The Effects: Hypodermic Needle model
This theory grew from a group of German Marxists in the 1930's who witnessed first hand hoe Hitler used propaganda to influence a nation. The Communists in the Soviet Union had a similar impact.
According to the theory the media (propaganda) is like a syringe which injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience who as a powerless mass have little choice but to be influenced. In other words if you watch something violent you may go and do something violent, if you see a woman washing up on TV you will want to the same yourself if you are a woman and if you are man you will expect women to do the washing up for you.
This theory is particular popular when people have been considering violence in films. Films such as The Exorcist (Friedkin, 1973) and A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971) which have been banned in the past, partly because of the belief that they might encourage people to copy the crimes within them.
On the other hand no-one has ever claimed that everyone will be affected by these texts in the same way. Many people have therefore seen the theory as simplistic because it does not take into account people's individuality and yet it is still very popular in society, especially for politicians looking for reason to blame why society has become more violent.
Other examples of violent media encouraging violent real life are:
- Brixton/Croydon riots caused "copycat" riots all over Britain.
- James Bulger was murdered by two children supposedly influenced by violent videos.
The Cultivation/Culmination Theory
Because of the difficulty to prove the effects of individual media texts on their audience a more refined version of the theory was created called the cultivation model:
According to this. while any one media text does not have too much effect, years and years of watching more violence will desensitise you to violence or years of watching women being mistreated in soap/dramas will make you less bothered about it in real life. This is called desensitisation.
It is still difficult to prove and researchers have spent a huge amount of time and effort trying to validate the cultivation theory but with limited success- this of course does not mean that there is not truth in it as an idea.
Two more theories include:
Identification:
Violence in the media release tension and desires through identification with fictional character sand events (catharsis). Again all the research on this is inconclusive but some psychiatrists claim to have successfully used pornography to help sex offender release their emotions.
Sensitisation:
Violence in the media can sensitise people to the effects of violence. Obviously opposite to the 2 above. It is again difficult to prove but when filmed in a certain way violence can be so shocking that it puts people off violence and makes them more aware of its consequences.
