Theoretical element of mediaviolence Various hypotheses have been offered to describe processes ofinfluence which violent TV might have on children’s behaviour.
All I can do here is to refer to some of these proposedprocesses briefly. No single process is likely to offer an adequateexplanation. Bandura presents a model of ReciprocalDeterminism in which behavior, cognition, biology, personal factors andenvironment all play a part in influencing human behavior.
He stated that humans are notsimply products of their environment, they also produce their environment bycontrolling their actions based on the perceived effect of those actions. People cannot learn everything bytrying to do it themselves. A large amount of learning occur throughobservation of others. Bandura proposes that there are stages through whichpeople go to internalize and learn from those observations. First people haveto choose to what they should pay the most attention. This is based onfunction, attractiveness, value, preconceptions, importance, function,preference or availability.
Bandura describes mass media as affecting thesocial pressure of people by presenting a huge number of models and behaviours that would not typically be seen ineveryday life and by exposing people to many types of justification for immoralbehaviour. Thus, media can change aperson’s perception of reality by presenting reprehensible behaviour as normal. Advertising manipulatesthis perception of reality by presenting attractive benefits for certainbehavior. New behavioursare not acquired quickly or by everyone. Those who are exposed to massquantities of media tend to be the first to try the new behaviour. At the same time, electronic communication is making itpossible for people to affect and persuade the behaviourof people they have never met. Now that they are in contact with so manypeople, they can be affected by many more people’s stories of how they wereaffected by this new behaviour.
The media does not affect people by simply modelling behaviourto copy. Mass media allows people to learn about behaviours and consequences vicariously through digitizedcharacters. These behaviours areinternalized and included in a model of reality and of communication.
It isthis model of reality that affects behaviour.
