A colleague who's a recent Ph.D. in Communication passes on this message on the topic: "Perhaps the best collection of work that has come out in the last five years is an edited book called Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research. It is probably the best single collection of work on media effects. The book is edited by some of the best people in the discipline. In regard to catharsis theory, a man by the name of Seymore Feschbach studied it long ago (1960-1975 or around there). He is a psychologist who claims to have found a cathartic effect when viewing aggressive television. However, his research has been questioned and nobody really thinks this takes place. It really is not studied now. Perhaps the person who has written the most in opposition to Feschbach is another psychologist by the name of Leonard Berkowitz. He studies the theory of priming and uses aggressive movies as his stimulus." Jim Marsden Bryant College ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu