On Media Violence

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.

Freedman argues that scientific evidence does not support the notion that TV and film violence causes aggression in children or in anyone else. A provocative challenge to the accepted norms in media studies and psychology.

The foremost experts in the field of media violence research present a broad range of approaches and findings to confirm what has long been suspected: media violence has profoundly negative effects on children. The contributors share concise and readable summaries of the most recent research--along with research conducted over the past 40 years--regarding the effects of violence in various media, including: television, film, video games, music, and the Internet. Scientifically documented negative effects on children include the aggressor effect, the victim effect, the bystander effect, and the appetite effect. Future steps to reduce the danger of media violence are also presented. This cross-disciplinary approach to media violence offers readers the most complete, up-to-date, and holistic understanding of the topic. Gentile and his contributors also examine and debunk long-held misconceptions about media violence, explaining the specific nature and unquestionable power of the negative effects.

Counters the claim that media violence leads to widespread social aggression. Dispelling this myth through a multiple-method analysis, this work argues that there are, indeed, media effects that derive from media violence, pornography, and other kinds of visual, cyberspace, and print based messages.

Via 134 signed entries, this encyclopedia provides students, researchers, and the general public with an accessible, comprehensive, and well-balanced eviddence-based examination of theory, research and debates related to media violence. Entries conclude with Cross-References and Suggestions for Further Readings to guide users to related entries and resources for further research, and a thematic Reader’s Guide in the front matter groups related entries by topic to make it easier for users to locate related entries of interest.

Violence sells. The media industries say they are simply businesses responding to market desires, but when they are criticized for contributing to a culture of violence, they claim First Amendment protection. If anything, media violence is more prevalent today than at any other time in the past. Yet, although scientific researchers have produced a strong body of evidence demonstrating that exposure to media violence harms society, that evidence has never been translated into practical and accessible ideas. This book clearly explains why media violence has not only been allowed but encouraged to escalate. The author challenges many of our assumptions about the relationship between media and violence. He argues that these assumptions are the primary barriers preventing us from confronting the issue of violence in films, TV, and video games. While dispelling misperceptions and evoking emotions, each chapter: identifies a myth, its origin, its acceptance by the public, and its growth in popularity; analyzes the faulty nature of the myth and shows how it deflects attention away from the truth; presents dilemmas that challenge readers to reconsider their assumptions; and includes a list of indispensable references. The book provides an in-depth review of how Congress, journalists, and researchers contribute to the problem and raises important questions that place the reader at the heart of the conflict. Consumer activists, teachers, and families will find it an essential resource and invaluable step toward finding solutions to this critical social issue.

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.

Media and Violence pays equal attention to the production, content and reception involved in any representation of violence. This book offers a framework for understanding how violence is represented and consumed. It examines the relationship of media, gender, and real-world violence; representations of violence in screen entertainment; the effects of violent media on consumers; the ethics and gender politics of the production processes of screen violence; and the discussions are illustrated with topical and well-known examples, enabling the reader to critically engage with the debates.