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