A brief presentation on how the media nowadays has lead society into becoming more desensitized.

1. DESENSITIZATION
Joanne Cheung

2. Stats about media usage
• 65% of our time is spent online via mobile devices
• IAB Digital Usage Trend Report
• Today 9 of 10 people in North America own a mobile phone.
• — Pew
• Canadian kids can navigate tablets before tying shoelaces.
• survey of 6,000 mothers of 3-5 year olds in 10 countries by AVG Technologies
• The overall number of mobile phone users reached 4.43 billion in
2015
• Statista

3. • Taken from Google's report "Micro-moments":
• 68% of phone users say they check their phone within 15 min of
waking up,
• 87% always have their smartphone at their side, day, and night
• On average people check their phones 150 times per day and spend
177 minutes using them
• 82% of smartphone users say they consult their phone during
shopping in a physical location
• 91% of users turn to their phones for ideas in the middle of a task

4. Desensitized to …
• Crime
• Violence
• Rape
• Murder
• Drug abuse
• Stereotypes
• Sexualisation
• Injustice
• Communication
• Human interaction
• Sympathy-empathy
[3]

5. Exposure 1:
Video Games
• A September 2000 Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
report showed that 80 percent of “R” rated movies, 70
percent of restricted video games, and 100 percent of
music with “explicit content” warning labels were being
marketed to children under 17 [1]
• Nearly 75 percent of violent scenes on television
feature no immediate punishment for or condemnation
of violence. [1]
• The highly criticized video game Grand Theft Auto 3 was
initially banned in Australia for its graphic violence and
sexual content. The game grossed $300 million in the
United States by the end of 2002.
– Source: IBID

6. How often can we see this situation?

7. Exposure 2: Films
Two-thirds of Hollywood films released
in 2001 were rated R. -Source : IBID
The level of violence
during Saturday morning
cartoons are higher than
shows during prime
time. There are 3-5 acts
of violence/hr in prime
time and 20-25/hr in sat
morning. - Source : IBID

8. TOP GROSSING FILMS OVER TIME
Rank Peak Title Worldwide gross Year
1 1 Avatar 2787965087.00 2009
2 1 Titanic 2186772302.00 1997
3 3 Star Wars: The
Force Awakens
2068223624.00 2015
4 3 Jurassic World 1671713208.00 2015
5 3 The Avengers 1518812988.00 2012
6 4 Furious 7 1516045911.00 2015
7 5 Avengers: Age of
Ultron
1405403694.00 2015
8 3 Harry Potter and
the Deathly
Hallows – Part 2
1341511219.00 2011
9 5 Frozen 1287000000.00 2013
10 10 Beauty and the
Beast
1234305039.00 2017
11 11 The Fate of the
Furious
1225234715.00 2017
12 5 Iron Man 3 1214811252.00 2013
13 10 Minions 1159398397.00 2015
14 12 Captain America:
Civil War
1153304495.00 2016
15 4 Transformers: Dark
of the Moon
1123794079.00 2011
Modified from The Numbers.com
*inflation not accounted for

9. Movie GenreTrends
Modified from Dan Kopf, Priceonomics; Data: IMDB [10]

10. Villains
Becoming
Empowered
• The Wolf of Wall Street is a recent example, the film
glamorizes the real life story of a drug- and sex-crazed
stockbroker who cheats investors to enrich himself.
Rather than vilify the man’s actions, the filmmaker
glamorizes his misdeeds. [5]
• In AMC’s Breaking Bad, a high school chemistry teacher
named Walter White is diagnosed with inoperable lung
cancer. Facing death, he decides to cook and sell meth
in order to make enough money to give his family a
comfortable living after he’s dead. [5]
• Are these protagonists really heroes? Or are they
villains?

11. Reflection??
• Thinking deeper, the trend between the 2 productions prior is
drawing sympathy to villains.
• People who do evil are not bad, but are simply misunderstood victims
of circumstances such as poor parenting or an evil society.
• They are to be understood, coddled and helped, not shunned, killed
or incarcerated. [5]
• “I’m not bad,” said Jessica Rabbit in the 1988 film, Who Framed Roger
Rabbit, “I’m just drawn that way.”

12. Effects on Youth
– The Academy of Pediatrics :“More than one thousand scientific studies and
reviews conclude that significant exposure to media violence increases the risk
of aggressive behavior in certain children, desensitizes them to violence and
makes them believe that the world is a ‘meaner and scarier’ place than it is.”
– The American Psychological Association: “There are three major effects of
watching violence in the media (video games/television) children may become
less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, children may be more fearful
of the world around them, and children may be more likely to behave in
aggressive or hurtful ways toward others.” [4]

13. Generational Differences
An increase in exposure to
violence, crime etc. through
various forms to youths resulting in
desensitization. Villain propaganda
is on the rise where villains and
violence become glamorized. [5]
Witnessed and helped the rise of
popularity and exposure of
violence and crime etc. without
knowing the desensitization
consequences. [8]

14. PARENTS VS KIDS
• It’s no secret that the war between the 2 generations over the internet is ever going
• There are parents who will help kids step into sites that have age restrictions [7]
• There are also parents who actively stalk, block and interfere in their children’s
internet life.
• The results of that actions, is the kids finding a way around that through [6]
• Privacy settings-who can see what
• Newer sites- Snapchat, Instagram
• Passwords

15. Counter Argument-Social good
• Social media platforms have already been successfully used for
social good such as organizing community activism, empowering
citizens, and for coordinating in emergency situations such as Haiti
• It can also help to share computational resources ex: AFRICA@home
project, enhance cause-related communications, direct and shape
human behavior, provide free educational resources or support the
development of social businesses.
• Interconnected humanity-creating a ripple effect [8]

16. COPY CAT CRIMES
Michael Carneal, from Kentucky, who in 1997 shot and killed three of his
classmates. He too was also said to have been a video game
fanatic. Michael Breen an attorney in the case against Michael Carneal
stated in court; “Michael Carneal clipped off nine shots in a 10-second
period. Eight of those shots were hits. Three were head and neck shots and
were kills. That is way beyond the military standard for expert
marksmanship. This was a kid who had never fired a pistol in his life, but
because of his obsession with computer games he had turned himself into an
expert marksman” [9]
Joker Massacre 2008: James Holmes, the man
identified as the killer responsible for the massacre at
the premiere of the latest Batman film: The Dark Knight
Rises, dressed himself up as the Joker, the arch villain in
the previous Batman film: The Dark Knight. [4]

17. News Coverages
• Despite falling crime rates across North America, disturbing images
of violent crime continue to dominate news broadcasting.
• News articles and broadcasting segments are selected based on
selling points
• News that draws in viewers outshine priority news
• Celebrity and gossip articles have never been more popular

18. Next Steps
• We should now be looking into having more in depth studies of the
short and long term effects of being over exposed to graphic content
on younger generations
• We should be considering issues such as controlling media content,
parental supervision, online security etc.
• The questions of how to undo what’s already been done?
• How should we approach this issue now that it’s been uncovered?

19. References
• [1] Media Education Foundation . “MEDIA VIOLENCE: FACTS &
STATISTICS.” MEF, 2005, www.mediaed.org/handouts/ChildrenMedia.pdf.
Accessed 1 June 2017.
• [2] Wu, Ya-Huei et al. “Bridging the Digital Divide in Older Adults: A Study
from an Initiative to Inform Older Adults about New Technologies.” Clinical
Interventions in Aging 10 (2015): 193–201. PMC. Web. 1 June 2017.
• [3] Turkle, Sherry. "The flight from conversation." New York Times, 22 Apr.
2012, p. 1(L). Academic OneFile,
go.galegroup.com.proxy.queensu.ca/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=queensula
w&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA287213303&asid=9e22389507adacd60cce5a
abfd6d7991. Accessed 1 June 2017.

20. • [4]Dr. Christopher L. Heffner. “The Psychological Effects of Violent Media
on Children.” The Psychological Effects of Violent Media on Children, 14
Dec. 2013, allpsych.com/journal/violentmedia/. Accessed 1 June 2017.
• [5]Gene Del Vecchio. “Hollywood: Where Villains Are Becoming
Empowered and Heroes Are Becoming Impotent.” Huff Post, The Blog, 11
Feb. 2014, www.huffingtonpost.com/gene-del-vecchio/hollywood-
villains-empowered-heroes-impotent_b_4763644.html. Accessed 1 June
2017.
• [6]Paul, Pamela. "Cyberparenting and the Risk of T.M.I." New York Times,
5 May 2013, p. 8(L). Academic OneFile,
go.galegroup.com.proxy.queensu.ca/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=queensu
law&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA328694536&asid=ed444bf722dd554a00a
728a96a4737f2. Accessed 1 June 2017.

21. • [7]DELL’ANTONIA, KJ. "Don’t Post About Me on Social Media, Children
Say." New York Times 8 March 2016.
• [8]Sabrina Bresciani, Andreas Schmeil. "Social media platforms for
social good." Digital Ecosystems Technologies (DEST), 2012 6th IEEE
International Conference on. Campione d'Italia: IEEE, 2012.
• [9] Ivory, James D., 2001, Video Games and the Elusive Search for
their Effects on Children: An assessment of Twenty Years of
Research, http://www.unc.edu/~jivory/video.html. Accessed
November 16, 2003
• [10] Kopf, Dan. "The Rise of the Action Movie." Priceconomics (2015).