How Fantasy Becomes Reality How Fantasy Becomes Reality Information and Entertainment Media in Everyday Life REVISED AND EXPANDED KAREN E. DILL-SHACKLEFORD 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Oxford University Press 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dill-Shackleford, Karen, 1969– How fantasy becomes reality : information and entertainment media in everyday life / Karen E. Dill-Shackleford. — Revised and expanded. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–19–023929–9 1. Mass media—Social aspects. 2. Mass media—Psychological aspects. 3. Social psychology. I. Title. HM1206.D55 2015 302.23—dc23 2015013950 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For my students CONTENTS Preface ix Acknowledgments xi 1. Fantasy and Reality: A Primer on Media and Social Construction 1 2. Fandom, Fantasy, and Reality 31 3. Old and New Media in Everyday Life: From TV to Social Media 59 4. Media Violence 87 5. Representations of Social Groups in Media: Race, Gender, and Beyond 113 6. Advertising, Consumerism, and Health 141 7. Media and Social Identity 165 8. The Social Psychology of Political Coverage 189 9. From the Passenger’s Seat to the Driver’s Seat 219 Notes 237 Index 253 PREFACE Welcome to the second edition of How Fantasy Becomes Reality. I wrote the original in 2008 and as I sit down to write this, it is now the fall of 2015. A lot has happened in the media landscape and in my life between then and now. In terms of the media landscape, the changes have continued to come fast and furious. My son Jason, a teenager now, keeps me up to date on what’s pop- ular with his friends. We’ve spent time watching funny Vines and YouTube videos on his iPad, like one of his current favorites called Super Café, which involves scenes of Batman and Superman chatting over coffee. My daughter Regan and I watch cat videos, laugh, and make “angry cat” noises together. My son Jason has started high school and my daughter Regan is finishing up elementary school. Since 2008, I also got divorced and then remarried, hence the name change. My husband Lee Shackleford, whom I’ve known now for nearly 25 years, is a playwright, screenwriter, and a college professor. He’s brought so much joy and adventure to my life. When I wrote the first edition of How Fantasy Becomes Reality, I was just finishing more than 10 years of undergraduate teaching and a great deal of speaking about media violence. I cannot tell you how tired I was of people telling me that what they watch has zero percent influence on their lives. The disdain and emotional energy with which people said this to me on a regular basis was starting to get under my skin. I couldn’t believe that many people did not understand the simple idea that what you consume becomes part of your psyche. Not that it’s always a simple maneuver and not that media are just like pills we take with single outcomes, but that the messages we think about become part of us in some way. Now, leading up to the second edition, as a professor at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California, I have taught only adult graduate stu- dents for five years. I’ve done new and exciting research. I also edited the Oxford