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MDST 1010
CHAPTER 15
MEDIA EFFEC TS
PA R T 2
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1. MEDIA AND VIOLENCE
What you said on Monday:
MINIMALIST THEORY
If a person had a violent
upbringing, and sees violence in
media, it might reinforce their
experience
We may follow opinion leaders
We have the capacity to think
critically for ourselves
We take media messages with a
grain of salt and act
appropriately
We are able to tune out
programs we don’t want to watch
We should dialogue with children
providing cognitive frames
Individuals are responsible for
their own (violent) actions
Children are more prone to the
immediate effects of media
violence
The media becomes a scapegoat
for people’s violent behaviours
Don’t blame Marilyn Manson for
what happened in Columbine
Violence in the media
MAGIC BULLET THEORY
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1. MEDIA VIOLENCE EFFECTS
Catharsis: Media Violence as Positive

Artistotle suggests that violence in drama is cathartic, allowing people to
experience and thus purge strong emotions such as violence and anger

This theory indicates that violence in media is an outlet that we engage in
rather than engaging in violence in real life
Prodding Socially Positive Action

Media violence may provoke people to take action against real-life violence
Violence in the media
Learning About Violence

Children are exposed to high levels of violence

Not yet having developed a critical cognitive framework, they sometimes act
out violence they have seen on TV
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MEDIA VIOLENCE THEORIES
Catalytic Theory

Aggressive people, already predisposed to violence, are
attracted to aggressive media and will watch violent shows as
an outlet for their own violent tendencies
Debilitating Social Effects

Through depictions in the media, the audience begins to
believe society is more violent than it is: the “mean society”
theory
Violence in the media
Media Violence as Negative

There is some evidence that media-depicted violence leads
some to violent acts

But this is not true for most people
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DESENSITIZATION TO VIOLENCE


Violence in the media

The growing presence of media violence is desensitizing
the audience
Viewers becoming more tolerant of increasingly violent
scenes and images
Gerbner compares this to a dose of medication that has
to continually be increased to have the same impact
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THE CANADIAN CONTEXT
Violence in the media
Regulation of violence in the Canadian media

Only violence essential to the plot is allowed

Violence cannot be depicted as a solution to conflict

Programming cannot invite imitation of violent acts
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A 2003 study by Program on
International Policy Attitudes (PIPA)
(cited in movie, OutFoxed)
examined viewers’
(1) Selection
(2) Interpretation &
(3) Memory of media
They also examined the effects of
each of these on:
(1) Attitudes
(2) Beliefs &
(3) Behaviours
PROFESSOR JEPPESEN
PIPA OutFoxed Study on misperceptions
2. NEWS MEDIA EFFECTS: MISPERCEPTIONS
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“An in-depth analysis of a series of polls conducted June through September
[2003] found:

48% incorrectly believed that evidence of links between Iraq and al Qaeda
have been found,

22% [incorrectly believed] that weapons of mass destruction have been
found in Iraq, and

25% [incorrectly believed] that world public opinion favored the US going
to war with Iraq.
Overall 60% [of respondents] had at least one of these three misperceptions.”
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/international_security_bt/102.php
PROFESSOR JEPPESEN
PIPA OutFoxed Study on misperceptions
FINDINGS
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“The percentage of respondents who had one or more of the three
misperceptions listed above is shown:”
“The frequency of Americans’ misperceptions varies significantly depending
on their source of news.”
3/23/2016
PROFESSOR JEPPESEN
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PIPA OutFoxed Study on misperceptions
MISPERCEPTIONS
The effect of particular forms of news media, such as Fox News, is a
misinformed public
The American people have a false conception of global politics, specifically
the role of the American government and military globally, and the
political positions of groups and governments outside the US vis-à-vis
US foreign policy
The public makes decisions, such as supporting the war in Iraq, based on
false information in the media, and the government acts on this
falsely-generated support
Furthermore, this creates the illusion of free media and democracy in the
United States
PROFESSOR JEPPESEN
PIPA OutFoxed Study on misperceptions
RELEVANCE?
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3. MEDIA STEREOTYPES




We view hundreds of media stereotypes of people each day in all forms of media,
from news media to TV shows, to film, to internet sites, billboards, magazines, and
all forms of advertising
Sometimes used as a kind of shorthand for lazy TV, film and even news producers
to signal a person’s identity or role
Stereotypes (whether positive, negative or ‘neutral’) all impact groups being
portrayed as stereotype
Unlearning stereotypes we have grown up with and internalized from the media
and society can be a long and difficult process
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3a. “RACE and Crime in the Media”
“RACE and Crime in the Media”
 How do stereotypes of racialized
groups engaged in crime in the
news and entertainment media
affect the audience?
 Mary Beth Oliver looks at this
question
 The goal of this study is to
examine the effects of media
portrayals of race and crime on
audience attitudes and
behaviours
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BACKGROUND OF STUDY
“RACE and Crime in the Media”
Research subjects:
 This study uses white people as research subjects.
 Racial stereotyping by non-whites is not studied.
Assertions:
1. There is a preponderance of crime in the media in many
forms:
• news
• entertainment
• news/entertainment hybrids
2.“Media portrayals associate persons of color with criminality,
danger, and aggression” (Oliver 433)
PROFESSOR JEPPESEN
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RESEARCH QUESTION
“RACE and Crime in the Media”
The study examines the role of crime news reporting in
the perpetuation and/or creation of racialized
stereotypes in relation to crime
One of the effects the study examines is the priming of
racial stereotypes
PROFESSOR JEPPESEN
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HOW STEREOTYPE PRIMING WORKS
“RACE and Crime in the Media”
Priming occurs when one particular idea is activated or
experienced, which then triggers other related ideas
“The activation radiates out and primes related thoughts and
feelings” (Oliver 431)
The next time a similar idea or experience is activated, the same
set of thoughts and feelings will be used to interpret
information, form attitudes, and determine behaviours
PROFESSOR JEPPESEN
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FINDINGS OF THE OLIVER STUDY
2. People do not need to agree with stereotypes in order to be ‘primed’
by them
3. Through media representations, negative stereotypes based on race
and ethnicity can be primed without the viewer’s awareness,
influencing their attitudes and behaviours
4. Viewers who endorse negative stereotypes will seek out such shows,
which then leads to increases in negatively racialized stereotypes in
media content
PROFESSOR JEPPESEN
“RACE and Crime in the Media”
1. In order for priming to work, the racialized stereotypes must already
exist in the minds of the audience members
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IMPACT : STEREOTYPE THREAT
This impacts their ability to do well
on tests
Racialized stereotypes
Often, black children and collegeage individuals internalize negative
stereotypes regarding capacity for
achievement
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3B. STEREOTYPES OF WOMEN IN THE MEDIA
Representations of women in media
Early media studies (1978-81)
“found the media to be deeply
implicated in the patterns of
discrimination operating
against women in society—
patterns which, through the
absence, trivialization or
condemnation of women in
media content, amounted to
their ‘symbolic annihilation’”
(Gallagher 19)
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WOMEN IN MEDIA ARE GETTING SMALLER
Representations of women in media
© Professor Jeppesen
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CONCERNS
2.
Representations of women in media
1.
“an analysis of the
structures of power
in which women
are systematically
subordinated” (19)
“politics of
representation and
the production of
knowledge in which
women are objects
rather than active
subjects” (19)
© Professor Jeppesen
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WOMEN IN GLOBAL NEWS MEDIA
Representations of women in media
Global study of news media in 71 countries for one day in
January 1995
Only 17% of news subjects were women (lowest Asia 14%,
highest North America 27%)
 7% in politics & government
 9% in economy & business
 31% in arts & entertainment
 33% in health & social issues
Follow-up study in 2000 discovered the number more or
less unchanged at 18%
© Professor Jeppesen
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women’s issues
Representations of women in media
An absence of women as news
subjects regarding women’s
issues included:
 new Family Court in
Jamaica
 high abortion rates in
Scotland
 women’s right to divorce
in Egypt
 maternity plans in
Northern Ireland
 punishment of women for
marital infidelity in Turkey
© Professor Jeppesen
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IMPACT : STEREOTYPE THREAT
Stereotype threat regarding gender
impacts girls’ ability to perform
well on tests
Stereotype threat positively
impacts boys’ ability to perform
well on tests as they feel entitled to
achieve
Gendered stereotypes
The stereotype is that “boys are
smart, girls are stupid”
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3C. GAY STEREOTYPING IN MEDIA
Gay stereotypes continue to exist
despite (or because of?) the new
‘gay visibility’
Stereotypes tell young people how
to ‘be gay’
They provide scripts for coming out
Homogenization of race (white),
age (young), class (middle), body
type (buff), social location (urban)
& lifestyle (dance clubs, cruising)
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3D. STEREOTYPES OF MEN IN THE MEDIA
Masculinity is constructed as dominant,
aggressive, tough, and violent
Men are getting larger (as opposed to women
who are shrinking)
The “Tough Guise” (Jackson Katz)
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NEXT WEEK
•
Media and Governance - Chapter 17
•
More Digital Media Studies Project Presentations!
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