No Universal Criteria for Evaluating Media Violence
In a famous speech in 1995, Bob Dole, in an effort to gain more conservative support for his impending Republican Presidential Nomination, unleashed a damning indictment of the movie industry, seemingly unprovoked and somewhat puzzling. (Lacayo) Dole's speech and especially the rebuttals to it raise many questions central to the debate over violence in film: is violence destructive to impressionable viewers, is violence critical to the success of the industry, does violence have aesthetic value, who decides what is violent, and if something is found to be violent, should it be banned? By going beyond Dole's speech to carefully examine these questions, it is found that regardless of its effects on younger viewers, violence in film should be unhindered due to its benefit to it's industry, it's entertainment value, and the fact that the definitions of the term cannot be agreed on by the parties involved.
In 1997, the top ten grossing films (as of the end of the year), all contained the basic element of violence: someone physically striking someone else. These 10 films alone accounted for $1,672,200,000 domestically, which, in combination with the rest of the monetary intake of the other 130 major studio releases, represent a huge portion of the Gross National Product. By the end of 1997, the same ten films amassed $1,444,000,000 in foreign markets, making the products of the American film industry account for a large portion of money made through exportation. Those of these films released on video by the end of 1997 accounted for another $640,200,000 in the video market. (Kilday) So the current U.S. economy is partially dependent on the money made through the f...
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...ll to Arms, minus the war. Film is a form of expression, one wildly popular and in today's culture and very important to the U.S. economy, that cannot be hindered for the simple fact that a universal criteria for evaluating violence in it cannot be created.
Works Cited
Kilday, Gregg. "For Richer or Poorer." Entertainment Weekly 30 January 1998: 34-37.
Lacayo, Richard. "Violent Reaction." Time 12 June 1995: 24-30.
Lion King, The. Dir. Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff. Perf. Mathew Broderick and Nathan Lane. Walt Disney Productions.
Natural Born Killers. Dir. Oliver Stone. Perf. Woody Harrelson and Juliet Lewis. Warner Bros., 1994.
Pulp Fiction. Dir. Quentin Tarantino. Perf. John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. Miramax, 1994.
True Lies. Dir. James Cameron. Perf. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis. Twentieth Century Fox, 1994.
3. Because he believes that "real men have no fears," 8-year-old George has difficulty accepting the fact that his father is fearful of losing his job. George's experience is most directly explained by:
Pulp Fiction. Dir. Tarantino Quentin. Perf. John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Tim Roth
3. According to Emily's grandfather, Adolf Hitler's obvious emotional instability made it clear that Germany would inevitably lose World War II. The grandfather's claim best illustrates:
3. Lexi and Petri are identical twins who were separated at birth and grew up with very different families. Lexi is a skilled student who has three close friends and a loving boyfriend. Her adoptive family had difficulties accepting her when she was an infant and never really appreciated her until she reached puberty. Petri is also a good student and is very well liked in her sorority. Her adoptive family adored Petri until the family dissolved in a messy divorce when Petri was 16. Based on the core model of personality, who probably has higher self esteem, Lexi or Petri?
Buddha, Confucius, and other lesser known Hebrew scholars philosophized on the mind in an expansive sense.
Natural Born Killers. Dir. Oliver Stone. With Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones, and Robert Downy Jr. Warner Bros., 1994.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Dir. Michel Gondry. Perf. Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet. Focus Features, 2004. DVD.
Inglourious Bastards. Dir. Quentin Tarantino. Perf. Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz. The Weinstein Company, 2009. DVD.
American Beauty. Dir. Sam Mendes. Writ. Alan Ball. With Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening. Dreamworks SKG, 1999.
Chapter 4 discusses the several states of consciousness: the nature of consciousness, sleep and dreams, psychoactive drugs, hypnosis, and meditation. Consciousness is a crucial part of human experience, it represents that private inner mind where we think, feel, plan, wish, pray, omagine, and quietly relive experiences. William James described the mind as a stream of consciousness, a continuous flow of changing sensations, images thoughts, and feelings. Consciousness has two major parts: awareness and arousal. Awareness includes the awareness of the self and thoughts about one's experiences. Arousal is the physiological state of being engaged with the environment. Theory of mind refers to individuals understanding that they and others think,
The media in today’s society is very influential on children. There are many things that children at a very young age are learning, for example violence. Many children learn violent behavior and they become violent and aggressive children because they are exposed to so much mature content. Many parents are not aware of what their children are watching, and without knowing it, their children are raised by the media. Many television shows contain a lot of violence, for example kids fighting each other, kids bullying other kids and kids yelling and disrespecting their parents. Unfortunately, at a very young age children are learning to be aggressive and violent because they are spending more time watching television than spending it with the family. Now days many kids turn into bullies because they believe it is a way to defend them, a way to gain respect and admiration from their peers. They do not respect their parents and they get out of control at a very young age, and many parents cannot control their behavior. If parents do not monitor what their children are watching, then the media will have a great impact on their children’s life.
Psychology is the investigation of the mind and how it processes and directs our thoughts, actions and conceptions. However, in 1879 Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig in Germany. Nevertheless, the origins of psychology go all the way back thousands of years starting with the early Greeks. This foundation is closely connected to biology and philosophy; and especially the subfields of physiology which is the study of the roles of living things and epistemology, which is the study of comprehension and how we understand what we have learned. The connection to physiology and epistemology is often viewed as psychology, which is the hybrid offspring of those two fields of investigation.
Bio-Psychologists study the principles of biology as it relates to the comprehension of psychology in the field neuroscience that underlies ones emotions, ideology, and actions (Brittanica). Based upon the conduction of research, the relationship between the brain and ones behavior extends to the physiological process in one’s intellect. Scientists are cognizant that neurotransmitters function as a significant role in mood regulation and other aspects of psychological problems including depression and anxiety. A biological perspective are relevant to psychology in three techniques including: the comparative method, physiology, and the investigation of inheritance (Saul Mc. Leod).
For this research requirement I chose three different experiments to examine thoroughly. The first of these experiments came from the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. The study done in this journal was an examination of orthographic learning and self-teaching in a bilingual and biliterate context. The aim of the study was to figure out the advantages and/or disadvantages of a student learning a native language when they are either monolingual, bilingual, or biliterate, and the study was focused on learning English because this is the most commonly learned non-native language in the world.
The Hunger Games. Dir. Gary Ross. Perf. Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson. Lionsgate, 2012. DVD.