Matrin Barker

Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth

"Ill Effects: the Media-Violence Debate"

The influence of the media remains a contentious issue. Every time a particularly high-profile crime of violence is committed, there are those who blame the effects of the media. The familiar culprits of cinema, television, video and rock music, have now been joined, particularly in the wake of the massacre at Columbine High School, by the Internet. Yet, any real evidence that the media do actually have such negative effects remains as elusive as ever and, consequently, the debate about effects frequently ends up as being little more than strident and rhetorical appeals to "common sense." Ill Effects is a guide for the perplexed. It suggests new and productive ways in which we can understand the influences of the media and question why the effects paradigm still exerts a tenacious hold in some quarters. Refusing to adopt the absurd position that the media have no influence at all, Ill Effects rethinks the notion of media influence in ways which take into account how people actually use andinteract with the media in their everyday lives.
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Ill Effects is a radical re-examination of the whole 'media effects' debate. It questions not only whether the media is capable of directly influencing people's views and actions, but also whether the idea of 'effects' is the most useful way of conceptualising the relationship between the media and audiences. Ill Effects looks at the reasons why the media are routinely blamed for horrific events such as the murders of James Bulger and Suzanne Capper and the Hungerford massacre, as well as for perceived trends such as the alleged 'death of the family' and the rise of 'yob culture'. The authors' concern goes beyond individual cases: they discuss the development and current state of play of research into media effects, the remarkable power of 'common-sense' notions of media effects and the way in which the effects issue has become embroiled in debates about freedom of expression and censorship. They suggest how audiences really respond to media texts, and argue that there is an urgent need for informed and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the media.

Question 1

Focus - art imitating life or life imitating art
Reason for choice - background knowledge and wanted to explore deeper into the topic, very accessible...
...
Methodologies -
Inductive research --> secondary research(understand issues and concepts better and find out what theorists have said about the topic)

Primary research - textual analysis (Natural Born Killers etc)
Qualititative data better for my research project than quantitative --> focus groups, 1 on 1 interview)

Art imitating life or life imitating art..?

Which came first (chicken and egg style question)...
Are films a reflection of society or visa versa (negative effects, copycat crime)

INSTITUTIONAL

• What are the implications of this for censorship?
• Differences in regulated societies

e.g. Europe are quite easy going, a lot of violent material gets through in the US whereas the UK are more tight on violence --> Gun laws and statistics to back up point

• Natioanl Crime statistics concerning serial killers
• Court cases - Oliver Stone, Jamie Bulger

AUDIENCE

• Theory e.g. negative effects, passive vs active viewer - hypodermic needle
• Dominant ideology and general beliefs --> surveys, direct quotes from adults, headlines etc
• Harm?
• Films are scapegoated - remove the blame from oneself

FORMS & CONVENTIONS

• Films - representation of violence

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ACADEMIC

• Moral panics (David Buckingham - theorist) 'Moving images'
• Perceptions of reality/fantasy
• Uses and Gratifications
• David Gauntlett '10 things wrong with the effetcs model'
• Karl French (sp?) - 'screen violence'
• Tom Dewe Matthews 'Censored'
• Martin Barker
• Adrian Gill (journalist)
• John Bayer (director of national viewers and listeners association)

CASE STUDIES

Natural Born Killers, The Dark Knight, Henry; Portrait of a serial killer --> BBFC quotes

Research methods and sources

Questionaires

One on one interviews

---- books, website etc

Serial Killers

Maybe focus on the stereotype...unprovoked, white, male

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,295900,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2000/jun/15/news

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080316141125AA7T090

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AsEmMqD96tdId4pDKA_X__RJBgx.;_ylv=3?qid=20081009061745AAgApVA

http://www.centerforfutureconsciousness.com/pdf_files/2008_Essays/Freedom%20%20Determisnism%20and%20the%20Case%20for%20Moral%20Responsibility%20in%20the%20Murder%20of%20Jamie%20Bulger.pdf

http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/10717

http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/22201_Ch10PPTHelfgott.ppt#283,10,The Copycat Phenomenon and Criminal Behavior
This is Really good

http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/22201_Ch10PPTHelfgott.ppt#256,1, Criminal Behavior Theories, Typologies, and Criminal Justice J.B. Helfgott Seattle University

Copycat crime...

I decided to find out some general information and interesting opinions around the topic before I got specific

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_crimes

2) http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HxuV5PnA0rEC&pg=PA159&lpg=PA159&dq=copycat+crime+independent+article&source=bl&ots=rzFzzpwyud&sig=hG3XodVsbAV-PSBH6nTb-4t9X0Y&hl=en&ei=46unSYfYA9m0jAeIsYHXDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result

3) http://www.apnic.net/mailing-lists/apple/archive/2000/08/msg00000.html

4) http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/learning.htm

5) http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/11/14/experts-pin-copycat-crimes-media.html

6) http://cultmediastudies.ning.com/forum/topics/cfp-representations-of-the

7) http://ambafrance-do.org/psychology-help/16678.php

Amazon books

don't know if this might be of use - you could look at serial killers/media culture as a narrower focus
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Natural-Born-Celebrities-Killers-American/dp/0226738698/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234480381&sr=1-5
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Review - http://mcs.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/29/2/354

looking good cat, plenty of books in the dept for this topic. good idea to focus on specific cases and look at the links between real life crimes and media

Detailed Proposal (incomplete)

1. Topic Area
Crime and the Media

2. Proposed title, question, hypothesis
Copycat crime ( or maybe be more specific and focus on serial killers)

3. Teacher approval granted, in principal?
Yes

4. Principle texts (if text based study)
The recent Joker killing in Belgium, Dun Blaine articles, Natural Born Killers, Jamie Bulger etc

5. Reason for choice
Interesting debates, lots of resources, already have quite a lot of knowledge surrounding the topic

6. Academic context for this study (similar research, relevant theory, named theorists)
-Hypodermic needle theory
-negative effects research e.g. bobo doll experiment
-Passive vs. avtive viewer

7. Institutional context for this study (industry focus, other texts for comparison, named practitioners, relevant theory, issues, questions)


8. Identify the audience context for this study (audience profile, access to audience, potential sample)
Children and Young males (But there may issues with showing them clips from films with cert. 18). however I have easy access to this demographic --> my brothers and their friends

9. How will the 4 key concepts be relevant to your study (audience, institution, forms and conventions, representation)?

10 Potential research sources (secondary):secondary academic books and websites, secondary industry books and websites, secondary popular criticism. Please identify specific examples you have come across.
Websites, Books

11. Potential research sources (primary):
Questionnaire, Internet Forum, Focus groups, Analysis of texts

12. Modifications agreed with your lead teacher


13. Potential limits/obstacles/problems?


14. Teacher concerns


15. Teacher approval

Initial Ideas

1.Which topic area is this proposal for?
Crime and the media

2. What is the suggested focus?
Copycat crime and psychological effects

3. Do you have an idea for a question/problematic?


4. Why would you choose this?
Debates surrounding psychological effects really interest me and there's a lot of information available. Also it follows on well from film censorship.

5. Do you have any concerns or are there any limitations to this proposal?
Not really because as I said there's a lot to talk about.

6. Can you rate it on a sliding scale 1- 5 (5 being great proposal, 0 being lousy proposal)
4