Role of Media in Addictive Behaviour

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  • Created by: rhallett
  • Created on: 25-01-16 11:09
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  • Role of Media in Addictive Behaviour
    • 1) Advertising
      • May influence behaviour by presenting addictive behaviours as attractive and normal
      • +Atkin - found 12-17 year olds who had seen more alcohol adverts were more likely to approve of underage drinking and drunkenness.
        • -However this shows a correlation and doesn't prove a casual link. Teenagers who like drinking already may just watch more adverts
      • +When tobacco advertising was banned in Finland, smoking went down
    • 2) Film Characters
      • Film characters are often seen as attractive and glamorous so if they smoke or gamble is it likely that people will imitate them - vicarious reinforcement - especially as they are often rewarded for their behaviour
      • +Pechman shiowed 800 9th graders saw scenes from 2 film: Reality Bites and Wild at Heart, they either saw scenes that did or didn't contain smoking.
        • The smoking scenes made students see smoking as 'exciting and fun' and increased their intent to smoke; suggests film characters smoking can encourage young people to smoke
          • -However, this shows that the media effects attitudes but not actual smoking behaviour
      • +In a separate study by Pechman, 200 students saw the whole of Reality Bites. One condition saw a 30 second non-smoking film before and after the film, expressed negative views about smoking
    • 3) Government Health Campaigns
      • Government uses the media to discourage addictive behaviours, eg the BBC programme 'Psst...the really useful guide to alcohol' was designed to reduce dangerous about the negative health effects of binge drinking
      • -Bennet found that people who watched it (compared to a control group) had better knowledge but their actual behaviour didn't change; suggesting it hadn't worked
      • +Kramer - looked at a 5 week intervention designed to reduce problem drinking called 'Drinking less? Do it yourself!' and found that it helped RPs achieve healthier 'low risk' drinking compared to a control group, and this was maintained at a 3 month follow up

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