Media Violence and Christian Ethics

Jolyon Mitchell investigates how audiences can interact creatively, wisely and peaceably with media violence.

Jolyon Mitchell (Author)

9780521812566, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 November 2007

348 pages
22.9 x 15.5 x 3 cm, 0.68 kg

Review of the hardback: 'Mitchell's argument is informed throughout by a wealth of examples, but the book is also outstanding in its ability to combine a comprehensive coverage of literature in media ethics, film studies and cultural theory with a strongly sustained and nuanced theological reflection.' Theology

How can audiences interact creatively, wisely and peaceably with the many different forms of violence found throughout today's media? Suicide attacks, graphic executions and the horrors of war appear in news reports, films, websites, and even on mobile phones. One approach towards media violence is to attempt to protect viewers; another is to criticise journalists, editors, film-makers and their stories. In this book Jolyon Mitchell highlights Christianity's ambiguous relationship with media violence. He goes beyond debates about the effects of watching mediated violence to examine how audiences, producers and critics interact with news images, films, video-games and advertising. He argues that practices such as hospitality, friendship, witness and worship can provide the context where both spectacular and hidden violence can be remembered and reframed. This can help audiences to imagine how their own identities and communities can be based not upon violence, but upon a more lasting foundation of peace.

Introduction: regarding media violence
Part I. Media Realities?: 1. Remembering violent news
2. Reframing news
3. Re-envisaging photojournalism
Part II. Media Fantasies?: 4. Reviewing violent films
5. Reinterpreting films and video games
6. Reappraising advertisements
7. Redescribing media violence.

Subject Areas: Media, information & communication industries [KNT], Sociology [JHB], Christian theology [HRCM], Religious ethics [HRAM1]