COMM375 CHAPTER 5 READING NOTES CHAPTER 5 EFFECTS OF MEDIA VIOLENCE Copycat Phenomenon When people sometimes imitate the exact behaviors that they see depicted in the media o When these behaviors are violent or illegal this translates into a significant social problem o Rod Sterling s The Doomsday Flight o Also The Burning Bed starring Farrah Fawcett who plays an abused housewife decides to burn the bed of her husband while he slept the court ruled it as a case of self defense In the days following the broadcast several women around the country who were victims of abuse decided to copy the behavior of Farrah Fawcett and murdered their husbands o The Governments threat in 1996 to introduce a rating system for television programs designed to protect children from the unwanted effects of violence and other objectionable content spurred the networks to act Manufacturers now produce TV sets with a V Chip that permits parents to block out programs that contain unwanted violence THE PRESENCE OF VIOLENT CONTENT o Entertainment media contains a consistent staple of violence BECAUSE Good drama revolves around conflict and violence is one of the common consequences of conflict o As statistics on TV viewing changed the sheer amount of violence being beamed into the average American household went beyond what anyone could have imagined THE CAUSAL LINK BETWEEN VIEWING VIOLENCE AND BEHAVING AGGRESSIVELY The Research of Albert Bandura o Albert Bandura developed the SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY which emphasized the importance of rewards and punishments According to Bandura if a child watched a person on TV who seemed attractive and who received rewards for acting aggressively then the child would be more likely to imitate that character s behavior o Banduras studies helped researchers to understand a number of things about TV violence and children First viewing TV violence could cause children to behave more aggressively particularly if the violent characters were attractive and received rewards for their actions Secondly the effects emerged most strongly for boys and not girls A third conclusion that can be drawn from Bandura s social learning effect is that the effect is quite general it doesn t matter whether researchers make up the videos used in these experiments or borrow them from standard TV programs like old batman and superman cartoons o Although Bandura s studies offered initial insights into the effect of TV violence many questions remained What about more serious acts of aggression Could violence in media really cause more beatings robberies assaults and murders THE LONG TERM STUDIES OF LEONARD ERON AND ROWELL HUESMANN o Studied more than 800 children under the age of 10 Eron Huesmann wanted to know how much violence these children watched on TV They also wanted to know how aggressive each child was in daily life activities o They found that there was a tendency for those children who watched higher levels of TV violence to also have higher scores on the ratings of aggressive behavior o The children who had the higher numbers on TV violence also tended to be the adults who became involved in more serious crimes THE RESEARCH OF BRANDON CENTERWALL o Centerwall selected other countries similar to the US South Africa was one of those countries When the homicide rate was examined in South Africa between 1945 and 1974 he discovered that the rate actually dropped 7 during that time One of the major differences between South Africa and the United States during those years was the ban on TV imposed by the South African Gov t When the Gov t lifted the ban on TV in 1974 by 1983 the murder rate had increased by 56 o Centerwall claims that roughly half of all homicides in the United States are a direct result of television watching THE CATHARSIS HYPOTHESIS Pg 104 START HERE o Seymour Feshbach thought that viewing TV violence could actually be therapeutic for a person filled with anger or frustration He borrowed this idea from the Ancient Greeks The idea of Catharsis to cleanse or purge to get rid of goes back to the Greek culture which thrived on good drama Saw media violence as a positive thing Did a study in a Detention Facility The boys who had watched TV violence behaved less aggressively than the boys who had watched no violence A PRIMING ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF MEDIA VIOLENCE o A series of experiments by Leonard Berkowitz shows that angry people and media violence make for an especially uneasy mix PRIMING is a process that can be understood simply in terms of associations If you read a news story about a plane crash the story might prime thoughts associated with airplanes that you already have in your mind you might start thinking about an upcoming trip Berkowitz believes that the mass media are potent sources of images and ideas that can prime our thoughts and actions o Several things are likely to happen when people view images of media violence First the violence can prime thoughts that are related to hostility Second in addition to priming violence related thoughts media violence might prime thoughts that lead one to believe that aggressive behavior might be warranted in certain situations and might bring about certain benefits Finally media violence might prime action tendencies that cause people to be more inclined to act violently DESENSITIZATION TO VIOLENCE o Media violence may have a DESENSITIZING EFFECT making us numb to violence in real life so that we don t react to it as we would if we had never seen it on the screen o Increased violence in Hollywood movies sequels is apparent because it s attempting to satisfy the people who bought tickets to the first movie The entire momentum is toward an ever increasing level of violence 02 17 2014 02 17 2014
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