Com-munication fourOne7

THE KILLING SCREENS:
MEDIA AND THE CULTURE OF VIOLENCE.

INTERVIEWS DR. GEORGE GERBNER, PH.D,
     WITH JEAN KILBOURNE, PH.D.

VIOLENCE? WHY SO MUCH?

NO IMPACT BIG IMPACT?

WE DON'T WANT IT WE DO WANT IT! CENSORSHIP?

We can not understand TV without understanding where it comes from, who produces it and why. We can not understand TV without understanding that a world on television is often not like the world we live in. To understand television you must understand why we see so much gratuitous violence even though it is not very popular with many audience members? We can not understand television unless we understand how a global marketing imperative influence the extent to which we are more likely to see stories of power and violence. To understand television we must understand how a media environments dominated by these stories alters the way in which we perceive the world?

Jean Kilbourne, Ph.D.

KEY QUESTION WHICH THIS VIDEO TRIES TO ASK AND ANSWER

• Why is there so much mediated violence?
• What are it's effects?

  What can or should be done about it?

Dr. George Gerbner, Dean, Emeritus, at the Annenberg School of Communication has been the driving force behind the cultural indicators projects which has assessed the impact of television on society for the last twenty-five years. The project is aimed at answering questions such as:

• How does the media cultivate our perceptions of the world?
• How do these perceptions alter the way we think and act?
• What is the key finding of this project?

As the amount of television viewing increases the degree to which a person believes the real world is like the televisual world increases.

PART I
STORIES OF POWER

I. Does television reflect the world we live in or does TV distort reality?

A. What factors influence why television looks the way it does?

• The Producers Of Television
• The Motives Which Drive The Entertainment Industry
• How Does The Fact That Television Programming Is Controlled By
• Global Conglomerates Whose Primary Goal Is Selling
• Products And Making Money Influence The Substance Of The Messages
• Television Communicates?

II. WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM (EXISTENCE)

How Long Is The Average Television On? about seven hours a day average family We Live In One Of The Most Violent Cultures On Earth According to Gerber, there has never been a time when the amount of violent imagery permeating every home was greater. This is historically, unprecedented.

How frequent, how repetitive, how ritualistic is violent mediated content?
       Frequency of violent acts in prime time about six to eight an hour (stable over 28 years         of content analyzing television programming)

On average there are at least two entertaining murders per night.

Children's Cartoons - incidence of violent acts about 20 to 30 per hour when you remake a action-adventure film the amount of violence doubles or triples with each sequel have to increase the dosage in order meet the accelerating need of the "violence junkie"

• Robo Cop ---32 corpses
• Robo Cop II ---81 corpses

• could not count acts of violence because there were two many (a little Gerbner Humor)
  • Deathwish 9 Corpses
  • Deathwish II 52 Corpses
  • Rambo 62 Corpses
  • Rambo III 106 Corpses
  • Godfather 12 Corpose
  • Godfather I 18 Corpes
  • Godfather III 53 Corpes

  Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles the most violent entertainment vehicle ever produced for young audiences average of 130 violent acts per hour celebrates the martial arts teaches a sense of obedience to authority

  What are the consequences of this type of exposure to television?

  II. What socio-demographic factors tends to be associated with heavy exposure to       television?

  • lower education
  • less opportunity for cultural participation
  • lower income persons whose cultural life is monopolized by television

  III. Why Should We Be Concerned About Exposure To Television?

  A. Television Has Become A Dominant Means Of Socialization what is one of the        dominant means of socialization?

  PARENT-CHILD TALK

  what are some of the forms parent-child talk takes? the STORY-children become part of their culture, learn the rules and norms regarding appropriate social behavior by listening to their parents, families, and friends tell the cultures salient stories. the story is one of the dominant communication forms employed by televised entertainment

  B. Who does television displace as agents of socialization?

  • Parents
  • The School
  • The Church
  • The Tribe
  • The Community

  C. What are some of the consequences of being socialized into a televisual culture what      McLuhan once called "Bonanzaland"?

  III. What view of reality is offered by television?

  A. on television men outnumber women three to one Why are middle-aged white males over-represented on television? if you want to understand anything about television-FOLLOW THE MONEY

  "NO BUCKS, NO BUCK ROGERS"

  by over-represented while males, television is appealing to its best customers (e.g. television program L.A. Law) the reality presented on television is, in part, the result of a marketing strategy, and the need to flatter and depict in a positive light your potential customers
  

  B. How do the characters who are displayed on the screen influence the substance of the message? influences the type of stories you can tell what type of story is mostly easily told if your characters are primarily white males in the prime of life? what are the salient themes?

  • power
  • conflict
  • violence

    one reason why violence is a pervasive and troubling aspect of the stories dominant television, it is believed that these themes most appeal to the primary cast of characters which dominate prime time television violence often presented as a vehicle for men to exert power men are the producers of most of these programs

    C.   Does The Popularity Of A Television Program Depend On Violence?

    Gerber suggests that the most popular programs on television are not violent (e.g Cheers) and disagrees with the argument that violence is pervasive because that is what the people want or that the violence is very popular.

  D. Why is violence used as a primary tool in prime time television? Violence does take      much time, nor does it take much creativity, and it can be inserted into a dull program      whenever it begins to drag.

  GLOBAL MARKETING IMPERATIVE

  MAKE VIOLENCE AN EXCELLENT COMMODITY

  Violence travels well across cultural borders and sells well in the global entertainment market.

  VIOLENCE IS A GOOD COMMODITY FOR A GLOBAL MARKET. Most television programming and films are produced for a global market. Accounts for why Arnold Schwartzeneger is the number one box office draw in the WORLD. humor is more culture bound, more difficult to circulate across cultures, so as a movie producer if my primary goal is to increase revenue by expanding my market than I want the type of message substance which can be watched by the greatest number of people

  Thus, according to Dr. Gerber violence is an commodity which is interjected into television and film in order to increase the income potential of an entertainment vehicle, and consequently gets interjected into our lives ways that it never has become.

  ---

  PART TWO

  HAPPY VIOLENCE

  I. How is contemporary violence different from traditional uses of violence in traditional b
      entertainment vehicles e.g Shakespeare/Fairy Tales.

  A. in many traditional vehicles violence and conflict is a legitimate artistic creation which      often depicts the pain, tragedy and destruction which are the consequences of violence

  B. much of the mediated violence today is a cheap industrial product used to hype dull      uncreative programming. and Gerber refers do as "HAPPY VIOLENCE"

  II. What is happy violence?

  • violence which is entertainment
  • violence which is exciting/thrilling
  • violence is a viable solution to problems
  • violence which has no serious consequences

  Last Action Hero

  "One of the best things about the film is the sense of fun and good times"

  Promotional Spot
  Last Action hero

  Why does happy violence dominate mediated message content? according to Gerbner,  global marketing imperative is a key factor

  ---

  PART THREE

  ACCELERATING VIOLENCE

  I. What kind of perspective does heavy exposure to "happy violence" cultivate in the      perspectives of our children and in ourselves?

  What are the consequences of a steady diet of choreographed brutality being piped into our homes and theaters?

  Desensitization

  Creates a market for violent entertainment.` Creates a market for violent entertainment for even what they see on television is not enough, they must have mediated content which is more graphic producers cash in on this market, in many respects violence is like an addictive drug, a greater dosage is necessary to bring about the desired affect- to satisfy this need the needs and gratifications explanation of audience behaviors suggests that mediated message content serves different needs and drives for different people and that people attend to certain types of messages in order to gratify these needs. also mediated message content of an entertainment vehicle is viewed as the cutting edge of a global marketing operation which is designed to sell products

  • Teenage Ninja Turtle Troll Dolls, Lunchboxes, Swords
  • Thematic Content Used To Create Product Identity
  • Altercasting - Little Boys Who Eat Chef-boy-ar-dee Pasta will be like the Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles

    ---

  PART FOUR
  VIOLENCE IS A SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP

  Depictions of violence in any culture are never just the depiction of a physical act. Stories we tell about violence are always moral tales and lessons communication always has a frontstage and a backstage, on the frontstage violent mediated messages may appear to be nothing more than physical acts.

  HOWEVER ON THE BACKSTAGE THERE ARE IMPLICIT MESSAGES ABOUT

  who can get always with committing violence, who deserves it, who must suffer identity management it teaches us to see some persons as aggressors it teaches us to see some persons as victims communication is multi-functional

  it communicates or creates identity for those who are portrayed e.g. gender identity, product identity, racial identity, human identity messages implicitly define what rules and norms we should follow in our relationships with bothers

  What are some fundamental dimensions of relationships?

  • Affection
  • Inclusion
  • Control Or Power

  Violence is not a simple action scenario but depicts a social relationship between aggressors and victims. Power or control is a resource in relationships. The need for power in a relationship is subject to individual different. Some people are high control people some people are low control people. Power is something which is often negotiated and bargained for in a relationships. Generally, in any relationship relational partners must work out a consensus about who is going to have power and control in the different domains which characterize a relationship e.g. decision-making, finances, child-rearing, leisure time, and so forth.

  ---

  PART FIVE

  VIOLENCE IS A PRISM THROUGH WHICH THE QUESTION OF POWER CAN BE SEEN.

  I. How Does Gender Influence The Extent To Which Persons Are Depicted As

  Aggressors Or Victims?

  A. In General For Every 10 Aggressors There Are 12 Victims

  For Every Women Aggressor (Someone Who Can Impose There Will On Others) There Are Sixteen Female Victims

  B. Women are 50% more likely to be victims than aggressors.

  C. Minority women are twice as likely to be victims than aggressors.

  II. How does the depiction of women as victims influence or alter perceptions of power in a      mixed-sex relationship?

  One-Up/One-Down (Dominant-Submissiveness) in one relational control pattern. When women are more likely to be victims in implicitly reinforces a one-up-one-down view of relationships with men presented as aggressors in positions of power and control.

  II. How does on learn what constitutes appropriate social role behavior and/or appropriate       gender role behaviors?

  • A. Through Interpersonal Interaction With Significant Others
  • B. Through Social Learning (Role Modeling)
  • C. Through Social Learning (Para-social Interaction With Mediated Role      Models)

  Appropriate role behaviors than can be internalized through direct and para-social interaction with significant others. Can a person come to see themselves as a victim and internalize this role through heavy viewing of violent mediated message content?

  Can person see themselves as more vulnerable?
  Can person see themselves as having fewer life chances?  
  Can person see themselves as more dependent on authorities?
  Can person see themselves as more controllable?

  Gerbner suggests that this is how minorities are cultivated in society?

  III. What are the consequences of internalizing the role of victim?

  • A. feel it is appropriate to accept their place in society
  • B. feel it is appropriate to accept injustice
  • C. feel it is appropriate to accept less of theirshare of resources, including      representation

  more and more minorities are unwilling to accept this role and increasingly becomes hostile to the mainstream culture

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  PART SIX THE LESSONS OF VIOLENCE

  I. What are the consequences of heavy exposure to television?
  

  A. heavy viewers come to perceive the real world to be like the televisual world

  IT CULTIVATES OUR PERCEPTIONS OF THE WORLD, HENCE GERBER'S IDEAS HAVE BEEN LABELED CULTIVATION THEORY

  II. What are the consequences if a large number of people come to view the real world like       the televisual world?

  A) may influence the political process if you believe that violence is escalating out of control certain pollical positions advocated by certain political candidates may be perceived more favorably

  B) for certain groups of people heavy exposure may lead to increased aggression and the perception that violence is a good solution to problems- this is a serious problem, but this kind of influence typifies or is characteristic of only a small percentage of people

  C) a more widespread effect is the media cultivates our perceptions of a "mean world" syndrome- heavy viewers of television tend to believe that we live in a meaner world

  THE MORE YOU WATCH THE MORE DANGEROUS YOU THINK THE WORLD IS

  II. What are the consequences of the Mean World Syndrome?

  • A. project greater degree of danger on to the world
  • B. greater insecurity
  • C. desensitization - more insensitive to violence because you tend to believe      that violence is the norm in the outside

    THE MORE YOU WATCH THE MORE THREATENED YOU FEEL

  • D. more insecure, anxious, and angry at the brutality you see around you may make you more dependent on the persons who say they will protect you, more likely you will demand protection and even approve repression, more receptive to anything you perceive will enhance your sense of security.
  • E. may be more easy to politically exploit these people-political campaigns, war on drugs, war on crime
    F. leads to a kind of undeclared civil war in our cities,

  Thus, the primary corrosive effects of growing up in a culture inundated with violent imagery are:

  • desensitization;
  • sense of frustration and anger which is exploitable in many ways; and
  • for people who have little participation in the culture or means of gaining status or attention a sense of aggression.

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  PART SEVEN
  CITIZENSHIP IN THE CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

  What can be done?

  redefine the debate - redefinition - no primarily a question or censorship vs free speech dangerous and misleading to think about the debate in terms of censorship vs free speech framers of the constitution saw government at the only public authority capable of influencing cultural policy e.g freedom of speech, press, religion and thus, were quite sensitive to the fact that it was government that might infringe on these fundamental rights today we have another government, another public authority which can influence cultural life and this is the large transnational corporation e.g. Colombia Pictures, Screen Gems,

  MGM/UA-authoritative decision-making in many areas of public affairs- according to Gerbner they can use the First Amendment as a shield and a privilege to establish a monopoly over cultural production, by which they claim the freedom to censor everyone else

  "Censorship is censorship by any other name."

  Steven Bocco

  Television producer

  "If we don't watch out we are going to be forced to produced television which does not display our world realistically, and I don't want to be a part of that medium"

  Diane English

  Gerber would argue that existing television programming does not portray our world realistically. we are in a situation where we have reached a position in our culture where a handful of people, the "ministers of culture" in Gerbner's words to determine what programming our culture will be exposed to-these ministers of culture are the network presidents, the heads of entertainment and programming and so forth

  CONTROL OF TELEVISION PROGRAMMING IS OUT OF CONTROL OF DEMOCRATIC DECISION- MAKING

  This is a situation in which we have never had to cope, and it is now a situation in which we must cope with. The key question for Gerbner, is how do we cope?

  B. recognize the problem - the problem is not censorship by government but censorship by transnational corporations who indirectly influence the content of television-those corporations which monopolize the television market

  C. rather than censoring and closing down the existing market perhaps we need to open up the market, more participation in cultural production

  II. WE NEED A CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT MOVEMENT

  A. Need coalition of citizens, educators,k professional artists, media workers to come      together who believe that there should be the opportunity for more diverse types of       television production.

  B. Need to build a constituency for media reform-working with decision-makers and      legislators toward the goal of diversifying television production, freeing and liberating      expression and representation from the constraints of partly the market, partly from the      constraints imposed by concentration of decision-making power in a few hands.

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  PART SEVEN  WHAT PARENTS AND TEACHERS CAN DO?

  I. WHAT SHOULD PARENTS DO?

  According to Gerbner, parents are trapped in a situation in which very often the television is the babysitter, this is particularly true of single parent families and families where both parents work outside the home. If you combine single parent families and families where both parents work, the remaining family with one parent working and one parent at home accounts for about 12% of American families. Becasue statistics suggest that two out of five of you will likely be divorced, and most of you will be part of dual career families this is a problem that will likely directly effect you.

  If you have tried to care for young children twenty-four hours a day for a long period of time by yourself, than it is not surprising that television is used as a babysitter. The simple facts are these: 1) nothing holds the attention of a young child like television; 2) many tasks that a parent must accomplish cooking, cleaning, paying the bills, studying, working can not be accomplished with young children simultaneously demanding your attention.

  "TELEVISION SHOULD BE TRUSTED TO BE A BABYSITTER"

  GEORGE GERBNER

  CAN WE TRUST TELEVISION TO BE A CO-CAREGIVER TO OUR CHILDREN?????

  Why are we one of the few industrialized countries who do not have quality children's programming in prime time at all?

  II. WHAT CAN PARENTS DO?

  A. Television should not be used as a reward or a punishment.
        Why should television not be used as reward or punishment?

  1). Teaches indiscriminate viewing?

  If television is part of a behavior modification program with children, it teaches children that the TV is something that can be turned on and off depending on their behavior, and regardless of the type of programming that is being broadcast.

  It teaches children that it is not what you watch that is important but how much you watch.

  2). Encourage Selective Viewing Is The Primary Goal Of Teaching Children To Be      Competent Television Watchers.

  C. Parents Should Participate In Their Children's World

  Why Should Parents Participate In Their Child's Viewing

  1) The parents who comments on a television program they have never seen losses      credibility with their children

  2) Competence depends on knowledge skill and motivation.

  Parents need knowledge of the programs their children view in order to have a basis for argument in order to enable them to express their perspective or opinion

  3) In order to introduce your children to alternative perspective, an alternative ways of      looking at the world, not just as a means of parental control

  Competent communicators are skilled at perspective-taking-the ability to cognitively construct the perspective of other people and to make judgments about how their perspective is similar to and different from your own. Research strongly suggests that parents who are competent communicators have children who are competent communicators. Parents are primary agents of socialization, and are responsible for introducing children to a diversity of perspectives, and this knowledge slowly enhances the child's skill as perspective-taking.

  If a child's understand of the world is shaped only by the perspective of television, what kind of understanding and what kind of child are you likely to have?

  D. Challenge TV's Power With Alternatives

  Teach children there is another way of viewing the world than the one that is expressed on television. There is an alternative way of looking at like other than they see on television. The most powerful effect of television as a agent of socialization is the belief that it cultivates in persons the belief that a televisual reality is reality-when it monopolizes the cultural life of a person and they remain unaware their are no alternatives.

  Just as parents provide their children with vaccines for children diseases like polio they need to immunize their children against the effects of television, furnish alternative points of view is one form of immunization. Because of the powerful effects of television booster shots are needed through-out a child's life.

  Television is an institutions which has it's own agenda, it has it own purposes, it has it's own agenda, it looks at and illuminates life from a restricted point of view, and children need to be aware of this and parents must help them seek out alternatives ways to look at life.

  E. Parents Must Insist That Schools Teach Analytical And Critical Viewing

  Teach children how to hand this new cultural environment

  TEACH MEDIA LITERACY

  F. Parents Should Assume Direct and Primary Responsibility

  If one does not teach their children to be media literate than they abdicate their responsibilities as parents. The schools can only do so much. This may not be another task we want to burden the schools. It seems every social problem that comes along the schools are told they must assume the responsibility, it time that parents took a little responsibility. If parents have to spend a little less time at work, or a little less time recreating, that is fine, that is what comes with parenthood- responsibility.

  PARENTS ARE NOT MERELY PARENTS, THEY ARE NOT MERELY EDUCATORS, THEY ARE CITIZENS

  WHAT THE POINT OF BRINGING UP CHILDREN IN A RELATIVELY HEALTHY DIVERSIFIED ENVIRONMENT IF YOU BRING THEM UP INTO A CULTURE AND INTO A WORLD THAT IS A MESS????

  You can not just do one and ignore the other. Not only do we have responsibilities to the families we create, but we have responsibilities to our community.

  WE ARE CITIZENS

  WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A CITIZEN?

  As Bill Moyers reminds us "For Millions Of Americans Today, Representative Democracy Has Become A Spectator Sport, Americans Are A Permanent Audience Waiting To Be Amused, They Look On More And More, And Join In Less And Less." To Turn Things Around That Almost Everyone Takes For Granted Is Going To Take A Long Time To Change Things That People Take For Granted May Seem Impossible, And It Might Be, But Look Around The World At All The Things Five Years Ago People Would Of Said Were Impossible

  "If It Seems Impossible, It Simply Means That It Is Probably Worth Doing" The Possible We Do Immediately, The Impossible Will Take A Little Longer"

  George Gerbner

  "Some people see things as they are and ask why, others dare to dream things that never were and ask why not?"

  Robert F. Kennedy

  Just Ask Chris

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