Effects and cultivation theory

Effects and cultivation theory (Audience effects theories)-

History-

-Media has been criticised since the rise of mass media, and particularly of television, from around the 1950s.

-When media studies first started as a 'serious' discipline in the 1960s, the focus was mainly the effects that the media had on the audience.
-This approach was saw the audience as a passive mass= being brainwashed by the messages that flooded them from TV, newspapers, films, and radio etc.

Effects theory and hypodermic needle-

-In effect theory, the media are powerful, negative forces who control the masses.
-The media is seen as a hypodermic needle, injecting our helpless minds with messages which we take on board fully.
-This theory was carried out by Bandura in 1961.

Bandura's study-
-Bandura's study used a toy called a 'Bobo doll', which measured behaviours of children who watched a model beating up the doll.
-The model was either punished, and Bandura noted that children would replicate the violent behaviour when it was rewarded.
-This theory suggested that the audience are passive, effect theories state that media representations of violent behaviour can lead to imitation.

-The effect model is still evident today particularly in tabloid newspapers who construct moral panics around the latest buzz in the media= rap music, videos, horror movies, and Facebook etc.

Moral panics-

-Stanley Cohen in 1972 published a book called 'Folk Devils and Moral Panics'. Moral panics happen when members of a society and culture become outrage, fearful, and upset by the challenges which are posed to 'their' accepted values and ways of life, by the activities of groups defined as deviant. 

-Examples of this is= violent extremists, teenagers, or an organisation/idea such as the internet, violent games, or social media etc.
-When a society creates a 'buzz' around a fear of something in the media.

Cultivation theory: Gerbner-

-Gerbner built on the work which was done by Bandura. He suggested that the media doesn't inject us, but cultivates particular beliefs/ attitude over time.

-Cultivation theory states that high frequency viewers of television are more likely to make in the message and belief they are real and valid.

-Heavy viewers are exposed to more violence and therefore are affected by the 'mean world syndrome'= the belief that the world is a far more worse and dangerous place then it actually is.

-Cultivation theorists believe that television viewing can have long-term effects that gradually effect the audience.

-Gerbner found out that heavy TV viewing led to mainstreaming= a common outlook on the world based on the images and labels on TV. Mainstreamers would describe themselves as politically moderate.

Cultivation theory= suggests that prolonged watching of television can tend to induce certain paradigm about violence in the world.

Task-

1. The first case study of gaming from the Daily Mail article shows that people who are used to playing violent games such as Call of Duty, Killzone, and Borderlands 2 are more likely to get mental health problems like the Alzheimer disease.

-The theory which has been applied to the case study is the cultivation theory as people who regularly play violent games mainly 

-Violent game fans have a higher risk of neutrological problems, such as Alzehimers.

-gray matter links to reduced memory

problems- size of the sample is too small

-not normal for people to play 90 hours a day

-very much focused on one factor


2.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2016/feb/12/violent-video-games-aggression-a-complex-relationship

problems with genres of games - 1st person shooter like COD is very different from war strategy game.
study-author was not a neurologist
conduct disorder- bullying, fighting, stealing.
9 years over several year-15 years
study does not look at social factors e.g. existing mental health issues, conduct disorder
weak link between violent gaming and aggressive behaviour (this might be just competitiveness)
refutes effects theories
counteract moral panics