Theory Work: Audience Theory- Evidence for The Effects Model

Last week in lesson, we continued with some of the theory work we began a few months ago. We looked at Key Evidence for the Effects Model, which we looked at before Christmas.

The Frankfurt School theorised in the 1920s and 30s that the mass media acted to restrict and control audiences to benefit of corporate capitalism government.

The Bobo Doll Experiment; Albert Bandura conducted an experiment in 1961, in which a group of children watched adults beat a bobo doll, then seeing their behaviour, 88% of children copied them and did the same. The results suggest that children copy violent behaviour, and imitate violent media content. This is one of the main pieces of evidence for the Effects Model; however it has a number of flaws. Firstly, the purpose of the bobo doll is to knock it to the ground and let it bounce back up, that is how it works, so that is all a child could do to the toy. Also, there is no proof that the behaviour displayed was because of what they saw, it may have been related to their background, and how they had been brought up- whether they saw violence as wrong or not.

In the 1950s, Marlon Brando’s film ‘Wild One’ was band for 15 years, due to the fact that it included rebelling teens overtaking a town- there were fears that the behaviour would be imitated.

Key examples of media texts being cited as causing or being contributory factors to behaviour are;

·         The film ‘Childs Play 3’ in the murder of James Bulger in 1993

·         The game ‘Manhunt’ in the murder of Stefan Pakeerah in 2004, by his friend Warren LeBlanc.

·         The film ‘Clockwork Orange’ (1971) in a number of rapes and violent attacks.

·         The film ‘Severance’ (2006) in the murder of Simon Everitt.

In each case, there was a media and political outcry for the texts to be banned. In some cases, laws changed, films were banned, and newspapers demanded the burning of films.

However no case could prove a link between the text and the violent attack that followed

The Effects Model contributes to the Moral Panics whereby;-

Media produces behaviour of inactivity, such as couch potatoes, failures, and people who make no effort is made to get jobs.

The media produces violent ‘copycat’ behaviour, or mindless shopping in response to advertising.