6.6 Theorists Flashcards
The impact of media on behaviour
Gerbner
Gerbner (1994) argues that powerful and pervasive media in global societies creates mythical realities for audiences, and heavy media consumers find it difficult to distinguish media myth from reality. They are drawn into a world where reality is distorted and violence is constantly presented as a glamorous solution to individual and social problems.
They become desensitised to violence. The more a person is exposed to media violence, both real and fantasy forms, the more likely they are to accept real-world violence. This occurs on an individual level, where the desensitised believe that violence is an appropriate response to certain situations. It also occurs on a more general cultural level – these people are more likely to accept violence as ‘a way of life’.
Huesmann and Miller
Argued that there is a more complex, two-way relationship between the media and the audience. People whose early socialisation has led to some acceptance of violence as a way of dealing with
problems are more likely to exhibit violent behaviour in certain situations, such as when they are placed under great stress or fear.
Pinker
Despite recent wars such as that in Syria and terrorist attacks, the long-term trend according to Pinker is to a decline in violence. Regardless of individual acts such as the Columbine School shooting, the age of the mass media has coincided with less, rather than more, violence.
Wilkins
Wilkins (1964) developed the concept of deviance amplification to show how the development of crime and deviance involves a positive feedback loop:
- initial or primary deviance is identified and condemned by the media, which leads to …
- the deviant group becoming socially isolated and resentful. This behaviour leads, through a general media labelling process, to …
- an increased social reaction (including the development of a moral panic) by the media, politicians and formal control agencies. There is less toleration of the original deviant behaviour. This develops into …
- secondary deviation, involving an increased level of deviance. As a consequence …
- the reaction from the media, politicians and police increases, leading to new laws (the criminalisation of deviants) or increased police resources to deal with ‘the problem’.
In this way, each group, deviant and control, feeds off the actions of the other to create a ‘spiral of deviance’. Moral panics created by the media are a crucial component of this.
Stanley Cohen
The idea of a moral panic was developed by Stanley Cohen. In a moral panic, media coverage creates a society-wide feeling of panic about a particular issue or group. This happens through sensationalised and exaggerated reporting (conforming to news values), prediction of further trouble and symbolisation, in which particular styles of, for example, appearance or behaviour, are linked to the issue or group. In Cohen’s case study, the moral panic was focused on two teenage groups who became ‘folk devils’, standing for everything that was supposedly going wrong in the UK in the 1960s.
Later teenage subcultures, and other groups such as immigrants and welfare claimants, have also been the folk devils in moral panics. The panic leads to demands on police, politicians and others to act strongly against the folk devils.
Cohen
Suggests that moral panics reinforce established moral values in two ways:
- By setting moral boundaries for acceptable behaviour.
- By creating a sense of social and moral solidarity at a time of change and uncertainty.
Hall et al
Opportunities for moral panics occur at times of economic, political and ideological crises in capitalist society. Their function is to distract public attention from the real causes of such crises by generating panics around groups and behaviours that create easily identifiable scapegoats or folk devils. These groups are relatively powerless and can be represented as a threat, distracting people from a capitalist crisis. The state then deals firmly with the folk devils, showing that it is powerful and that dissent will not be tolerated. The real purpose of moral panics is control of the whole population, not just the folk devils.
Butler
Argued that, where gender scripts were once limited and restrictive, forcing men and women into a limited range of identities, they are now many and varied. Thanks to the media, people have much greater awareness of the different ways they can ‘perform gender’. This is also true for perceptions of age-related behaviour.
Haraway
Took Butler’s ideas a step further with her concept of ‘the cyborg’. As people increasingly interact in cyberspace, traditional notions of gender and biology become redundant. How people are connected in cyberspace is more significant than how they are connected in ‘the real world’ because interaction across computer networks can be without gender (agendered). Gender, as with class, age and ethnicity, can be hidden or disguised.
Lyotard
Argues that a defining feature of postmodernity is its disbelief (incredulity) towards metanarratives such as religion, science or political philosophies that claim to explain ‘everything about something’. Such incredulity, he suggests, means that the media are less likely to influence people’s behaviour negatively.
