Media Influences on Addictive Behaviour Flashcards
Research into film representations of addiction
Sulkunen
Collected scenes from films that represented addictions
The enjoyment of addictions was frequently contrasted with the dullness of life + use was represented as a way of alleviating a particular problem
E.g. Human Traffic = drug use was portrayed as way of resolving relationship problems
Representation of smoking in film
Examined top US films released between 2001-2005
Found teenagers who watches films showing actors smoking were more likely to start smoking themselves
Significant relationship between adolescent smoking + number of films they had seen depicting smoking
Television support for problem drinking
TV series ‘ The really useful guide to alcohol’ = showed improvement in alcohol-related knowledge but didn’t show any change in attitude or in actual alcohol consumption
TV self-help intervention ‘Drinking less? Do it yourself’
Showed intervention group was more successful than control group in achieving low risk drinking - maintained after 3 months
Anti-drug campaigns
Pablo the dog = launched in UK to warn teens of cocaine use
Evidence of effectiveness = far from conclusive
Ethical guidelines
There should be no references to ‘recreational drug use’ since no drug use is recreational
Should communicate that all illegal drug use is unhealthy + harmful to all
Addiction should be resented as a disease + abstinence is a viable choice for everyone
Research support for film representations of addiction
Tested whether adolescents exposure to smoking in movies influenced their initiation into smoking
Indis who had not smoked when first surveyed = exposure to movie smoking over the intervening year was a significant + strong predictor of whether they had begun to smoke when re-surveyed 1 year later
Creativity + Addiction
Brian Wilson used LSD with creative intent citing it as being greatly influential on The Beach Boys’ most famous album
Then used cocaine as self-medication when struggling with pressures
His addiction offers insights on how being part of competitive media drives people to experiment with drugs as creative influence but then became victims of drugs’ addictive power
Importance of film representation of addiction
Such films provide enduring stereotypes of drug addicts for the addicts + general public
E.g. people know about ECT from ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’
Correlation
Most evidence about media effects on addictive behaviour is correlational = doesn’t indicate a casual relationship between addiction + exposure
Do anti-drugs campaigns work?
1998-2004 US invested in Anti-Drug Media Campaign
Messages included resisitance skills + -ve effects of drug use transmitted through media channels
The Campaign failed to accomplish its goals + also led to delayed unfavourable effects, esp. increased Marijuana use
Reasons why US anti-drugs campaign didn’t work?
- Given all the anti-drugs messages already, the messages weren’t novel = minimal effects
- Contained an implicit message that drug use is commonplace = youths took the message that all their peers were using Marijuana = started using
