What could i include in my MEST 4 media studies course work? HELP PLEASE?

[Martin]

So my teacher has decided to take off from Halloween right up to Christmas break and decides that we have to have our coursework done for her arrival in a few days.
So I haven't a clue what i am doing tbh,
The topic area i have chosen to do my critical investigation on is violence in films and how it effects our everyday lives. It means that i could link in the tragic Colorado incident with the cinema shooting. I don't know what theory's etc i could apply to it and really don't know what way i could start it off. So if you know anything please answer, the help is greatly appreciated.

[Vulgarnose739]

I would recommend discussing desensitisation to violence (whereby people are so used to violence in films it takes more and more violence in films to shock people or surprise them). I would also suggest researching the Bobo the Doll experiment, done by a psychologist showing how children responded to violence.

I would also discuss moral panics (research if you're not too sure about them) which is where people panic about situations and blame certain social groups, so you could argue that racial stereotypes and violence in films leads to people stereotyping ethnic minorities and young people with violence? That sort of thing.

You could also talk about Blumer and Katz's uses and gratifications theory, where people gain something from violence in films, such as distraction from everyday life etc.