The Mean World Syndrome

Gr 10 Up—This powerful documentary about media scholar George Gerbner makes its point by employing very violent video clips to explain his theory concerning the effects of being exposed to high levels of media violence. The film is divided into five segments: "Tidal Wave of Violence," "It's Like the Fish in the Water," "Mean World Syndrome," "Mean People," and "The Fallout." According to his theory, individuals who spend a lot of time watching violence in movies, TV dramas, news, and reality programming acquire the Mean World Syndrome. They see the world as an exceedingly scary place, and become very fearful of becoming the victim of an act of violence. Gerbner believes that commercial media, which have eclipsed religion, art, and the family as storytellers, are saturated with violence. Within this environment, people get a distorted sense of the world as a mean, violent place which breeds unrealistic anxiety and fear. Narrated by Michael Morgan, a communications professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the film includes numerous clips of violence from films, TV shows, video games, and news footage intercut with an interview that Gerbner taped shortly before his death. The editing is tight and the simple graphics, often just statistics superimposed over the video, are effective. The film is shocking, as it is meant to be, and might generate interesting discussions in high school media classes.—Geri Diorio, The Ridgefield Library, CT