(highlight:: The Influence of Media Consumption: American's Consume 2hr 51min of Movies/TV A Day
Transcript:
Speaker 2
American spends two hours and 51 minutes watching movies and TV each day. That's a whopping 19% of our waking hours.
Speaker 1
We conceive media as sometimes just the thing that's just kind of rolling or the ambient noise of our lives, things that we do to distract ourselves or turn our brains off. And what I contend and what the evidence kind of largely backs up is that this stuff is actually really meaningful.)
- Time 0:03:32
-

(highlight:: Walt Hickey, Author of "You Are What You Watch"
Transcript:
Speaker 2
This is Walt Hickey, data journalist and author of a new book called You Are What You Watch. Walt makes the case for how much film and television shape us as individuals and as a society far beyond what we give them credit for.)
- Time 0:03:55
-

(highlight:: The Evolution of Bank Security Was Influenced By the Unfounded Beliefs of Customers
Transcript:
Speaker 1
You know, the fantasy of a bank robbery for a very long time informed what people wanted in security out of a bank, not because it kept the money safer in the bank, but because people wanted To see, oh, they've got cameras. Oh, they've got this safe. Oh, they've got this time release. Like they were actually, you know, in order just to assure their customers who were so accustomed to seeing this elaborate style robbery that they had to do these somewhat relatively Performative things for a given bank that isn't going to actually get this kind of a crime. Yeah.
Speaker 2
People have these completely bogus notions about what a bank robbery looks like because now financial crime is done, you know, on the computer, which, you know, it doesn't exactly Make for a compelling movie.)
- Time 0:11:20
-

(highlight:: The Symbiotic Relationship Between Movies & Government in Shaping Public Perception
Transcript:
Speaker 1
This is the negotiation. It's like, we will lend you an aircraft carrier or even just like men in uniform, right, for your film. We just get to approve the script. And that amount of leverage is for a filmmaker, that's a deal that you'll take because I can't build an aircraft carrier. James Cameron might be able to, but most directors can, like, and then at the same time, it's just like, well, like, okay, so they'll get their notes on the script. They'll get the tweak it so that you don't mention potentially PTSD or any of the sexual assaults, problems that go on in the military and they'll get theirs. And then you'll get yours. You'll get to borrow a, you know, a multi-billion dollar aircraft carrier for a few days. But again, like, you know, it does affect the film that does get made. Absolutely.
Speaker 2
And you also mentioned that it goes the other way, that people in the government agencies, they watch these movies and they get ideas from fictional government agencies.
Speaker 1
Yeah. So my favorite. There was this guy who retired from the CIA named Robert Wallace, who was in the Office of Technical Service. And he basically relayed that, like, once a spy movie would come out into cinemas and be a hit, sometimes the guy who was running the CIA at the time would come to him and be like, how far Along are we on that? By the way, when do I get that? How long will it take to make it?
Speaker 2
Like some facial recognition, bloody blonde.
Speaker 1
Some gadget that contains something. Yes. It was within the realm of possibility because it was on screen and because the use case was demonstrated, they want to know when you can 3D print a face and put it on top cruise.
Speaker 2
That's right. I mean, even pretty recently, I read that President Biden watched Mission Impossible 7 and he got a little spooked and he actually signed an executive order with new security measures Around the AI.
Speaker 1
Yes. And like, I saw that I was like, yeah, that tracks. Like, I like, I feel like part of it is that, specifically with that kind of action and geopolitical action movies are not only, you know, that interesting film series in their own right, But they're also very much a continual reflection of national anxieties because it can just kind of show what people get worried about over time and accurately demonstrate, you know, Here's what people and governments in particular should be worrying about next. And oftentimes they try to stay just a little bit ahead of the headlines.)
- Time 0:16:36
-

(highlight:: The Release of Violent Movies Tend to Decrease Crime?
Transcript:
Speaker 1
I'm obsessed with this story because I think it has genuinely changed the way that I see what the media can do. So in a laboratory setting, if we show people violent imagery, violent videos, they will become more agitated. They will become more likely in lab tests to react violently or react more aggressively to various different things after being primed. Like this is known, this has been repeated. So these two researchers, Stefano de la Vigna and Gordon Dahl, they're economists. And they were basically just like, okay, there's ample laboratory evidence that showing people aggressive imagery can make them more aggressive. And so one would think that if you, as we do in this country, release violent films that are seen by hundreds of thousands to millions of people, that if you are having these nationwide Violence priming events, you should be able to detect that in actual statistics of assaults. That if you are, if you are having this mass exposure to violence and we know that violence causes potentially more aggressive reactions, that ought to manifest within the data. And so they pulled crime data for major American cities for which it was available on every single weekend over the course of several years. And they pulled also, you know, weather, which is obviously something of an antagonistic factor sometimes depending on the heat. And then essentially they realized that they had an actually rather interesting natural experiment, which is that they realized that, you know, we don't have released national violent Movie stay here. There's no specific day in America that we release violent films. And so as a result, violent films can be compared apples to apples to non-violent films that are released in the same weekend of a given year.
Speaker 2
So what effect do these violent movies have on crime data?
Speaker 1
Not only did they not find evidence that it increased assaults, they actually found evidence that it decreased assaults. And their explanation for this is that if I am, let's just say, a man between the ages of 16 and 23, which from a public health perspective, those are the people who behave a rationally Violent in public most of the time. You have an interest in cocktail of hormones going on. It's a complicated time in life. Brains aren't fully developed, but bodies are. And as a result, that's a lot of folks who are going to impetuously do these kinds of assaults. So if I'm that kind of guy and I go see a violent film in a cinema for two hours, you know, get there half an hour early, leave half an hour after drinks soda, e-pop corn, that three hours is Three hours that I am not spending outside. I'm not spending doing risky behaviors. And more importantly, I'm not spending a drinking. And the single largest correlated factor to behaving violently is alcohol. And so what you're doing is essentially is you're turning down all the other risks. You're having the self sequestration of people who are instead of potentially being dangerous areas, potentially getting up to no good. Instead, they're seeing something violent. And the priming effect, whatever it may be, is overwhelmingly drowned out by what they would have been doing in lieu of that.)
- Time 0:23:47
-

(highlight:: The Influence of Media Consumption: American's Consume 2hr 51min of Movies/TV A Day
Transcript:
Speaker 2
American spends two hours and 51 minutes watching movies and TV each day. That's a whopping 19% of our waking hours.
Speaker 1
We conceive media as sometimes just the thing that's just kind of rolling or the ambient noise of our lives, things that we do to distract ourselves or turn our brains off. And what I contend and what the evidence kind of largely backs up is that this stuff is actually really meaningful.)
- Time 0:03:32
-

(highlight:: Walt Hickey, Author of "You Are What You Watch"
Transcript:
Speaker 2
This is Walt Hickey, data journalist and author of a new book called You Are What You Watch. Walt makes the case for how much film and television shape us as individuals and as a society far beyond what we give them credit for.)
- Time 0:03:55
-

(highlight:: The Evolution of Bank Security Was Influenced By the Unfounded Beliefs of Customers
Transcript:
Speaker 1
You know, the fantasy of a bank robbery for a very long time informed what people wanted in security out of a bank, not because it kept the money safer in the bank, but because people wanted To see, oh, they've got cameras. Oh, they've got this safe. Oh, they've got this time release. Like they were actually, you know, in order just to assure their customers who were so accustomed to seeing this elaborate style robbery that they had to do these somewhat relatively Performative things for a given bank that isn't going to actually get this kind of a crime. Yeah.
Speaker 2
People have these completely bogus notions about what a bank robbery looks like because now financial crime is done, you know, on the computer, which, you know, it doesn't exactly Make for a compelling movie.)
- Time 0:11:20
-

(highlight:: The Symbiotic Relationship Between Movies & Government in Shaping Public Perception
Transcript:
Speaker 1
This is the negotiation. It's like, we will lend you an aircraft carrier or even just like men in uniform, right, for your film. We just get to approve the script. And that amount of leverage is for a filmmaker, that's a deal that you'll take because I can't build an aircraft carrier. James Cameron might be able to, but most directors can, like, and then at the same time, it's just like, well, like, okay, so they'll get their notes on the script. They'll get the tweak it so that you don't mention potentially PTSD or any of the sexual assaults, problems that go on in the military and they'll get theirs. And then you'll get yours. You'll get to borrow a, you know, a multi-billion dollar aircraft carrier for a few days. But again, like, you know, it does affect the film that does get made. Absolutely.
Speaker 2
And you also mentioned that it goes the other way, that people in the government agencies, they watch these movies and they get ideas from fictional government agencies.
Speaker 1
Yeah. So my favorite. There was this guy who retired from the CIA named Robert Wallace, who was in the Office of Technical Service. And he basically relayed that, like, once a spy movie would come out into cinemas and be a hit, sometimes the guy who was running the CIA at the time would come to him and be like, how far Along are we on that? By the way, when do I get that? How long will it take to make it?
Speaker 2
Like some facial recognition, bloody blonde.
Speaker 1
Some gadget that contains something. Yes. It was within the realm of possibility because it was on screen and because the use case was demonstrated, they want to know when you can 3D print a face and put it on top cruise.
Speaker 2
That's right. I mean, even pretty recently, I read that President Biden watched Mission Impossible 7 and he got a little spooked and he actually signed an executive order with new security measures Around the AI.
Speaker 1
Yes. And like, I saw that I was like, yeah, that tracks. Like, I like, I feel like part of it is that, specifically with that kind of action and geopolitical action movies are not only, you know, that interesting film series in their own right, But they're also very much a continual reflection of national anxieties because it can just kind of show what people get worried about over time and accurately demonstrate, you know, Here's what people and governments in particular should be worrying about next. And oftentimes they try to stay just a little bit ahead of the headlines.)
- Time 0:16:36
-

(highlight:: The Release of Violent Movies Tend to Decrease Crime?
Transcript:
Speaker 1
I'm obsessed with this story because I think it has genuinely changed the way that I see what the media can do. So in a laboratory setting, if we show people violent imagery, violent videos, they will become more agitated. They will become more likely in lab tests to react violently or react more aggressively to various different things after being primed. Like this is known, this has been repeated. So these two researchers, Stefano de la Vigna and Gordon Dahl, they're economists. And they were basically just like, okay, there's ample laboratory evidence that showing people aggressive imagery can make them more aggressive. And so one would think that if you, as we do in this country, release violent films that are seen by hundreds of thousands to millions of people, that if you are having these nationwide Violence priming events, you should be able to detect that in actual statistics of assaults. That if you are, if you are having this mass exposure to violence and we know that violence causes potentially more aggressive reactions, that ought to manifest within the data. And so they pulled crime data for major American cities for which it was available on every single weekend over the course of several years. And they pulled also, you know, weather, which is obviously something of an antagonistic factor sometimes depending on the heat. And then essentially they realized that they had an actually rather interesting natural experiment, which is that they realized that, you know, we don't have released national violent Movie stay here. There's no specific day in America that we release violent films. And so as a result, violent films can be compared apples to apples to non-violent films that are released in the same weekend of a given year.
Speaker 2
So what effect do these violent movies have on crime data?
Speaker 1
Not only did they not find evidence that it increased assaults, they actually found evidence that it decreased assaults. And their explanation for this is that if I am, let's just say, a man between the ages of 16 and 23, which from a public health perspective, those are the people who behave a rationally Violent in public most of the time. You have an interest in cocktail of hormones going on. It's a complicated time in life. Brains aren't fully developed, but bodies are. And as a result, that's a lot of folks who are going to impetuously do these kinds of assaults. So if I'm that kind of guy and I go see a violent film in a cinema for two hours, you know, get there half an hour early, leave half an hour after drinks soda, e-pop corn, that three hours is Three hours that I am not spending outside. I'm not spending doing risky behaviors. And more importantly, I'm not spending a drinking. And the single largest correlated factor to behaving violently is alcohol. And so what you're doing is essentially is you're turning down all the other risks. You're having the self sequestration of people who are instead of potentially being dangerous areas, potentially getting up to no good. Instead, they're seeing something violent. And the priming effect, whatever it may be, is overwhelmingly drowned out by what they would have been doing in lieu of that.)
- Time 0:23:47
-