Evaluation: criticisms of the hypodermic syringe model Flashcards
What is one way in which media violence prevents real life violence?
Catharis = The process of releasing and providing relief from strong emotions.
Fesbach and Sanger found screen violence can provide a safe outlet for people’s aggressive tendencies.
They studied a large sample of boys from public and private schools who were shown TV for 6 weeks. Some could only watch aggressive programmes and some could only watch non-aggressive programmes.
They found that the groups who had seen only aggressive programmes were actually less likely to be aggressive in their behaviour at the end of the study.
What is one way that media violence prevent real life violence?
Sensitisation = Some sociologists argue seeing the effects of violence on victims and their families can make viewers more sensitive of its consequences and so is less likely to commit violence.
Research by Ramos et al found the participants were significantly more empathetic towards victims suffering when they knew they were watching real violence rather than fictional violence.
What is a methodological problem with studies into the hypodermic syringe model?
Studies into the hypodermic string model, such as Bandura’s Bobo doll study, are conducted in a lab setting. These are often criticised as people do not behave naturally under lab experiments.
Unlike in a lab, in real life children’s viewing habits are generally controlled and supervised by adults.
In lab studies, the Hawthorne effect is likely to occur. This may invalidate results, as rather than acting naturally, participants may simply be trying to do what they think is expecting of them.
What is a methodological problem with studies into the hypodermic syringe model? (2)
Hypodermic syringe model studies are not clear about how violence should be defined. There are many different types
-cartoon
-authentic
-fictional
The hypodermic syringe model does not consider whether these types of violence have different effects on the audience.
What is a methodological problem with the hypodermic syringe model?
The hypodermic syringe model treats all violence as wrong and fails to put it into context.
Morrison supports this = he showed clips of violent media to groups of women, young men and war veterans. they all agreed that a clip from a film where a man beat his wife was disturbing due to the realism of the setting.
In contrast, a clip from the film pulp fiction was considered humorous even by older women due to the light hearted dialogue and over the top violence.
What do some sociologists believe children are?
Some sociologists believe children are not as vulnerable as the hypodermic syringe model makes out.
Research by Hargrave found no evidence of confusion in children’s mind between real and fictional violence.
AO3 = However children’s understanding may not be that sophisticated. Only half of children aged 12-15 using YouTube have realised that advertising is the main source of funding on that site.
How does the hypodermic syringe model scapegoat the media?
Tragedies such as the slender man stabbing and knife attacks in London are often blamed on the media.
The hypodermic syringe model fails to consider other causes of violent and antisocial behaviour. For example, poor parenting, traumatic experiences and drug misuse.
Media violence may be one influence on real life violence but is unlikely to be the sole influence.
Ferguson argues that, in spite of the expansion of violent media youth violence in the USA has declined to 83% in the past two decades.
