A lot of atrocities, from the mundane to the extreme, are portrayed in fiction, and always have been. If you’d like to have it otherwise, you’ll have to throw out nearly all great literature (and, as I already said, most major religious texts). But we can not simply assume that consuming depictions of harmful behaviors in fictional materials makes people more susceptible to them in reality. And all the biased efforts over the years to link violent pop culture with violent behavior over the years have utterly failed to produce any persuasive evidence in favor of their arguments. Once again, if you have uncovered radical new insights in behavioral psychology that might convince a rational person otherwise, then please – present them.

The paper accompanying the research does specify that they chose the 129 highest-grossing films within the PG and PG-13 sample, and all G-Rated films regardless of rating, but it does not at any point say that they omitted R-rated films for viewership reasons. Considering that they chose the label “family films,” and used “Children’s Shows” as a counterpoint, it is pretty clear that their choice was actually based on an interest in exploring the gender imbalance in entertainment for young viewers.

Their concern about the shortage of positive female role models in children’s entertainment is perfectly valid, and their data are relevant to that point. But the data are not as relevant to a discussion on the viewing habits and options of adults.

In all likelihood, we have far more agreements than disagreements on the portrayal of women in entertainment. But of all the approaches we could take to addressing that, I find dismissing an entire medium as though it were monolithic to be about the least constructive imaginable.

The author does a thorough content analysis and uses bibliography to suggest Twilight is **potentially** damaging. He or she proposes ways for its influence to be researched. For those who don’t have time to read the full paper, it’s even in the abstract:

“In conclusion, I identify the potential negative influence of the romanticism of violence for youth, considering the high rates of victimization and little education they receive on the subject.”

The only problem with following the author up on their suggestions for further research is that using their paper as a guide paves the way for a high likelihood of confirmation bias. My only quibble with the paper is that the writer makes great use of a bibliography and personal arguments to argue for Twilight’s potential negative influence, and no bibliography or personal considerations that argues against it.
I wouldn’t make this criticism if the paper was a literary analysis, but as sociology, it could be more balanced.

But hey, I stopped watching TV years ago…

http://aladinrc.wrlc.org/bitstream/handle/1961/9164/Bannar,%20Kyrie%20-%20Spring%20'10.pdf?sequence=1

The paper is about the romanticism of teen dating violence with a focus on Twilight, and how reading books like these affects adolescents who read it. It goes over every possible bad message that can be found in Twilight, and cites how things in pop culture cause damage.