April 2009: The Freedom Issue
Sexual desire on TV is represented as being predominantly heterosexual; that is presented as the norm
'The representation of sexual freedom on the small screen is often the source of controversy and concern as it can connote promiscuity' The fact that is could connote promiscuity can cause a moral panic, such behaviour can cause 'copy-cat' like behaviour.
April 2008: New media special issue
censorship page 57 (need to go back to for more information)
Scenes from 'platoon' showing an American solider beat a partially disabled Vietnamese civilian and a rape scene from 'the clockwork orange' provides graphic images of brutal crimes that invite audiences to confront their own humanity. They show the deep dark truths of the world and society we live in. However, it could be stated that it shows an unrealistic and over exaggerated society as it only occurs in a minority of situations. But if the scenes are represented as realistic then it could potentially induce 'copy cat' behaviour
Gender and ethnicity - Within torture porn horror there are a large amount of violence shown towards women which is usually sexualised violence, from a feminist point of view this would be suggesting that Judith Butler and her gender roles theory were correct about how they are socially constructed as this subgenre portrays the females as sex objects or there for the entertainment of male viewers
Uses and Gratifications - Audiences use horror as entertainment and escapism (uses and gratifications) as they need to find a way to escape their current life and possibly feel better seeing someone in a worse position than themselves, they also would want to be entertained by horror, they watch it to be scared and grossed out
Cultivation theory - "A social theory which examines the long-term effects of television. The primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people spend "living" in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality portrayed on television"
This theory, cultivation theory, could possibly be applied to some audiences of horror films. The audience would see the same stereotypical characters being shown and represented across horror and the sub genre torture porn. As Medhurt states, stereotypes are created to allow quick identification for audience members, so if they keep watching the same stereotypical horror villain then they are more likely to have end up having adopted those ideas and applying it to real life believing that when they see some of the stereotypical representations in a real life human being then they would believe that person is similar to one or more of the villains in horror which could end up with them avoiding these stereotypes due to what Perkins says. "some elements of stereotypes are true." An example could be if an audience member of films like "Saw" or TV shows like "Dexter" continuously watched films or shows promoting members of the law (Saw with a police officer and Dexter with a forensic specialist) as being violent then it could end up with audiences having negative views of the law enforcement and avoiding or rebelling against those who show similar signs to the characters.
"The box-office success of films like the Saw series and Hostel stunned many critics; most seemed bewildered by young audiences’ thirst for such graphic fare….I happened to see a brief interview with the articulate director Eli Roth promoting the release of his new film, Hostel II. In regards to the first Hostel’s box office success and this trend in explicit horror, Roth commented that teenagers who were 10 when 9/11 happened are now 16 or 17. They have “grown up being told you are going to get blown-up. Terror Alert Orange… They want something to scream at” that is as shocking as the events of their lives" http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc50.2008/TortureHostel2/text.html In an interview on Fox News: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5nOl1oeP4Q Eli Roth states that due to terror within the world e.g. Afghan war, Vietnam war, 9/11 etc. There have been a rise in horror films being more and more violent because audiences of horror want to watch horror during time of terror but in a safe place and be able to scream and get all the fear out of their system as well as being entertained at the same time, the fear is short lived within a cinema due to it only being within the film, the atmosphere of a cinema allows audiences to express their emotions as loud as they want without having any real fear.
NEED TO ADD TO BIBLIOGRAPHY:
David Cameron wants broadcasters to keep TV clean before 9pm but he's fighting a losing battle – technology has made traditional family viewing a thing of the past
- Guardian article by Mark Lawson http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jun/08/tv-watershed-not-for-children?INTCMP=SRCH
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