Below is an extract from wikipedia
Copy Cat Violence
The most influential studies on the debate around media studies have usually been headline-grabbing 'proofs' of Effects theory. Subsequent attempts to replicate, modify, refine or reject these headline studies have proven of less interest to the Mass Media
Bobo Doll
This classic study, in 1961, exposed two groups of nursery children to a new play area, containing a selection of toys with which they were unfamiliar. One of the toys was a threefoot inflatable Bobo Clown with a weighted base, designed as a self-righting 'punchbag' toy. As they played, the non-aggression (control) set observed an adult playing quietly with certain toys and ignoring Bobo. In the aggression set, the adult 'model' performed a distinctive set of violent moves on Bobo, such as sitting on its head and punching its nose, striking it with a toy mallet, and kicking it into the air, while uttering aggressive phrases such as Punch him in the nose!. Independent observers later scored children's behaviour for aggression when left alone to play with these toys. Those exposed to the 'aggressive' adult demonstrably imitated many of the adult's moves. (See Bandura et al).
It continues to say
The Jamie Bulger Case
There has been a long running argument as to whether or not films have influenced people to head out and commit acts of violence and murder. One of the major front runners in this issue is the Jamie Bulger story. On February 12, 1993 Mersyside Robert Thompson and Jon Vernables (both aged 10) kidnapped, abused and murdered the young toddler Jamie Bulger. The two boys were arrested and instantly the story gained mass media coverage, soon after, it was alleged that the two boys had recently seen the filmChild Play 3, the media instantly took hold of this and the film was seen as the cause of the murder of Jamie Bulger. During the trial, the judge suggested that the film was to blame for the two boys' actions. The media scare at this time was used by the Prime Minister John Major as propaganda to try to steer children away from glue sniffing and mischief.
The BBC called it a "landmark case" as it was a moral panic about children the threat of other's, and the defenselessness of our own. After the image of a small figure being taken away by two slightly larger figures was all over the tabloids,sales of toddler reins shot up, and in a survey of parents by the children's organization, Kidscape, 97% of respondents put abduction as their biggest worry, ahead of traffic accidents, glue-sniffing and AIDS.
The Columbine Killings
In 1999 two boys shot several students to death in Columbine in Colorado. Afterwards they committed suicide. Accusations were made that they were influenced by violent videogames and/or films or gothmusic.
In Micheal Moore's documentary about these killings, Bowling for Columbine he examines the possible inspirations for these horrible deeds. He interviews two persons who are frequently criticized for their supposed negative influence on society: rock musician Marilyn Manson and Matt Stone of South Park. Moore comes to the conclusion that these and other media influences do not necessarily lead to copycat cases. He states that the two murderers committed the massacre while the Kosover War was occurring and that they went bowling before the massacre. The war in Kosovo was a real deed of violence, but virtually no one accused Bill Clinton or the Us Millitary of inspiring the murders. If television programs, computer games and rock music are considered possible inspirations why couldn't bowling be the cause? This ridiculous claim shows Moore's point. If you can connect the massacre to rock being listened to days ago, why can't you connect bowling played directly beforehand? This is a classic case of Correlation vs causiation
It is shown that guns are relatively easy to buy in stores and American news broadcasts tend to be so sensational and often scaring in their delivery of events that mass hysteria erupts. People get so frightened and/or disturbed that they overreact to certain things and feel so unsafe they want to buy weapons for protection.
Comment Guys!
xxxx
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I think that u cant just blame films and stuff 4 peoples behaviour its also got somethin to do with the environment they have been bought up in and the role models they have, which they are influenced by. But children who don't have good role models may look to films and the media to see how they should be behaving.
i hope this helps u smelly
xxxxxx
im doing this project aswel- jude said that effects are so hard 2 measure that it will be really hard 2 reach a conclusion cos u cant really find one lol! i agree with aimee you cant jus watch a gorry film then murder someone- u have 2 be screwed up 1st lol
rosie xxx
hey i think that even many people are subjected to violent and gorry films however this does not make them all wnt to go out and commit similar kinds of acts. If sum1 was to do this there would have to be sum other issue alongside it or a phycological issue.
this is very similar to my project also, i find that alot of people say diffeent things however i do feel it is to easy for young children to access violent games, television shows and songs. its not really a case of alot of copy cat its more a case of wanting to grow up to fast and think this is the way to go. there must be a deeper meaning though than just copying and wanting to grow up to fast i think familys are to blame to and teachers and i dont see how they can get away without getting blamed bye xx
The research into copy cat violence is to vague and doesn't prove much at all. I think people make to many links where there isn't any! how can listening to a song or playing a game make you go out and kill yourself!
Post a Comment