Scholarly Milestones Essay

Abstract

This article is designed to fill a void in the analysis of political forces operative in the study of media effects, generally, and of mediated violence in particular (e.g., Bogart, 1972; Einsiedel, 1988; Paletz, 1988; Rowland, 1983; Wilcox, 1987). Its distinctive aspect is my personal involvement in the political struggles that surrounded the work of the 1968-69 Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence (the Eisenhower Commission) in my role as Codirector of the Media and Violence Task Force. The first sections are written from my perspective after the fact, and the middle sections are written more to communicate the specific ways in which political forces intrude on the process of writing commission reports. The concluding sections raise questions about the questions that have driven inquiry into media and violence.