There is much resistance to thinking seriously about the extremely violent imagery that permeates so much of our media and entertainment culture. Both psychologists and communications scholars have much that is interesting to say on the issue, although there is little dialogue between them.

While the extensive psychological literature establishes clear links between media violence exposure and violent behaviour, the research is frequently misrepresented, particularly in public debates. The conclusion is not that media violence exposure is a single cause of violent behaviour, but rather a risk factor, and one that can be more easily addressed than others, such as social inequality.

The communications literature offers a different angle: the exploration of how our violent entertainment culture and the often harmful representations of marginalized peoples shape our ideas and values, while serving the interests of certain societal institutions and groups.  Violence is a learned behaviour, and as such, we need to examine the multiple channels through with this occurs.

So, we invite you to integrate both of these perspectives as you explore this issue in the classroom and engage your students in finding ways to subvert the harmful messages and imagery that devalue certain peoples, silence suffering and legitimize violent solutions.