Ill Effects - The Media Violence Debate (Paperback, 2nd edition)

Ill Effects revisits the 'media effects' debate. It asks why, when a particularly high-profile crime of violence is committed, there are those who blame film, television, video, pop music, and more recently, the Internet.
Ill Effects considers how the 'media effects' controversy has developed and combines a discussion about the responses to the shootings at Columbine High School, an analysis of the 1998 Home Office report on video violence and an exploration of why the Internet is being demonised, along with an analysis of fans' responses to supposedly dangerous films such as Reservoir Dogs, Natural Born Killers and Man Bites Dog.
In this second edition, the authors question why the popular press continues to peddle a cruel caricature of the way in which the media supposedly affects behaviour. They argue that there needs to be a change in the very questions that are asked about the influence of the media; rather than fruitlessly searching for evidence of 'harm', there needs to be a better understanding of the ways in which people actually use and interact with so called 'violent' media. Exploring what 'violence' means to different audiences, Ill Effects includes a guide to the important new research which is beginning to make a difference to the controversial argument about the influence of the media.