This program is brought to you by Emory University. >> Hi, my name is Karla Oeler, and I'm an associate professor in the department of Film and Media Studies at Emory University, and I'm also core faculty in the department of comparative literature, and I am the author of a book called' A Grammar of Murder: Violent Scenes in the reform and I'll be talking today about violence in the media. So, we can approach the question of violence in the media in several ways. One is to conduct experiment with human subjects to determine whether watching simulated violence or playing violent video games results in an increase in violent behavior. An instance of this first approach is behavioral psychologist Bandura's 1963 Bobo Doll experiment. He divided 48 girls and 48 boys ages three to six into four groups. One of which was a control group. Of the three experimental groups, one watched an adult in person verbally and physically abuse the Bobo doll. One watched a film version of this abuse, and one watched a cartoon of a cat attacking the Bobo doll. Afterwards, the children were placed in a room with toys that included the doll. Researchers observed their interaction with it, and found that the groups that witnessed the violent behavior in real life, and on screen as live action and animation, were almost twice as aggressive as the control group. These results led some to conclude that the observation of violent media can cause children to learn violent behavior. More recent studies have incorporated video games. A February 11th, 2013 New York Times article by Benedict Carey for instance reported that new research suggest that playing violent games quote can and does stir hostile urges and mildly aggressive behavior in the short term end quote. But he cautions that it's not proven that a gaming habit increases the likelihood that a person will commit a violent crime. And he notes that, quote, the proliferation of violent video games has not coincided with statistical spikes in violent crime, end quote, among young adults. These behavioral approaches emphasize contemporary media and children or people who are still developing socially, and they seem obviously useful. If we can prove that violence in media causes violent behavior, then we can make a case for censorship controls. In contrast to the behavioral approach, a historical account acknowledges the long-standing centrality of violence to the stories we tell through literature, art, film, television, et cetera, and this approach asks not whether mediated representations of violence cause violent behavior. But instead considers what the narrative paradigms informs through which violent scenes appear tell us about the world that produced them. An understanding of the techniques of representation complement such an approach, with the knowledge of the history and forms of violent scenes in various media. We can establish parameters, and detect trends. This historical and formal approach can tell us about how censorship works, whether it's effective, and how film form responds to, and works around it. It is the focus of this particular series of lectures.