Addiction - Social - Media Flashcards
What is meant by the media and how does it explain addiction?
The media refers to any mass form of communication such as TV, movies, newspapers, the internet and radio. Both fiction and non-fiction media can influence both our attitudes and our behaviour.
Many forms of media such as TV glamorise / deglamourize addictive behaviours. Similarly to peer influences, this explanation also uses Social Learning Theory to explain how viewers will inherit behaviours they see in the media.
What are the two key elements of the media’s role in addiction
1) Social Learning Theory
2) Media portrayal of Addiction
How does Social learning theory work?
1) Observation of a role model, somebody the individual aspires to be like.
2) Vicarious reinforcement makes the individual motivated to repeat the behaviour
How does social learning theory apply to media?
According to this explanation throughvicarious reinforcement, an addict will imitate the behaviour of their famous role model because they may see their idol being rewarded for addictive behaviour, e.g. use of drugs leading to higher social status and a good time.
Such portrayals can come from the idol themselves or a character they play.
The addict does not need to be directly reinforced throughoperant conditioning, vicarious reinforcement is enough to form an addiction - especially today where due to social media, people are exposed to their famous role models more than ever and can even engage with them personally on social media
What is the first way the media encourages addictive behaviours?
The first way the media encourages addiction is mass volume
For instance, there is a massive VOLUME of addictive behaviours showcased in the media: alcohol was seen in 86% of popular UK films and 40% of TV programmes.
This has also always been the case, while media has changed tremendously in the past 70 years, addictive behaviours like smoking appearing in them has not changed nearly as much, it was found the amount of smoking has remained consistent from 1950-2002.
What is the second way the media encourages addictive behaviours?
The second way the media encourages addiction is vicarious reinforcement.
The media plays into an individual’s vicarious reinforcement method of learning by presenting addictive behaviours in an extremely positive light.
Gunsekera et al found that in a content analysis, 87 of the top 200 movies of the last 20 years displayed addictive behaviours positively with no negative consequences.
What key studies support the role of the media in addiction.
(use either)
We see the effect of this exposure in:
Wellman (2006) which found that media exposure to smoking doubled the chances of them smoking later in life.
Hanewinkel et al (2014) Study on 2000 European teenagers aged 12-14 who had never drunk before – found one year later 40% had tried alcohol and 9% had engaged in binge drinking. - Suggesting exposure to alcohol in films was associated with increased risk of drinking alcohol.
Name one strength of the role of the media explanation
Strength 1:
Supporting research evidence in form of Penchmann (1999) who used an experimental method of a control and experimental group with two different versions of the same film, just one had smoking and one did not. It was found that those who saw the version that contained smoking reported more positive attitudes towards smoking and intentions of smoking and had increased compared more than the control group.
Name another strength of the role of media
Strength 2:
It is very reductionist to only consider the effects of nurture (specifically media) when looking at causes of addiction and addictive behaviours, particularly when we have strong research evidence showing a clear link between biological factors in the role of dopamine (nature) and addiction which can be seen in Boileau et al (2003)
Name one weakness of the role of the media explanation
Weakness 1:
The majority of research into addiction and the media is correlational preventing a clear cause and effect from being established, it’s impossible to know if the media is causing an increase in addictive behaviours or people watch media that suits their addictive behaviours, it could also be that friends / family members could be influencing what films and TV someone see’s.
Weakness 2:
Much of the research into how the media affects addictive behaviour lacks population validity as it is almost always conducted on adolescents (students), who are more susceptible to social influence than for instance an adult.
By not including adults in the research, we cannot generalise the findings to the overall population.
