Description
Are school shootings the result of violent video games? Do sex-laden movies lead to promiscuity? Can Goth music create alienation? Repeatedly we are told the answer to these and similar questions is a resounding yes.
But is this the right answer?
It's Not the Media considers why media culture is a perennial target of both fascination and concern, and why we are so often encouraged to believe it is the root of many social problems. A look beyond the attention-grabbing headlines and political stumping reveals that fearing media feels right because media represents what we fear. And changes in media culture are easier to see than the complex economic, social, and political changes we have experienced over the past few decades.
Digging deeper into the historical and societal trends of the past century and drawing from the most current social science research on the effects of media on children, Sternheimer presents a compelling argument that fear of social change, and what it means to be a kid in a today's media-saturated climate, lies at the heart of our media-bashing culture.
Table of contents
Introduction: Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
The flawed logic of media phobia, past and present
Why Americans Choose to Fear Media
It’s not the media: What really changed childhood
Why Americans Choose to Fear Youth
The politics of youth-bashing
Fear of Media Violence
Four fallacies of media-violence effects
Fear of Cartoons
Role models for bad behavior?
Fear of Video Games
The blamed games
Fear of Music
Musical murder and misogyny
Fear of Advertising and the Young Consumer
How much is that psyche in the window?
Fear of Sex
Do the media make them do it?
Fear of the Internet
Information regulation
Conclusion: Rethinking Fears of Media and Children
Media: A sheep in wolf’s clothing