The Mean World Syndrome - Media As Storytellers (Extra Feature)

Buy DVD at 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.

Also includes three additional short features -- ideal for classroom use -- that take a closer look at Gerbner's analysis and the Mean World Syndrome.

1. Media as Storytellers: "Nothing to Tell but a lot to Sell" -- Explores the significance of commercial media eclipsing religion and art as the great storyteller of our time. (7:32)

2. A Mean World Case Study: Child Abductions -- Provides an in-depth look at how media coverage of child abductions has fed parental anxieties out of proportion with statistical reality. (4:17)

3. Further Effects of the Mean World Syndrome: Desensitization & Acceleration -- Examines how heavy exposure to media violence normalizes violence, numbing some people to real-world violence even as it whets the appetite in others for ever-higher doses. (8:48)

• Category

  Education

[jjMANGAnotMe]

excellent video! can i use some this clips here on a video documentary for our class project? it is about how the advancement in technology affected reading skills. . .

[ChallengingMedia]

Sure! Thanks for asking. As long as your project is for educational use only (which it sounds like it is), you may use clips from "The Mean World Syndrome. Please credit The Media Education Foundation. Thanks, and best of luck with your project.

[lauramoz89]

Hey I took your video and made one, hope u don't mind, It's just fot people in my class, to learn about GEORGE GERBNER.. I want to upload this video in my channel, but if u don't want to... I won't ok? Thank u!!! GREAT VIDEO!

[ChallengingMedia]

I'm so glad that you like this clip from our video "The Mean World Syndrome." What would work best is to add this video to a playlist on your channel (just click "add to" and then "playlist" -- this way, it will still link back to our channel). Please don't re-upload the clip under your username. Thanks for checking in and asking for permission!

[flotron9]

Brilliant video! Can I use this on my public access show?

[ChallengingMedia]

Thanks so much! If you'd like to air "The Mean World Syndrome" in full on your public access station, please contact us via phone to purchase a copy. 1-800-897-0089. If you'd simply like to use this clip in your public access show, you may do so, but please follow it with a screen that reads, “Permission to air this clip was generously given by the Media Education Foundation (MEF). To order this video or to learn more about MEF, visit mediaed (dot) org." Thanks!

[blackiron60]

Excellent video, and it drives home the message that what we need in modern culture, now more than ever, is a better story. Economic and political change are only possible when they are motivated by a cultural narrative demanding change and envisioning a new future.

[rollsthepaul]

I watched a commercial lately that said "Money, it cures all problems". How much longer, does our world have to exist?

[JAY OH]

Great video to anyone who thinks anything produced by the media is done with artistic merit.

[Tk Ohearn]

What a brilliant video! really brings it all together! From the origins of oral tradition to the behemoth we have created-amazing.

[Preston Enright]

You might want to check out,

"Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood."

[dombadil]

now we all know the medias are a bunch of sadists destroying human rights and psyche every single minute, hour, every single day.

one rothschild corporation, naked in their wickedness as all astral fears are redeemed, all empty figures of the mind removed

we see you butchers when you come into our minds now, we see your faces, you are in light, REPENT FROM YOUR ONGOING CRIMES, see the infinite ocean of love awaiting you whatever you do and ask yourself if you are compatible

[sol-britt arnolds-granlund]

Fantastic video! If possible I would like to use it as basis for a discussion among teacher students.

[MurderMan11]

How does the internet effect this corporation media control idea then? I can essentially bypass all advertising if I want with software like ad block and the pirating of media.

[maplespak]

"CORPORATIONS DECIDE WHAT FILLS THE PUBLIC AIRWAVES", it says in this video.