As scary as it may seem, we must admit that the media serves as the crucial ingredient in shaping our behaviour, our morals and personality. But how, you may ask. Well, there are some explanations to delineate the possible effects of the media on society.
The hypodermic syringe approach depicts how the media 'injects' ideology and certain messages into us. This became evident when famous psychologist, Bandura conducted the Bobo doll experiment which tested 36 boys and 36 girls from the Stanford University Nursery School aged between 3 to 6 years old by showing them a video of a lady beating up this bobo doll, inevitably the children were found to have also committed the same actions on the doll after, proving how easily we learn social behaviour such as aggression through the process of observation learning. Of course this then becomes very worrying considering the fact that 70% of teenagers play violent video games, it is inevitable that they will become desensitised to violence and will therefore perceive it as a norm. This can be further proven through the Jamie Bulger case where he was murdered on 12 February 1993, at the age of two. He was abducted, tortured and murdered by two ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. The reason was found to be that the two 'murderers' who were only 10 year olds had watched 'Childs play' and were rein acting a scene from it, a truly spine chilling thought.
Famous sociologist, McQuail established the idea that the needs in which television satisfies are information, personal identity, personal relationships, entertainment and diversion. While the hypodermic syringe approach emphasises what the media does to the audience, the uses and gratification model focuses on how we, as members of the audience, use the media. for example, some of us watch quiz-game shows because they offer excitement, education and a chance for us to try and beat the experts. Thus, despite the scary fact that we are 'brainwashed' by the media, it also serves as simple entertainment for society.
How else are we 'brainwashed', you may ask. Well it has been found that the media is arguably the main factor in explaining our choices made in terms of political socialisation. The term 'political socialisation' refers to the process of acquiring political values, beliefs and preferences. It is argued that the media are significant in the socialisation process as it is often our main source of information concerning politicians and current affairs. In democracies, the media is viewed as having an important role during the election campaigns. Traditionally, most newspapers in Britain have tended to side with one political party or another. This is evident as The Daily Mirror has supported the labour party which will affect which stories are covered in detail and how they are reported. Sociologists, Curtice and Mair evince how if readers are regularly presented to a slant on current affairs that could encourage them to vote for one party over another. It is important to comprehend just how much power these media 'gatekeepers' have as they can potentially have the power of altering our views which sounds quite shocking.
Moreover, we cannot ignore the massive issue that is how the media negatively affects body image. But first it is important to understand what body image is; the perception that a person has of their physical self and the thoughts and feelings that result from that perception. These feelings can be positive, negative or both and are influenced by individual and environmental factors. It has been found that in a study of only 9-10 year olds, 40% of them have tried to lose weight. Not only is this shocking that such young kids can have these thoughts yet it is also depressing as this may lead to eating disorders whilst they grow up as they inevitably become more exposed to the images of thin and photoshopped images of figures that have contaminated the media.
Thus, the evidence does support the argument that we are influenced by the media as it has a remarkable amount of impacts on different aspects of our lives such as our political beliefs, our behaviour, even our body image and much more.
Umeh Jamiath, The Sydney Russell School, Year 11
