Is there ever any link?
Many very good books are written based on reality, and so the question here is:
Could the other way around be true? can a story really influence life as we see it?
Many films are based on books and so it is in a way ''shaping realtiy'' because real people are acting out stories for a real audience to watch.
How much of television/media and films do actually affect our psychological thinking and utlitmately our behaviour on a daily basis?
A good example I can think is The Lord of the Flies concept.
A TV company who set out to put this book to the test so they gathered a number of children that they put togetherto be left on their own devices in a house to fend for themselves without the supervision of parents/adults. The TV crew filmed these children day and night, non stop to see if the book theory had any credibility.
It was an awful programme because lots of those children suffered trauma being left to fend for themselves for a period of time whilst adults and parents sat and watched then it went on TV.