Fireside Chat - Benifits of Violent Media

    When asked what I believe in, I can easily rattle off a long long list, and would be able to talk about each and every point on that list at long length. However, for this final project I wanted to talk about a belief that might make me different than the rest of the class. I wanted to make people think. I believe in the afterlife, in the importance of families, in equality among all people, but that wouldn't make me stand out. It was after a long debate I had with my husband two weeks ago about what he had learned in a forum that I realized my feelings about violent media. I truly believe that some violence and conflict in media can be extremely beneficial for mentally preparing the audience for bad situations they might encounter in life.

    After watching violent media, it is common for me to place myself in those situations and mentally go over what I would do if faced with that. Even though I don’t expect to be attacked my monsters, I showed the Doctor Who clip to demonstrate a scene that made me realize the dangers of not reacting well to a bad situation. By mentally walking through bad situations, we can train our brain to be able to handle the shock of being in danger. As Dr. Brad J Bushman spoke of in his forum at BYU in 2014, being exposed to violent media reduces the shock of violence in real life. I don’t think just watching violent media on TV will turn us into cool, calm, experts and Kung fu masters, but I do believe it has a good probability of helping you not freeze and panic. If my house is broken into or if a man pulls a gun on me in a parking lot, I want to be able to think and act.

    I also believe that violent media can spark a lot of good “what if” questions with family. What do we want to decided to do as a family in case we come home from school and the door to our house is ajar? I used the White Collar clip to show a scene where the character had walked through a “what if” situation with her husband and had reacted well, and it was a scene that also inspired conversation of the same sort with my husband.

 I framed my Fireside Chat after the manner of a Ted Talk, rather like the “danger of a Single Story” that we watched for class. They are interesting, make you look internally, and inspire great questions. That is exactly what I wanted my audience to leave with after my presentation, as well as stating to think more critically about what they watched for media.