The Mean World Syndrome - Media As Storytellers (Extra Feature)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ก.พ. 2010
- Buy DVD at 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)
Great video to anyone who thinks anything produced by the media is done with artistic merit.
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.
★
Brilliant explanation!
thanks for this video. It has a simple yet critical message. it's good to be reminded all is not what it seems, especially when there's money to be made. It's also a sad indictment on society that it seems to be driven by a love of violence? Why? No sane person likes to be on the receiving end of it surely?
Brilliant video! Can I use this on my public access show?
Great video.
I'm telling some stories to some eager listeners.
keen insight.
@lauramoz89 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 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!
@lauramoz89 I'm sorry, but this particularly film is not in Spanish, but has the option of English subtitles.
Good thing we live in a world that celebrates choice, self regulation/control and autonomy, otherwise we'd mindlessly purchase all the things that somehow resonate with our quest to be enough. I'm so grateful were intelligent consumers and we understand the elegant simplicity of supply and demand; afterall, going into business with a consumer product or survive that is not in demand - as in nobody wants it or at least isn't buying it - is bad investment. One can't get rich selling something that has no demand in the marketplace! If no one wants it, then they won't buy it and the company wouldn't even make back what they spent to get started. Naturally what does make sense is to appeal to a consumer with products and services they will and do choose to buy, either because it makes their life better and easier, because the item is a necessity (such as medicine) or because the person buying believes on some level that having the thing will support their status and therefor affirm them.
It's a good thing the media wouldn't dare give us anything we didn't collectively want because if they did, we wouldn't buy, and slowly at first but then with rapid speed the media would cease to exist.
Brilliant and to the point.
It should be expanded with discussion on brands and advertising tyranny as means for concealing product sameness. Vance Packard comes to my mind. Anyone knowing about anything along those lines, feel free to send me a message. Thanks
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.
You might want to check out,
"Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood."
@jjMANGAnotMe 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.
Anyone know the name of the song playing at the 1:50 mark?
with them- young thug
"CORPORATIONS DECIDE WHAT FILLS THE PUBLIC AIRWAVES", it says in this video.
@rollsthepaul I would say this to that commercial..... "When we've used up all the resources we have at our disposal in the world, i.e. we can no longer grow food since we've overworked & poisoned the soils or put buildings on fertile soils, &/or we've used up or poisoned the water, &/or we've drowned from global warming, &/or we have no energy sources left to produce, research, process, pack, distribute, advertise, buy & sell food & other products to get money to buy food, try eating money!"
social media
How the hell does this have 43,000 views?? People need to use their time better.
Some of us are here because of college...What's your excuse?? You are one of the 43,000 so you can silence yourself now.
+Airashawna Craver yep! I was forced to watch this for my speech communication class.
Gerbner is really famous among media/communication scholars. Why not watch it? It's super interesting
@@jssgopman iam also here bc of my studies, but if you are interested in the subject (6 years later of this comment) check this out :
th-cam.com/video/zGrf0LGn6Y4/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=Stanford
As if mean world syndrome wasn't the driving force of old storytelling where the immediacy of peer pressure probably has a greater impact than any electronic media. It's a laugh that someone would pine over the days of even less informed tribalism and respect for the religious heads who have very obvious ulterior motives of their own.
"The world is filled with evil people." "Be fruitful and multiply." "Kill the unbeliever." Old storytelling definitely has something to sell. They just don't want money. They want to weaponize the human condition with indoctrination to further their goals. Religious elders are more likely to produce child soldiers than Call of Duty.
Thank you, a voice of sanity. Im watching this for a college class. Who do we think tells these stories? Too bad we don't have the good old days... as you wrote.
Is this science based on Critical theory?
Or studied by someone using applied postmodernism?
I can't understand a fucking thing he's saying.
Cancel culture de mon crat leftists would call you a racist for sure.
he is not native he migrated to the USA , btw there is a little button "C" which enables subtitles
When you look at what this bloke is saying, it's lets return to the time when we did not have mass communication. Yeah, that's where I want to go, back to the bad old days.
A useless video. Offers nothing. Complains but does not offer a realistic alternative.