Media, Trauma, and Survival: Psychological Strategies in the Hunger Games Anonymous College

In addition to delighting and surprising millions of young people, the film The Hunger Games[1]exemplifies many aspects of media psychology. That is, the film - as well as the book from which it is adapted – reflects many of the theories associated with the psychology of mass media. Specifically, Katniss’ strategy of pretending to fall in love with Peeta in order to obtain more gifts from her sponsors brings up complicated issues about how the media affects actions and psychology. This essay first discusses some major aspects of media psychology as a brief introduction to these concepts, and then applies each of them to the film The Hunger Games in order to examine the way it illustrates each of these aspects.

Three major themes of media psychology are evident in The Hunger Games. The first is the concept that media portrayals of violence desensitizes viewers to violence and aggression. The authors of a 2009 study that found that viewers of violence on television were desensitized to violence cautioned readers that “Exposure to TV, video game and film violence may lead to several problematic outcomes, including increased aggressive and violent behavior, increased aggression-related thoughts or the accessibility of violent...