Updated:  20 November, 2002

The producers of New Jack City stated they were "totally unconvinced by the idea that a movie can have a significant effect on the behavior of movie goers." What do they need to convince them? Remember Walk Proud and Boulevard Nights, violence-filled films about teen-age gangs? Five people were shot and three stabbed at two theaters on the opening night of "Boulevard Nights." As for Walk Proud, there were four shootings and one stabbing at a screening of that film in San Francisco, and a 15-year old boy was shot and two other teenagers stabbed at a screening of the same film in Ontario, Calif. The film was quickly withdrawn from both theaters. Why, if the violence in the film had nothing to do with the violence in the audience?"

From a letter to the New York Times (April 7, 1991)

Other reports:

New Jack City

• Las Vegas, fight in theatre lobby which led to 15 arrests
• Brooklyn, a teenager was shot outside the theater
• Sayreville, six arrested, four injured
• Chicago, two groups exchanged gunfire; 15 to 20 shots outside a theater (USA TODAY: 3/12/91)

The people who made the film refused to accept responsibility but WARNER BROS agreed to reimburse theater operators for the expenses incurred for extra security.

The most recent examinations of the body of research indicates that observed violence tends to heighten the likelihood of aggressive behavior by the viewers, but that the "mean effect of exposure to violent media on unconstrained aggression is in the small to moderate range, typical of social psychological predictors." This small to moderate range may not be that insignificant when you consider the huge audiences for films and television...

• How many tickets make for a million dollar box office?
• Which of us wants to be in contact with the small or moderate percentage which may be induced to commit violence?

The beginnings of Priming Analysis Theory came from Perkowitz in 1984:

He noted that events depicted in the mass media can have long term

effects, but also SHORT-TERM effects on adults and children. How? Because for a short time after exposure, their thoughts and actions are "colored" by what they have just seen, heard, or read....

[DISCUSS AND APPLY PERSONAL EXPERIENCES]

THEORETICAL BASIS:

When people witness, read, or hear of an event via the mass media, ideas having similar meaning are activated in them for a short time afterwards, and that these thoughts in turn can activate other semantically related ideas and action tendencies.

There is a cognitive theory that postulates that memory is a collection of networks:

• each network consists of units or nodes that represent substantive elements of thought, feelings, etc.
• these are linked through pathways which associate them

Priming effect analysis theory maintains that when we are presented with a certain stimulus, that PRIMES other semantically related concepts, thus HEIGHTENING the LIKELIHOOD THAT THOUGHTS WITH SIMILAR MEANINGS WILL COME TO MIND!

Activation of one node seems to spread along the pathways and activate others which are related to it!

There is an EMOTIONAL LINK to this as well. Thoughts which are depressing will activate depressed FEELINGS.

This is why in the days and weeks after the World Trade Center attack, people were told NOT to watch TV if they were having a hard time dealing with the events.  They needed to get their minds on something else.  Continued exposure to the pain and loss of the event caused them to continue to think about it, and the more they thought about it, the more they were like to think about and the more depressed and upset they would become.

Looking at these theoretical applications with regard to VIOLENCE:

"Under certain circumstances and for a short period of time, there is an increased chance that viewers

• will a. have hostile thoughts that can color their interpretation of other people
• believe other forms of aggressive conduct are justified and/or will bring benefits
• be aggressively inclined

There have been a number of experiments which seem to support this theory. Some have been done with written suggestions, asking participants to carry out certain tasks and filmed priming material. In each case, the words, actions of images seemed to lead their observers toward attitudes and opinions consistent with the prime.

1. 1983 study (by Carver, Ganellan, Froming and Chambers) showed that people who watched a brief film depicting a hostile interaction between a businessman and his secretary subsequently perceived more hostility in another, ambiguous stimulus person.

2. 1973, Berkowitz, Parker and West demonstrated that aggression portrayed in comic books activated specifically aggressive-related thoughts. Asked school children to read Adventures of the Green Beret or Gidget, and then complete sentences by choosing one of two words presented. The kids who read the war comic book were more likely to choose the aggressive word, and the kids who read the neutral book chose the nonaggressive word.

3. We've talked in class about the impact of harsh or "cut-down comedy" in this class...A study examined the exposure to hostile humor by asking people to listen to a George Carlin tape or a Don Rickles tape. The Carlin tape was non-hostile; the Rickles tape was....HOSTILE. Then these people were asked to rate a job applicant....You guessed it, the people who had heard the Rickles tape judged the applicant much more harshly.

This isn't the theoretical basis for this study, but it applies:

The U. of COL. study in which college males where shown CHARLIE'S ANGELS and then asked to evaluate a picture of a potential blind date...."dog" "ugly" etc. Those who watched another show said the girl was okay, they'd go out with her.

It is especially important to consider priming theory when considering the issue of television addiction. You can see how the concepts are related.

THINK ABOUT: How priming theory might help explain media influence on the shooters in the Columbine High School murders. How might their immersion in certain types of media and subsequent behaviors be explained by this theory? (Great essay option)

Priming effects from Radio, Video Games, Sports

Radio and music video contain a whole lot of violent and sexual content. While no studies have been reported to date, it is clear that priming effect can go on here.

Video games:

• Extremely popular with children
• A 1987 study found that aggressive games and even mildly aggressive games led to higher hostility and anxiousness over the non-aggressive control group.

Sports:

Football spectators were shown to exhibit a higher degree of aggressive behavior than spectators at a gymnastics event in a 1971 study. Another study with football spectators in 1990 showed the similar increases of hostility over non-football spectators.

Obviously there a multitude of intervening variables which come into play.

• Is the act perceived as aggressive or violent? One important point is that many people don't think of football as aggressive--It's NOT a deliberate attempt to hurt another person, but rather a contest of skill and determination.
• Is the act witnessed seen as beneficial or worth while? What happens after? Do the ends justify the means? What are the outcomes? What happens on screen may happen to them if they exhibit the same behavior. This can have inhibitory effects or disinhibitory effects. Depends on situation and the individual.
• Is the act witnessed perceived as justifiable? Does the person deserve it? Is the outcome positive?
• Identification with the Characters: Observers' identification with the media characters influences the extent to which they are affected by the witnessed occurrence. College students who had previously imagined themselves doing a certain thing, expressed the strongest intentions of later doing that thing

"It could be that the viewers who identify with (or think themselves as) the movie aggressor are especially apt to have aggression -related thoughts as they watch the violent events. In their minds they strike at the film victim along with the movie aggressor so that these aggression-related thoughts then prime their aggression-associated mental networks relatively strongly."

• Another factor is how realistic the portrayal is...The more realistic, the more likely a higher score will occur on an aggression index..

Reactivating Previously Acquired Associative Networks:

Effects arise because of PRIOR LEARNING

• networks that have been established earlier are activated essentially reminds the person of other times when they had similar thoughts, actions
• reinforces current thoughts
• the network operates at a more intense level because there's more there (what does this mean for people who watch a lot of horror or slasher films?)

There are lots of studies which support this, but one of particular interest:

Berkowitze and Macaulay (1971) found that news stories of spectacular murers, such as Pres. Kennedy's assasination were followed by a rise in violent crimes for a month or more afterward.

(Other studies about effects of presentation of suicide on TV--Suicides increase for a period of 4 or 5 days)

PRIMING can also occur for PRO-SOCIAL effects:

Depictions of kindness, etc. can generate thoughts of kindness...etc and subsequent actions.

Primary Source: Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research. Jennings Bryant and Dolf Zillman. LEA: Hillsdale N.J., 1994.

There are additional studies in these areas which have become available since the publication of this book. I would advise you to consider priming as a viable area when considering term paper topics, and see what you can find.......

Copyright, 2002

Dr. Janet McMullen

jmcmulle@unanov.una.edu