Media Effects- Albert Bandura

Albert Bandura- Media Effects

- Albert Bandura formed the idea that media can implant ideas in the mind of an audience directly.

- He also portrays the idea that audience acquire attitudes, emotional responses and new styles of conduct through modelling.

- He believes that media representations of transgressive behaviour (violation of moral or social boundaries)such as violence or physical aggression, can lead audience members to imitate those forms of behaviour.

- He argues that violence is prevalent in the media and exposure to various forms enables us to perceive violence as an acceptable way to deal with situations- Bandura called this 'modelling' behaviour.

 

- Children observe people around them behaving in various ways eg. Bobo doll experiment.

 

 Bobo doll experiment

In this experiment in 1961, 24 children (12 girls,12 boys) watched a male or female model behaving aggressively toward a toy called the 'Bobo doll'. The adult model attacked Bobo using a hammer or throwing the doll around and kicking it.

 

The children then abused the doll with the same treatment. This showed that children copy behaviour from models they witness (individuals that are observed are called 'models')

 

In society, children are surrounded by many influential models such as parents within the family, characters on children's TV programmes or friends in peer groups. Each model provides examples of behaviour to observe and imitate. 

 

- Examples of Bandura's theory currently are video games. These games can have a large impact on young children's behaviour. If young teenagers are playing these games on a daily basis, then the war and violence games are going to have an effect on them/. Therefore they might start to think that violence is normal.