Albert Bandura

Albert Bandura is a media theorist on audience. He states the idea that the media can implant ideas in the mind of the audience directly. He also states the idea that audiences acquire attitudes, emotional responses and new styles of conduct through modeling. He also says that media representations of transgressive behavior, such as violence or physical aggression, can lead audience members to imitate those forms of behaviour.
Bandura looks at the way that media texts have a direct influence on its audience. For instance, he argues that violence is prevalent in the media and therefore, exposure in this violence in various forms enables us to perceive violence as an acceptable way to deal with situation. Bandura calls this 'modeling' behavior.

Moral panics - "the process of arousing social concern over an issue – usually the work of moral entrepreneurs and the mass media"


Hypodermic Needle theory - The idea that the media is injecting ideas into the ideas just like a hypodermic needle injects a person with liquid.

Media effects:

Marilyn Manson - On the 20th of April, 1999 there was a massacre at the Columbine High School in America. The shooters were considered to have been influenced by 'violent entertainers' such as Marilyn Manson. This had a huge effect of his career, the entertainer saying that it almost ruined his career and that he had to seek legal action against those who claimed he had influenced the criminals.

Natural born killers - Natural born killers is a movie about two lovers who become serial killers. The storyline goes on to show how they become 'tabloid-TV darlings' because they are young and attractive despite murdering 52 people. The film inspired "copy-cat killers", people who took the ideas and completed them in real life. One of the most famous copy-cat killers were two teens from Oklahoma, Ben Darras and Sarah Edmonson. They murdered one shop owner then shot and paralyzed another. Consequently, there were lawsuits made against not only the teens but also the filmmakers as they had given the inspiration for the crime.