The Mean World Syndrome

“Why have we allowed so much cultural power and influence to fall into the hands of so narrow a range of commercial interests?” This Michael Morgan quote resonated with me after watching The Mean World Syndrome. Morgan effectively unpacks George Gerbner’s final interviews throughout the film, and then delivers the aforesaid quote as a sort of send-off or final message. The film makes it clear that the question of why there is so much violence presented in our media is a very complex query that cannot be answered quickly or succinctly. There is a wide-ranging spectrum of reasons for the violence but they all seem to beg the question, Who exactly is conveying such violent messages and what are they getting out of it? 

Vulnerable people seek out products that promise to enhance and strengthen their lives, and guns are no exception. They seem to guarantee safety, security, and power. Corporate interests thrive from the public’s need to feel protected whilst ultimately feeling vulnerable and alone, because as long as people are buying products all is well and good in their world. The media thus pumps out images of violence even in a forum like the nightly news. The media’s agenda is to make its viewers feel that at any given moment they could be under attack. Guns are dangerous and deadly weapons, but they have been normalized through movies, commercials, and television shows where gun usage and intense acts of violence are standard. Gerbner recognized that such normalization coupled with people’s desire to feel safe and protected is a recipe for acceptance of violence in the media. 

To say that playing violent video games has a cause-and-effect relationship with being violent in real life is a notion that Gerbner quickly shot down. Violence is now such a common discourse that one cannot pinpoint exactly what inspires someone to want to inflict violence upon other people.