Pier feedback

I put my theme as censorship because I guess thats what this has become. My essay is exploring how media effects fear and discusses how things are adapted in relation to fear. And I guess the adapting has bled through into being a censorship issue. I proposed my layered comic, I've decided that the layering will be on both words and image. I was thinking like having a poem on each page and heres cut holes in the higher layers in places where the same word has been used. But at this point I wasn't sure if I wanted to create a narrative or to just have chosen subjects to do it on. And whether or not I should generalise it or have it on specific happenings now, like the paris attacks.

Zatul filled out one of my feedback forms.

Things she said:

Look into movies that share a strong link with your subject

Specify your target audience

Go more gross

Try colour

Package it professionally 

Try making a few different comics

What I will do in respect to this:

Define my audience which I'm pretty sure is adults because obviously it would need to be censored for children.

I'm going to look at more horrifying things in movies, like saw games etc

I may try to explore colour in relation to what it emotes. Like finding the right stock for each layer of comic. Then i might play with shading and bitmapping it so it works on the coloured paper.

Separate my ideas into multiple comic ideas. Just try lots of different idea til something fits.

Sophie also filled out one of my feedback forms.

Things she said:

Figure out where you are going with this

Consider advertising and campaign as a media

Do more thumbnails and quick idea generation

Don't labour too long over non-final images

Don't think this would work as a comic

Look at banned adverts especially for sti's

What i will do in respect to this:

I will figure out what my opinion is and what i want to convey overall.

I don't really have an interest in advertising and I want this to be more of a social comment on the state of affairs so I probably won't be doing adverts. But adverts is a good point to make as some are only shown after certain times to protect children.

I need to do some quick work and just blast out a load of ideas so that I have a book of visual thinking to work off of.

Research more things that are censored to protect children.

Gross time

I originally started doing a big A3 gross drawing with lots of different elements that would be deemed unsuitable for children; heads on stakes, rape, cannabilism, Ed Gein and his skin mask, and ripped apart animals in the trees. But time was running out before our crit and I still hadn't finished doing the gross line work. So to prepare for the pier crit I made two smaller scale versions of my idea so that I could get the concept across. I code to do a cannibal and a head on a steak. I made the children's version just completely omit the gross thing and replace it with something happy such as candy canes and a happy meal.  At the bottom the was a little line of text saying please tick here if you are over 18, and if you pull the flap out of the corner the box is ticked underneath. It was kind of acting like those internet pop ups where you are asked to confirm your age. As a blockade to under 18's but my point is that it is easy to surpass those, intact they are less than useless because it only reinforces the idea of it being adult content which is forbidden. I think my point is changing to that the protecting of children has lead to the idea of it being forbidden which is just like one big red button saying do not press. How could they resist? 

Thinking practical

I was thinking through themes and what could be the overarching theme I take into my practical.

Trust is a big theme in my essay because it speaks about people not trusting each other and the loss of community. But another running theme was protecting children. Especially among the films because they have been rated with the protection of children in mind, there are banned films to protect children, should they ever see them. It's less about protecting the film watching community but more about tip toeing around the next generation, fearing that we will negatively influence them and start a new crime wave and loss of morality. 

Thats when I was thinking of a more literal way to protect children which was to give them blinders like horses. I like mocking the idea of it and I think thats what I want to say with my practical work. That we shouldn't have to adjust what can be released for children who are not meant to watch it anyway. Surely it is the parents responsability to protect their child from adult media. I want to step out of the 'norm' to protect everyones feelings and views. With social media connecting everyone so that everyone has a voice it means that anyone could disagree with you and their voice would be heard, therefore being a detriment to your original message. I want to hurt feelings and be disapproved of. 

At this point my idea is a layered image that is on one layer horrific and full of horrible things in a lot of detail. But then the following layers will dress it up and edit it to make it more suitable for younger age groups. But it will be over exaggerated edits to show that my opinion is opposing to it.

Feedback

Things I need to do in respect to this feedback and the learning outcomes

Start practical work that is saying something.

 Have a critical opinion.

Write more of my essay, 

arrange the evidence into an order that makes sense

 introduce each point instead of just jumping between ideas. 

And there MUST be a point to bringing up evidence so that my essay is saying something and not just stating facts. 

Kitty Genevese

So i tried to make it into an issuu document but this happened and I've no idea why. So here it is in a list of images:

I decided to do my sine in coloured pencil because its been a while since i had a play with analogue media. Unfortunately I did the last two pages portrait by accident so with some sneaky editing with the patch tool they were fixed to landscape. This was a quick piece of work to kick start my cop practical, I think it worked because I've been drawing more since.

In my tutorial with Fred he didn't really like it. He said "zines are for amateurs, professionals don't make zines". I don't think thats true, i've bought many zines from professionals. But i get what he was trying to say, its not enough for a cop practical piece, but as i said this was more of a tool to start the visual thinking process and not really to be a final piece. 

I liked using the poetry again, I think it adds a good flow to my narrative work and it means that I don't have to draw as many details, I only have to illustrate the verse. I quite like the idea of doing short comics, but a set of them so its not just a stand alone thing. 

Cop essay to date.

Copy cat theory is the theory that if an event or action is broadcasted in media and gains a lot of attention then people will copy it to gain the same attention for themselves. Big examples of this theory are copy cat murders and copy cat suicides. This questions the way we absorb information from the media and what we learn from it. Certain things can be sensationalised and in today's society media has become a concrete part of our lives, like food and water. It is the bread and butter of the information we learn, but is the way it comes across giving skewed views on morality and the state of society. 
"The national suicide rate rose by more than 10 percent the month after Marilyn Monroe died—and that was before 24/7 media coverage." 
(Schonfeld,Z. (2014) Did Kurt Cobains' death lower the suicide rate in 1994? Newsweek. [online] 4/4/14. http://www.newsweek.com/did-kurt-cobains-death-lower-suicide-rate-1994-244332 [accessed on 10/11/15])
The rise in deaths in that year is thought to be down to copycat suicides. People wanting to show their dedication to Marilyn, possibly thinking that their death would be broadcast alongside hers. Because of this fact, in 1994 when Kurt Kobain committed suicide there was a lot of fear that there would be a multitude of copycat suicides to follow based on his popularity and cultural reach.
 "“When we looked at the completions before and after Cobain’s death and used the previous years and the following years, we actually saw a drop-off,” Jobes said. “And we had a marked and dramatic increase in calls to the crisis center.” (Schonfeld,Z. (2014) Did Kurt Cobains' death lower the suicide rate in 1994? Newsweek. [online] 4/4/14. http://www.newsweek.com/did-kurt-cobains-death-lower-suicide-rate-1994-244332 [accessed on 10/11/15])
There was actually a drop in suicides, which puts into question what was different between the media reports of Marilyn's death and Kurt's. It is thought to be partly due to the speech Kurt Cobain's girlfriend gave after he died. She did not speak about how she missed him but instead let everyone know how selfish she though he was. Referring to the band's guitarist she said; "''He goes: 'God, Kurt was cool'. No, he wasn't. 
''Not in the sense of that action. That action had a horrible effect on our family. It's not cool. It just wasn't cool. " So no longer was the coverage sensationalising the suicide but instead condemned it, and with such high authority, in the eyes of Nirvana fans, she made it 'uncool' to die. And I think that her speech had a direct impact on the way people absorbed the news. 
April 1994 not only saw the death of Kurt Cobain but it was also the month that guidelines were issued on covering suicides in the media. It was brought up by the medical community the year prior and once it was put into practice there were help lines and warnings alongside the report. It acted as a safety net for reporters, so they could discuss the suicide as before but now would have a hotline number underneath. I think it was a small measure but mental health is a taboo subject and to have the helplines put into the media helped give them the coverage they needed. Almost in a pseudo copycat fashion many more suicide and mental health hotlines have been set up since. So in this example; media of past suicides created a fear that the suicides would be copied, bouncing off of that the media has added some precautionary warnings to the news report of it. Although it hasn't changed the way in which the story is portrayed verbally.

Copycat theory suggests that our actions are motivated by the attention at the end. This is a theory that B.F.Skinner explored in his 'radical behaviourism'. One of his most notable experiments was the 'Skinner Box' in which rats were put inside and if they pushed a lever they were rewarded with a treat, although the first instance of pressing the lever is almost pure coincidence in exploration the following attempts to pull the lever are purely based upon the reward at the end. They learn that an action evokes a response; a reward. In contemporary society fame is seen as the epitome of rewards. We live in a culture of constant coverage and contact. We are more aware of our celebrities lives now that we have ever been before. Their whole lifestyle can be obsessed over and devoured through a twenty four hour connection to the world, in the form of the television. It is seen as a simple flow diagram, get noticed, get famous, be rich, enjoy the perfect life. The romanticisation of fame has become an epidemic. I challenge you to find a children's non-cartoon show that isn't about having some amazing talent that will make you famous, or already being famous. We feed our obsessions down to the next generation.

'Cultural acquisition of a specific learned response among rhesus monkeys' is an experiment where monkeys were paired up and exposed to an object, one test subject from the pair would have been previously exposed but was blasted with air whenever it tried to interact with it. This was done until the monkey was fully deterred from touching the object. When put together and exposed the second monkey would acknowledge the first's fear and hesitance and it then shared the same response of avoiding the object. This shows that a piers actions can heavily influence how you react to things. Without even communicating, just through body language you can understand how others are reacting and then judge how yourself should react in comparison.

In the same case study wild and captive monkeys were exposed to snakes and snake like objects that blocked the monkeys from a reward. The wild monkeys were instantly fearful of the snake and would not reach out for it, whereas the captive monkeys had no problem with the snake and reached over straight for the thing it recognised as a reward. Some captive one's even picked up the snake. This showed that the wild monkeys had learnt the fear of snakes through their rearing from their parents, but the captive monkeys had no reason to fear the snakes and therefore didn't. This shows that the upbringing heavily influences the way the child thinks, especially in relation to fears. Many schools today teach stranger danger and as a result children are more fearful of people they do not know. 


In media, shocking things do well and that's why the media seems to have such a negative view of the world. It's more interesting when it's a tragedy. This is not a new theory though, throughout time tragedy has been a popular subject and even more so if it is true. I believe that this is what started the franchise of horror based on true stories. A prime example is that of Ed Gein; Gein was an American man from Wisconsin who lived a bizarre life with his mother who he was obsessed with until she died leaving him, a full grown man now, alone in their house. Gein lived in a farming area and so he lived without much interaction with the rest of the town, earning himself a name in the local children’s scary stories.  Gein was a murderer and a grave robber, he took women, mainly his mothers age, and would kill and skin them. He used the skin for many things such as the infamous Lampshade, but also for wearing and dancing around in. Gein was clearly a mentally unstable man.  Once caught the story of Gein went wildfire through the media, such sickening and gory details were reported over the news explaining the different things he had done.

Gein remained in peoples minds since it was one of the most gruesome serial killer stories for a while. Seemingly it stuck in the mind of the horror genre. Gein inspired a multitude of horror films taking aspects of his case and blowing them out of proportion to create the next big horror flick. He inspired Hannibal, for the obvious reasons of they were both cannibalistic, but he is said to be an inspiration for the character Norman Bates in ‘Psycho’. They took the aspect of his mother obsession and used it, Once reported in the media it became another motif for horror, a man who is very close to his mother must therefore be mentally deranged and in love with her. It’s now accepted as a character cliché of murderers.

PRACTICAL WORK IT BEGINS

So to start off my practical work I wasn't really sure what to do because I've focused in on my research so much it feels weird switching over to practical and having nothing. So I have decided to, for now, not think about the final product too much. I just need to get some work done really. That's what we agreed in my tutorial. And here I am a week later only just giving myself the kick up the butt that was needed.

I decided to look at the Kitty Genovese murder, since I'm using it as an example in my essay.
I've wrote a little poem about the incident, I was trying to go in the direction of my last years cop project where its not just something about something, its something that has a comment on the way something is. I want it to have a purpose basically. I haven't illustrated it yet but I'm getting into my new work method of writing the narrative first and then planning images afterwards. I think this will also help improve the synthesis between my words and drawings which is good because that's already the purpose of one of my 603 briefs, so now I'm doing it doubly so.


A woman screams,
People hear,
But no one comes to aid.
Stabbed to death,
Outside her home,
A tabloid story made.

Tears in her eyes,
Blood on her clothes,
She laid down in a stairwell.
The man returned,
Stabbed again,
Her defences didn't fair well.

Stabbed in her hands
And down her back,
Her life began to drain.
He raped her limp
And blood-soaked body
Leaving once he came.

Lying in a pool of blood,
A door is finally opened.
A woman holds her in her arms
But Genovese is broken.

911 is dialled
They arrive just after four.
But before they reach the hospital
Kitty breathed no more.

38 witnesses,
Stood by,
A tabloid said
'38 motherfuckers'
You are why she's dead.

When a cry for help is ignored,
When a fatality comes to light,
It's upsetting that we fear each other
When we could unite.

(illustrated pause)

New York City
Summer 64'
A woman outside screams,
Will YOU open your door?

BBFC: Being brilliant for cop

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/education-resources/student-guide/bbfc-history/1970s
There is a whole section on the British Board of film certification (BBFC) site for students,including their history, information on how they classify the films and student FAQ's. IM IN HEAVEN

What I've learnt that can be useful:
(1912-1949)

1.When the first president was appointed in 1916 he made a list of 43 grounds for deletion. So scenes containing these things would be cut so that the movie could be classified and released, included in the list were:
Cruelty to animals
Cruelty to young infants and excessive cruelty and torture to adults, especially women
Unnecessary exhibition of under-clothing
The exhibition of profuse bleeding
Realistic horrors of warfare
Gruesome murders and strangulation scenes
Executions
Scenes suggestive of immorality
Themes and references relative to 'race suicide'

2.During this time they were most concerned with horror and gangster films. At this point there were two classifications; U and A. A meaning that an adult must be present with their child, but there was yet to be anything restricting children absolutely. 
When Frankenstein was released in 193, the BBFC certified it A. The london county council (LLC) and the Manchester city council (MCC) decided to bar children from the film altogether even though the scene, in which Frankenstein's monster drowns a young girl, had been cut. In response to this the H certificate was made to protect children from the horror genre.

3.Disney's 'Snow white and the seven dwarfs' was the first feature length cartoon was certificated A in 1938, suggesting it is more suitable for adults. It was certified a U with cuts in 1964, finally it was re-released in the 1980's where it was certified a U uncut.

(1950's)

1. 1951 the X certificate was brought in to action in uk, including the previous H category. This excluded children under the age of 16.

2.1956 A clockwork orange was released, it was cut for U and there was rioting in the cinema's. This caused increasing concern into teenage criminality although there was no solid evidence of a wave of teen crime.

3. 1958 Jack Clayton's 'Room at the top' had to cut the words 'lust' and 'bitch' and were required to soften the words referring to the death of a female character.

(1960's)

1. There was a new spirit of liberalisation, the secretary of the BBFC at the time stated: 'The British Board of Film Censors cannot assume responsibility for the guardianship of public morality. It cannot refuse for exhibition to adults films that show behaviour that contravenes the accepted moral code, and it does not demand that ‘the wicked’ should also be punished. It cannot legitimately refuse to pass films which criticise ‘the Establishment’ and films which express minority opinions'.

2. Michael Powell's 'Peeping Tom' provoked a remark from the secretary of BBFC about the films 'morbid concentration on fear'. The film was rated X in 1960, and remained an 18 until 2007 when it was re-rated a 15.

3. As public tolerance increased films became more explicit but the BBFC still requested cuts to verbal and visual 'indecencies' 

(1970's)

1. The AA (14+) certificate was made and the A certificate was raised from the minimum age of 16 to 18.

2. A new ratings system in the United States included an uncensored X category, left to the sole control of the criminal law. John Trevelyan, the BBFC Secretary at the time, was concerned by this: 'We are afraid that this will have the effect of giving certain film-makers the opportunity of going much further than they have done in scenes of sex and sexual perversion, since with the protection of an X rating, they can shed personal responsibility'. The 1970s did indeed see the release of a number of provocative films, in particular those that linked sex and violence, for example Straw Dogs (1971), and A Clockwork Orange (1971), both of which contained controversial rape scenes.

3. James Ferman became the BBFC secretary in 1971. One of the first films he looked at was the texas chainsaw massacre which his predecessor had recently rejected. Ferman agreed it was too explicit  but he stated that it was less the sexual nature he was worried about but in fact the sexual violence that was portrayed.

4. Ferman's views reflected the general shift of public concern during the 70's. It became less about what would be considered explicit and instead concentrated on whether something could be considered to have a corrupting influence.

(1980's)

1.the decade saw the establishment of the 'stalk and slash' genre with the Friday 13th series of films, with Parts I and II rated X uncut on film in 1980 and 1981 respectively. Part III was also rated X uncut on film in 1982, but with two cuts to violence/horror to obtain an 18 rating on video in 1987.

2. 1981 saw the second in the Halloween series rated X uncut on film, but a scene where a woman was scalded to death in a jacuzzi was reduced for an 18 video release in 1990.  The cuts have since been restored.

3.Legally videos didn't have to be classified to be released like films. So adult films were easily accessible for children.

4. the tabloid press led a campaign against so-called 'video nasties'. This term was not always clearly defined, but there were 70 titles that had either been prosecuted by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) under the Obscene Publications Act (OPA), or were awaiting prosecution. Some of these were horror films that had never been submitted to the BBFC.

5. The Video Recordings Act 1984 makes it an offence for a video work to be supplied if it has not been rated, or to supply a rated work to a person under the age specified in the certificate. The BBFC was designated as the authority with responsibility for age ratings in 1985.

6. 1982 'The evil Dead' was submitted for certification and required 49 seconds cut due to scenes of violence and horror. The film cuts were increased for the video version in 1990 as a precautionary measure against possible future prosecution, but in 2000 the full uncut version was rated 18 on video.

7. 1982 A changed to was changed to PG, AA to 15 and X to 18. and a new rating R18 for more explicit scenes to be shown to club-members.

8. in 1989 the BBFC introduced the 12 rating on film, to bridge the huge gap between PG and 15. This was extended to video in 1994. The first film to be given a 12 rating was Batman.

(1990's)

1. "Despite the statutory regulation of video since 1984, public concern about the influence of videos continued and there were periodic calls for stricter standards, most notably following the Jamie Bulger case. The trial judge linked this murder of a two year old by two ten year old boys to the viewing of violent videos, with the media singling out the horror video Child's Play 3 (1991).
Though subsequent enquiries refuted this connection, public opinion rallied behind calls for stricter regulation. "

2. In 1997 BBFC President Lord Harewood stepped down after 12 years in the job.  His replacement Andreas Whittam Smith announced his intention to steer the BBFC towards a greater 'openness and accountability'.  This included the publication of the BBFC's first set of classification Guidelines in 1998, following a series of public 'roadshows' in which public views were canvassed and the launching of a BBFC website.

3. There was a surge in video games, not normally something the BBFC had to deal with but particularly explicit ones were rated. in 1997 the BBFC for the first time refused a game; carmageddon, because they believed it encouraged anti social behaviour.

4.In 1999, the BBFC re-examined the issues, in particular the perceived harm that under-age viewing might cause. It was decided that in view of changing public attitudes and the increased media sophistication of young viewers, the exorcist was unlikely to prove harmful to the majority of the likely audience and it was accordingly rated 18 uncut.

(2000-2009)

1. The last house on the left was resubmitted for consideration in 2000 after it was refused in 1974. The BBFC said there needed to be cuts but the distributor declined. It was released uncut on dvd/video in 2001 at an 18 rating.

2. http://www.bbfc.co.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/2005%20Guidelines%20Research%20-%20Public%20opinion%20and%20the%20BBFC%20Guidelines%202005_0.pdf
Research results from 2005 on public opinion of BBFC (SUPER USEFUL!!!!)

3. 2009 new guidelines established: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/guidelines

John B Watson

John B Watson is considered to be the 'father' of behaviourism
"Strict behaviourists believed that all behaviours were the result of conditioning. Any person, regardless of his or her background, could be trained to act in a particular manner given the right conditioning."

CLASSIC CONDITIONING is a technique used in behavioural training in which a naturally occurring stimulus is paired with a response. Next a previously neutral stimulus is paired with the naturally occurring stimulus . Eventually the previously neutral stimulus comes to evoke the response without the presence of the naturally occurring stimulus. The two elements are then known as the conditioned stimulus and the conditioned response.

OPERANT CONDITIONING (sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning) is a method of learning that occurs through reinforcements and punishments for behaviour. Through operant conditioning an association is made between a behaviour and the consequence for that behaviour. When a desirable result follows an action, the behaviour becomes more likely to occur again in the future. Responses followed by adverse outcomes, on the other hand, become less likely to happen again in the future

The second conditioning technique fits in more with B.F.Skinner and his influences on behaviourism. He did 'radical Behaviourism', his theories being that the response rate is directly related to the reinforcement presented after the action. He invented the 'skinner box' in which the test subject (usually a rat) would be tasked with pulling a lever which would release a treat. This experiment showed that the positive reinforcement encouraged the action to be done again.

The classic conditioning was discovered by Ivan Pavlov. Theres an experiment I read up on last year (i will find it and post it later) but basically there was a group of monkeys and they put a structure in the centre with something desirable at the top. But if a monkey went to get the thing all the monkeys were punished. Eventually the monkeys started attacking any others who tried to get the desirable for fear of being punished. Which supports the operant conditioning theory. The experiment continued with slowly replacing the monkeys one by one, as each new one came in they would go for the desirable and the others would react violently and stop them. Eventually all the original monkeys were gone and the ones there still stopped any others climbing to the desirable although none of them was ever exposed to the punishment. It became a social norm among them, a known rule.

Quotes

Theory and Research in mass communication theory: contexts and consequences, David K Perry, Lawrence Erlbaum, United States, 2001, p242-243

"In the early hours of March 13, 1964, a man grabbed 28 year old Kitty Genovese as she walked towards her Queens, New York apartment. He repeatedly stabbed her, left, and returned to stab her again. Neighbours heard screams but failed to call the police until after she dies. In a unique way the case touched the conscience of U.S. residents and even helped inspire a popular topical song, 'outside of a small circle of friends'. Some of Genovese's neighbours later said they were afraid or did not want to get involved. An elderly woman who lived in the same building as the victim reported hearing night time screaming on many other occasions. Trying to understand this evident lack of empathy requires difficult speculation, but perhaps the woman had become numb to cries by other human beings."

I think the song is a similar effect to the Boomtown rats song in about Brenda Ann Spencer's shooting spree in 1979. Her reasoning for it was simply 'I don't like mondays. This livens up the day'. Its interesting to see how it was reacted to at the time. Because it would not be viewed as lightly if there was a song made about one of the many shootings in america. I think there was a different view to the violence back then. In this instance it's hard to say whether we were more sensitive then or now. Because I think the main reason it wouldn't be acceptable now is because of an obsession with being politically correct. were in a society now where when you communicate you can communicate with the whole world if you want to and so now we've entered a stag where we are desperately trying to protect everyones feelings. In fear of legal repremandation. We have a culture of suing now.

This quote also made me think of the article I referenced in last years cop project, I'll have to refine it. But it was an interview with Sue Coe and in one part she was discussing how she had once seen a man late at night in the road screaming and shouting. And how her first reaction was fear and to stay inside but in the end it turns out he was a blind man in need. It just questions our sense of community and whether we even have one without trusting each other.

Desensitisation theory

Strength: This theory draws it's information directly from the increasing volume of violence and representations of sex in the media, and regulations committees such as the British board of film classifications (BBFC) and how they let more shocking material through in comparison to earlier times. It raises the question of the amount of representations we should be witness to, and asks how far the effects can go

Weakness: The counter argument for this theory is that there is no way that this theory can be effectivelyproven, especially when considering how difficult it is to separate the effects of the media from the effects of the home living condition

Example: The most notable example of this is the Bulger murder case, where the children lived at home watching horror movies, but also had abusive parents and poor living conditions. Another example is the last house on the left, as it was rejected when completed due to portrayals of rape. But it was allowed only a few years ago, this displays a higher cultural acceptability for the film. And that due to the regulations reflecting society, implies that we have indeed become desensitised.

The bugler murder is an example because the boys mimicked some things from Chuckie 3 which they had recently watched. The way they copy from film to life suggests that they don't yet understand the consequences at that age but in accordance with the copy cat theory it would suggest that the boys were already likely to commit something of this kind and that the movie just added fuel to the fire. Bu the question remains is their state of mind down to the television they were allowed to watch at a young and developmental stage or is it due to the conditions they lived in and how their parents acted. Or it could be a mixture of both, I think that the conditions they already lived in is the cause for their state of mind, in which doing something like this is already a possibility. But I think the films were largely responsible in fuelling a skewed view of the world.

Albert Bandura - The bobo doll experiment

Children were exposed to aggressive or non-aggressive adult models when playing. They also experimented with same and opposite sex models to see if that had any effect.

The results of the experiment were:
1. Children exposed to the violent model tended to imitate the exact behaviour they had observed when the adult was no longer present.
2. While children of both genders in the non-aggressive group did exhibit less aggression than the control group. The boys who had observed an opposite sex model behave non-aggresively were more likely than those in the control group to engage in violence.
3. Boys who observed adult males behaving violently were more influenced than those who had observed a female model behaving aggressively. Interestingly, the experimenters found that in the same sex aggressive groups, boys were more likely to imitate physical acts o violence while girls were more likely to imitate verbal aggression.
4. Boys engaged in more than twice as many aggressive acts than the girls.

The results o fthe bobo doll experiment supported Bandura's social learning theory. Bandura and his colleagues believed that the experiment demonstrates how specific behaviours can be learned through observation and imitation. The authors also suggested that "social imitation may hasten or short cut the acquisition of new behaviours without the necessity of reinforcing successive approximation as suggested by Skinner.

I can see clearly now the rain is gone

Just had my tutorial with Fred and it's finally clear what I'm doing in my essay. Or at least more so than the last tutorial.
I started with just looking at media and fear. I want to show a link between the two, at this point the rough phrasing for my question is 'How does media affect our perception of fear?'. My problem last week is that I just had some ideas of what I wanted to write about just floating around with no central pillar to hold them together. I had a mild freakout but Fred set neon the right route by telling me I needed some kind of theory to back my work up. It turns out if you type theory after general buzz words in google the results are really useful.
I've spanned off to three theories about how media affects people;

Copy cat/ Modelling theory
The copy cat theory relates to something publicised in the media that creates a lot of attention. The well known example of this is copy cat murderers, suicides and other violent acts that come with no other motive other than attention, caused by seeing the same acts in the media, be it film, television or books.

Desensitisation Theory
Desensitisation is the belief that there is so much violence shown in the media, people have less of an emotional impact to violence and feel less sensitive towards it. For instance if you watch a lot of violent movies, you will not feel as upset about the violence than you would have if you hadn't watched a lot of violent movies. But does consuming violent media make you less sad about real life violence.

Cultivation Theory
Cultivation theory is about how peoples attitudes and beliefs are impacted by the media, rather than just behaviours. For instance someone who watches a lot of violent movies may have a darker and unrealistic outlook on the world, thinking that there is more violence in their community than there really is. Whereas someone who doesn't watch as many movies may have a more realistic view on the world.

We figured out a flow chart of how the murders I was looking at linked to horror film and vice versa. Each of these link in with one of the theories I have looked into. The first one is the copy cat theory, instead of it being the general example of this theory which is copy cat murder the flow chart focuses in on copy cat films. I think that the chain of copy cat films that follow a successful horror film over do all its tactics and thats how it leads on to the second flow chart where the tactics have been so over used that the audience becomes desensitised. 

an example for the first flow chart would be John Wayne Gacy; the killer clown. A man who dressed up as Pogo the clown and ended up trapping and killing over 30 young boys. His case was the inspiration for the clown in the movie 'It'. 'It' was a very successful and popular horror and after it there has been a string of clown horror; Mr. Jingles, Stitches, clown house, amusement. 

An example for the second flow chart would be the Chuckie franchise which is plays with the concept of children involved with murder. But it puts it into the form of a doll. But audiences become desensitised and less bothered by the effects. The movies try and outdo each preceding one in the franchise. The example for murder would be the James Bulger case where the two ten year old boys brutally murdered him after watching Chuckie 3 and mimicked some of the things they had seen on their victim. The boys watched many horror films not intended for children but they also lived in an abusive home so it is unclear which is the real reason. But their case also kind of links to the copy cat theory because they were mimicking what they had seen. But one point of the copy cat theory is that the people who copy already have the mental capability and are already mentally ill and the film, in this case, was just the extra push they needed.

The next flow chart went from more horrific murders to media reports but at this point I'm unclear what will go next. The final one will be support the cultivation theory. In this one I think it will then branch out from film into other medias such as games, music and comics. This is the part where I want to branch out and show that our society has now reached a new level of fear. We are drowning in the amount of fears we have and children are being brought up thinking that the world is a very dangerous place where they could be abducted and murdered or raped at any minute. We've created a culture of fear and I want to discuss the effect of that on how we act as a society.

Cop3 Proposal

Name:

Rowena

E-mail:

Rs108841@students.leeds-art.ac.uk

SUBJECTS OF CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH ALREADY UNDERTAKEN

Level 4:

Form vs function

Level 5:

Desensitization

AIM AND/OR OBJECTIVE OF YOUR PROPOSED C.O.P.3 PROJECT

To further understand and explore how Stephen King creates tension in his writing.

1.     What research needs to be undertaken into the general and specific contexts of your practice?

Read books – His fiction books Read his book on writing Look at interviews Watch movie/tv adaptions Read horror comics

2.     What approach(es) will you take and what processes, methods, materials and  tools  are to be involved in research into your practice?

Drawing from the imagination. Drawing the intangible. Try out doing some of my own horror narratives.

3.     What preparation or investigations do you need to undertake for your creative practice to take place?  Reread my Stephen King novels and take note of certain parts that create the most tension. Analyse what is creating the tension, literary techniques and description.

4.     What research do you need to undertake regarding who your creativity is for?

Horror fans. Look at what kind of horror is popular with horror fans. What subgenres are there.

Primary Sources of Information
1.         Description	Go to locations that are commonly associated with horror
Location	Graveyard
2.         Description	Send him a letter/email to ask questions about his writing
Location	In a letter going to Maine
3.         Description
Location

Secondary Sources of Information
1.	http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/10320475/Stephen-King-True-compassion-lies-at-the-heart-of-horror.html
2.	Read his books
3.	Watch the movies
4.	Watch the tv adaptations
5.	http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/09/how-stephen-king-teaches-writing/379870/
6.	http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/21/stephen-king-shining-sequel-interview