This definitive examination of this important social topic asks questions such as: How much media violence is there? What are the meanings conveyed in the way violence is portrayed? What effect does it have on viewers?Divided into four parts, the book covers: a review of research on media violence; re-conceptions of exisiting theories of media violence; addresses the need to rethink the methodological tools used to assess media violence; and introduces the concept of Lineation Theory, a perspective for thinking about media violence and a new theoretical approach explaining it.
Provocative collection of essays designed to give students an understanding of media representations of women's experience of violence and to educate a new generation to recognize and critique media images of women
Why is there so much violence portrayed in the media? What meanings are attached to representations of violence in the media? Can media violence encourage violent behaviour and desensitize audiences toreal violence? Does the ‘everydayness’ of media violence lead to the ‘normalization’ of violencein society? Violence and the Media is a lively and indispensable introduction to current thinkingabout media violence and its potential influence on audiences.Adopting a freshperspective on the ‘media effects’ debate, Carter and Weaver engage with a host ofpressing issues around violence in different media contexts - including news, film,television, pornography, advertising and cyberspace.The book offers a compellingargument that the daily repetition of media violence helps to normalize and legitimizethe acts being portrayed. Most crucially, the influence of media violence needs to beunderstood in relation to the structural inequalities of everyday life. Using a widerange of examples of media violence primarily drawn from the American and Britishmedia to illustrate these points, Violence and the Media is a distinctive and revealingexploration of one of the most important and controversial subjects in cultural andmedia studies today.
The influence of the media remains a contentious issue. Every time a particularly high-profile crime of violence is committed, there are those who blame the effects of the media. The familiar culprits of cinema, television, video and rock music, have now been joined, particularly in the wake of the massacre at Columbine High, by the Internet and the World Wide Web. Yet, any real evidence that the media do actually have such negative effects remains as elusive as ever and, consequently, the debate about effects frequently ends up as being little more than strident and rhetorical appeals to 'common sense'. Ill Effects argues that the question of media influence needs to be debated by those with a clearer understanding of how audiences and media interact with one another. Analysing the failure of the effects approach to understand both the modern media and their audiences, this second edition examines the influence of the effects tradition in America, the United Kingdom, Australia and Europe as well as the role of the British Board of Film Classification. Contributors examine the increasing number of stories about the alleged ill effects of the Internet and enquire whether this is a prelude to, and a crude attempt to legitimise, the imposition of tighter controls on new media. Ill Effects is a guide for the perplexed. It suggests new and productive ways in which we can understand the effects of the media and questions why many in media education accept a simple interpretation of the effects debate, particularly at times of moral panic. Refusing to adopt the absurd position that the media have no influence at all, Ill Effects reconceptualises the notion of media influence in ways which take into account how people actually use and interact with the media in their everyday lives. Martin Barker, Sara Bragg, David Buckingham, Tom Craig, David Gauntlett, Patricia Holland, Annette Hill, Mark Kermode, Graham Murdoch, Julian Petley, Sue Turnbull.
Graphic Violence provides an innovative introduction to the relationship between violence and visual media, discussing how media consumers and producers can think critically about and interact with violent visual content. It comprehensively surveys predominant theories of media violence and the research supporting and challenging them, addressing issues ranging from social learning, to representations of war and terrorism, to gender and hyper-masculinity. Each chapter features original artwork presenting a story in the style of a graphic novel to demonstrate the concepts at hand. Truly unique in its approach to the subject and medium, this volume is an excellent resource for undergraduate students of communication and media theory as well as anyone interested in understanding the causes and effects of violence in media.
When someone brings up the subject of violent video games, it's usually for one of two reasons: a) To insist that media violence is turning our kids into killers, or b) To deny that media have any effects on us and to call anyone who says otherwise a moral crusader.Like most complex issues, the effects of media violence aren't so black-and-white. This book cuts through the rhetoric and grandstanding to directly answer the questions that parents, gamers, and researchers have. Condensing more than 50 years worth of scientific research into a easy-to-read book that provides clear, practical answers, the authors also "show their work" with detailed explanations and scientific references for those who want that level of detail. Written in an FAQ format, this book is the first of its kind: A handy reference guide that bridges the gap between media researchers and those who want scientifically accurate and informed answers stripped of the polarizing rhetoric."This outstanding book is absolutely the best I have ever read for supporting parents and professionals alike with accurate information about the impact of media violence. The short answer/long answer to all the questions is a brilliant way to give practical information that can immediately be put into decisive, confident action. I love this book and can't thank the authors enough for writing it and compiling mountains of relevant research in extremely useable ways. I am sharing it with everyone I know." - Gloria DeGaetano, Founder/Director, Parent Coaching Institute; Author: Parenting Well in a Media Age, Keep Our Kids Human"The authors know exactly what questions need answering, and they answer them in a clear style that should dispel many of the myths and misconceptions. I hope that this book will lead to a more civilised and rational debate about violent games and their place in society." - Professor Elizabeth Handsley, President, Australian Council on Children and the Media"The issues surrounding mass media violence are complex. This book helps us navigate this complex terrain in an easy and structured manner. It is a must read for educators, parents, researchers, and policy-makers." - Edward Donnerstein, Ph.D., Dean Emeritus, University of Arizona
"This book provides an interesting perspective and look at media violence. It approaches the topic from a historical and theoretical perspective, providing a fairly comprehensive narrative. It also provides practical information and facts and figures about how much violence there is on television, lists of organizations, available videos and an annotated bibliography." --p. xiii.
In Borderline, Stan Goff unpacked the association of masculinity with war. In Tough Gynes, using an incisive and often darkly humorous study of nine films featuring violent female leads, he untangles the confusion about "masculinity constructed as violence" when our popular stories feature women as violent protagonists. Whether read individually or with a group, Tough Gynes raises compelling questions about gender and violence, with a few provisional answers. Plus, you get to watch movies as you read it.
Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: good, University of Potsdam (Institute for Anglistics/ American Studies), course: PS/ GK Introduction to Media Science, language: English, abstract: What is ‚violence’? Kunczik says it is “an intentional physical or/and psychical damage to a person, a living being or a thing, through another person.”1(15) Theunert considers violence only between human beings. “Offenders and victims are always one or more persons.”2(89) Kunczik says one also could differentiate between concrete violence and fictional violence, as well as between natural and artificial violence. Concrete violence is about shown behaviour, which results in violence, either physical or psychical. Fictional violence is only the presentation of it. And so natural violence means the real and genuine violence, for example shown in movies. And at last the artificial representation means the un-real representation, for example shown in cartoons. 2. History of Violence in the Media Historically spoken, violence in the media is not a phenomenon of the present; already the ancient Greeks were confronted with it. Kunczik (19) states that each new medium was judged negatively in the beginning. It all started with Plato. In his work “Politea” he accuses tales and myths to stand in contrast to an honourable adult life, and so children and youngsters should be kept away from these. At this point Aristotle, a former student from Plato sets in. He formed a thesis called thesis of catharsis. 3 So one can see that the topic violence already derives from the ancient world. For example Homer and his “Odyssey” as well as Aneas and his work “Aneis”. Also the Grimms and Busch made use of violence in their tales. This goes on to Shakespeare and his plays, for example in “Hamlet” they fight, an act of violence, or “Macbeth”. Goethe as well used a kind of violence, when his “Werther” 4 commits suicide. Critics of that time feared many suicides (and many suicides are said to have happened after reading this work).
