The Hypodermic Model

• Here, the messages in the media texts are injected in to the audience by powerful, syringe- like, media


• the audience is powerless to resist


• Therefore, the media works like a drug and the audience is drugged, addicted, doped or duped

The Frankfurt School theorised in the 1920s and 30s that the mass acted to restrict and control audiences to the benefit of corporate capitalism and goverments.

The Bobo Doll experiment

This is a very controversial piece of research that apparently proved that children copy violent behaviour.

• This was cunducted in 1961 by Albert Bandura


• In the experiment;


• children watched a video watched an adult violently attacked a clown toy called a Bobo Doll


• The children were then taken to a room with attractive toys that they were not permitted to touch


• The children were then led to another room with the Bobo Dolls


• 88% of the children imitated the violent behaviour that they had earlier viewed. 8 months later 40% of children reproduced the same violent behaviour


• The conclusion reached was that children will imitate violent media content


• There are many problems with the experiment.


• The effects Model (backed up by the Bobo Doll experiment) is still the dominant theory used by politicians, some parts of the media and some religious organisations in attributing violence to the consumption of media texts

Key examples sited as causing or being contributory factors are;

• The film Child's Play 3 in the murder of James Bulger in 1993


• The game Manhunt in the Murder of Stefan Pakeeran in 2004 by his friend Warren LeBlanc


• The film A Clockwork Orange (1971) in a number of rapes and violent attacks


• The film Severance (2006) in the murder of Simon Everitt

• In each case there was a media and political outery for the texts to be banned


• In some cases laws were changed, films banned, and newspapers demanded the burning of films


• Subsequently, in each case it was found that No case could be proven to demonstrate a link between the text and the violent acts

The Effects Model contributed to Moral Panics whereby:

• The media produce inactivity, make as into students who won't pass their exams or 'coach potatoes' who make no effort to get a job


• The media produces violent 'copycat' behaviour or mindless shopping in response to advertisements.