Violence and masculinity as global commodities

In 1997, the Media Education Foundation produced a documentary, The Killing Screens, questioning the impact of violence on our screens, particularly as it relates to male characters.  Below is a short clip:



Despite its age, many of the arguments about young people's exposure to violence are similar to those expressed in critical public discourse today.  Indeed, the general issue of violence in the media is not new; it has fuelled moral panics as early as the 1930s when comic books were targeted for their questionable moral standards (Lumby & Fine, 2006, p. 58).  However, the more specific point about the representation of men is worthy of further exploration, as it can be argued that the youth of today have more control of what type of man they see on the screen.

In the clip, Gerbner argues that popular television "reproduc[es] an over-representation of white males in the prime of life" in stories of power, conflict and violence.  The reason, he contends, is that it makes for a "global commodity" that will translate seamlessly into other cultures.  The construction of male characters in such texts privileges power, decisiveness and action as qualities of a successful man.  Given that such representations "travel well", it is more of a concern, in an increasingly globalised context, if the viewing youth around the world associate this with norms and expectations of masculine behaviour.  However, as Mallan and Pearce (2003, p. xviii) argue, youth are not "passive dupes"; rather, they are "savvy consumers, manipulators, and producers capable of subverting, resisting, and transforming the popular images that attempt to fix and define their identities".  It is perhaps with the aid of new media that young people will redefine how they understand masculinity.

One of Gerbner's final concerns is that the control of such representations of masculinity and violence is "out of the reach of democratic decision-making".  Interestingly, since the time the documentary was made, the nature of television has changed to embrace the contributions of viewers, which is indicative of our participatory culture.  While the genre of program is different, viewers of reality television, many of whom are young, can often decide who they wish to keep watching, which effectively shifts control away from the producers.  Unlike Gerbner's context, when youth were "growing up in a world that is designed to the specifications of a marketing strategy" with representations of men as virile and violent, youth of today are the marketing strategy, being able to contribute and produce their own versions of masculine identities.

Greg

REFERENCES

Lumby, C. & Fine, D. (2006). TV villains: media panics. In C. Lumby & D. Fine (Eds.), Why TV is good for kids: raising 21st century children (pp. 55-96). Sydney: MacMillan.

Mallan, K. & Pearce, S. (2003). Introduction: tales of youth in postmodern culture. In K. Mallan & S. Pearce (Eds.), Youth cultures: texts, images, and identities (pp. ix-xix). Westport: Praeger.