Second Review for the first SIEM Semifinal

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Second Review for the first SIEM Semi-final
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Zillman 12Harris Sex in the Media
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Zillman 12Harris Sex in the MediaCulture and
Sexuality 1

• Countries vary
• What people wear (e.g. wigs over shaved heads)
• Body alterations
• Surgery of sexual body parts (both male and
  female)
• Control over gender discriminations (e.g. hair)
• Weight and clothing to alter shape
• Behaviors and rights
• Inheritance rights
• Domicile
• Initiation of courtship
• Honor killings punishment of rape victims
  punishment of roles in prostitution

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Culture and Sexuality 2

• Cultures vary over time (true of all features)
• What people wear
• Body alterations
• Behaviors and rights

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Taxonomies of Sexual Content

• Instructional, erotic, pornographic, X-rated,
  sexually explicit
• Dehumanizing, degrading, humiliating, loving,
  prosaic
• What underlying factors operate here?
• How do they relate to the rest of culture?
• Studies of US content indicate lots of
  insinuation and fixation, but little
  explicitness. Violence does tend to be linked to
  sexual material.

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Sample of Effects of Viewing

• Zillmanns long-term studies show more acceptance
  of varieties of behavior over time.
• Erotic material produces emotional arousal
  adding violence can increase arousal. (Zillmann
  and others)
• Showing arousal in victims of sexual aggression
  makes the behavior more palatable to males,
  particularly ones predisposed to sexual
  aggression.
• Angering test subjects prior to exposure to
  erotic material leads them to be more accepting
  of violent content.
• The catharsis effect doesnt work here, either.

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Press Coverage

• Euphemisms used for sexual behavior
• Physical appearance of women described more often
• Deviations from traditional social roles
• Non-fiction descriptions in literature
• Naomi Wolff Beauty Myth, The Fire Within,
  Promiscuities
• Andrea Dworkin
• Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, etc.

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Zillmann 21Bryant Entertainment as Media Effect

• At one point they say that sex and violence are
  the prime sources of entertainment. They seem to
  have a pretty narrow view of life.
• Pleasures to consider sensations, emotions,
  cognitions, challenges overcome
• Pleasures may be means enjoyed for their own
  sake, rather than ends.

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Modern Views of Pleasure 1

• Campbell neurophysiologically it is the
  activation of the limbic areas (central brain)
• Tension and release
• Has been applied by Lichty to analyze TV shows
• Correlates with Information Theory-based measures
  of action
• Is all this related to beauty? E.g. is beauty
  inside us or outside us? Are we wired to
  appreciate beauty or do we create it? What makes
  something funny?

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Modern Views of Pleasure 3

• Hedonic pleasure theories
• Selyes inverted U-curve of stimulation
• Autonomic system you search for optimal
  stimulation
• Alternating deprivation and excess (Robin
  Williams)
• Adaptation (habituation) you get used to lower
  levels
• Hedonic reversal just the high end of the U.

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Hedonic Models and Media 2

• Viewer dispositions and media characters
• You hope for the heroes and want the bad guys to
  die.
• Can you get out of the situation of being worked
  by the director?
• Thrills and suspense
• Close victories are the most satisfying.
• The context of others
• Is Borat more effective when seen with an
  audience, and better with some audiences?

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Zillmann 22 MundorfSocial and Psychological
Effects

• There are lots of new technologies.
• The data on social relationships with information
  technologies is largely correlational.
• Sometimes use of information technologies is
  associated with loneliness, etc., sometimes its
  not.

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Media Interactivity

• Some people may like TV interactivity, though
  there aint that much of it.
• Early adopters may be more computer-oriented than
  other users, and may be less entertainment
  oriented.
• Interactivity can be multidimensional control
  over access, timing sequencing degree of
  selectivity, level of modification, quantity of
  content that is selectable, number of senses.
• Will interactivity trip over the world-wide wait?

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Uses and Gratifications

• The problem of the categories information, pass
  time, convenience, entertainment.
• General finding life satisfactions and usage are
  negatively associated, but what is the causal
  direction?
• Another finding sometimes online users do reach
  out to others.
• Despite myths, some older adults (ones with
  disposable incomes) actually use computers quite
  a bit to sustain social relationships.

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Raessens 23 Griffiths Does Video Game Addication
Exist?

• People have worried about media addictions with
  nearly every medium (e.g. with dancing the
  waltz).
• Work by Walther on Internet addictions suggests
  that the concern is overwrought.
• This chapter (and some work from the others)
  suggests that some susceptible people will get
  carpal tunnel, etc.
• Will computer games affect the average person?

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Characteristics of Addictions

• Salience the activity dominates others
• Mood modification the buzz, the rush
• Tolerance increasing amounts are needed to get
  the buzz
• Withdrawal symptoms unpleasant cessation
• Conflict with other people, activities or within
  the person
• Relapse reversion to extreme consumption
• What wouldnt qualify?

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Appealing Game Characteristics

• Response loop of stimulus and action
• Total concentration is required
• Span of play related to player skill
• Aural and visual rewards for skilled moves
• Incremental reward for inscreasing skill
• Scores (extrinsic rewards)
• Peer group attention and approval
• Ski bums?

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Empirical Research

• Shotton (1989) players go on to have normal
  lives
• Griffiths Hunt (1995) heavy players were bored
  and got cred with friends
• Several researchers dopamine and endorphin-like
  transmitters may be enhanced by game play.

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Addiction Research
These brain scans show the amount of serotonin
activity over a 40-minute period in a non-MDMA
user (top) and an MDMA user (bottom). Dark areas
in the MDMA user's brain show damage due to
chronic MDMA use.   
Do game players show related patterns?
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Brain Imaging and Games
Stanford University School of Medicine
researchers have shown that the part of the brain
that generates rewarding feelings is more
activated in men than women during video-game
play.
After analyzing the imaging data for the entire
group, the researchers found that the
participants showed activation in the brain's
mesocorticolimbic center, the region typically
associated with reward and addiction. Male
brains, however, showed much greater activation,
and the amount of activation was correlated with
how much territory they gained. (This wasn't the
case with women.) Three structures within the
reward circuit - the nucleus accumbens, amygdala
and orbitofrontal cortex - were also shown to
influence each other much more in men than in
women. And the better connected this circuit was,
the better males performed in the game.