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Course #2
Media Criticism and Research
The course will introduce participants to media criticism and research by using violence in the media as a thematic module for understanding and applying media theories when conducting research. The study of violence in the media is a primary component of media literacy programs in North America and Western Europe and is now increasingly generating interest in academic circles in Ukraine and Russia. To date, over three hundred studies on this topic have been completed by means of qualitative and quantitative research methods. The issue is closely tied in with ethical concerns, which have become the focus of academic scrutiny over the past few decades.
The course will review the findings of these studies within the context of the latest developments in media literacy research. Researching media violence, which utilizes combined methodologies, establishes a link between watching media violence, on the part of viewers, and subsequent violent behavior. The course will review the methodology of research, in particular quantitative and qualitative methods, and also the psychological effects of screen violence on young people. Such effects are inextricably linked with processes of media globalization and expanding satellite television and the Internet. The course will also examine the issue of 'psychological immunity', which effectively neutralizes the pathogenic influence of media violence by means of media literacy. This will be accomplished by comparing and contrasting research approaches in Western Europe, North America and the former Soviet Union.
Session 1: Media Violence: A Central Problem in Media Literacy
Session one will begin with a brief review of material covered in Year 1 of our program and will provide participants with a logical progression into topics covered in Year 2. The Session will begin with an overview lecture. Participants will then be divided into five groups that were studying the problem of media violence during inter-session in 2007. The inter-session groups were assigned the task of calculating violent scenes in national news programs in their respective countries. Each group will present their sociological findings and their interpretation in terms of qualitative analysis.
Topics to be covered in lecture and discussion:
Survey of the empirical studies and experiments in the field of media violence and its effects on real life aggression;
Did social science prove "media violence" to cause adverse effects?
Violence as a subject in literature, arts, and in the media;
Screen violence in feature films;
Media violence in news and documentary TV programs;
Different ways of presenting media violence: news, sports, action movies, cartoons, horror movies, documentaries, war stories.
Online sources:
American Psychological Association 每 Violence on Television
http://www.apa.org/pubinfo/violence.html
Coalition for Quality Children's Media
http://www.cqcm.org
Mothers against Violence in America (MAVIA)
http://www.mavia.org
National Association for the Education of Young Children
http://www.naeyc.org
National Coalition on Television Violence (NCTV)
http://www.nctvv.org
National Institute on Media and the Family
http://www.mediafamily.org
Media Education Association in Russia
http://www.mediaeducation.boom.ru
The UNESCO International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media
http://www.nordicom.gu.se/unesco.html
Session 2. Media Violence: Scholarly Approaches and Research Outcomes
Session two will provide participants with an overview of the various methods used to study media violence and how this correlates with certain philosophical paradigms. In the discussion period participants will be asked to express their opinions concerning news coverage of terrorist attacks or violent acts in their respective countries. Participants will apply a different set of scholarly approaches while interpreting their sociological findings.
Lecture and Discussion topics will include:
Social Cognitive theory and its role in media violence study by Albert Bandura (Ukrainian-Canadian psychologist maintaining that children and adults acquire attitudes, emotional responses and new patterns of behavior through filmed and televised modeling, vicariously learned aggression and this can break out into antisocial behavior years later);
Culture Industry and screen aggression in Max Horkheimer's work (Frankfurt School);
Post-Modernist Approach to Media Violence, 'Carnival' Culture, Simulation of violence in Simulacra and Simulations by Jean Baudrillard (France);
Media Ecology approach to screen aggression in Neal Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death (USA), Gerbner's cultivation theory: People who are heavy viewers of television see vast quantities of dramatic violence, which cultivates an exaggerated belief in a mean and scary world.
East European Point of View:
Professional Ukrainian Journals 'MediaKrytyka' and 'Telekrytyka' on screen violence;
The course ※Violence in the Media§ in Russian Media Education System in Aleksandr Fedorov's works (Russia); ※Zone of Hell§ in Ukrainian Media.
Readings:
Berkowitz, l. (1993). Aggression. Its Causes, Consequences, and Control. New York: McGraw-Hill Inc., pp. 23 每 34.
Charlton, M., Lohr, P. (1999), Children and the Media / German Communication Yearbook. Ed. by Hans-Bernd Brosius, pp. 211-244.
Freedman, J. (2002). Media Violence and Its Effect on Aggression: Assessing the Scientific Evidence, University of Toronto Press, pp. 15-54.
Gerbner, G. (1982). Living with TV: the Violence Profile / Television: The Critical View. Ed. Newcomb H. NY-Oxford. pp. 363-404.
Griffin, E (1991). Bandura's social learning theory: A First Look at Communication Theory. McGraw-Hill, Inc., pp. 322-331.
Session 3. Globalization of Violence
The session will provide participants with a theoretical basis for studying media, globalization and violence. The theoretical constructs outlined will include information and informational society, global knowledge village, development theory, hegemony theory, and special features of post-communist countries. The session will use these constructs to analyze escalation of violence and violence in the media. New theoretical and ideological argumentation for violence will be reviewed.
Topics to be covered in lecture and discussion:
Violent Scenes on Global Television and the Internet;
Mass Media as a Vehicle for Global Terror.
Readings:
Globalization, Violent Conflict and Self-Determination. 每 Ed. by V.FitzGerald, F.Stewart and R.Venugopal. 每 Palgrave MacMillan, 2006.
Root Causes of Suicide Terrorism. The Globalization of Martyrdom. 每 Ed. by A.Pedahzur. 每 Routledge. 每 2006.
The Anthropology of Development and Globalization. 每 Ed. by M.Edelman and A.Haugerud. 每 Blackwell Publishing, 2005.
Thornton W. New World Empire. Civil Islam, Terrorism, and the Making of Neoglobalism. 每 Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005.
Session 4. Effects of Media Violence
Participants will be provided with an overview of the effects of media violence on society. Participants will put together a list of archetypal stories involving violence, their possible genres, varied stylistics, and relevant ideas by individual authors.
Topics to be covered in lecture and discussion:
Desensitization, cultivation, 'catharsis';
Who watches media violence and why?
Media Literacy: developing immunity to the pathogenic influence of the media.
Readings:
Bryant, J., Thompson, S. (2004). Fundamentals of Media Effects. New York, pp. 193 每 211.
Harris, R. (1999). A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication. New Jersey, London, pp.189 - 210.
Siegel, A. (1971), The Effect of Media Violence on Social Learning / /The Process and Effects of Mass Communication / Ed. By Wilburg Schramm, Chicago, London, pp. 612-637.
Session 5. Media Violence Research and Ethical Responsibility
In session five, the class will reflect on the ethical issues surroudinng media violence research from both a qualitative and quantitative approach. Participants will be invited to reflect on their own research topics and the ethical issues this may raise. Key notions such as informed consent, confidentiality, power and vulnerability will be discussed. The process of ethical scrutiny will be introduced.
Session 6. The Role of Politics in Selecting Research Methods.
In session six, the class will receive an overview of how the political dynamic of a given country and/ or university department can affect research methods. Participants will discuss the recent debate in the CIS academic community on whether to shift media studies curricula toward a sociologically research-oriented. Participants will produce country presentations on this topic and will specify how this situation may differ depending on one's academic discipline and how this affects teaching methodologies.
In addition, the session will explore the concept of writing in a vernacular that increases accessibility to the media, the general public and policymakers, etc.
Read Course #1 -- Media, Society and Research
Read Course #2 -- Media Criticism and Research
Read Course #3 -- Media, Economics and Research: Value Chain and Marketing Analysis
Read Course #4 -- Survey in Media and Governance
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