The San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish & Community Research did a survey after The Passion that indicated the film made viewers less likely to hold Jews responsible for the death of Jesus. In a news release, the Institute argued that the movie may have had a positive effect on Jewish-Christian dialogue by prompting discussions. Contact through the Institute’s website.

Read the results of a 15-year longitudinal study released in March 2003 by University of Michigan researchers who found that children’s viewing of violent television shows, their identification with aggressive characters and their perception that TV violence is realistic were linked to later aggression as young adults.

Read a statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics on the impact of violence on children. It states that the average American child watches as much as 28 hours of television a week and that viewing violence can lead to emotional desensitization, to a perception that the world is a mean and violent place, and to children […]

Linda Kintz is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Oregon in Eugene. She co-edited the book Media, Culture and the Religious Right (University of Minnesota Press, 1998).

Stewart M. Hoover is a professor of journalism at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is an expert on religion and popular culture, focusing on how many people use popular culture to make sense of life in a way religion once was used.

William D. Romanowski is a professor of communication arts and sciences at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. He wrote Pop Culture Wars: Religion and the Role of Entertainment in American Life and Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture.

John P. Ferré is associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. His focus is on media, religion and culture. He is the editor of Channels of Belief: Religion and American Commercial Television (Iowa State University Press, 1990).

Kathleen S. Lowney is a professor of sociology at Valdosta State University in Georgia. She has written about television talk shows and morality.

Paul Levinson is a professor in Fordham University’s department of communication and media in New York.