Mean World Syndrome
“Mean World Syndrome” In the film, “The Mean World Syndrome”, George Gerbner argues that people who watch a large amount of television tended to think of the world as an intimidating and unforgiving place. Gerbner researched the effects of television on society. He focused on the commercial media system that thrived on violence, stereotypes, and the cultivation of anxiety. The film argues that the more television people watch, the more likely they are to be insecure and afraid of others. Is it the media that makes us more violent or do we become more scared of violence happening to us? Mass media made viewers believe that the world was more dangerous than it actually was. The film showed how these media-induced fears and anxieties provided grounds for intolerance, extremism, and a paranoid style of politics that threatened basic democratic values. He talked about the government’s power over the mass media that leaves Americans in a state of perpetual fear. The result was a fascinating and exposed introduction to debates about media violence and media effects. Yet across the board, on issue after issue, studies have repeatedly shown that the very things that scare Americans the most have little to no basis in fact. Media violence inundated every home with choreographed brutality. It was and still is a relentless exposure to violence. All of the information that he provided was astonishing and really opened my eyes. A few statistics that he talked about where that children see on average 8,000 murders by the end of elementary school and 200,000 acts of violence by age 18. This is absolutely ridiculous. It makes me think twice about letting my children someday television. There is even “happy violence,’’ meaning that most fairytales, artistic shows, or journalistic features lead to a happy ending. It’s simply sugar coated with humor or “happy violence.” Now really thinking about it, it is so true. We don’t even realize it but mass media messages