novels have, over the years, been a successfully motivational learning tool, towards one behavioral change or another-most often reporting an increase in recreational readership According to McVicker (2007), “Comics help motivate disengaged readers offering an ingenious hook to reading that can ultimately bridge their literary interests to more conventional text structures.” McVicker (2007) asserts that struggling readers often associate literary mediums with negativity, and that through comic books which are, “humorous, visual, and limited in text” such struggling readers have often been able to build confidence in their reading capabilities because of the resulting positive/successful reading experience In fact, in her classroom, McVicker (2007) observed that “[when] able to work humor into our day, the learning load was lightened and the students were motivated to learn.” McVicker (2007) further asserts that, in educational environments, comics are typically used for the purpose of “motivating young readers to become recreational readers, enabling them to expand their vocabulary knowledge, to engage their imaginations, and to inspire a love of reading.” Referencing S Krashen, McVicker (2007) continues, adding that, “free voluntary reading is the most effective tool available for increasing a child’s ability to read, write, spell, and comprehend.” One perhaps well known example of this lies with Garfield cartoonist Jim Davis, who for 25 years reported that parents had informed him of their child’s learning to read thanks to his comic strip (McVicker, 2007) Elementary school teacher Bonny Norton (2003) conducted a study in British Colombia, Canada, to determine the “motivating power of comic books,” specifically concerning Archie comics among children For her research, Norton (2003) perfected her survey/interview technique regarding the topic, and proceeded to directly question Archie comics’ readers between the ages of approximately 9-12 to determine their appeal and effect After interacting with the declared subjects, Norton (2003) came to a few conclusions, stating, “My study suggests that the pleasure children derive from comics in general, and Archie comics in particular, is associated with a sense of ownership of text.” Norton (2003) continues by comparing this ownership of text with the lack thereof in regards to “proper books,” discussing how the unequal hierarchy of the teacher-student, and even parent-student relationship has zapped the pleasure from “authorized literacy practices” by forcing a focus on appropriate analysis, criticism, high grades, and public praise Norton (2003) also adds that, “we need a better understanding of why it is that educators are frequently dismissive of comics in general and Archie comics more specifically,” further calling for more research Returning to McVicker (2007) for a second, she points out that, “Due to the ease and access of information gathering on the internet, children must have visual literacy skills to comprehend The World Wide Web is the library of the future, and we must prepare students to understand it, just as we taught them to read books for information in the past.” Likewise, Norton (2003) seems to agree, stating, “The written word, while still important, is only one of the many semiotic modes that children encounter in the different domains of their lives Hypertext, CD-ROM, and the internet are becoming increasingly important.” In short, both McVicker (2007) and Norton (2003) argue that comics are capable of acting as a text structure for both motivating and helping students learn to read in a multi-media dominated world However, both Michael Bitz, Colombia University professor, and Carol Jago, Los Angeles English teacher, understand and value the motivational appeal of comics, but they not recommend ever letting them serve as replacements to “hard texts” (Jago in Alvermann, 2005) According to Jago, “I worry tremendously that if we bring stuff like this into the schools for low-level students, but everybody else reads regular texts, aren’t we creating a two-level system? If we’re giving students a comic book version of their English class [book], something’s wrong And that is a danger Nobody is going to bring comic books into an Advanced Placement class” (Jago in Alvermann, 2005) Nevertheless, other researchers disagree, such as PhD student R Spencer Foster and assistant professor Virginia W Gerde (2008), who acknowledges that although the primary source of comic book motivation is spent on “junior readers,” this is not always the case In fact, Foster and Gerde (2008) cite University of Minnesota professor Kakalios for reporting that, “his college physics students prefer comic book problems to the oversimplified, out-of-context textbook problems For example, it is more intriguing to determine the power and lift required for Superman to fly than calculations for the effect of friction on a moving block.” The main focus of Foster and Gerde’s article however, is the teaching of ethics with the popular Marvel series X-Men, specifically in relation to the business world Foster and Gerde (2008) explain that, “Students explore what scope the characters consider in their decision-making: themselves, the team or immediate group, or society In the New X-Men: e is for extinction, characters have to deal with their own ambitions and wants, the mission of the team, and the survival of a species.” They also note that, although it is easy to point out and compare superheroes to value ethics, more subtle themes often exist, such as “consequentialism and deontology.” According to Foster and Gerde (2008), “As a mature literary form, comic books communicate ideas and concerns about universal topics – ethical behavior, the role of organizations, and the institutions of business and government We can use these modern narratives to discuss ethical decisionmaking and the social issues impacting management today.” They end their research by staking out comics’ ability to “capture students’ attention, exercise the moral imagination, and improve our understanding of the roles and impacts of business”(Foster and Gerde, 2008) Conclusion Surprisingly enough or not, the effect of comic books and graphic novels as educational learning tools is still a fairly new field of research Much of what does exist in the field is primarily qualitative, and seemingly persuasion-oriented In researching this topic I expected to find almost all unbiased studies, and yet almost every scholarly article available appeared to be trying to convince its reader of either comics’ rightful appraisal or necessary condemnation Nevertheless, this could also likely be attributed to each researcher’s actual conclusive findings In the end however, most researchers seemed to agree that appropriate comics, used in the correct educational manner, can act as a highly successful learning tool From visual literacy and engaging structures to motivational and cultural developments, comics are, without a doubt, an up-and-coming educational medium Just as comic books and graphic novels are rising to the top of the learning toolbox, so too is the research surrounding it Personally, I predict that a major increase in studies, which has very-well already started, will soon explode out of the gates and eventually rival its sister studies in comic book violence Although I hope that these researchers may someday come to a relatively wide-spread conclusion, I also understand that the current media holds most of the “changing” power over our culture including the educational aspects Therefore, with such great power, it should come as the media’s great responsibility to publicly encourage the results of past, present and future researchers; although I’m sure that’s as likely as surviving a radioactive spider-bite, right? 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