For many years there have been questions on wheter we the audience are influenced by what we see in the media, there has been cases where we the audience have been claimed to act out crimes related to something that we have seen in the media. The murder of a 2 year old boy James Burglar caused controversy he was killed by two boys Jon Venables and Robert Thompson who were claimed to have watched the film Childs Play 3 and acted out scenes from the film on James Burglar. However there was no real evidence that they had even watched the film so are we affected by the media text?
Albert Bandura tried to prove that there was a link between the media and the audience, that we are infulenced by what we see in the media. In 1961 Bandura conducted an experiment to prove that there was a link, he took children into a play room where there was a a toy set, a mallet, and an inflatable Bobo doll.The child would watch a video of an adult agressively hitting a doll and the experimenter would see if the child would act out these actions.Before leaving the room, the experimenter explained to the child that the toys in the adult corner were only for the adult to play with. The footage showed the kids hitting the doll agressively with a hammer non stop and thats it thats the proof right?
Many believe that the theory lacked realism as it was a doll they had to it and a doll is seeing by many as something to hit and nothing else. Another critism is that the weapons the child was left with a mallet and toy gun as these are weapons that can only be used for hitting things with. Although the bobo doll experiement is seen as proof when certain acts such as the James Burglar case occur it is still seen by many an being unreliable. Many have since tried to prove that there is a link between the two but have not found any luck till this very day so can it be proved? I guess not yet but the bobo doll experiement can be viewed here:
