The Mean World Syndrome -- Trailer 1

Now Available on DVD @ http://www.mediaed.org

The Mean World Syndrome
Media Violence & the Cultivation of Fear

A new film based on the late George Gerbner's groundbreaking analysis of media influence and media violence.

Featuring George Gerbner and Michael Morgan

For years, debates have raged among scholars, politicians, and concerned parents about the effects of media violence on viewers. Too often these debates have descended into simplistic battles between those who claim that media messages directly cause violence and those who argue that activists exaggerate the impact of media exposure altogether. The Mean World Syndrome, based on the groundbreaking work of media scholar George Gerbner, urges us to think about media effects in more nuanced ways. Ranging from Hollywood movies and prime-time dramas to reality programming and the local news, the film examines how media violence forms a pervasive cultural environment that cultivates in heavy viewers, especially, a heightened state of insecurity, exaggerated perceptions of risk and danger, and a fear-driven propensity for hard-line political solutions to social problems. A provocative and accessible introduction to cultivation analysis, media effects research, and the subject of media influence and media violence more generally.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• MEF
• Sut
• Jhally
• George
• Gerbner
• Cultivation
• Theory
• Mean
• World
• Syndrome
• Glenn
• Beck
• Fear
• Media
• Education
• Anxiety

[Electrorules]

I think it desentizes you to violence and gives a false impression of reality.

Take Eastenders or something like that....Is that a true reflection of life in East End London? Everyone sleeping with everyone else....murder happening all the time...families self destructing.

Its fantasy...or...hyped reality.

The fear of crime is way out of proportion to actual crime, and the media is to blame. They do it on purpose. More violence means more viewers means more ad revenuemeans more profit.

[jasonlajoie]

Well this would explain all the post 9/11 hysteria that the government took advantage of.

[masterankerich]

simulated violence =! violence

[lilcast911]

@thatsillyliberal i agree our media is filled with the most grotesque scenes of violence.we can see humans be tortured in the most creative and violent ways, for instance like what we see in the SAW movie series. but we our not allowed to show a vagina or penis ?

[thatsillyliberal]

@ChallengingMedia There should be a documentary explaining the disparity between censorship of sex in the media and no censorship of media violence.

[hypnofan35]

Real violence works good for subversive and secretive organizations. They just blame it on somebody else. That works...Just look at the Bush Admin or the Cheney Admin.

[VegitoVai90]

Shit, I never thought of that, although now that I think of it it is pretty obvious

[coolsteven2]

I really wish I could intern for you guys but Idk how that would work :(.

[JixYt]

Wow! This looks like a great documentary! Thank you, ChallengingMedia.

[voyeurdug]

Wonder if more graphic & realistic portrayals of violence - as in war movies - serves to make the prospect of actual war less palatable to citizens of a nation considering war? Seems to me recent films of bygone wars - like WWII - emphasize blood, gore & painful death whereas in vintage films nearer that era the manner of death was relatively quick, relatively clean, in black & white, and not dwelt-upon.