FREE DISCUSSION GUIDE:

THE MEAN WORLD SYNDROME


FREE DISCUSSION GUIDE:
THE MEAN WORLD SYNDROME


Help your students think critically about how media-induced fears and anxieties provide fertile ground for intolerance, and extremism.

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The Mean World Syndrome

E X P L O R E

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Assignments


These sample assignments are designed to challenge students to show command of the material presented in the video, to think critically about this material from a number of different perspectives, and to develop and defend their own point of view on the issues at stake.

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Questions for Discussion & Writing

These questions can be used in different ways: as guideposts for class discussion, as a framework for smaller group discussion and presentations, or as self-standing, in-class writing assignments.


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Pre-viewing Exercises


These exercises enable students to reflect on their media use and how media affects their worldview.

T E S T I M O N I A L S

T E S T I M O N I A L S

Lenore Skenazy

Author of Free-Range Kids

"I thought I knew all about how come parents today are so much more afraid than a generation ago. Then I watched The Mean World Syndrome and was blown away! Suddenly all the pieces fit together: Media. Money. Parents. Paranoia. I made my husband come sit and watch with me, it so rocked my world. And I'd like everyone else to watch it, too!"

Bill Yousman, Ph.D.

Author of Prime Time Prisons on U.S. TV: Representation of Incarceration

"A superb update of MEF's earlier films with George Gerbner. Students in my classes respond very well to The Mean World Syndrome. This film effectively places cultivation analysis into the context of earlier media effects research, addresses television's contribution to our perceptions of race, and emphasizes the crucial political implications of Gerbner's ideas. The Mean World Syndrome is powerful and emotionally moving and I will be using it in my courses."

Jack David Eller

Anthropology Review Database

"This smart and timely film explores the life and work of media and communications scholar George Gerbner, who linked media violence to the production of a cultural narrative and mythology and of the perception of a mean world in which people think and act in mean ways."

Anna Hamling 

Associate Professor of Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of New Brunswick

Anna Hamling 

Associate Professor of Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of New Brunswick

"The Codes of Gender will be of interest to all who question the visual images of what is deemed natural and normal."

Bill Yousman, 
Author of Prime Time Prisons on U.S. TV: Representation of Incarceration

"A superb update of MEF's earlier films with George Gerbner. Students in my classes respond very well to The Mean World Syndrome. This film effectively places cultivation analysis into the context of earlier media effects research, addresses television's contribution to our perceptions of race, and emphasizes the crucial political implications of Gerbner's ideas. The Mean World Syndrome is powerful and emotionally moving and I will be using it in my courses."

S A M P L E  E X E R C I S E 

S A M P L E 
E X E R C I S E

Your compelling text goes here

TV Violence

Take a look at one night of primetime television on the 24-hour news channels –CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, HLN and others. Track down the transcripts of these programs on Lexis Nexis to create a list of all the specific stories that aired in one night. Break your list into three columns – stories that you think have a positive effect on viewers, stories that you think have a neutral effect, and stories that you think add to general anxiety and fear. Write a response paper based on what you find and how it ties in to Gerbner’s analysis. What do you think would be some of the effects on your life if you watched these programs every night?

D I S C U S S I O N  G U I D E  F O R

T H E  M E A N  W O R L D  S Y N D R O M E

D I S C U S S I O N  
G U I D E  F O R 

 T H E  M E A N  W O R L D  S Y N D R O M  E


We hope you find this free resource useful for helping to start and guide meaningful discussions and open-ended conversation.  The guide contains:

Section summaries & key points

Discussion questions

Sample assignments

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The Mean World Syndrome

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Copyright © Media Education Foundation