Saturday, September 18, 2010

Assignment #2 (Social Learning)

Of all the concepts that discussed in depth, the social learning theory has the most notable effect on people and therefore warrants attention.

The social learning theory refers to how we take in media and make conclusions about our world from it. It is the concept that media helps to define what is acceptable and what isn’t, what is to be desired and what is to be abhorred, and what is happiness with what is sorrow. The basis of the theory is that we tend to imitate people we connect with. Its importance in media is paramount, in that the scope of mass media allows for massive coverage. The sheer prevalence of characters, which are often designed to be easy to connect to for the sake of holding audience attention, makes for a near inevitability of imitation. It is simply far too prevalent not to have an effect.

Though, the sheer volume produced by media would not be such a concern if not for the proven potency of even the basest characters. There are few better examples than the Bobo Doll Experiment. In 1965 Albert Bandura conducted an experiment in which children were shown a short video of a person pummeling a clown ‘bop doll’ and experienced various consequences. After the viewing, the children were then let loose with the same ‘bop doll’. Those children who saw the result in which pummeling the doll was rewarded fully reenacted the beatings whole-heartedly. Those who saw the neutral result tended to react with the same degree of hostility, though with less confidence. Thought the experiment was simplistic, it does prove that people imitate behaviors learned by media.

Social learning can be attributed to a basic instinct in all of us that drives us to imitate proven behaviors for the sake of survival. It fits the sentiment of ‘survival of the fittest’, though in the modern day social learning may prove to be more the liability. It all depends on the messages and role models produced and promoted by media, because is inevitable that their effect goes beyond its medium.

Image citation:

Bobo Doll Experiment. Digital image. Sal2009.com. 2008. Web. 18 Sept. 2010.

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