Humans of the advanced world are the most violent beings of all times. This violence is evident in the conditions of perpetual warfare and the accumulation of the most powerful and destructive arsenal ever known to humankind. It is also evident in the devastating impact of advanced world economy and cultural practices which have led to ecological devastation and the current era of mass species extinction. —one of only six mass extinction events in planetary history and the only one caused by the actions of a single species, humans. This violence is manifest in our interpersonal relationships, and the ways in which we organize ourselves through hierarchical systems that ensure the wealth and privilege of some, against the penury and misery of others. In this new and highly original book, Jeff Lewisargues that violence is deeply inscribed in human culture, thinking and expressive systems (media). Lewis contends that violence is not an inescapable feature of an aggressive human nature. Rather, violence is laced through our desires and dispositions to communalism and expressive interaction. From the near extinction of all Homo sapiens, around 74,000 years ago, the invention of culture and media enabled humans to imagine and articulate particular choices and pleasures. Organized intergroup violence or warfare emerged through the exercise of these choices and their expression through larger and increasingly complex human societies. This agitation of amplified desire, hierarchical social organization and mediated knowledge systems has created a cultural volition of violent complexity which continues into the present. Media, Culture and Human Violence examines the current conditions of conflict and harm as an expression of our violent complexity.

This definitive examination of this important social topic 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 covers: a review of research on media violence; re-conceptions of exisiting theories of media violence; addresses the need to rethink the methodological tools used to assess media violence; and introduces the concept of Lineation Theory, a perspective for thinking about media violence and a new theoretical approach explaining it.

Counters the claim that media violence leads to widespread social aggression. Dispelling this myth through a multiple-method analysis, this work argues that there are, indeed, media effects that derive from media violence, pornography, and other kinds of visual, cyberspace, and print based messages.

On Media Violence is a definitive examination of this hotly debated social topic. Media scholar W. James Potter asks provocative 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 individually, as members of particular groups, and as members of society? The book is organized in four parts. The first part presents a thorough review of more than 40 years of research and theories about media violence. The second part is an extended critique of the assumptions and practices of that research and thinking. The book proposes re-conceptions of definitions of violence, context, levels of phenomena, the role of human development, effects, risk, and the nature of the media industries. Potter also addresses the necessity for a reconfiguration of the methodological tasks used to assess the content and effects of media violence. The final part introduces Lineation Theory, a suggested perspective and new theoretical approach explaining it. On Media Violence is essential reading for students and scholars of Media Studies, Communication Theory, Popular Culture, Social Psychology, and Sociology. Part I of the book offers a thorough review of more than 40 years of research on media violence. Part II proposes re-conceptions of these theories, focusing in particular on violence, context, levels of phenomena, human development, effects, risk, and the media industries. In the latter half of the book, Part III addresses the necessity for a reconfiguration of the methodological tasks used to assess media violence. Part IV introduces the concept of Lineation Theory, a suggested perspective for thinking about media violence and a new theoretical approach to explaining it. On Media Violence is essential reading for students and scholars of Media Studies, Communication Theory, Popular Culture, Social Psychology, and Sociology.

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2+ (B), Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald (Institute for American Studies), course: HS Criminal Justice in the USA, language: English, abstract: Today the media is often seen as the “fourth estate” of the American system, which already marks its special position in society. This term-paper will show both how that position historically developed and which role the media plays currently. In order to underline the specific conditions and political and social circumstances that existed in the colonies and later in the United States, e.g. the British Kingdom’s influence and its predominance, the media’s gradual development will be traced back carefully. Furthermore, it shall be given an answer to the question if and in what respect the media influenced and influences social and personal life. This will be analyzed with regard to the media’s functions and its reputation as being responsible for high violence and crime rates in the USA. Moreover, an insight into common views and prejudices of the media will be given and compared to reality. To answer the question if the media is really responsible for crimes, violence and aggression, its status in our lives must be examined. That means it will be considered of what importance the media can be for the individual and which positive and negative consequences might arise from the media’s existence and significance. Moreover, it shall be shown that media violence has certain potential effects on the individual and is able to affect everybody. On the one hand, this term-paper will point out that the media’s impact on political, social and personal life is underestimated, respectively often not even acknowledged. On the other hand, it shall be presented that the media serves also as scapegoat and can not be blamed for everything, in particular it can not be held responsible for crime, violence and aggression all alone. To prove that, an individual’s personal determinants will be analyzed in order to underline the various aspects that must come together to create violence and aggression. Finally, actions of state and society with the purpose of reducing violence on TV are portrayed and further suggestions are made on that topic. Within the analysis, special attention is turned to television as the medium of the 21st century. Due to its characteristics (stimulating the recipient audio-visually, having the greatest potential of manipulation and fascination, being seen as the most important, most credible and easiest accessible source of information and depicting violence and aggression most effectively) it is the medium which the examination must base on.

This edited volume examines theoretical and empirical issues relating to violence and war and its implications for media, culture and society. Over the last two decades there has been a proliferation of books, films and art on the subject of violence and war. However, this is the first volume that offers a varied analysis which has wider implications for several disciplines, thus providing the reader with a text that is both multi-faceted and accessible. This book introduces the current debates surrounding this topic through five particular lenses: the historical involves an examination of historical patterns of the communication of violence and war through a variety sources the cultural utilises the cultural studies perspective to engage with issues of violence, visibility and spectatorship the sociological focuses on how terrorism, violence and war are remembered and negotiated in the public sphere the political offers an exploration into the politics of assigning blame for war, the influence of psychology on media actors, and new media political communication issues in relation to the state and the media the gender-studies perspective provides an analysis of violence and war from a gender studies viewpoint. Violence and War in Culture and the Media will be of much interest to students of war and conflict studies, media and communications studies, sociology, security studies and political science.

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: good, University of Potsdam (Institute for Anglistics/ American Studies), course: PS/ GK Introduction to Media Science, 25 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: What is 'violence'? Kunczik says it is "an intentional physical or/and psychical damage to a person, a living being or a thing, through another person."1(15) Theunert considers violence only between human beings. "Offenders and victims are always one or more persons."2(89) Kunczik says one also could differentiate between concrete violence and fictional violence, as well as between natural and artificial violence. Concrete violence is about shown behaviour, which results in violence, either physical or psychical. Fictional violence is only the presentation of it. And so natural violence means the real and genuine violence, for example shown in movies. And at last the artificial representation means the un-real representation, for example shown in cartoons. 2. History of Violence in the Media Historically spoken, violence in the media is not a phenomenon of the present; already the ancient Greeks were confronted with it. Kunczik (19) states that each new medium was judged negatively in the beginning. It all started with Plato. In his work "Politea" he accuses tales and myths to stand in contrast to an honourable adult life, and so children and youngsters should be kept away from these. At this point Aristotle, a former student from Plato sets in. He formed a thesis called thesis of catharsis. 3 So one can see that the topic violence already derives from the ancient world. For example Homer and his "Odyssey" as well as Aneas and his work "Aneis". Also the Grimms and Busch made use of violence in their tales. This goes on to Shakespeare and his plays, for example in "Hamlet" they fight, an act of violence, or "Macbeth". Goethe as well used a kind of violence, when his "Werther" 4 commi

This volume brings together leading sociologists and anthropologists to break new ground in the study of cultural violence. First sketched in Raphael Lemkin’s seminal writings on genocide, and later systematically defined by peace studies scholar Johan Galtung, the concept of cultural violence seeks to explain why and how language, symbols, rituals, practices, and objects are so frequently in the crosshairs of socio-political change. Recent conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia, along with renewed public interest in the repertoire of violence applied to the control and erasure of indigenous populations, highlights the gaps in our understanding of why cultural violence occurs, what it consists of, and how it relates to other forms of collective violence.

This timely collection provides a historical overview of violence in American popular culture from the Puritan era to the present and across a range of media. Few topics are discussed more broadly today than violence in American popular culture. Unfortunately, such discussion is often unsupported by fact and lacking in historical context. This two-volume work aims to remedy that through a series of concise, detailed essays that explore why violence has always been a fundamental part of American popular culture, the ways in which it has appeared, and how the nature and expression of interest in it have changed over time. Each volume of the collection is organized chronologically. The first focuses on violent events and phenomena in American history that have been treated across a range of popular cultural media. Topics include Native American genocide, slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and gender violence. The second volume explores the treatment of violence in popular culture as it relates to specific genres—for example, Puritan "execution sermons," dime novels, television, film, and video games. An afterword looks at the forces that influence how violence is presented, discusses what violence in pop culture tells us about American culture as a whole, and speculates about the future.

"Each chapter contains recommendations for legislators, policy makers, researchers, and families. This book should be on the desk, and minds, of legislators, attorneys, social workers and other mental health professionals who encounter and wish to ameliorate the effects of violence in the lives of their young constituents, clients, and patients." -JOURNAL OF CHILD AND FAMILY STUDIESQuestions relating to violence and children surround us in the media: should V-chips be placed in every television set? How can we prevent another Columbine school shooting from occurring? How should pornography on the internet be regulated? The Handbook of Children, Culture and Violence addresses these questions and more, providing a comprehensive, interdisciplinary examination of childhood violence that considers children as both consumers and perpetrators of violence, as well as victims of it. The Handbook offers much-needed empirical evidence that will help inform debate about these important policy decisions. Moreover, it is the first single volume to consider situations when children are responsible for violence, rather than focusing exclusively on occasions when they are victimized. Providing the first comprehensive overview of current research in the field, the editors have brought together the work of a group of prominent scholars whose work is united by a common concern for the impact of violence on the lives of children. The Handbook of Children, Culture and Violence is poised to become the ultimate resource and reference work on children and violence for researchers, teachers, and students of psychology, human development and family studies, law, communications, education, sociology, and political science/ public policy. It will also appeal to policymakers, media professionals, and special interest groups concerned with reducing violence in children's lives. Law firms specializing in family law, as well as think tanks, will also be interested in the Handbook.