Articles > Interview With Amy Hornblas
How did you become interested in media and media literacy?
As the Youth Services Coordinator at a small sexual and domestic violence agency, my job includes working with children who have experienced violence, as well as educating youth about violence prevention. I soon discovered that the impressions young people have about violence are incorrect and come largely from the screens they spend so much time in front of at home. During a classroom presentation a youth in the classroom would raise their hand and say “I saw a show about domestic violence once. This woman was beaten up by her husband, and when she tried to get away he chased her down…” The student would tell me the whole gruesome story and as they did the fear and anxiety they were feeling would fill their face. I asked each student who told me about such a show “Was there an adult in the room with you when you were watching this?” The child almost always said yes. “Did the adult say anything to you about the show you were watching?” The child always said no. This scenario, which is played out every day in homes across America, is very disturbing to me. Without discussion, watching scenes of violence on the screen make their own insidious impressions on people’s brains.
It makes me very sad to think that we are exposing young people to so much violence. I was noticing the same effects in the youth who watched violence on television as I was trained to look for in youth who are exposed to domestic violence at home. I also noticed that youth who are exposed to domestic violence often have an appetite for very violent television programming. I call this the “double-whammy” effect because the screen violence they are watching not only helps to drown out the real-life violence, but it also normalizes violence as an acceptable response to life’s stresses. Parents who are living with violence are themselves desensitized and tend to expose their children to violent television programming without thinking anything of it.
Due to all of the issues listed above, I felt that I had to start addressing media violence directly if I was going to be able to make any progress in the areas of violence prevention.
What drew you to the particular topic you specialize in?
My professional focus is on sexual and domestic violence. I had been noticing for years that the media tends to glamorize, sensationalize, and sexualize violence against women. As our media becomes more violent I began to notice how much of this kind of programming is making its way into children’s media. I work a lot with parents and was surprised by how many adults are so desensitized themselves that they think nothing of letting their small children watch horror movies and crime shows such as CSI and Cops. I began talking with young people about what they were watching and discovered that their young, impressionable brains are taking very dangerous meanings from such shows. I also saw that violent media was causing them to be more afraid, desensitized, and aggressive.
Once I began to do some research I learned that the effects of violent media have been well researched and that we understand quite a bit about how these images and stories can influence our brains. I attended a conference with Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and he suggested that “somebody needs to write a children’s book” about these effects so that we can begin to teach children about it, the same way we teach children about the effects of cigarettes. That is just what I began to do. I spent three years researching and developing the book while also bringing the material into classrooms and after-school programs in order to try it out on young people. As a result, This Is Your Brain on Television developed into a school program which I present to students around Vermont. The results have been amazing.
Why is it so important for young people to understand the effects of media, especially television?
Young people are so used to screen media that they usually forget to think critically about it. It’s like the air they breathe. My favorite groups to work with are 6th graders because they are just beginning to look at the world around them and question their own culture. This Is Your Brain on Television walks them through the history of screen media, how our brains work, and what different parts of our brains think about the television (with a focus on violence and stereotyping). It is pretty simple for them to understand it if it is presented in this way.
Youth need to become critical of what they are watching because, for the most part, they are being sold dangerous lifestyles in the name of profits. I happen to love television and movies, but I am disappointed by most of what I see in the commercial market. Producers of mainstream media use a lot of violence and sexual attraction in order to hold our attention and make more profits. The fact that their decisions are based on profits, not content, is very important for youth to understand. I encourage youth to seek out non-commercial media in order to get broader perspectives, as well as to get involved in making media themselves. Imagine what television could be like if it wasn’t driven only by profits!
What can parents do to help children better understand the media their children consume?
Some simple things to keep in mind are:
• Young people think the action on the screen is real. Be choosey about what you watch when they are in the room.
• Children are often frightened by things you would not expect them to be frightened of because you are older and your experience makes you less sensitive. To help avoid nightmares and unreasonable fears, avoid showing young people intense or violent shows. Once a child has seen something, they may not be able to get it out of their mind. Words will not reason with their survival brains, so instead try to distract them with comforting activities.
• Remember that our brains consider the people on the screen to be role-models! Pay attention to how the characters are treating each other in the show a child is watching. If you don’t want the child to copy the behavior, then limit how much they watch others on TV doing it.
• Plan your viewing time. Make TV time more like going to the movies. Plan what you want to watch ahead of time instead of “surfing” or watching whatever comes on next. Watch the show you chose, then turn it off and get active.
• TV does our thinking for us. It does not give our brains much time to think for themselves. Therefore it is a good idea to spend much more time wiggling and giggling and thinking our own thoughts. Boredom is good for our brains! It lets them wander and process, create and digest. Let children practice being bored. It does take practice, but children have been doing it forever and will actually thrive if allowed to be bored more often.
• The meaning a child gets from what they are watching is often very different from what you are getting out of it. Talk with children about what they are watching and what it means to them. This will help you explain misunderstandings and make choices about what they watch in the future.
What is one of the biggest cultural changes you've seen in your lifetime in terms of media?
I watched tons of TV growing up. It was always on. We were the first family on the block to get MTV. At the time I didn’t think about it critically. While the shows were sexist and violent back then, I can definitely see that the content has gotten more severe over time. What used to be said in innuendo and would therefore go right over my head when I was younger, now is not only said outright but also shown visually.
The combination of sex and violence has also gotten much worse. What is really disturbing to me is the fact that all these images and stories are going into people’s brains without thinking critically about them at all. Now when I show people a video clip of a real survivor of violence, someone who is strong and maybe even smiling as they recount their acts of bravery in the face of violence, young people say that “she can’t be a real victim because she doesn’t look like one.” I see survivors every day and they don’t look like the screaming, crying, tied and bound women I see nightly on TV. We are not telling the truth about violence when we show it in the mainstream media, and it is confusing people’s ideas about what the truth is.
It seems to me that during the 1980’s and 90’s there was an interest in exploring differences, and men were being encouraged to stretch their definition of manhood. The mainstream media had shows which explored these themes and they were popular! Now it seems to be a sink to the bottom, with the lowest common denominator winning out. Every show I see is full of sexism, and common-man ideas about intelligence, beauty, and values. And every week it seems to get worse. I’d like to see something better coming out of OUR airwaves.
