Lets Talk Violence in the Movies!

My assignment for my mass media and society class this week was to examine a mass medium which may have negative effects on today’s society. I have chosen to examine the possible negative effects that violence in movies has on today’s society, specifically children. Based on the secondary research that I have conducted I believe that violence in film does not have a negative effect on today’s society.

The three sources that I examined were all academic journals and the first of which I examined discussed the impact of violence in comedic movies between 1951 and 2000. It sites, “Freud (1958) argued that although non-hostile humor can evoke a mild chuckle, only tendentious humor (humor that relies on someone being ridiculed or victimized) can evoke peals of uncontrolled laughter.” After using this to form its argument it claims, “Sometimes tendentious humor manifests as actual physical violence.” However, after using this analysis, along with other studies, this article draws the conclusion that “In sum, what is clear about comedic violence is that it has been relatively pervasive in comedy films, especially since the 1970s. There is no clear message in violent comedy about good triumphing over evil, nor does violence in comedy films appear to be widely used as a vehicle to send negative messages about particular

societal subgroups.”

Another academic journal that I looked at addressed the issue of violence in “Slasher” films from the 90’s and discuses the effects that they have on male viewers. This article claims that violence, specifically against women, can leave men feeling disturbed. However, it counters this argument by saying, “Exposure to scenes of explicit violence juxtaposed with sexual images is believed to blunt males’ emotional reactions to film violence and lead males to be less disturbed by scenes of extreme violence and degradation directed at women.” Though it also states that this is not necessarily a good thing because it “may undermine viewers’ feelings of concern or empathy for female victims of violence.” However, the argument fails to offer any statistical data to support this argument, therefore it is only a thesis and not a fact.

The last academic journal that I examined discussed the issue of whether or not violence has had a negative effect on society, and after citing many real life examples of violence as a result of movies, came to the conclusion, “Despite the obvious similarities of these events, there is no concrete evidence of a connection between media violence and real life crime.”

After reading these journals, I believe that all three of them reinforce my previous opinion that violence in movies do not have a negative effect on society. The evidence presented I these journals either, agrees with this opinion or offers no statistical data to change my mind. I can think of no argument that anyone could have which would affectively argue against the arguments that I have presented here. In my opinion there is no direct negative effects, from violent films, on society.

Citations:

McIntosh, William D.; Murray, John D.; Murray, Rebecca M.; Manian, Sunita. Mass Communication & Society, Fall2003, Vol. 6 Issue 4, p345-360, 16p; DOI: NO_DOI; (AN 11463323)

 

Sapolsky, Barry S.; Molitor, Fred; Luque, Sarah. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Spring2003, Vol. 80 Issue 1, p28-38, 11p, 5 charts; (AN 9812029)

Australian Screen Education, Autumn2004 Issue 34, p24-25, 2p; (AN 14896757)