Introduction
Two communication scholars, Ball Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur, formulated the media systems theory in 1976, which is based on the sociological concepts suggesting that the influence of mass media should be understood in terms of the larger social systems. In this regard, the theory combines the relationships between the larger social systems, the mass media, and the members of society. The relationship between the mass media and society ought to be understood from a larger social perspective.
The theory is based on the premise that the media is critical to an individual’s life mainly because it is depended upon in fulfilling the basic needs. In other words, the mass media influences the behaviour of an individual more if it is relied upon in fulfilling the basic needs (Ball-Rokeach, & DeFleur, 1976). Media dependency theory is focused on explaining the relationships between various components of life, which influence the behaviour of an individual.
Communication scholars are of the view that media dependency is based on three major relationships, one of them being the relationship between society and the mass media. The theory posits further that media dependence is based on an individual’s political, economic, and socio-cultural systems. The second form of relationship is between the media and the audience.
In fact, this relationship plays a critical role in the understanding of the theory since it influences the way in which an individual utilizes the mass media. The importance of information forces an individual to look for it everywhere. This strengthens an individual’s dependence on the media. The final relationship is between the audience and the society whereby it is noted that the society influences information consumption.
The society sets the needs of an individual, as well as the motives for the utilization of media information. The society is known to set standards, principles, knowledge, and regulations, which determine the type of information to be utilized. Based on these relationships, it is argued that the media influences society in a number of ways. This article evaluates the effects of the media on the behaviour of individuals.
The Media Needs and the Dependency on the Media
The two theorists, Ball Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur, suggested that at least three types of human needs forces an individual to depend on the media. One of the needs is the desire to comprehend the social world through surveillance. This means that the world is full of jargons that only the mass media can interpret. The media in this case plays a critical role of influencing an individual’s orientation to the world.
The second human need is the urge to act meaningfully and effectively meaning that the media provides important information that helps an individual behave in a way that would be pleasant to others. In other words, it helps an individual in acting as a rational actor. Through the media, an individual becomes a social utility since his or her views would be very important in understanding some concepts and issues in society.
The third need is the need to depart from anxiety since social life is characterized by tensions and mistrusts. The individual will therefore make use of the media information to keep away from conflicts, which threatens the very survival of society. According to the theory, people depend on the media more when the needs are high, which implies that they are influenced more.
The theory proposes further that the importance of the media is usually high when tension is high in society. In this regard, it suggests two conditions that heighten the situation. When the media channels are more and when they are centrally located, the need for such media information goes up. An example is given in the developed countries where the mass media is available everywhere.
In the United States and Canada, the media outlets are enormous, which give an individual an opportunity to choose the type of information he or she would want to utilize. The media in this regard serves centralized social functions. In fact, some analysts observe that the media in the United States is treated as the fourth branch of government, after the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary. The media plays a critical role in times of emergencies.
Furthermore, the media provides valuable entertainment. When compared to the third world, the media is not valued so much since the society is yet to appreciate its role. Therefore, the media influences the lives of individuals in the developed countries more as compared to the third world. People are likely to fulfil their needs through the media in developed countries as compared to the third world.
When a society is going through political, economic, and socio-cultural change, the media is always relied upon to offer guidance. People trust the media during the times of crisis since it reports exact information, unlike other concerned organizations, which would want to safe their image.
The media influences the lives of people more during the times of catastrophes as compared to other ordinary days. Recently, the media played a critical role in the Arab spring since it was accused of causing tensions and unnecessary disturbances to the social structure. In the United States, the media did a commendable job during the Hurricane Katrina since it helped in saving lives.
The Effects of Media Message
Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur were of the view that the impacts of the media on the behaviour of individuals and the society in general could be generalized into cognitive, behavioural and affective effects. However, it is critical to understand the features of human beings and the social environment. In terms of cognitive influence, they suggested that the media influences the cognitive processes of individuals in five major ways.
One of the cognitive effects is related to ambiguity and conflict resolution whereby the media plays a role in resolving conflicts in society. When an individual receives inadequate information, he or she might be affected in a way since an individual would fear for his or her life.
This would probably generate stress, which would lead to stress disorders. At this stage, an individual resorts to media information to resolve tension. The second cognitive effect of the media is related to agenda setting. In fact, the theory incorporates the theory of agenda setting into its tenets. When people are faced with a problem of developing strategies to resolve an issue, they turn to the media for ideas, which would help in setting the agenda. This happened in the United States in 2003 when the country invaded Iraq.
The third cognitive effect is attitude formation since the media tends to expose individuals to new groups of people and events. Through the media, an individual comes to know world celebrities, world agendas, and political figures. An individual would tend to like or dislike an individual based on the information that the media presents. It is suggested that the media can influence an individual to believe something that was not originally part of his or her belief system. Finally, the media plays a role in clarifying issues to individuals.
In the study of the relationship between the media and violent behaviour, two issues crop up. These issues must be defined clearly in order to understand what entails violence. A difference between media violence and violent behaviour exists whereby media violence refers to the visual exposé of acts of physical assault by one individual against the other.
The media has continuously portrayed violent material that affects the normal behaviour of individuals, particularly the young persons. Violent media content encourages the youth to be violent.
Violent behaviour on the other hand refers to the aggressive behaviour that might be dangerous to the existence of others in society. Violent behaviour is usually acquired through the process of socialization meaning that the media plays a role in transferring this kind of behaviour from character to the other. Research further suggests that not all violence in movies take place in fictional formats meaning that even real life events in current news are usually filled with descriptions of violence.
One of the studies conducted by Prabu, Boyne, and German (2009) revealed that violent video content encourages the occurrence of aggression related crimes, but not other forms of crimes, such as property crimes. Subsequent studies proved that when people watch movies that show incidences of suicide, the rates of homicide go up in any given society. It is therefore true that coverage of suicide plays a negative role of encouraging anomy in society.
A number of scholars have also conducted adequate studies to establish the effects of violent video games on the behaviour of individuals. All studies confirm that violent video games contribute significantly to aggressive behaviour among individuals. Some analysts and parents are concerned with the current trend whereby children spend considerable time watching video games, which are mostly violent.
A study conducted in the US showed that over 83 percent of all American homes have video games meaning that children can easily access them. A different study conducted in 2004 concluded that at least 52 percent of all children in the US aged between eight and eighteen years spent an average of forty-nine minutes watching video games. The video game industry rates over 94 percent of all games as violent.
Regarding the spread of pornography, the media has played a critical role in intoxicating people’s minds with sexual content, particularly the youth. The rising cases of rape, child molestation, sexual abuse, and homosexual behaviour are attributed to the media. Pornographic message suggests to its viewers that human bodies are simply objects that can be used to fulfil sexual needs.
The spread of pornography is attributed to a number of reasons, one of them being moral emptiness. However, the immediate cause includes economic reasons whereby individuals would want to make a lot of money out of the sale of sexual material. In fact, pornography is a lucrative business that has attracted so many companies around the world.
Some countries term it organized crime because it results to exploitation of women and children. The spread of pornographic content is on the increase because many countries do not have properly constituted laws that can bar criminals from exploiting the media to spread unwanted material.
The media’s Role in Changing the Negative & Positive Trends
Music shows and programs about music celebrities occupy a considerable position in the broadcasting sector. According to Monnot (2010), the role of female pop singers is crucial in the process of development for girls in the age span of nine to eleven years. Female singers are associated with standards of the contemporary femininity.
In contrast to the radio, which provides only sound perception of music, television is filled with physical visions of modern singers. As a result, adolescent girls make much effort to move and look like their idols through wearing similar clothes that are inappropriate for their age. Besides, they start dieting to achieve the same body proportions as female singers who are mostly thin, tanned, long-legged, and longhaired.
Thus, video media resources produce a significant impact on the social life and the development of their sexual identity. Such self-perception as objects of physical attractiveness and desire provoke sexual stereotypes and wrong life values. In fact, this leads to the development of unwanted sexual behaviours.
The great role of forming perception regarding society and its values is attributed to the TV shows, films, and animated movies. For instance, Disney production promotes the concept of thin beauty.
The findings of Northup and Liebler (2010) revealed that most of the media content is focused on emphasizing physical beauty as a symbol of success. Preschool children spend approximately 3.5 hours in front of their TVs per day. During this time, they are introduced to a number of TV shows, films, and programs where thinness and physical attractiveness are promoted as main female qualities.
In advertising, children are introduced to another portion of information, which leaves them speculating on physical beauty and sexuality. It is necessary to admit that television content is also filled with information that promotes such behavioural traits as drunken driving, smoking, and nutritional habits. This influences the behaviour of boys, particularly regarding aggression. However, the main emphasis is on physical appearance as a formula for success, recognition, and health.
It is obvious that the media influences girls more than it influences boys. Nerveless, it is impossible to eliminate its impact on the violent behaviour of boys. Ryan and Morrison (2009) analyzed a number of publications, which revealed that recent increased interest on masculinity is a result of the expansion of media resources.
Contemporary television shows and advertising promote masculine male beauty, which is a traditional approach to the physical appearance of men. The ideal man should have broad shoulders, narrow waist, and muscular arms, legs, stomach, and chest. Men of all ages, nationalities, and sexual orientations desire this ideal masculine physique. Though the muscular beauty of men is associated with thinness, some extra fat is not demonstrated as the major obstacle.
Thus, media production introducing a standard male physical attractiveness emphasizes muscle development as a symbol of strength and health. No much attention is paid to the issue of slenderness hence men and boys are less vulnerable to the obsession with body image than women and girls. However, the need for muscles, as the media suggests, promotes violence and aggression among school going boys.
The major illustration of standards of body fitness promoted by the modern media is fashion models. Their perfect body proportions are seen on television, magazines, and advertisements. Thin and long-legged models represent the world of fashion and beauty, which are so intriguing and desired by many girls and women. In the modern media, thin females are used to glamorize different beauty products while average-sized women are employed to promote household products.
The research of Prabu, Boyne, and German (76) discovered that weight difference does not provoke any purchase drop among consumers. However, such weight-based distinction of female roles creates proper perception of body image and the role of physical attractiveness in the life of women. Regular observations of slim models arouse dissatisfaction, with body proportions possessed by girls and women of average/normal size due to their inability to achieve impossible beauty standards.
Apart from the beauty standards presented by the television and adverts, video games produce a significant impact on the behaviour of children. Characters in video games reflect trends existing in society meaning that they contain many violent scenes, which are popular in other media resources. Male characters are mostly illustrated as strong and muscular warriors while female characters are also frequently involved in fight scenes.
At the same time, they wear immodest clothes on their fashion model like bodies. Research shows that children playing video games identify themselves with game characters through temporal adoption of their properties. Video games are a kind of entertainment exercised by children in a regular manner. The performance of game characters is based on individual social-psychological models of self-concept and self-perception.
Therefore, contingent acting out of game behavioural traits, mostly aggression and obsession with physical attractiveness, arouse untimely or exaggerated development of sexual identity and negative manifestations of conduct. In the modern world filled with technological advancements such as computers, game devices, and varied software, it is essential to consider the impact of video games on the behaviour of children.
Social Leaning Theory of Albert Bandura
Bandura proclaimed that observational learning is an integrated component of learning. Through his studies and observations in this field, Bandura discovered that children imitate behaviours seen in other people. One of Bandura’s experiments concerned a Bobo doll expressing aggressive behaviour.
Being asked to play with this doll, children started imitating its aggressive actions and behaviours. On this basis, Bandura determined three models of learning through observations, including a live model, a symbolic model, and a verbal instructional model. The first involves an actual person demonstrating some behavioural traits while the second is applied to fictional or real characters acting out behaviours in films, TV shows, or books.
The third model entails elucidation and depiction of different actions. Therefore, media resources are the subjects of basic model of observational learning. It is possible to conclude that characters and individuals in the media provoke some behavioural norms, which affect the behaviour of children.
Another concept of Bandura’s Social Learning Theory concerns intrinsic reinforcement. Through this concept, Bandura connected learning studies with theories of cognitive development.
In the context of media influence on children, one may assert that positive attitude towards media content and personal desire to be and look like beloved media characters touch upon cognitive processes of children. Thus, the media influence the perception of children in different life concepts, not only through eyesight, but also through mental states.
References
Ball-Rokeach, S.J., & DeFleur, M.L. (1976). A dependency model of mass-media effects. Communication Research, 3(1), 3–21.
Monnot, C. (2010). The Female Pop Singer and the “Apprentice” Girl. Journal of Children & Media, 4.3, 283-297.
Northup, T., & Liebler, C. (2010). The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful. Journal of Children & Media, 4.3, 265-282.
Prabu, D., Boyne, N., & German, T. (2009). Thinness Portrayals of Fashion Models. Visual Communication Quarterly, 16.2, 67-78.
Ryan, T., & Morrison, T. (2009). Factors Perceived to Influence Young Irish Men’s Body Image Investment: A Qualitative Investigation. International Journal of Men’s Health, 8.3, 213-234.