“The notion that screen violence can lead to copycat behaviour is.doc

Offer a critical assessment of the ‘Bobo Doll’ Studies of Bandura et al., and the discourses surrounding them, in relation to the influence of screen violence on viewers. “The notion that screen violence can lead to copycat behaviour is now so familiar that it has been the subject of various television fictions, from episodes of The Simpsons […] to Law and Order (in which the defendant in a murder trial blames his behaviour on media images).” (Casey et al. 2002, p. 253). Familiar as it may be, the notion that viewing violence in TV, or in any other form, can lead to violent acts is still a hotly discussed topic, not just in media studies, but I psychology, sociology many forums. In listening to the arguments from both sides you can only pick one side. You either believe that from violence stems violence, or that viewing violence cannot cause a person to be violent, rather that it is something else, perhaps innate, that causes the aggression. This is not an issue in which you can hedge your bets; rather, you must believe one set of experiments over another. One of the biggest concerns is of the effect violence and violent images on children. Whereas adults are almost expected to ‘look after themselves’ in what they watch and how they react to it, children are seen as much more susceptible. The debate stems from three things, innocence, corruption and protection. A child is innocent – they lose this innocence through their actions as they age and develop. The emphasis lies heavily, therefore, on maintaining this innocence for as long a time as possible. Secondly, children are far easier to corrupt. Whereas adults are able to deal with problems and create reason and logic based on past experiences, children do not have these experiences from which to derive their knowledge, and are thus much more corruptible. Thirdly it is believed that children must be, or at least should be protected from the world in which they live. Perhaps this is in the hope that they will be a