VIOLENCE Media Effects and Moral Panic

Media Theories (cross-media)Media theories studied during

the course might include:Media analysis eg:• • Semiotics• • Structuralism and post-

structuralism• • Postmodernism and its

critiquesPolitics and the Media eg:• • Gender and ethnicity• • Marxism and hegemony• • Liberal Pluralism• • Colonialism and Post-

colonialismConsumption and Production eg:• • Audience theories• • Genre theories

Media Issues and Debates•Representation and stereotyping• Media effects• Reality TV• News Values• Moral Panics• Post 9/11 and the media• Ownership and control• Regulation and censorship• Media technology and the digital revolution – changing technologies in the 21st century• The effect of globalisation on the media

Does the Media influence audiences?

Media Effects theory (Hypodermic needle, Cultivation and Two-Step) assumes that Audiences are affected by Media texts.

List as many ways that you think we can be influenced by the Media.

CLASSIC STATEMENT on EFFECTS

• From the Newson Report:

‘The principle that what is experienced...will have some effect on some people is an established one, and is the reason why the industry finds it worthwhile to spend millions of pounds on advertising’.

• ‘The principle that what is experienced...will have some effect on some people is an established one, and is the reason why industry finds it worthwhile to spend millions of pounds on advertising’.

• What are some of the problems with this statement?

• The link between the action (the effect) and the media (the cause) has never been clearly established

• The some people referred to may be influenced by other things to a greater extent.

• The type of effect has not been clearly established.

NEWSON Report 1994

• Partly a response to murder of toddler James Bulger in 1993 by two 10yr old boys.

• Led to a change in the BBFC rules and regulations

GAUNTLETT 1995

• One of the most problematic elements of the Effects model is that it automatically assumes ‘effects’ and attempts to establish ‘how’ people are effected.

• Gauntlett argues that the first stage of research (has an individual been affected by the media?) is ignored and that media effects research focuses on assumption an effect has been caused.

Do these texts affect audiences? How? What could be the

differences?

BUCKINGHAM 1996

• ‘Since ancient times, the idea of childhood has been invested with far-reaching hopes and anxieties about the future’ David Buckingham

• How many moral panics involve teenagers and young people?

Children

• Children defined by what they lack in terms of adulthood

• Belief that controlling media means controlling the ‘wild’ un-institutionalised nature of children

• Children are able to distinguish between fictional violence and non-fictional violence.

• Children categorise and become desensitised to generic violence

not real violence

Moral Panic

• Defined as...

• According to Cohen a “moral panic has occurred when a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interest, its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by mass media and the moral barricades are manned by editors”.

W.I THOMAS 1908

‘an article in commerce – a food, a luxury, a medicine – can always be sold in large quantities if it be persistently and largely advertised ‘ in the same way, the news ‘by advertisement of crime...becomes one of the forces making for immorality’

INDEPENDENT on SUNDAY

‘The modern liberal mind is resistant to cause and effect... Yet millions of pounds are spent on advertising and the entire media strains over presentation, visual effects, camera, lighting, to put audiences in the right mood. How can we possibly believe that the shoot-out never has an effect?’

US and THEM

• There has always been a fear of the ‘underclass’ and the entertainment associated with them

BRIAN APPLEYARD 1993

‘Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs may well be a ‘brilliant’ film but I would prefer it not to be seen by the criminal classes or the mentally unstable or by inadequately supervised children with little else in their lives’

APPLEYARD

‘films such as Taxi Driver and Goodfellas, which to be honest, you would rather were not watched by certain types of people’

THEODORE DALRYMPLE

‘while liberals in Hampstead pooh pooh the effects of video, from which they are anyway immune, the effect on minds which are empty of a moral framework is likely to be devastating’

Essay

‘Game culture is a justifiable panic. Young people are at risk from such media products’

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Plan

• 1) Introduction – outline your opinion in relation to the statement

• 2) Assumption is that media products have an effect – this can be questioned and evidence is not conclusive

• 3) Games industry is largely targeted at youth – issues with children and moral panics

• 4) Games industry is entertainment of the masses – issues with entertainment of popular culture

• 5) Conclusion

Source

• Ill Effects – The Media Violence Debate

Collection of articles Edited by Martin Barker and Julian Petley 2nd ed. Routledge