Frightening Media

So, I chose to do research on frightening media. It interests me the most because I am very affected by frightening media myself. I'm the friend that freaks out when asked to go see a scary movie and I do everything possible not to go, and yet I am 21 years old and in college. Go figure!

I went around and surveyed 100 college students and asked them varies questions about what frightened them while growing up.

Survey:
1) What was the number one movie that scared you as a child growing up?
2) Did reading about scary stories or creatures scare you more than movies?
3) What was a scary story you read growing up?
4) Did stuffed animals or creatures of these movies or stories scare you too?
5? Are you still scared of movies or stories now that you are in college?
6? What were some of the reactions you experienced when you were scared either watching a scary movie or reading a scary story?

Graph showing Question 1

I had a few other movie options but these were the more popular choices.

Graph for Question 5

This result made me laugh. I am glad I am not the only one still scared at 21. lol

Graph for Question 6

I felt this result was pretty accurate. I've heard of people having each one of these reactions and it fits what I presumed was going to be the results.

When it came to reading frightening stories, the candidates felt the same way about movies as they did reading stories. They agreed, reading the stories were just as scary at the time as watching the movie. But watching a movie, the images that were shown to them is what they remember. When they read a scary story, they were able to create a fictional character themselves from the adjectives and the way the storyteller wrote about the frightening characters.
Images of frightening creatures from the media, either movies or ads, can last longer in someone's mind than reading about them.

Stereotypes

 Many scholars believe that one of the most consistently stereotyped groups today is Arabs. The “stories” the mass media tell about Arabs seem to consistently dehumanize and vilify the Arab community.

In society we stereotype Arabs as

• terrorists
• people who own gas stations
• wear a turban on their head
• came from the desert area, rode on a camel and have many wives
• don't speak well English (which is true, in a lot of cases)

And in the movie "Aladdin" some of these stereotypes are shown along with others, for example; exotic-looking women, villains, and bestial.

Princess Jasmine is shown with tan skin, long flowing hair, a tiny waist, decent bust line, and showing nice flat stomach. She becomes a sex symbol, which leads to the idea other "middle east" women can be the same way, even if hidden under wraps and scarves.

The idea of Arabs being villains is portrayed by Jafar. He comes off as evil and adds to the idea of men of this race being terrorists and wanting to destroy.

The idea of Arabs being bestial; pertaining to, or having the form of a beast and without reason or intelligence; brutal; inhuman, is shown in Jafar's guard when he is after Aladdin.

We don't like to admit we have these stereotype but we do. And with it being represented in children's movies they get this schema of how Arabs can be. It puts a negative outlook on that race. But it is constant in many movies and has kept continuing in society for years. It's not fair to them but it has stuck and I don't know if it will ever go away, especially with recent events of Septemeber 11th, Saddam Hussein, and the continuous search for Bin Laden.

Sex

Create a set of categories regarding mediated sex and then conduct a content analysis of the video you’ve selected to watch.

I chose to watch the movie "The Rules of Attraction." I can't do horror films so I went with this movie instead. Pretty much anything and everything was shown; sex, drugs, violence, profanity,  suicide, etc. Some of it was very uncomfortable to watch and alittle obscene. Focusing on the mediated sex in this movie, categories that can be made are casual sex, not caring of risks and responsibilites of sex, rape and homosexuality. 

The film takes place in a setting of students in college, and yes college is about experiencing things but...wow...what they think someone should experience.

Sex was thrown around like it was nothing. Everyone was having casual sex and with eachother. No one seemed to care about the emotions that are attached, its all about pleasure and how many people you can sleep with. Showing what risks are involved in sleeping around were not discussed; STDs, pregnancy, personal morals. It was as people's morals no longer existed, they didn't care what they did...or WHO they did.

Casual sex was constantly happening throughout the movie. Students would party and not care who they were taking home and sleeping with. There were at least 6 or more scenes of casual sex.

Throughout the movie, anyone having sex did not seem to care about risks or resposibilities involved in sex.  There were no scenes were risk and responsibilities were discussed. Most couples having sex did not talk about the use of protection, whether it be condoms or asking the female if she was on birth control, they just went straight to the deed. Which leads to the loss of people's morals. You can't respect yourself or someone, for that matter, if you let all your morals out the window.

Homosexuality happened a few times in the movie as well. I thought the movie, in a way, gave homosexuality a negative connotation. The individuals who were gay in the movie were quiet about their relationship for the fear of being terrorized. And they showed gay people wanting sex all the time and it being very vulgar.

Rape was another category I chose for this movie, because it was brought up very little but was still present in the movie. There was a scene where a female is drugged and a guy tries to tape her while they have sex. And another scene where a female is raped and she commits suicide over it.

Using the Cultivation Theory, people watching this movie, overtime, will be begin to think the world is just a sex crazed society and sex is everywhere. Using the Socialization Theory, after watching this film, one is to think about their role in society, and after the looks of this movie, one's role is to have sex with anyone all the time. Or at least have alot of sex and it not mean anything.

I was not surprised by how much mediated sex was in this movie. This movie is meant for an audience of young adults, who's hormones are raging and the popularity of this movie would be high in that age group. But this movie should defnitely not be available for anyone. Teenagers and children should not have access, whatsoever, to this movie. This is not how they should be exposed to sex for the first time. It does not show a positive look on sex or even make it look worth while.

Violence

Content Analysis on a half hour of cartoons and a half hour of cage fighting.
The categories should be:  physical violence (hitting, shoving, striking, falling down, having something fall on a character, etc.), verbal violence (shouting, yelling, screaming, profanity, etc.), and intimidation.  Note also whether the violence perpetrators and victims are male, female or neither (may be an animal), and whether the violence is rewarded (do they win or escape) or punished in some way. 

On the half hour of cartoons, I YOUTUBEed an episode of the cartoon Batman. There was constant physical violence and intimidation from the start. Batman is seen as a hero but he becomes that way from physical violence of fighting the "bad guys". Then when Batman and his enemy begin their fight, there is 3-5 minutes of straight physical violence and shouting/yelling at each other. Not to mention, let alone, each figures outfit has mostly black and comes off very intimidating.  Batman has to save the woman who was suppose to help him fight the villain but was captured and he has to save her too, she is shown as helpless and nothing without Batman. So in the end when Batman defeats the villain and saves the girl, he is the hero and is rewarded by the town with praise and gratitude.

On the half hour of cage fighting, I watched one of the fights that was recently on TV. From the start, intimidation is shown. The monologues they have on each fighter and how they are going to defeat their opponent, they do a lot of "smack talking". Then once the bell is rung and the fight begins, it is round after round of pure physical violence. Each round is 8 minutes and for a good 5 minutes of each round is each opponent trying to harm the other. The other 3 minutes is the fighters circling the cage getting ready to make their next move. This type of fighting is very intense. I actually caught myself getting caught in it as well and getting excited when someone would throw a punch. The audience is a big factor in the verbal violence. You hear sayings like, "Knock him out!", "Break his nose.", etc. So when the fighters hear this being yelled they must get even more aroused and the violence level rises. At the end of the fight, the winner is rewarded with a belt and a new "Champion" title. A huge reward for such a violent act.

After watching these acts of violence and going over certain theories in class, like the Modeling Theory, Cultivation Theory, Desensitization Theory. It's no wonder people, especially children and young adults, are influenced by fighting on TV and being rewarded for it. With the Modeling Theory, children see this fighting and the person is rewarded at the end so they go out and do what they see and think their is a reward for them as well. With the Cultivation Theory, the exposure to the physical violence constant, has one to belief this is more common everywhere and makes it seem as though people enjoy this and it is normal. With the Desensitization Theory, the more someone watches violence the less sensitive it is for them to watch it. They are going to want more violence or for the violence to be stronger or harmful than what they previously just watched.

For the most part with physical violence, in cartoons and cage fighting, it would effect males in general and also younger ages. Men like violence and enjoy watching fights. It gets them excited and if not relaxed afterwards, it can lead to them wanting to start fights of their own. And with the younger ages, starting them off so early with cartoons, violence is shown to them early. They see it in cartoons and want to try that in reality with other children and it can get them into trouble.
Violence is something shown all the time and it is seen early in people's lives. It is just how one handles their levels of arousal after watching something violent and if they would act upon their feelings that can be potentially harmful.

News

How minorities are pictured in our local paper, the "A" and Metro sections of the Florida Times Union. The statistics and what they are referenced to.
Number of white men, number of white women, number of African-American men, and number of African-American women, number of asian men, and number of asian women. Note in what context these people are portrayed:  political, governmental, expert, crimes, sports, etc.

This graph represents the percent of what race and gender that was generally shown the most in the Times-Union in a 7 day period in the cateogory of political/government.

This graph shows the race and gender shown in the 7 day period in regards to the category of crime.

This graph shows the race and gender shown in the 7 day period in regards to the category of sports.

These graphs show that most of the time the race of white with a strong pull towards males is represented in pictures of the Times-Union. But when talking about crimes, it is the African-American race that takes the lead. This shows a negative outlook on African-Americans, while keeping a positive outlook on whites. Which isn't the case always. Asians are slowing being represented more but are still not shown quite enough.
I am not surprised at the numbers, it is pretty typical of our society. I do think all races should be represented in a more evenly order but this way, with what the graphs show, it keeps certain races interesting and keeps them popular, just maybe not always in a good way.

Definititions

Just a few definitions to start with in heling understand media theories and effects.

1. Theories of Uniform Influences: Members of society all have similar in human nature and are alike in terms of emotions and outlook. A message seen in the media is precieved the same way and reactions are similar. Using a direct influence.

2. Theories of Selective Influences: Members of society recieve and interpret messages from the media selectively. The variations occur because each individual has a unique personal organization of beliefs, attitudes, values, needs, and modes of experiencing things.

3. Disinhibition Theory: Individuals of society aquire a set of moral and personal ethics. These ideas prohibit us form engaging in certain behaviors, called inhibitions. Overtime, if we come into contact with a number of mass-mediated messages that seem to disregard this behavior and we may lose these inhibitions.

4. Desensitization Theory: Overtime, heavy media use can cause people to become less sensitive to certain topics and issues.

5. Sensitization Theory: This is the complete opposite. Viewers will react so strongly to seeing certain mediated content that they will be traumatized by it and actually become more sensitive to such topics and issues.

6. Modeling Theory: Viewers learn behaviors by observing others performing those behaviors and imitating them.

7. Cultivation Theory: Viewer's repeated exposure to media over time shapes their view of the world and social reality.

8. Socialization Theory: Viewer's prolonged exposure to media comes to teach them about the world and their role in it.

9. Uses and gratifications Theory: Shows the active role of the audience in making choices in media-use behavior. Media being used as entertainment or information-seeking.

10. Agenda-Setting Theory: The way the media gives emphasis to certain stories or topics by using headlines, placement of story, use of photos/videos, etc. The media do not necessarily tell us what to think, but rather what to think about.

11. Reinforcement Theory: All people posses mental collections (schema) of possible behaviors that can be used in various situations. When come into contact with mediated content that reminds them of their schema, that schema is reinforced.

12. Schema Theory: Referring to knowledge of frameworks that organize an individual's memory for people and events. This helps guides the perception, comprehension, and memories of information. A person holds mental schemas based on past experiences and schemas are typically culture-specific.