Audience theory 2: notes

Theory questions and your opinion

1) Social learning theory has been criticised for simplifying the causes of violence in society. Do you think the media is responsible for anti-social behaviour and violence?

I think the media should be held responsible to a certain extent as there are many things that the media has produced. For example, many young children and teenagers are impressionable and the media has many inappropriate things they can mimick.  

2) How is social learning theory relevant in the digital age? Are young people now learning behaviour from social media and the internet? Give examples.

This is because, especially at a young age many children and teenagers are impressionable and this can have both a negative and positive impact. For example, a dress up game that may seem innocent and appropriate for kids can cause a severely negative impact. This is due to the fact that children are still growing and games that are pushing out a certain idea of how you should look and act should not be played by kids. 

3) Research three examples of moral panic from the last 50 years. To what extent was the media responsible for these moral panics? Was the concern in society justified? How have things changed as a result of these moral panics?

The 2013 Tide Pod challenge, in which participants ate tripods and then uploaded the resulting videos to the internet. The media is mostly to blame for this as they let the videos go viral and created a moral panic.

The Blue Whale Challenge , in which participants were told to commit suicide. 

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• Nativist movement and the Know-Nothing Party (1840s–1860s)
• Red Scare (1919–1920, late 1940s–1950s)
• "The Devil's music" (1920s–1980s)

4) Read this introduction to an academic paper on technopanics. What examples are given of technopanics that create fear in society? If the link is blocked in school, you can access the text here.

 Cybersecurity, digital privacy, and online child safety

5) Do you think the internet should be regulated? Should the government try and control what we can access online?

No, as more and more people rely on the internet to obtain information rather than magazines, newspapers, and other print media. In addition to this, people are evading the laws designed to protect them.

6) Apply Gerbner's cultivation theory to new and digital media. Is the internet creating a fearful population? Are we becoming desensitised to online threats, trolling and abuse? Is heavy internet use something we should be worried about in society? Write a paragraph discussing these ideas.

Since more and more individuals are turning the internet into a place where people can be victimized and bullied for attempting to be themselves, it is creating a frightened environment. However, since more awareness have been brought to it , people know that others can't do things behind a screen making heavy internet not something completely worrying.