The relationship between media representations and real acts of violence is one of the most contentious and hotly debated issues today. This book is the first to bring together a selection of highly influential readings that have helped to shape this area of research. It includes key investigations of how, and with what implications, the media portray violence in the twenty-first century.Critical Readings: Violence and the Media contains sections examining how media violence and its 'effects' have been theorized; how media production contexts influence the reporting and representation of violence; and how audiences engage with depictions of violence. Violence is analysed in as it is portrayed in different media formats, including television, film, radio, the news, public information campaigns, comics, video games, popular music, photography, and the internet. The readings cover a range of perspectives, including social learning, desensitisation and cultivation theories, 'no-effects' models, sociological, feminist and postmodern arguments. An editor's introduction and section introductions serve to contextualise the readings.Providing a detailed and theoretically grounded consideration of the cultural and social significance of media violence, Critical Readings: Violence and the Media is an essential resource for students of media studies, cultural studies, sociology and communication studies. Essays by: Alison Adam, Albert Bandura, Martin Barker, Eileen Berrington, Douglas R. Bruce, David Buckingham, David Campbell, Jay Dixit, Lisa Duke, Molly Eckman, David Gauntlett, George Gerbner, Henry Giroux, Jack Glaser, Donald P. Green, Kellie Hay, Annette Hill, Birgitta Hoeijer, Derek Iwamoto, Ann Jemphrey, Christine L. Kellow, Jenny Kitzinger, Magdala Peixoto Labre, Catherine Amoroso Leslie, Debra Merskin, Jennifer Paff Ogle, Mary Beth Oliver, Valerie Palmer-Mehta, Julian Petley, Charles Piot, Srividya Ramasubramanian, Dorrie Ross, Sheila A. Ross, Mehdi Semati, H. Leslie Steeves.
Author Biography:
Cynthia Carter is Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Cardiff. She is the co-author of Violence and the Media, published by Open University Press in 2003; the co-editor of Critical Readings: Media and Gender, also with Open University Press, and author of News Gender and Power and Environmental Risks and the Media. Cynthia is also the co-editor of the journal, 'Feminist Media Studies'. Kay Weaver is Associate Professor at the University of Waikato where she teaches in the Department of Management Communication. She is the author of Women Viewing Violence (BFI), and the co-author of Violence and the Media, published by Open University Press in the Issues in Cultural and Media Studies series.
