Hey class! I hope everyone is having a good start to their weekend and getting ready for the UT vs. Tech game, HOOK ‘EM HORNS!! This week’s blog post is going to be about the social learning theory and how the media today influences the minds and actions of society. I have obtained all information in this blog post from my “Media Now” book, my class lectures, and the two films “Tough Guise” and “Killing Us Softly”. I hope you all enjoy my post and the weekend as well!
People all around the world have their own views and opinions on things that make them act the way that they do. What is it exactly that makes people think and act the way they do? Do they get it from their parents, friends, school teachers, or some other influential source? There is a theory that presents an answer to this question, and this theory is: the SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY. Social Learning Theory “explains media effects in terms of imitating behavior seen in the media” (Media Now, 413). When people view things through the media, such as film and television, they begin to admire the characters that they are viewing in a way so much that they begin to pick up and possess the same characteristics as the fictional people that they watch.
On Thursday September 10, 2010, my RTF 305 class presented a screening of two documentaries: “Tough Guise”, a film showing the relationship between media imagery and the way in which society views masculinity, and “Killing Us Softly”, a film about how the feminine gender is represented in advertising, and how those advertisements are viewed by society. The film “Tough Guise” suggests that in today’s society, boys and men have an idea in their heads of what a so called “tough guy” really is. They feel as if they need to put on a disguise, or more accurately, a tough guise, to ensure that everyone views them as tough. Where do the boys and men get these ideas from? It’s a number of media related sources such as movies, television shows, radio stations, CDs or other forms of music, video games, and of course the internet. The media portrays the way that they themselves view things; in this case, the way “tough guys” should appear and behave. The media represents tough boys and men in such a way that their ideas promote strength, violence, bad attitudes, and crime. Male viewers who consistently watch violent TV shows and movies embed the media’s characters’ behaviors in their minds, making them think that this image of the person they are viewing is the image that they want and need to have. These boys and men think that the tough guy characters are guys that they would like to resemble, so they imitate the behaviors that they have come to believe are correct for their gender. One example of this is the Columbine High School Massacre. Two teenage boys committed a shooting at their high school killing students and teachers, and then themselves. These two boys were known to have problems of depression and anger management issues, but it is known that a combination of violent movies and shows, music that expressed violence, violence on the internet, and more than anything violent video games were some of the causes of these boys’ violent and lethal actions.
Violence in the media, along with other behaviors portrayed by the media, has an enormous effect on the views and actions of society. Although we, the people of this world, will occasionally enjoy violence in film and television, but are we really understanding the effects it has on our society? I hope you enjoyed this week’s blog post. I have included a link to a video of a great film titled “The Godfather”. Although being an AMAZING movie, it may have influenced violence in the behavior of some people in our society. Is the SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY true? You be the judge…
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