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 childrenÂ…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......
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