Whitley returns this week with an explosive interview with Loren Coleman about his white-hot new book, the Copycat Effect. Loren's research proves that the media is one of the primary engines causing ultra-violence in our society. Loren will present case after case of ultra-violence that actually started with lurid media reports of other violent acts, reporting that set off a chain of horror that swept through our society sometimes for years thereafter. The study of media violence analyzes the degree of correlation between themes of violence in media sources (particularly video games, television, and movies) with real-world aggression and violence over time. Many social scientists support the correlation. However, some scholars argue that media research has methodological problems and that findings are exaggerated (Ferguson & Kilburn, 2009; Freedman, 2002; Pinker 2002; Savage, 2004). Complaints about the possible deleterious effects of mass media appear throughout history; even Plato was concerned about the effects of plays on youth. Various media/genres, including dime novels, comic books, jazz, rock and roll, role playing/computer games, television, movies, internet (by computer or cell phone) and many others have attracted speculation that consumers of such media may become more aggressive, rebellious or immoral. This has led some scholars to conclude statements made by some researchers merely fit into a cycle of media-based moral panics (e.g. Gauntlett, 1995; Trend, 2007; Kutner & Olson, 2008). The advent of television prompted research into the effects of this new medium in the 1960s. Much of this research has been guided by social learning theory developed by Albert Bandura. Social learning theory suggests that one way in which human beings learn is by the process of modeling. Media effects theories in modern times originated with Bandura's social learning theory, which suggests that children may learn aggression from viewing others. Modeling of behavior was observed in Bandura's Bobo Doll experiments. Bandura showed children a video of a model beating up a Bobo doll and then put the children in a room with a Bobo doll to see if he/she would imitate the behavior previously seen on the video. The findings of this experiment suggest that children tended to model the behavior they witnessed in the video. This has been often taken to imply that children may imitate aggressive behaviors witnessed in media. However, Bandura's experiments have been criticized (e.g. Gauntlett, 1995) on several grounds. First, it is difficult to generalize from aggression toward a bo-bo doll (which is intended to be hit) to person-on-person violence. Secondly, it may be possible that the children were motivated simply to please the experimenter rather than to be aggressive. In other words, the children may have viewed the videos as instructions, rather than incentives to feel more aggressive. Third, in a latter study (1965) Bandura included a condition in which the adult model was punished for hitting the bo-bo doll by himself being physically punished. Specifically the adult was pushed down in the video by the experimenter and hit with a newspaper while being berated. This actual person-on-person violence actually decreased aggressive acts in the children, probably due to vicarious reinforcement. Nonetheless these last results indicate that even young children don't automatically imitate aggression, but rather consider the context of aggression.

• published: 06 Nov 2013
• views: 1