Introduction
The media effect theory is known as how the media affect the society as well as how society affect the same media. A case in which a teenager murders students or their own friends. This is influenced by what the teenagers are watching nowadays in the media. Like in the United Kingdom, a game named manhunt was banned because the children would style the theme of murder in the game and finally do so in real life. Another example is that of columbine high school, where a fellow students murdered others in school, thus bringing the issue of arms control in the United States.
In this regard, audience who is seen as passive and exposed to a particular aspects brought about by the media content, can be influenced by what they read or view in the media. Most critics are against what media proposes-enlighten of the masses, as negatively influencing today’s audience because it teaches them how to do something regardless of how harmful it is to other human kind.
This theory helps in explaining the moral panic that relate to presentation of; violence, sex and other deviant behaviors, and also looks at its supposed effects on the youths. The moral panic represent a threat to the society moral order. The theory was proposed first by Frankfurt school of social research during 1920s as a …show more content…
The model suggest that audience ingest the media content uncritically thus suggesting that violence on screen can create the same violence off the screen. Audiences have been known to be passive in the capture of information, and thus largely prone to the effects of influential communication technologies. In 1960s, there was unconvincing evidence that proved direct and unmediated effects, which caused reconsideration from media studies and scholars. It is clear that mass media affects and influence its