Models of Behaviour Making

• Stimulus message –>  Individual Receiver  –> Reaction
• Social categories perspective, which holds that there are groups in the social world who tend to react to any particular message in similar ways
• Social relations perspective believes that some members of the audience, the influence of media messages is dependent on an opinion leader who tends to shape a group’s opinion or reaction to the message

Theories of Behaviour Making

• Social learning theory
  • People can learn new behaviours through their observation of other’s behaviours. They called their theory social learning theory. They argued that imitative learning occurred when people are motivated to act like others, when people can observe others performing the behaviour to be imitated, and when such imitative learning is somehow reinforced.
  • Bandura—observational learning theory
    • Expanded on social learning theory
    • Argued that actors in the mass media (and he and his colleagues studied primarily film and television programs) are so attractive that audience members want to be like the media actors. Therefore, media characters or models can influence the behaviour of audience members simply by existing, because they are so attractive. Furthermore, Bandura argued that once an audience observer imitates or models the observed behaviour, the sheer act of acting like a media character reinforces the behaviour. Indeed, Bandura believed that the best way to teach new behaviours, particularly to children, is to present the behaviour you want the child to learn, and the child will imitate that behaviour.
    • Bandura wanted to study two different effects: first, whether observing a filmed behaviour could teach children that behaviour, and second, if such observation motivated the children to be like the film model.
• Imitation/contagion theory
  • One of the most controversial ‘effects’ of mass media are cases in which the media are presumed to have led to antisocial panic or ‘copycat’ behaviours.
  • The main problem with the contagion theory of effects is that the evidence is primarily anecdotal and that, though causation may seem obvious in a particular example, it cannot be proven.
• Theories of social reality as a mediator of the effects of media messages on audience’s behaviour
  • How one perceives a media message—how one interprets a message as a statement about the world—has a profound impact on how one responds.
  • Their choice is an example of selective exposure
  • Selective exposure speaks to the ability of individuals to mold their own view of reality from media content. Not all media portrayals, however, are equally subject to selective interpretation. Some are more concrete and unambiguous than others. But portrayals of reality do influence behaviour
  • Some commentators argue that the media’s greatest impact is its influence on our pictures of the world.
  • People have just three ways to learn. These are personal, direct experience; interpersonal interaction, and media