Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Case Study Chapter 13: Violence in Media

On January 31st, I will case study on media research concerning violence in the media, specifically the tragedy that occurred at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Through examples of experimental research and survey research, I will explain how children are impressionable to violence, which can ultimately lead to horrible consequences. Experimental research is performed in carefully controlled situations to better evaluate the effects that media can cause on an individual. One of the more well-known media effects studies, which is in Media Now, was conducted by albert Bandura at Stanford University. Bandura measures how children will react to observing hostile behavior toward a Bobo the Clown doll, and would they duplicate what they just saw when given the opportunity. Survey research is quite simple because they are more common to everyday life. Survey research takes random samplings of populations to gather information about a specific topic, in our case, the topic of violence in the media. Hopefully my presentation will make us more aware of what images we see on television and the ultimate repercussions that might occur from them.

1 comment:

Cameron said...

Since this question and comment was made during my presentation and here on the blog, I will just respond to that. Yes, I cannot argue against the idea that parents and authority figures are largely responsible for acts of violence that children observe through various media outlets. It's their duty as proper role models to moniter what their children see and experience through television, movies, music, etc. However, some blame must fall on the media. As I said in my presentation, for every violent act or situation in a television show, it makes that show a little more than 130 dollars cheaper. Therefore, the more violent the show, the cheaper the overall cost, leading to a greater profit. Who doesn't want to make more money? If there could be a way to make violence more expensive to show, then it would likely be less prevalent in the media, which should help reduce violent tendancies in children.