In the first half of the week, we talked about media’s effects and the theories that go along with this. We began by watching a film called Why Be Good. This film depicted the tensions that could be felt between film makers and censorship makers. Censorship makers were deeming what was appropriate or not to be shown on film. This soon led to the question of what is appropriate? In the early 1900’s, women really did not have much of a say in the film industry. However, that would soon change as actress Mary Pickford would soon become the most powerful woman in Hollywood. Pickford started her career as a well known actress. She soon began producing her own films and helped create the United Artists Studio, which gave her more control in the industry.

As this was going on, the United States had entered into World War I. With all of the men at war, women were given more responsibilities including some that men had. This soon began the rise to more rights for women, which included the right to vote. During the 20’s, women began to “test” authority. This gave rise to the “flapper,” which were women that wore skirts, bobbed their hair, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior.

Because of this shift, it was later okay for women to appear in art. It was considered “tasteful” and “beautiful.” This also gave rise to the first male and female sex symbols of this time. The first male sex symbol was Rudolph Valentino. Valentino was an Italian-born actor who starred in several well known silent films at that time. The first female sex symbol was Clara Bow. Bow was an American actress who also starred in several well known silent films, as well as “talky” films. These were simply films with sound.

We then shifted our discussions to major theories in media. The first theory mentioned was the Cultivation Theory, which was founded by George Gerbner. This theory suggests that exposure to media, over time, subtly “cultivates” viewers perceptions of reality. As Gerbner puts it, “television is a medium of the socialization of most people into standardized roles and behaviors. Its function is in a word, enculturation.” This brings up the idea of the “mean world syndrome.” Heavy users of television would view the world as more “dangerous, mean, and violent” rather than light users of television.

The second theory mentioned was the Agenda Setting Theory, which was introduced by Dr. Maxwell McCombs. This theory describes the “ability” of the news and media to influence the importance placed on the topics of the public agenda. There are multiple phases involved in this theory. Some of the major phases include the public sphere (where society discusses issues that affect everyone), public agenda, and public policy.

For the next half of the week, we discussed human behavior to authority and the bystander effect. We began by watching a film called The Big Picture. This film was about human behavior experiments that were done by Stanley Milgram. Milgram used a shock generator that increased in voltage from left to right. The machine was hooked up to a person where the current would be sent to a person. This was controlled by the “test subject” using the shock generator. The idea was to see how far the person using the shock generator would proceed before they turned to the moderator to stop. When this happened, the moderator simply told that person to keep going. Because of this obedience to authority, 60-65% of these people went all the way to the end.

Another example of this obedience to authority could be seen with the strip searches at a McDonald’s in Kentucky. A man posing to be a fake police officer called a McDonald’s supposedly investigating a theft, which then turned into a drug complaint. The man ordered the people over phone to do whatever they were told. The employees were ordered to strip as well as perform sexual behaviors. Even though the people knew what they were doing was wrong, they still did it because they felt pressured to obey authority.

Along with behavior to authority, there is another concept of the bystander effect. This is a psychological claim that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present; the greater number of bystanders, the less likely it is that one of them will help. An example of this can be seen with the death of Matthew Carrington. Carrington was a shy person who wanted to open up a little, so he wanted to join a fraternity at his college. In order to become a part of the fraternity, Matthew had to perform very physical tasks, which included intense exercise. The fraternity brothers then made him drink as much water as possible, which soon poisoned him. He later died right in front of four fraternity brothers. Because there were multiple people there, someone was waiting for the other person to act first and do something.

Another example of this bystander effect was seen with the stabbing of 28 year old Kitty Genovese in an apartment building. There were about 38 witnesses who saw the incident or heard it, but did nothing to stop it. By the time someone acted by calling the police it was already to late because she had died.

The last thing discussed was the Stanford Prison Experiment, which was created by Dr. Zimbardo. This was a social psychology experiment that attempted to investigate the psychological effects of perceived power, focusing on the struggle between prisoners and prison officers. A group of 24 students were divided into two groups of twelve. One group would be the officers and the other would be the prisoners. The officers were given a uniform, whistle, sunglasses, and billy club. These items represent authority and power. The prisoners were given a number in place of their name and were chained at the ankle. This represented the loss of their freedom and degradation. The prisoners tested the guards several times. In response the guards used their authority and power to stop this by harassing the prisoners and degrading them. Days after the start, there were legit emotional breakdowns by some of the prisoners, which resulted in them having to be removed from the experiment. The experiment would last only 6 days before Dr. Zimbardo had enough.

-Tyler Tanevski