TV and Film Violence

Those of us who are used to thinking about the Pauline advice about our minds tending to influence attitudes and habits and actions, have tended to think that there must be a link between violence (and sex, for that matter) portrayals in media and acting out. This article is a kind of 'where the research seems to have got to' on the portrayal and consumption of images of violence and the effects in society. As such it's really helpful. It acknowledges that it's not a simple thing but that there are correlations showing up in the studies. For example, "Even though we can't establish a simple, direct, cause-and-effect relationship between media violence and violence in our society, we can draw some conclusions from the data. Studies show that people who watch a lot of TV violence not only behave more aggressively, but are more prone to hold attitudes that favor violence and aggression as a way of solving conflicts. These viewers also tend to be less trusting of people and more prone to see the world as a hostile place."
Which is the kind of thing that I had naively hypothesised; so I would be feeling chuffed were it not for the subject matter. How to respond is a further matter only really hinted at. However, an intriguing link is mention in passing, to do with advertising smoking ...
The article mentions an article for greater depth and it appears to have moved. I think that this is it. It's also worth checking out a wider range of articles here.
TV and Film Violence: