Playing the Right Cards...

The media has a purpose: it seeks out certain reactions from its consumers, hoping to get the most profitable response. The movie industry has increased its release of violent movies because, according to the Media Access Network, "…Action films export well. Unlike drama and comedies, which need expensive translation of their dialogue, action-packed movies make the transition to foreign languages and markets easily and cheaply."

With this kind of motivation, it's important for people to realize how the media affects them. According to W. James Potter's Media Literacy, oftentimes, the media does not affect us enough to manifest itself in our behaviors; instead, the media continues to move us along a "risk continuum" little by little towards a manifestation of a particular behavior.

I completed an exercise in the book, and to my surprise, I learned a lot about myself that wasn't always so evident to me. First, I analyzed my response to a violent movie, Casino Royale...then I looked at my behavior during and after I watched one my favorite movies of all time, The Notebook. I realized that I'm more likely to manifest emotional behavior after watching a romance, than to exhibit aggressive behavior after watching a violent movie.

Like any Bond movie, Casino Royale lives up to its name with high action-packed scenes which includes violent images. Even the opening credits use "cards" to depict all the violent scenes throughout the movie.



Bond kills at least 10 different people in the movie, and yet after I watched the movie, I didn’t act any more aggressively than I did before I watched the movie. This movie doesn’t result in a manifestation of behavior, but it does move me along the risk continuum.

The media factor "context of portrayals" adds to how I look at characters in life. The book says, "The good guys' violent acts are always portrayed as being justified…The meaning of violence, then, is that if you are a good guy, violence is an essential and successful means of resolving conflict." I began to become desensitized to the kind of violence in the Bond movies, believing that characters like Bond are justified in what they are doing, despite how many innocent people they hurt in the meantime.

However, romance movies make me emotional. For example, I still cry every time I watch The Notebook, referring to the "states" factor. Certain emotional factors temporarily result from watching media messages. In addition, my "lifestyle" factor is affected by romance movies. I begin to think that relationships and love should be like a storybook fairy tale romance.

The way media affects us is like "playing the right cards." It’s like the complex plot of a Bond movie woven together in a complicated card game. If the right combination of factors pushes me down the risk continuum, behavior will manifest itself. In the future, I hope to be more aware of how romance movies affect my attitude towards relationships and to consider the deeper reality of relationships and love.