1. Do you think media can affect a person’s
values and beliefs? Why or why not?
2. Do you think the consistent messages of thin
women being “the ideal” (desired, wanted, etc)
can affect how girls see themselves? Why?
Why not?
3. Do you think the consistent messages of
violence in video games, movies, music etc can
affect how guys interact with others? (i.e. make
them more violent?) Why? Why not?
Media Violence
Violence in the Media
• Examples of violent media:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI5P5_xMt4&feature=related
• Those images show how much violence is in
our media.
• Therefore, the more violent media you
consume the more violent you are likely to be.
•
According to scientists violence from media, is
encoded in the brain of its consumers and
Scientific
subsequent
viewing of Evidence…
violence helps to maintain
aggressive thoughts, ideas and behaviours.
•
Is this not violent?
•
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-2662277524444603245&q=power+rangers+overdrive+fight&total=37&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2
•
•
Fifty-two elementary-school girls and boys, aged
between 5 and 11 years were randomly assigned
either to watch an episode of Power Rangers or to
a control group which did not see the episode.
All the children were observed both before and
after the programme while playing in their
classroom. The researchers reported that children
who had watched the Power Rangers episode
committed seven times as
many actions classed as
aggressive as did the other
children." = Proof that violent
media creates violent people
•
Those children displayed
aggressive acts after watching
the Power Rangers and tried to
act certain scenes from the
television program out while
being the hero and carrying a
gun because it is “cool” to fight
against enemies.
•
•
Quick Facts…
University professors studied six major
Canadian television networks over a
seven-year period, examining films,
situation comedies, dramatic series, and
children's programming. The study found
that between 1993 and 2001, incidents of
physical violence increased by 378 per
cent. TV shows in 2001 averaged 40 acts
of violence per hour.
The professors also identified a
disturbing increase in psychological
violence, especially in the last two years.
The study found that incidents of
psychological violence remained
relatively stable from 1993 to 1999, but
increased 325 per cent from 1999 to
• » Research indicates that media violence has not
just increased in quantity; it has also become
more graphic, sexual, and sadistic.
• » A September 2000 Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) report showed that 80 percent of “R” rated
movies, 70 percent of restricted video games,
and 100 percent of music with “explicit content”
warning labels were being marketed to children
under 17.
• » By the time the average child is eighteen years
America, disturbing images of violent
crime continue to dominate news
broadcasting.
•
•
» Most of the top-selling video games
(89%) contained violent content, almost
half of which was of a serious nature.
» The highly criticized video game Grand
Theft Auto 3 was initially banned in
Australia for its graphic violence and
sexual content. The game grossed $300
Music?
• "Don't you get it, bitch? No one can hear you.
Now shut the F*** up, and get what's comin' to
you... You were supposed to love me!!!!!
(Sound of Kim choking)
NOW BLEED, BITCH, BLEED
BLEED, BITCH, BLEED, BLEEEEEED!“
•
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sNeTCdleg4
•
(Source: From the song Kim, by Eminem)
•
The CD this song was released on sold
679,567 copies in Canada in 2000, and was
the year's best-selling album
Video Games…
•
•
•
In Carmageddon, players
are rewarded for mowing
down pedestrians -- sounds
of cracking bones add to
the realistic effect…
The ad for the game read
“Easier than killing babies
with axes…”
Virginia Tech Shootings and
• Jack Thompson, aVideo
Florida
Games…
attorney and opponent of
violent video games, said
Va. Tech gunman Cho
Seung-Hui played ‘CounterStrike,’ Valve Software’s
popular multiplayer game.
•
•
33 people were
gunned down on
April 16, 2007
Violent Video
Games = violent
Behavior
Some Final Thoughts…
•
•
•
•
•
•
Violence in media will do the following:
Increase anti-social behavior and aggression
Desensitize and lower levels of empathy
toward others
Increase levels of fear due to perceiving the
world as violent
Make violence an acceptable way of settling
conflict
Create a higher tolerance and threshold of
violence leading to a desire to experience
more violence in both video games and real life
WHAT???
•
•
•
What was wrong with my presentation?
I showed BOTH sides of the issue –
didn’t I?
OH….I was….
•
Biased!
• Bias is when someone or something
is viewed or shown in a consistently
inaccurate way. (Bias is usually
negative, though one can have a
positive bias as well.)
Look at info like this…
• Criticisms of Media Violence Research
•
•
Although organizations such as the American Academy of
Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association have
suggested that thousands (3500 according to the AAP) of
studies have been conducted confirming this link, others have
argued that this information is incorrect.
Rather, only about two hundred studies (confirmed by metaanalyses such as Paik and Comstock, 1994) have been
conducted in peer-reviewed scientific journals on television,
movie, music and video game violence effects. Critics argue
that about half find some link between media and subsequent
aggression (but not violent crime), whereas the other half do
not find a link between consuming violent media and
subsequent aggression of any kind.[1]
• Failure to report negative findings.
• Many of the articles that purport positive findings regarding a link
between media violence and subsequent aggression, on a closer
read, actually have negative or inconclusive results.
• One example is the experimental portion of Anderson & Dill (2000;
with video games) which measures aggression four separate ways
(using an unstandardized, unreliable and unvalidated measure of
aggression, the Competitive Reaction Time Test mentioned above)
and finds significance for only one of those measures.
• Had a statistical adjustment been properly employed, that fourth
finding also would have been insignificant. This issue of selective
reporting differs from the "file drawer" effect in which journals fail to
publish articles with negative findings.
• Rather, this is due to authors finding a "mixed bag" of results and
discussing only the supportive findings and ignoring the negative
findings within a single manuscript. The problem of non-reporting of
non-significant findings (the so-called "file cabinet effect") is a
problem throughout all areas of science but may be a particular issue
for publicized areas such as media violence.
• Failure to account for "third" variables.
Media violence studies regularly fail to
account for other variables such as
genetics, personality and exposure to
family violence that may explain both why
some people become violent and why
those same people may choose to expose
themselves to violent media.
Works Cited
• 1. a b Freedman, J. (2002). Media violence and its effect on
aggression.: Assessing the scientific evidence. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0802035530
•
•
•
2. Wartella, E., Olivarez, A. & Jennings, N. (2002). "Children and
Television Violence in the United States", in Denis McQuail (ed.),
McQuail’s Reader in Mass Communication Theory, Sage: London
ISBN 978-0761972426
3. Gunter, B. & McAleer, J. (1997). Children and Television (second
edition), Routledge: London, p.104 ISBN 978-0415144513
4. Flew, Terry and Humphreys, Sal (2005) "Games: Technology,
Industry, Culture" in Terry Flew, New Media: an Introduction (second
edition), Oxford University Press, South Melbourne 101-114. ISBN
978-0195550412
•
•
•
Bias by selection changes how the subject is
Forms
of Bias
shown by giving
only part
of the picture.
(Imagine if all we ever saw of you was the time
you spend in front of the mirror; we’d assume
you were very vain, because we never see you
doing anything else.)
Bias by omission changes how the subject is
shown by leaving out important things. (Imagine
if we never saw you working; we’d assume you
were lazy.)
Bias by placement changes how the subject is
shown by deciding what to show first. We
assume that the first thing we’re shown is the
most important. (Imagine that the first thing we
heard about you was that you once slipped and
•
•
•
Bias by image changes how the subject is shown
by choosing aForms
particularofpicture
Bias or image.
(Imagine that a story about you was accompanied
by a picture of you dressed as a clown; we
probably wouldn’t take you seriously.)
Bias by naming changes how the subject is shown
by choosing a name or a title. (Imagine how we’d
see you differently if you were called Tim or
Timmy; imagine how we’d see you differently if
you were called Dr. Smith or Mrs. Smith; imagine
how we’d see you differently if you were described
as a mechanic or as an engineer.)
Bias by word choice changes how the subject is
shown by using words with a positive or negative
connotation. (Imagine someone’s hair described
Forms of Bias
•
•
•
What forms of bias did I use in my presentation?
What forms of bias did you find in “The Story of
Stuff”?
What forms of bias did you find in the article
“Trashing our children”?