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Theories
of Communication MCM 511
VU
LESSON
17
MODELING
FROM MASS MEDIA
Modeling
from mass media, then is an
efficient way to learn wide
range of behavior and solution to
problems
that we otherwise learn
slowly or not at all, or pay
too high a price to learn in
the actual
environment.
And according to Bandura
things people experience in their
environments e.g. mass media
can
affect people's behaviors
and that affect is
influenced by various personal factors
specific to those
people.
Learning
from Media Content and
Modeling
Whenever
a person sees a character on the
screen expressing some strong emotion or
performing some
powerful
action, the viewer is affected or
aroused.
The
viewer remembers
similar experiences and emotions, and
these thoughts and images
serve as cues
that
trigger self-arousal.
E.g.
ET, Jaws, horror
movies--fear reaction.
Such
experiences of arousal are not
always fleeting in nature, several
studies have shown that audience
members
sometimes develop lasting
emotional reactions, attitudes and
behaviors after
viewing
emotional
content that arouses them.
Social
construction of reality and
cultivation
Some
studies show that realities
depicted on television programs do
not always reflect the true
state of
affairs
in the real world. Some
scholars believe that heavy
viewing of television tends to
shape or
cultivate
viewers' perceptions and beliefs so that
they are more in line with
the world portrayed on
television
than with that of the real
world. Media scholars call
this media effects phenomenon the
social
construction
of reality. E.g. chances of
being on the plane and it will
crash; chances of being a
victim of
a
violent crime; stereotypical
portrayals of men and women
especially in terms of their
profession.
Effects
of viewing televised or film
violence
Through
the years, most media effects studies
have examined the negative effects
that result from the
vicarious
capacity, such as the learning of
aggressive behavior by viewing
televised or filmed
violence.
When
carried to it s worst extreme, the
modeling of such behavior
has been linked to violent
and brutal
"copycat'
crimes such as rape,
murder.
Learning
good things from
media
In
recent years, a growing body
of research that examines
children's television programming
has
yielded
promising findings. These
studies have shown that many
children's television shows have
pro-
social
or positive effects. Children improve
literacy, science, and mathematics
skills and learn
positive
social
behavior, enhance their
imaginative powers and develop problem
solving.
Longitudinal
studies have revealed that
positive effects, in terms of academic
achievement and reading
skills
especially from viewing
Sesame Street as preschool.
Positive
benefits of educational programming
for children are enhanced
whenever parents or care
givers
view
programs with the children
and reinforce the
messages.
Social
prompting or persuasion
Advertising
campaigns and other efforts of
persuasion serve as excellent examples of
social prompting,
another
example of modeled behavior.
Social prompting does not
involve learning new
behavior, and
therefore
it differs from observational
learning and disinhibition. Social
prompting implies that a
person
is
offered an inducement (an incentive) to
act in a particular way that
has already been learned.
E.g.
most
people are not inclined to
try a new product unless of
course , the new product is shown to
offer
great
benefits of inducements- toothpaste
56
Theories
of Communication MCM 511
VU
Diffusion
by way of symbolic modeling
One
important area of media effects research
involves the study of diffusion or
spread of an innovation
a
new technology, tool
behavior, farming techniques- throughout
the society or a large group of
people.
Diffusion
of innovations research examines the
different strengths of media and
interpersonal influences
in
adoption of new
behavior.
Social
changes have occurred due to the influences of
television on elite societies of
viewers who model
the
various behaviors, styles and
ideas that they see and
learn
Recent
research
Social
cognitive theory serves as the
theoretical basis for many
types of media effects research-
from
media
violence studies and fright reactions to
media content to effects from sexually
explicit content
and
effects from persuasive media
messages.
In
recent years, social cognitive
theory of mass communication
has proven especially useful
as the
theoretical
underpinning for communication
campaigns and their design, for
health communications,
election
campaigns etc
Summary
Albert
Bandura's social cognitive theory
serves as the basis for many
other theories of media effects.
It
provides a framework to analyze human
cognitions that produce certain
behaviors and describe
mental
processes at work, whenever a
person learns. Social cognitive
theory is an offshoot of
Bandura's
more
comprehensive social learning theory,
which explains behavior by
examining the triadic
reciprocal
causation
process, or the interaction among
cognitive, behavioral and environmental
factors.
Cognitive
traits
Social
cognitive theory emphasizes
the importance of several distinct
cognitive traits that set
human
beings
apart. These include the symbolizing,
self regulatory, self-reflective,
and vicarious.
Social
cognitive theory helps explain
cultivation effects, priming effects and
pro-social effects in terms
of
cognition, observational learning and
modeling.
The
basis for many persuasion
effects or social prompting from mass
media can be found in social
cognitive
theory, which recognizes
that motivations or influences to
model new behavior or adopt
new
ideas
are dynamic and usually a
combination of outside factors and personal
cognitions and
characteristics.
Diffusion
of innovations, another important arm of
media effects research, also finds a
conceptual basis
in
social cognitive theory. Diffusion of an
innovation throughout a society or a
large group o f people
is
explained
in terms of symbolic modeling,
persuasion or social prompting
and motivation
PRIMING
EFFECTS
Often
questions like these bother the
researchers about violent content in the
media
Does
media violence cause viewers to
make associations with angry
or critical thoughts stored in
their
own
memories? Does the viewing of mediated
violence and the mental
associations it arouses
make
viewers
more likely to commit acts of
violence themselves? These questions
are related to the
psychological
processes present whenever media effects
do indeed occur.
Priming
occurs when exposure to mediated
communication activates related thoughts
that have been
stored
in the mind of an audience member. Media
message content triggers concepts,
thoughts, learning,
or
knowledge acquired in the past
that are related to the
message content. In this way,
message content
is
connected, associated, or reinforced by
related thoughts and concepts
that it brings to mind. For
a
certain
period after viewing such
content, a person is more likely to have
thoughts or memories
become
permanently
associated with the message content, or
stimulus.
E.g.
if one views a rail accident or
air accident the viewer might
recall an accident he is part of.
his
interest
in he news story and his
reaction to it may well be
affected by his existing
knowledge and
previous
experiences.
57
Theories
of Communication MCM 511
VU
In
other words his memories
primed
him
to react in a particular way to the
story. The priming
activation
may
also influence a person's behavior,
causing him or her to act or
react in some way, sometimes
with
undesirable
consequences. The most sensational
example of undesirable priming, in
this case operating
with
social learning theory may be
that of COPYCAT crimes-
especially murder or other
violent crimes
that
occurred after the person was
PRIMED by movie or
program
Instance
of copycat crimes are grave
extremes of priming. Such
cases represent a very small
percentage
of
the population experience priming affects so
completely that they
actually MODEL OR IMITATE
the
viewed behavior. Priming effects
from the viewing of media violence
are normally much
more
subtle
but even that level they
represent cause for
concern.
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