The Mean World Syndrome Media Violence & the Cultivation of Fear
For years, debates have raged among scholars, politicians, and concerned parents about the effects of media violence on viewers. Too often these debates have fallen into simplistic battles between those who claim that media images directly cause violence and those who argue that activists exaggerate the impact of media exposure.
Based on interviews conducted with George Gerbner before his death in 2005, the film urges us to think about media effects in more nuanced ways. In contrast to behaviorist models that see media violence as causing real-world violence, and limited effects models that question the impact of media altogether, Gerbner encourages us to move outside the frame of this debate to consider how the repetitive stories media tell constitute a pervasive cultural environment - a landscape of ritualized, often violent images that have the power to cultivate how we see and understand the world.
An accessible and provocative introduction to Gerbner's thought and the subject of media influence and media violence.
Running Time
52 mins
Year
2010
Kanopy ID
1041624
Filmmakers
Languages
Subjects
Show More
Related videos
The Killing Screens - Media & the Culture of Violence
Addressing specifically the question of violence and the media, The Killing Screens urges us to think about the effects of the media in new and complex ways. In contrast to the relatively simplistic behaviourist model that media violence causes real-world violence, Gerbner encourages us to think about the psychological, political,…
Tough Guise - Violence, Media & the Crisis in Masculinity
While the social construction of femininity has been widely examined, the dominant role of masculinity has until recently remained largely invisible. Tough Guise is the first educational video to systematically examine the relationship between pop-cultural imagery and the social construction of masculine identities in the U.S. at the dawn of…
Joystick Warriors - Video Games, Violence & the Culture of Militarism
For years, there has been widespread speculation, but very little consensus, about the relationship between violent video games and violence in the real world. Joystick Warriors provides the clearest account yet of the latest research on this issue. Drawing on the insights of media scholars, military analysts, combat veterans, and…
Game Over - Gender, Race & Violence in Video Games
Video and computer games represent a $6 billion a year industry. One out of every ten households in American owns a Sony Playstation. Children who own video game equipment play an average of ten hours per week. And yet, despite capturing the attention of millions of children worldwide, video games…
Violence & Television - with George Gerbner
Violence & Television with George Gerbner: George Gerbner, communication scholar, theorist, teacher, poet, and the founder of cultivation theory, discusses his work which influenced four decades of research on violence and television.
Mind of a Rampage Killer
What makes a person walk into a theater or a church or a classroom full of students and open fire? What combination of circumstances compels a human being to commit the most inhuman of crimes? Can science in any way help us understand these horrific events and provide any clues…
Tough Guise 2 - Violence, Manhood & American Culture
In this highly anticipated update of the influential and widely acclaimed Tough Guise, pioneering anti-violence educator and cultural theorist Jackson Katz argues that the ongoing epidemic of men's violence in America is rooted in our inability as a society to move beyond outmoded ideals of manhood. In a sweeping analysis…
Wrestling with Manhood - Boys, Bullying and Battering
Wrestling with Manhood is the first educational program to pay attention to the enormous popularity of professional wrestling among male youth, addressing its relationship to real-life violence and probing the social values that sustain it as a powerful cultural force. Richly illustrating their analysis with numerous examples, Sut Jhally and…
Beyond Good & Evil - Children, Media & Violent Times
The belief that good triumphs over evil resonates deeply in our psyche through religious, cultural, and political discourses. It is also a common theme in the entertainment media where the struggle between good and evil is frequently resolved through violence. The potential negative impact of media violence on children has…
Militainment, Inc. - Militarism and Pop Culture
Militainment, Inc. offers a fascinating, disturbing, and timely glimpse into the militarization of American popular culture, examining how U.S. news coverage has come to resemble Hollywood film, video games, and "reality television" in its glamorization of war. Mobilizing an astonishing range of media examples - from news anchors' idolatry of…
Hitting Home - A Critical Look into the Domestic Abuse Cycle
In a year dominated by headline stories of domestic violence and the murder of nearly 70 women, award-winning journalist Sarah Ferguson has spent six months on the frontline of a national crisis.
With unprecedented access to courts and safe rooms, domestic abuse programs in prison, forensic doctors and specialised police…
One Hit Leads to Another
The combination of detailed descriptions by abused women and great dramatizations helps both male and female viewers to understand the realities of spousal abuse, what motivates this kind of activity, and reveals the myths that surround it. Low self-esteem, rather than straight anger, is the central causal issue and the…