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Media influence on public perception
Psychological effect from television
Essays on violence in the media and pop culture
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Many people in today’s world watch television on a daily basis. There are three types of television viewers which are light viewers, medium viewers, and heavy viewers. Mean World Syndrome focus on individuals who fall in the heavy viewer category of television watching. Some common themes and issues that we see on television that portray the world to be mean are rape, murder, terrorism, and communal riots. Television has been noted to fill your mind with negativity about the world and bombard your mind with negatively manipulated images in order to give you a distorted reality. Gerbner believed that violence-related content of mass media makes viewers believe that the world is more dangerous than it is. His thoughts and beliefs led to the …show more content…
Gerbner also believes that due to the technologies we have current today, television programs especially the news tends to make the world seem even more intimidating and deceitful to the viewer’s mind. New technological innovations that we have today such as DVD players, VCR’s, and cable, are able to widely expose and emphasize the violence of the world. Although they do not interfere with the cultivation theory, they actually allow more access and spread recurrent messages to the viewer. It has been noted that Mean World Syndrome has the potential to cause heavy television viewers to overestimate the chance of experiencing violence, believe that the neighborhood they reside in is unsafe, say fear of crime is a serious personal problem, and assume the crime rate is rising. Other studies like the 1930s behaviorism show the widespread effects that mass media has on viewer’s ideas on
People have to suffer many difference social pressures so they need a way to relax the pressures. Watching violent films, images and playing violent games is a quick and easy way to relax their pressures; for this reason, there are more and more people like to see violent things from media, and as long as there is a demand for this violent information, the financial incentive for media companies will be there. In general, media violence can affects people in three different ways. The first one is leading people to solve their problem through violent means. People always can see many incidents of violence happening in media, and media always embellish the violent means to be a cool way to solve a problem. As time gone on, when they are put in bind in their social life, they will do the violence way to solve their problem. The second effect is imitation. Sometime people will copy the plots of what they like in media to make it happen. The third effect cause people having wrong perception of the world. Overmuch, media violence cause people believe violence is everywhere and lead them to do violent behaviors. Now, media is needful for people’s society; however, media is full of violence, many empirical studies have demonstrated that media violence indirectly instigates violent and aggressive behavior and aggressive thoughts. Media violence affects negative, and it cause many severe problem to people’s society.
In George Gerbner’s lifetime, from the early 1900s to 2005, television was widespread and prevalent. It held great power, for it reached many people across the country. Gerbner phrased the expression “mean world syndrome”; it described the outlook of people who viewed excessive television had towards the world. They regarded the world as a dark and dangerous place influenced by the stories they saw on television. Gerbner’s main takeaway was mostly a negative one; he came to the conclusion that the people who watched television were more fearful, and fearful people are more prone to being manipulated & deceived. A violence-laden society can be a result of television, according to Gerbner.
Knowing that trial and error can have a great effect on your future behavior, Bandura believes observing models have as much impact on your behavior as that. Although social learning is a way used to describe the general behavior of humans, a lot of people use it to explain the major effects of the media. He says that not only children but also adult’s attitudes, emotional responses and new behavior are influenced by television modeling. A man named George Gerbner proposed that television violence would cause a false climate of fear, but Bandura cautioned that television violence would be worth fearing for. There will probably never be a warning label on violent television shows or movies like ones on things that have more physical effects but Bandura thinks people should have a knowledge of what they can do to your behavior.
Proposed by Professor George Gerbner, Dean of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, and also known as cultivation hypothesis and cultivation scrutiny, cultivation theory is the belief of what you see on television, is how the world/ society is actually like. The research originally began in the mid- 1960s with the purpose to study the effects of media and television influences. “Heavy viewers are exposed to more violence and therefore are affected by the Mean Worlds syndrome, the belief that the world is a far worse and dangerous place then it actually is” (Mass Communication Theory). Mean World Syndrome is the belief that heavy dependence of media and violence causes the viewers to get in a panic that the world is a much more dangerous place than it actually is. The theory states that excessive television users are more likely to exaggerate the perception of real life as a result of what they are exposed to on television.
Many psychologists have studied the effect of the media on an individual’s behavior and beliefs about the world. There have been over 1000 studies which confirm the link that violence portrayed through the media can influence the level of aggression in the behavioral patterns of children and adults (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2001). The observed effects include, increased aggressiveness and anti-social behavior towards others, an increased fear of becoming a victim or target of aggressive behavior, becoming less sensitive to violence and victims of violent acts, and concurrently desiring to watch more violence on television and in real-life (A.A.P. 2001). According to John Murray of Kansas State University, there are three main avenues of effects: direct effects, desensitization, and the Mean World Syndrome (Murray, 1995, p. 10). The direct effects of observing violence on television include an increase in an individual’s level of aggressive behavior, and a tendency to develop favorable attitudes and values about using violence to solve conflicts and to get one’s way. As a result of exposure to violence in the media, the audience may become desensitized to violence, pain, and suffering both on television and in the world. The individual may also come to tolerate higher levels of aggression in society, in personal behavior, or in interpersonal interactions. The third effect is known as the Mean World Syndrome, which theorizes that as a result of the amount of violence seen on television and also the context and social perspective portrayed through the media, certain individuals develop a belief that the world is a bad and dangerous place, and begin to fear violence and victimization in real life (A.A.P. 2001).
It's clear to see the media focuses on various reports, television shows, and even sitcoms regarding all forms of psychology. While watching television one can say media basically relies on psychology. The media of psychology views psychology through means of common sense versus an actual science. Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processed. Behavior is anything you do that can be observed. In the media we can observe people through the television screen. Through our observations we learn from their behavior. For example in a famous experiment conducted by Albert Bandura called, "Bobo Doll Experiment," a preschool child is working on a drawing. An adult in another part of the room is building with Tinkertoys. The child is watching this adult through a television screen and watches as the adult gets up and for nearly ten minutes pounds, kicks, and throws around the room a large inflated Bobo doll, while yelling hurtful sayings such as, "Sock him in the nose" or "Hit him down" and even "Kick him". After the adult was done, the child was taken to another room and demonstrated the same actions as they have seen through the television screen to the Bobo Doll. It's clear to see from the experiment the media teaches society many aspects of psychology. From a psychological aspect we see a child observing violent behavior from what the media has presented. Humans learn through observation and in a world where technology is advancing, the media plays a large role.
The theory is developed by George Gerbner and Larry Gross. Cultivation theory is derived from several large-bit researches cast as part of an overall research project entitled ‘Cultural Indicant’. The purpose of the Cultural indicators project was to identify and track the cultivated effects of video on viewing audience. They were bothered with the effects of television programming especially violent programming on the attitudes and behaviors of the public. Gerbner claimed that the overall concern about effects of television on public. The theory clearly put forward that cultivation effect occurs only after long term, accumulative view to television. He claimed that because television contains so much violence, people who contribute the most time in front of the TV. He postulates that television is mass medium of communication.24/7 the TV set is a pitch member of the household, with virtually unlimited access to every person in the family. He compared the power of TV to the power of religion, saving that TV was to innovative society what religion once was in earlier times.
Television violence, and media violence in general, has been a controversial topic for several years. The argument is whether young children are brainwashed into committing violent real-world crimes because of violent and pugnacious behavior exposed in mass media. In his article “No Real Evidence for TV Violence Causing Real Violence”, Jonathan Freedman, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and author of “Media Violence and Its Effect on Aggression: Assessing the Scientific Evidence”, discusses how television violence, claimed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), does not cause real-world aggression among adolescents. The FCC determined to restrict violent television programming to late night hours only because their “scientific research” proves of increasing aggression among young viewers (Freedman Par. 2). Freedman goes on to explain that the FCC has no substantial scientific evidence stating that there is a correlation between fictional violence and real-world aggression among young audiences. He has completed research in 1984 and 2002 on the relationship between media violence to actual acts of violence on the street. Because he has completed research projects related to this topic, Freedman’s statistical evidence shows that there is a reduction in youth violence and it essentially does not cause real-world crimes (Freedman Par. 1). The FCC continues to claim that exposure to media violence does in fact increase aggression, and yet their readers continue to believe their fabrications. Freedman argues that people who research media violence tend to disregard and omit the opposing facts. No one type of violence is more effective on aggression than another type. There is no evidence showi...
The definition of mass media is “a means of communication that reaches large numbers of people in a short time, this can consist of the use of television, newspapers, magazine, and radio”, and within the last decade the internet as well. (HarperCollins) The media can actually be a minor or major effect on individuals depending on how or what their view is on the particular subject or matter. The effects it plays on individuals and societies will depend on the exposure to the subject matter at the time, but it effects all ages from young to old.
Media violence is a threat to public health and mass media such as television news violence and video games increase agression and violence in young viewers. The young viewers exposed to media violence are affected for both the short term and long term. Experiments “have demonstrated that exposing people, especially children and youth, to violent behavior on film and TV increases the likelihood that they will behave aggressively immediately afterwards” ( Huesman, Taylor 396 ) . Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies come up with the theory that the childrens who watch TV violence in their natural environnement over a long period of time grew up with a violent behavior. Fictional television is not the only violence that can be exposed on screen. The violence on the news seen by the viewers can influence them to commit actual violence. Regarding video games, studies have been made that violent video games causes the childrens of becoming aggressive. We know for sure that video games have an impact on aggressive behavior according to num...
The Effects of Media on Anti-Social Behavior“ The media are a form of mass communication, with the internet, radio, television, newspaper and advertising surrounding us, and therefore the media is increasingly blamed for violence in our society. Programmes such as wrestling and computer a game are blamed for aggression in playgrounds and films such as “Childs Play” have been blamed for murders such as that of James Bulger. The argument is whether media are positive and negative in influencing violence. There are several explanations of media influences on anti-social behaviour, one being that of desensitisation.
Television violence causes children and teenagers to be less caring, to lose their inhibitions, and to be less sensitive. In a study on the connection between violence and television done with 1,565 teenage boys over a six-year period in London, William Belson, a British psychologist, found that every time a child saw someone being shot or killed on television they became less caring towards other people (Kinnear 26). William Belson also discovered that every time a child viewed this violence on television, they lost a fragment of their inhibitions towards others (Kinnear 26). In addition to William Belson’s study, studies done by many scientists and doctors show that seeing violence on television causes viewers to become less sensitive to the pain of others (Mudore 1).
"People are more influenced by mass media than they think. What evidence is there to support this statement?"
The mass media has played a key role in shaping people’s lives. The modern society’s use of mass media including TV, radio, newspaper, as well as print media has largely influenced people’s ideas regarding themselves and the society at large. This is evident from their behavior towards themselves and their community as well as their treatment of the environment. While some experts believe that the media is to blame for most of the negative behavioral traits among the active members of society, the majority agree that the media makes people understand and develop a positive sense of association with their society within which they live, making it easy for them to identify and get their role in it.
Mass media, over the years, has had a profound effect on American society, on its