Violence in the Media and American Society: Movement from Social Scientific Reductionism to Identification of the Roots of Violence

• NCJ Number: 150869
• Author(s): E D Tate; K McConnell
• Date Published: 1994
• Length: 38 pages
• Corporate Author: University of Maryland
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Conference Material
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: This paper was presented at the International Conference on Violence in the Media: Prospects for Change, held on October 3-4, 1994, in New York City. The conference was sponsored by St. John's University.

Annotation

The relationship between the roots of violence in American society and media content is discussed.

Abstract

Traditional media research paradigms focus on the relationship between media content and violent behavior by children or youth. This paper argues that to understand the complex relationship between violence in society and media content one must seek a multidimensional approach to these relationships. Too often the popular approach has been reductionistic seeking to explain violence with media content, identification with popular media characters, and aggressive behavior portrayed by the media. All too often the only medium focused on is television because of its popularity and pervasive representations of reality. The Report of The Ontario Royal Commission on Violence in the Communication Industry is one of the few investigations to examine all media presentations of violence. A multidimensional model is presented in this paper which expands on previous work. The authors argue that the roots of violence lie in cultural violence which legitimates structural and direct violence in American society. The media are only one of the factors which play a role in the reinforcement of these legitimators of violence. The authors further urge that American society is based on a mythic structure which legitimatizes the use of violence to settle any type of quarrel or problem. The romanticization of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the example of the frontiersman or cowboy who shot first and asked questions later, all legitimatize the use of violence within modern American life. To blame violence in American society on the decline of the family, or violent television content, is simplistic, but very American. Until the basic mythic premises of American culture are changed, violence will continue to be a conspicuous aspect of life in the United States. Bibliography