African Americans in Media, Character Depictions and Social Representation of

A growing number of media effects studies have found media to be influential on people’s lives, including their self-perceptions, perceptions of others, and their social reality judgments. For people for whom access to a group is limited solely to media exposure, their media-related vicarious experiences take the place of real-life experiences to form their knowledge base. That is, the interactions viewers have and the connections they may form with those represented in the media, although not replacing interpersonal relationships, are similar to their offline counterpart. Because the association between media and society is twofold, impressions of others can be based either on beliefs taught by and held in society or on beliefs taught by the media. What does violent imagery induce in people’s perceptions of ...