The model is also called:
The Hypodermic Model
Here, the messages in media texts are injected into the audience by the powerful syringe-like media, this means the the audience is too powerless to resist so therefore, the media works like a drug and the audience is drugged,addicted,doped or duped.
Key evidence for the effects model:
1. The Frankfurt school theorised in the 1920's and 30's that the mass media acted to restrict and control audiences to the benefit of corporate capitalism and governments
2. The Bobo Doll Experiment is a very controversial piece of research that apparently proved that children copy violent behaviour.
This experiment was conducted in 1961 by Albert Bandura. Bandura found that the children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to act in physically aggressive ways than those who were not exposed to the aggressive model. Children watched a video where an adult violently attacked a clown toy called a Bobo Doll. Children were taken to a room with attractive toys they were not permitted to touch. They were then led to another room with Bobo Dolls. 88% of the children imitated the violent behaviour that they had earlier viewed. 8 months later 40% of them reproduced the same violent behaviour. The conclusion reached was that the children will imitate violent media content.
Many problems with this experiment are:
It cannot prove whether the children suffered a long term effect or not
Selection Bias
unclear history of subjects
ambiguous temporal sequence
Other than having these problems the Effects Model is still the dominant theory used by politicians, some parts of the media and some religious organizations in attributing violence to the consumption of media texts.
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