Hypodermic syringe model

• Hypodermic syringe model


  The idea that the mass media injects beliefs into the passive audience in a powerful and controlling manner
• Violent and antisocial behaviour portrayed in films, computer games etc.

  There is a direct correlation with this behaviour
• Children and teenagers


  • They are vulnerable to media content because they are still in the early stages of socialisation and therefore very impressionable
• Violent media content in Hollywood films

  Has contributed to violent crimes and antisocial behaviour in real life, especially those committed by the young
• Media representations of femininity

  May be producing eating disorders
• Imitation or copycat violence

  Bandura looked for a direct cause-and-effect relationship between media content and violence
• Bandura's experiment


  1. 3 groups of children shown real, film and cartoon examples of a doll (bobo doll) being attacked with mallets

  2. 4th group saw no violence

  3. Children then led to a room with a bobo doll and made to feel frustrated

  4. 3 groups who saw violence behaved more aggressively
• Desensitisation


  Newson argued that violent images in films are too easily available and that exposure to screen violence encouraged young viewers to identify with violent perpetrators rather than victims
• The average 18-year-old in the USA has viewed 16,000 television murders
• Desensitisation


  Prolonged exposure to violent images has a 'drip drip' effect on viewers, resulting in young people being desensitised to violence as they become socialised into accepting violent behaviour as normal
• Censorship


  1. Newson's report led to increased censorship of the film industry, including the power to apply age certificates on films

  2. TV companies agreed on voluntary censorship by applying the 9 o'clock watershed
• Media violence


  Can actually prevent real life violence
• Catharsis


  Screen violence can provide a safe outlet for people's aggression tendencies
• Fesbach and Sanger's experiment

  1. Some groups watched non-aggressive TV programmes, others watched aggressive programmes

  2. Those who watched aggressive programmes were actually less aggressive in their behaviour
• Sensitisation


  Seeing the effects of violence, especially pain and suffering, may make some viewers more sensitive to the consequences and so less inclined to commit violent acts
• Gauntlett is critical of Bandura's study as it was conducted in the artificial context of a laboratory, and children don't behave as naturally under laboratory conditions than they do in everyday environments
• It is difficult to define 'violence' as audiences may react differently to different levels of violence
• Children are not as vulnerable as the hypodermic model implies, as many children from a very early stage know that violence shouldn't be imitated, and they can distinguish between fictional violence and cartoon violence