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”?