Assess the usefulness of the Hypodermic Syringe model of the mass media
Mass Media
(Q) Assess the usefulness of the Hypodermic Syringe model of the mass media.
The hypodermic Syringe Model (HSM) is an early theory model, which believes that there is a direct correlation between the violence and anti-social behaviour portrayed in different media types (e.g. Television, computer games and films). Sociologists found that the most venerable audience to the HSM are children and teenagers. this is because they are still in the early stages of socialization so are therefore very impressionable. A prime example to support this theory is the case of Jamie Bugler. Jamie was a 2 year old boy that was abducted and murdered by two 10 year old boys. The boys had apparently watched 'Childs Play 3' before they murdered the toddler, and as the murder was very similar to the death in the film newspapers such as 'The Sun' created a debate to whether such violence in the media should be accepted. However, when the case was carried out, the police found no actual evidence of Jamie's killers watching 'Childs Play 3' or that they had been influenced by it.
Leading on from this point, 'Imitation' or 'Copycat Violence' have also shown a relationship with the media. Early studies focused on conducting experiments in laboratory situations to test if this theory was true. A main case study for this is Bandura, who looked for a direct cause-and-effect relationship between media content and violence. Testing 4 groups of children, he showed 3 a video of a woman beating up a 'bobo' doll and the 4th group no violence. Then, when placed in the room with the bobo doll the 3 groups that were shown the violence supported Banduras theory by also acting violently (e.g. hitting and kicking the doll in the same way the woman first did). The 4th group acted less violently, thus concluding imitation or copycat violence. Support for this theory also came from other sociologists such as Martin and McCabe. they argued that such media violence has a 'disinhibition effect'
(Q) Assess the usefulness of the Hypodermic Syringe model of the mass media.
The hypodermic Syringe Model (HSM) is an early theory model, which believes that there is a direct correlation between the violence and anti-social behaviour portrayed in different media types (e.g. Television, computer games and films). Sociologists found that the most venerable audience to the HSM are children and teenagers. this is because they are still in the early stages of socialization so are therefore very impressionable. A prime example to support this theory is the case of Jamie Bugler. Jamie was a 2 year old boy that was abducted and murdered by two 10 year old boys. The boys had apparently watched 'Childs Play 3' before they murdered the toddler, and as the murder was very similar to the death in the film newspapers such as 'The Sun' created a debate to whether such violence in the media should be accepted. However, when the case was carried out, the police found no actual evidence of Jamie's killers watching 'Childs Play 3' or that they had been influenced by it.
Leading on from this point, 'Imitation' or 'Copycat Violence' have also shown a relationship with the media. Early studies focused on conducting experiments in laboratory situations to test if this theory was true. A main case study for this is Bandura, who looked for a direct cause-and-effect relationship between media content and violence. Testing 4 groups of children, he showed 3 a video of a woman beating up a 'bobo' doll and the 4th group no violence. Then, when placed in the room with the bobo doll the 3 groups that were shown the violence supported Banduras theory by also acting violently (e.g. hitting and kicking the doll in the same way the woman first did). The 4th group acted less violently, thus concluding imitation or copycat violence. Support for this theory also came from other sociologists such as Martin and McCabe. they argued that such media violence has a 'disinhibition effect'