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Mean World Syndrome: A Social Study

Decent Essays

4. General mistrust of people. Heavy viewers are more skeptical about other people’s motives. They stay connected to statements that alert people to hope the worst.
“Most people are just looking out for themselves.”
“In dealing with others, you can’t be too careful.”
“Do unto others before they do unto you.” (Griffin et al., 2014, p. 353)
This cynical mindset of general distrust was named by Gerbner as the mean World syndrome (Griffin et al., 2014). Originally, ‘Mean World Syndrome’ is a theory used and studied in media texts, and this study aims to uncover what is called ‘media effect’ in dramatic texts. In order to achieve its goal, this study applies this theory to dramatic texts.
BLASTED ANALYSIS
Play begins with the abusive relationship between Ian and Cate. Ian, a middle aged Journalist who brought Cate to a Leeds hotel room with the intention of seduction. Ian is a middle aged, foul-mouthed journalist. Cate is emotionally fragile, naive …show more content…

The bubbly nineteen-year-old from Leeds was among seven victims found buried in identical triangular tombs in an isolated New Zealand forest new par. Each had been stabbed more than twenty times and placed face down comma, hands bound behind their backs point new par…” (Kane, 1995, p. 12). Kane through Ian’s lines informs the reader about the terrible act of human cruelty. As it can be seen in the whole text of ‘The Blasted’, beauty cannot reign in author’s world. The portrayal of characters in the play are neither kind nor loving. On the other hand, these lines arouse the feeling of insecurity in readers referring to the possibility that as readers we may also be a victim of such a horrible murder. Pessimistic mood in the play can arouse anxiety and fear in the reader which we can associate it with media effect. The author forces us to show a tendency to see the things through gloomy

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