The Hypodermic Syringe Model Flashcards
What is the Hypodermic Syringe Model?
This model of the relationship between the media and audience sees a direct correlation between real life violence and anti social behaviour.
What is an example of the Hypodermic Syringe Model?
Drill music = In 2018 Drill music was named as one of the reasons for a rise in the rate of knife attacks in London.
The police urged large internet companies to remove content that ‘glamourises violence’.
- In May 2018, Youtube reported that it had removed 30 videos of drill music.
- In June 2018, the members of the drill group 1011 were banned by court order from mentioning injury or death in their music.
What is an example of the Hypodermic Syringe Model?
Slender Man stabbing = In 2014, two 12 year old girls lured their friend into the woods and stabbed her 19 times in a bid to impress the fictional internet character Slender Man. They claimed to believe Slender Man was real, and wanted to prove their loyalty to him by killing someone in order to become his servants.
How does violent media lead to copycat violence?
Bandura et al showed 3 groups of children real, film and cartoon examples of violence against an inflatable bobo doll. A fourth group saw no violent activity. They were shown a room full of toys that they couldn’t play with, then led to a room containing a bobo doll where they observed through a one way mirror. The groups who had observed the violent activity were all more violent towards the doll than the groups who hadn’t. This lead the researchers to conclude that watching violent media .could lead to copycat violence.
What are some criticisms of Bandura’s research?
- Validity of the study is undermined by the artificial environment. In reality children would watch media and play under adult supervision.
- The children may have simply imitated behaviour because they thought they were supposed to not because they were feeling aggressive. Furthermore, the bobo doll was meant to be hit.
How does violence in the media lead to violent behaviour in real life according to Newson?
Elizabeth Newson was commissioned to investigate the effect of violent media following the murder of James Bulger.
She argued that violent and sadistic images were too easily available and children’s prolonged exposure to them may lead to desensitization to violence.
This is where young people see violence as normal and behave in more anti-social ways.
What is the supporting evidence for desensitization?
Huesmann et al 2003 = Studied 300 young people from age 8 to their 20s. Found those who watched violent media at an early age were more likely to be aggressive in their 20s.
However, this study isn’t good because it ignores other factors involved and is pretty vague.
What did Newson’s report on desensitization lead to?
Newson’s report lead to an introduction of age certificates for videos and greater pressure for the British Board of Film Classification to make cuts to violence in films.
The 9 o’clock watershed and warnings were introduced in TV to warn viewers of violence, sexual content and bad language.
What did McCabe and Martin argue?
They argued that media violence has a disinhibition effect. It convinces children that in some situations normal rules about conflict can be ignored. This is because in many films violence is seen as a heroic act which brings reward rather than punishment.
