task four

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGRfO9HVO4U

What is the effect of the scene on the audience?

With regards to the cultivation theory, it states as the audiences consume more media their views and beliefs become moulded and so in turn false stereotypes and beliefs can be formed. This violent scene displays three men, two white and one black man. The black man violently beats the homeless ‘grass’ who gives information for a fee to the gangsters, the camera focuses on the homeless man and his filthiness, who behaves animalistic and eats uncultured. This connotes that white men who are homeless behave disgracefully and so are beaten by the violent black aggressor. This stereotypes the black man as the aggressor and the white man, who is helpless, as the victim.

In addition, desensitisation states that if the audience are exposed to violence then they become immune to it and therefore become less sensitive to viewing it. In this clip the fact that it is so violent and leads to the victim being inhumanly being burnt by boiling water offers the audience a sense of false security as the aggressor looks directly into the camera with rage exploding in his eyes.

Lastly, this is likely to cause moral panic, this theory states that society is threatened by what they see and this anti social behaviour is likely to trouble the mature citizens. This is likely to occur as the scene this is set in is an everyday café and seems to be tranquil until the violence starts and the calming soundtrack by Duran Duran is introduced, providing a binary opposition to the actions.