Mean World Syndrome: Media Violence and the Cultivation of Fear

Synopsis

A film based on the late George Gerbner’s groundbreaking analysis of media influence and media violence.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. This film urges us to think about media effects in more nuanced ways. It 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.

DVD extras include three additional short features 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 & ACCELLERATION examines how heavy exposure to media violence normalises violence, numbing some people to real-world violence even as it whets the appetite in others for ever-higher doses. (8:48)

George Gerbner
George Gerbner was one of the world’s foremost authorities on the effects of media violence. After earning a Bronze Star during World War II, he turned to academe, serving as dean of the Annenberg School for Communication for 25 years, presiding over the influential Cultural Indicators Research Project, and later establishing the Cultural Environment Movement, an international organization dedicated to democratizing media.

Filmmaker Info
Coming Soon

Film Festivals
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Related Links

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Society’s Storyteller: How TV Creates the Myths by which we Live
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Language

English

Country

United States

Year of release

2010

Year of production

2010

Subjects

Media studies; Psychology

Keywords

media representation; psychological investigation; social psychology; violence on film & television

Credits

Contributor

George Gerbner

Distribution Formats

Type

DVD

Format

Region 1 NTSC

Price

$250.00

Availability

Sale

Duration/Size

51 minutes

Year

2010

Distributor

Name

Media Education Foundation

Email

info@mediaed.org

Web

http://www.mediaed.org External site opens in new window

Phone

+1 413 584 8500

Fax

+1 413 586 8398

Address

60 Masonic Street
Northampton
Massachusetts 01060
USA

Notes

The MEF produces and distributes documentary films and other educational resources to inspire critical reflection on the social, political and cultural impact of the mass media, particularly in the US, with emphasis on gender, health, politics, race and commercialism. Sale on DVD.