Summary
Contents
Subject index
This definitive examination of a contemporary social issue asks questions such as: How much media violence is there? What are the meanings conveyed in the way violence is portrayed? What effect does it have on viewers? Divided into four parts, the book reviews research on media violence; re-examines existing theories of media violence; considers methodological tools used to assess media, and introduces the concept of Lineation Theory, a perspective and new theoretical approach explaining media violence.
Overview and Introduction
Overview and Introduction
Violence in American society is a public health problem. Although most people have never witnessed an act of serious violence in person, we are all constantly reminded of its presence by the media. The media constantly report news about individual violent crimes. The media also use violence as a staple in telling fictional stories to entertain us. Thus, the media amplify and reconfigure the violence in real life and continuously pump these messages into our culture.
The culture is responding with a range of negative effects. Each year about 25,000 people are murdered, and more than 2 million are injured in assaults (Steenland, 1993). On the highways, aggressive behavior such as tailgating, weaving through busy lanes, honking or screaming at other ...
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