A Theory of Vivid Media Violence

This article presents a theoretical framework for investigating the effects of exposure to graphic media violence. It is argued that the term “graphicness,” as used by media violence scholars, bears striking similarities to the term “vividness,” as used by both persuasion scholars exploring vividness effects and digital studies scholars exploring virtual reality. These bodies of literature are used to formulate propositions predicting the effects of media violence that is presented to audiences with rich contextual details. These propositions form the “Theory of Vivid Media Violence.”

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