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The affects of the media on society is noted in various sociological studies and parental organizations. Mass media’s influence is frequently illustrated through mirrored acts of deviance (e.g., when violence in a film translates to violent behavior by the viewer). Deviance is defined as: “One that differs from a norm, especially a person whose behavior and attitudes differ from accepted social standards.” Deviant behavior within societies has existed since the beginning of time, but has always appeared to be frowned upon. Studies reveal that extreme acts of deviance portrayed by the film industry corroborates similar behavior in some viewers. Horror films, in particular, and the genres born from them seem to hold a tremendous effect on the American society. Modern Cinema in this article is referred to as films created since the 1970’s. Movies from this time period are increasingly gory and suggesting. The deviant behaviors portrayed in this genre of films affect viewers in several different ways.

A History of Deviance in Modern Cinema

Horror pictures first gained a life through short films produced in the late 1890’s. Early movies created in France and Germany influenced the creation of horror pictures in America. Some of the earliest films to come out of Hollywood were created in the 1920’s. Movies including The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Phantom of the Opera were among the early American horror films. Characters like Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dracula, mummies, and zombies have spanned the existence of the horror film timeline. These creatures developed early on in the genre, and continue to be re-used in modern cinema. With the advent of new horror genres, like “slasher” films (typified by movies like Psycho), horror was taken away from its traditional roots and opened up a world of new possibilities. Science fiction, Gore, Slasher, Thriller, Zombie, and many more genres of horror films have gained mass popularity. With the release of movies like the Saw series, Scream series, Hostel, and Dawn of The Dead that continue to keep the horror genre alive, people will remain scared of the dark and hiding under their covers for years to come. Article text.<ref name="test">Link text

Becoming Accustomed to Violence

There have been numerous studies conducted to investigate whether violence or deviance in the media holds an effect on children. In cases where children were exposed to violence in a film, most children were susceptible to reenacting the violent or deviant behavior that they saw in the film. Likewise, children frequently modeled positive, nonviolent behavior after watching nonviolent behavior enacted by an individual in a film, as well. However, when children view this media-accepted violence and repeat the violent behavior, some worry that they may see this behavior as acceptable, and thus become accustomed to violence in their everyday lives. If children become accustomed to violence, they may eventually associate violent behavior as a social norm for how to behave toward others. This would lead to a much larger social problem involving violence and deviance, since children would find it acceptable, and perhaps not feel guilt or remorse, after performing violent acts toward others. Aggression can develop in people, especially children, through watching others model aggressive behavior. Violent films, for example, contain actors who exhibit aggressive, deviant behavior. Viewers whom watch and are entertained by violent films therefore accept this violent nature, because mass media portrays it as acceptable. Article text.<ref name="test">Link text

Horror films can have a long-term effect on children because they tend to believe that certain scenarios shown in films could actually happen to them. After children watch a scary movie, for instance, some may hide under their covers when they go to bed, use a nightlight so they can see around their room when the light is turned off, or have nightmares following a viewing of a horror film. When children are exposed to these fearful behaviors, some believe these children may suffer from paranoia. Paranoia is defined as “a mental disorder characterized by systematized delusions and the projection of personal conflicts, which are ascribed to the supposed hostility of others. This sometimes progresses to disturbances of consciousness and aggressive acts, performed perhaps in self-defense, as a mission, or as the baseless or excessive suspicion of the motives of others.” If children appear to suffer from paranoia, they may avoid certain situations that could potentially put them in harm’s way. There are five phobia-inducing stimuli that exist: animals, environmental, situational, blood/gore, and disturbing sounds or images. As for an example of the situational fear-inducing stimuli, there is a movie called Friday the 13th about a child who drowns in a lake during summer camp that returns to camp to murder anyone who discovers his hiding place. If a child watches this horror film, he/she may choose to avoid summer camp altogether because of a fear that there is some individual who died at the camp could possibly return as a murderer. As for an example of the environmental phobia-producing stimuli, the film Twister -- a movie about storm and tornado chasers -- could put children viewers in hysteria whenever a tornado or bad storm hits, because the young character in the film loses his father during a violent thunderstorm. This film may then lead children viewers to believe that every time a storm hits, a tornado may occur that could cause them to lose a family member or other loved one. These long-term effects after viewing certain horror films can last well into these children’s lives. There are people whom have reported still feeling scared or uneasy in certain situations because of similar occurrences they viewed in childhood horror films. Teens have expressed a need to continue to use coping devices well after having viewed childhood horror films. Older-aged movie viewers also tend to be more aware of coping devices that work for them. Younger children do not typically know these means to avoid fear. Examples of coping devices include: reassuring oneself that the events did and will not actually happen, covering one’s eyes, or holding on tightly to a pillow to reduce fearfulness. Young children who may not have knowledge of these potential fear-reducing techniques may view more than they are willing to, which could lead to further problems later in life.

Affects of Violent Films on College Students

Virginia Tech University performed a study on whether violent films had an affect on college students. The studies showed that watching violent films and seeing deviance portrayed in the media could have a hostile affect on college students.

Procedure to the study: James Weaver and Dolf Zillmann (from the University of Alabama) conducted the study using 53 male students and 40 female students. They asked their student participants to take a personality test. After completion of the personality test, the students were told that they would then view five films ranging from films where conflict was resolved without using violence, to films that contain a copious amount of violence and deviant behavior. According to the researchers’ instructions, the student participants were supposed to view five films. However, after watching the fourth film, Weaver and Zillmann informed the students that they had gathered enough information and that there was no need to watch the fifth video. In order to receive the full reward of extra credit points though, the students were given the opportunity to participate in another study. The students did not know that this second study was related to the first, film study. This second study asked students to perform tasks that would show whether they possessed interaction skills. They were assessed by the comments given by the experimenter. Studies revealed that the students reacted in a hostile manner, no matter what kind of film the students watched during the first study. Because the viewers did not view the fifth film and were asked to participate in a more demanding task during the second part of the study, the researchers theorized that this second request may have annoyed or set off the student participants. The researchers also found that the female participants were more hostile towards experimenters, whereas the men were more courteous. Studies illustrated that males who considered themselves egocentric tended to use violence as a way to resolve a problem. When asked questions about different scenarios, such as two children fighting over something, females, on the other hand, never thought to use violence to resolve the conflict. In conclusion, Zillmann and Weaver believe that violence in the media can hold an enormous affect on people, particularly college students.

Albert Bandura's Bobo Doll Study

Psychologist Albert Bandura conducted a study to explore whether children would reciprocate violent behavior, when given the opportunity, after viewing someone else use violent behavior. Bandura is arguably most famous because of his Bobo doll study. The Bobo doll study involved a video that one of Bandura’s students created of herself beating up a Bobo doll. This video was shown to kindergartners to see what actions, if any, they would use when placed alone in a room with a Bobo doll and various other toys after viewing her violent film. Once the children entered their rooms, they proceeded to beat up the Bobo doll – modeling the female model’s behavior – as well as adding their own violent behavior techniques, such as kicking or using a toy hammer to harm the Bobo doll. This study, and countless other related Bobo doll studies, led Bandura to discovering the steps involved in the modeling process. The first step in the modeling process is attention. After the children paid attention to the video, they retained its information. Retention is the second step in the modeling process. The third step in the modeling process is reproduction, which occurred when the children entered the room and reproduced the actions they had previously seen in the video. The fourth step in the modeling process is motivation. The children needed some kind of motivation in order to model the behavior and beat the Bobo doll. Albert Bandura's Bobo doll study reveals that children whom watch an older member of society perform an action are susceptible to repeat said action. Viewing deviant films may lead children to try to imitate actions that they see others engage in. Whether this is a short term or long term affect, overexposure to such films could potentially lead children to determine these behaviors and deviant activities as social norms that are acceptable by society.

Affects of Sexual and Violent Deviance in Film

As we have seen through its history, deviance has been on the rise in the film industry. People have become increasingly interested in violence and sex, especially when it comes to movies, but what affect does it have on them? While there have been a number of studies on this, most studies suggest that deviance affects men and women differently.

In a study performed by Spring Science, researchers looked into how people’s prior film predilections related to their rape myth acceptance (rma). An example of rma would be as follows: “Healthy women should be able to resist rape” or “Most rape cases involve the victim being promiscuous and having a bad reputation.” The procedure for their experiment went as follows: a random sample of 174 undergraduate students, ranging from age 18 – 34, filled out the Time 1 questionnaire which included demographics, rma measures, sex role stereotyping measures, and film editing and integrity measures. After doing so, the students would then be placed in four groups: the first group would watch the uncut treatment film, the second group would watch the mosaic version of the treatment film, the third group would watch the professionally edited version, and the fourth group would watch the control film, Free Willy. The treatment film was the movie The Accused, which is a film about a woman that is brutally gang raped in a bar. The mosaic version revealed the sex in the film, but the bodies were blurred so it would be difficult to see the violence. The edited version edited out both the violence and the sex.

After watching the film, the students would then fill out a Time 2 questionnaire that did not include demographics, but still included the other measures. Their hypothesis that men would prefer sex and violence and women would prefer love and suspense was correct. They also hypothesized that “exposure of the sexually violent media moderates women’s but not men’s film predilections as they relate to rma” (Pauley 317). The results portrayed that men tended to be more likely to have stronger rape myth acceptance than women. This in turn resulted in stronger rape myth acceptance of those who had a film predilection for sex and violence than those who preferred love stories and suspense. Women who preferred love stories whom were part of group one and two seem to have reduced their rape myth acceptance after watching the film.

This study illustrates that a majority of men tend to prefer movies that are about or involve sex and violence in some form. It also shows that this preference leads them to be more accepting of the rape myth. Although there is no direct connection that renders that these men will rape, results show that men possess the capability and may rape an individual, if they are put into a particular position to do so, because of their acceptance of the rape myth. To conclude, the beginning to any new behavior within a person requires some degree of self-acceptance, which means believing that an action or behavior that one is performing or about to perform is acceptable by society. This study reveals how greatly sexual deviance can affect the general public, as well as how men and women are affected by deviance differently.

Conclusion

The affects of deviant behavior portrayed in modern cinema has developed into a social problem in recent years. Studies have shown that young children are extremely susceptible to mimicking both violent and nonviolent actions that they become accustomed to seeing. Children seem to have two different negative reactions to violent films. They either react to fear or they react to violence. Reactions to fear can exist a lifetime, and may alter the way children live their lives. Children may begin to avoid situations or become unable to interact in certain situations. In violence, children may act out or mimic the violent actions they have seen performed by others. This can be problematic because it can in turn create violent members of society that eventually feel no remorse or guilt for their deviant actions. Sexual deviancy shown in films can also affect people negatively and change the way they view acts of sexual deviance. This accompanied with the facts about children’s reactions is a cause for concern because it may bread individuals who perform acts of sexual and/or violent deviance. Some believe that children should not watch such films because of the affects they can have on them. Some feel it is “ill-advised” to allow children to watch films with extreme deviance, because they may not possess the knowledge about coping techniques that exist to reduce fear and/or may not yet have an understanding of the real world versus what the media portrays it to be. Others, however, feel the complete opposite on the issue. Either way, society has deemed this a social issue and it will continue to be researched until both sides feel satisfied by a common conclusion.