The film we first viewed on Monday was called Why Be Good? The short film illustrated the struggle of sexuality and security in early cinema. Movies of the 1920s were raw, uncensored and depicted the radical change of culture in the United States, particularly in Hollywood. Early films showed drama, sex and scandal at a time where there was little to none censorship or coverage on the production of films. Actresses that had a major impact and influence on this era were Mary Pickford and Glory Swanson. Mary Pickford performed in films such as My Best Girl, Coquette, Sparrows and Little Annie Rooney. Mary’s characters were extremely attractive, warmhearted, generous, funny but were also independent and fiery-tempered. Glory Swanson starred in movies such as Sadie Thompson, Male and Female, Why Change Your Wife and Beyond the Rocks. She was full of energy, always on the go, fidgety, and hyperactive. She had great ability to put thoughts into action, and there is no hesitation once she set her mind on something. This era of film was the building blocks of what was accepted, appropriate and allowed in future years of film and cinema. Within twenty years the population of Hollywood grew eight times its original size.

The second piece of film we watched and observed this week was a short documentary called Mean World Syndrome. Media today is engulfed in depicting violence and destruction in everyday-life. The documentary highlighted the effects of heavy users of television and the Cultivation Theory. The large consumption of television can lead consumers to view the world as more dangerous, mean and violent than the world around them actually is. This viewing of violence may create fear and paranoia where there is little threat or actually harm. The theory is not based on race, age, gender, religion, marital status, sexual orientation or economic status. Other theories believe mass consumption of violence can make or influence individuals to become more violent. This is quite the contrary however, the more television consumers view the less likely they are to act out of the ordinary and put themselves in harms way.

The last piece of film we viewed on Thursday was called The Big Picture with Avi Lewis. This show portrayed ordinary people creating heinous and unthinkable crimes. An example of this is when four fraternity brothers killed a young man and never called for help. The initiations to join their frat started out as simple acts of embarrassment but lead to serious consequences. The fraternity brothers made the young man drink an excessive amount of water followed by exercises such as pushups. The over consumption of water mixed with the strain of exercise on the body lead to severe kidney failure. When the man collapsed on the floor the brothers simply dismissed the fact and said he was “sleeping”. This of course was not the case and the male ended up dying several hours later. The four brothers pleaded guilty and will have to live with their cowardice decision for the rest of their lives. The show also discussed human behavior experiments and peoples blind obedience to authority. Several years ago at a McDonalds, a man impersonating as a police officer called the fast food restaurant explaining there was a complaint of theft and drugs. The manager ended up strip searching the employee in question and had her perform several ridiculous tasks. The man spoke with such confidence that the manager never questioned his authority. After a few hours, without the arrival of the police, the manager realized her mistake but the damage had already been done. The suspect impersonating the officer had pulled similar pranks on multiple restaurants and was never apprehended.

By – Samuel Erickson

Human behavior can be changed by a almost anything. Studies attempting to discover why date all the way back to the 1920’s. In the first attempt to study media affects from 1929-1932 scholar Herbert Blumer led a group of scientists in conducting a series of studies aimed at discovering the overall impact movies have on children and adolescents. This research is now referred to as the Payne Fund Studies, named after the private foundation Payne Fund, which provided the financial backingnecessary for the project.

Agenda-setting describes the way that media attempts to influence viewers. News broadcasts use this theory to “help” viewers decide what is the most important issues in the world at that moment. In class, we looked at a video concerning a former congresswoman that was interrupted by breaking news, it must be something very important to the world, right?

WRONG. Justin Bieber got arrested, what a tragedy.

We also watched a film concerning human behavior and how it changes based on obedience to authority.

In May of 1962, a human experiment was conducted using a shock method. The subjects were unaware of what he was really studying. He used teachers and students and led them to believe that the students would learn better when they are shocked, however, the was really testing how far the professors would go on the voltage. Some teachers questioned it and stopped while others went to the highest voltage they could because that is what they were told to do; it doesn’t matter if it is ethical.

There was also an incident in a Mcdonalds where a random caller pretending to be a detective called a manger accusing a teenage girl employee of stealing. The caller then instructed the manager to strip search the young girl, and then call in her fiancé to keep an eye on her. Neither of the two adults questioned the caller and things were taken way out of hand and a sexual act was instructed by the caller and the fiancé made the girl par take in the disgusting actions.

Studies show that people are less likely to help in a situation if they are in a group of people. They will wait for someone else of the group to take action first. However if they are by themselves, then they are more likely to act out and do something about it.

An example of this is fraternity boys practically watching and letting a pledge die because of hazing gone wrong. Another is when a woman was stabbed to death, her scream heard by at least 30-50 people and none of them called the police. One person did, but it was far too late to save her.

Another experiment concerning obedience to authority was the Stanford prison experiment held in 1971.

They had 70 men volunteer to participate in the experiment and they ended up taking the 24 strongest and healthiest. Guards were given a uniform while the prisoners were practically dehumanized by getting numbers in place of their names. It was taken as a joke at first, with the prisoners rebelling the first night. But then one of the guards decided to step up and be the hard ass and make their lives a living hell. By the second day some prisoners were taken into solitary confinement. Prisoner 8612 suffered from a mental breakdown and was sent out of the experiment. The guards continued to force the prisoners to perform weird things, they even made them preform a skit tell each other that they loved each other. There was another mental breakdown however the guards kept pushing the prisoners because nobody was telling them when enough was enough. Things got way out of hand to where it felt real rather than an experiment. One of the guards fiancé’s came to visit and saw the horrors of the prisoners with paper bags over their heads and said that what they were doing to those young boys was terrible. She threatened to leave the guard if this was who we was becoming, thinking that what he was doing was okay. The experiment was shut down after just 6 days.

This week we discussed many things but mostly how the media can be misconstrued today. Often times we see things about fake news and how often many things on the television appear to not be true. At the beginning of the week we started talking about the Payne Fund Studies. These studies showed how children and younger adolescents reacted to movies. Many of the kids reacted in a way most may have reacted when seeing something like a scary movie. But, these studies helped show and predict the future of how some react to media as it was preformed in the early 1900s. We then watched Why Be Good which talked about censorship in early Hollywood acting and movies. It talked about Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson who both became very big actresses and changed the way people saw them. Many just saw them as sexual symbols in acting but they really tried to just be themselves and act. Rudolph Valentino also became a big sex symbol in Hollywood at the time, one of the first males to become one as well. There were many scandals that happened like with Fatty Arbuckle and many of the scandals that ended up happening in the film industry led to the Production Code.This week we discussed many things but mostly how the media can be misconstrued today. Often times we see things about fake news and how often many things on the television appear to not be true. At the beginning of the week we started talking about the Payne Fund Studies. These studies showed how children and younger adolescents reacted to movies. Many of the kids reacted in a way most may have reacted when seeing something like a scary movie. But, these studies helped show and predict the future of how some react to media as it was preformed in the early 1900s.

Another thing we also watched this week was The Big Picture: Human Behavior Experiments. There were many experiments that happened in the 1900s. Some you could say were ethical and some you could say were not. The documentary started off with the Milgram Experiment which is very famous in psychology. Milgram studied how much someone would obey another person of authority and how far someone would go. The documentary also talked about some deaths of some people and how we have become almost immune you could say to some things that happen in society thanks to media. Media has made many people not do the right thing instead of doing the right thing. One death that they talked about was Matthew Carrington who was apart of a frat hazing scandal and eventually ended up dying from what they made him do. The guys in his frat thought he was ok but he really was drowning from the amount of water they made him drink. They ended up all pleading guilty but this just shows how people try to fit in. Media is setting standards about how people think they should act and what they should do. The show also talked about the Stanford Prison Experiment which included normal people who were then assigned the job of a prison guard or a prisoner. It was done to see how far a prisoner would go when these “guards” were authoritative figures giving them commands. Eventually though the experiment would then lead to the guards at Abu Ghraib preforming similar acts that these guards did, but way worse and too much more of an extent.

One last thing we talked about this week was Cultivation Theory and Agenda Setting Theory. Cultivation Theory shows the long term effects of what people see on the television. Much of what people see on the television may reflect in their everyday lives. People become immune and some people believe almost everything they see on TV. Their reality is then changed and we start to believe everything we see. Agenda Setting Theory is when the media puts what they think is most important at the top of the list if things to talk about. It may be true or it may not be true at all. Like we saw with the story of Justin Bieber getting arrested, the news at the time thought that was more concerning than learning about what the congresswoman was saying. Many times the media projects what they think they want us to hear first and that’s why they change the agenda.

When adults tell us that media and our phones are scary, they might actually be right. Although they’re probably not referring to the “Mean World Syndrome”, I’m sure they’d agree with it too. Mean World Syndrome is the idea that the more harmful and negative things we see while we look at our phones or TV, we will actually start to believe the world is a getting worse (when really, it actually isn’t). It goes as far as even saying that you’re more likely to personally encounter these harmful situations just because you’re engulfed in it. I think it definitely makes sense, although crime rates have gone down, the sheer volume of how much it’s put in our face through media makes it seem like all good is gone. This is a fear tactic used by news outlets, they know scary and tragic events are good for buzz and gets people talking about it. While it’s good to know the dangers of the world, being flooded with it can’t be good for society as a whole. I find the concept that it’s more likely to happen to you if you think about it fascinating, and pretty true to an extent. I come from a very crime ridden town in Far Rockaway, and know first hand that simply acting cool and minding your business gives you a much better chance of not being robbed. It’s the people that look nervous and out of place that become a target for people who see them as weak and vulnerable.

In terms of the ethical codes the media follow, I was pretty surprised to see how it worked. The biggest thing that stood out to me was how most of the time, media outlets do not face legal trouble for misleading or wrong information. Yeah, technically the first amendment makes it not illegal to lie, but I think the standards should go above regular defamation, extortion, etc.

What I found most interesting were the Power of Authority experiments we watched. I had seen the prison experiment and the shock experiment in psychology classes before, but applying it to media opened a whole new world of thoughts. It’s amazing what any ordinary person can convince one to do when given the illusion of authority. The McDonald’s employee strip search was very surprising though, and although I want to say she acted very incautiously, I can’t say I know exactly what I’d do being in that situation. I guess it’s a lesson to all of us to think for yourself and not let false prophets fool you.

During this week, we discussed media effects and theories. One of the most popular theories in this category is brought forth by George Gerbner. Who suggests that there is a correlation between media violence and the effect it has on one’s life. This theory is known as the Cultivation Theory. The idea suggests that the more time a person spends watching television, the more likely they are to believe the world is unsafe and full of violence. Gerbner referred to this belief as Mean World Syndrome. In his research, he found that this affected people regardless of a person’s class, creed, color, or age. 

In one of our screenings this week, the focus was on how obedience to authority is used in society. The screening focused on the iconic psychological experiments brought forth by Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo; and how these experiments predicted human behavior that would later take place. 

Milgram was interested in how humans complied with authority figures. His curiosity began during the Nuremberg Trials. He wondered how an army could go about wiping out an entire race of people simply based on the excuse that individuals were expected to follow orders from higher-ranking officers regardless of what they asked. Milgram set up an experiment where he hired three types of people. A teacher, a scientist, and a learner. The learner and the scientist were both actors hired to accumulate reactions out of the teacher. The scientist wore a lab coat and asked the teacher to give the learner electric shocks if they did not answer a question correctly. The learner was placed in a separate location so the teacher could not see him, the only communication they had was through an intercom. 

Zimbardo’s experiment took place in a makeshift prison setting. He hired an equal amount of men to act as prisoners, and as officers. The officers were given mirrored glasses and a khaki suit while the prisoners were only referred to by a number they were given, and wore a nightgown. 

Both experiments proved that people do not commit horrible acts solely based on the idea that they are a “bad apple”. Rather, they proved that obedience is a necessary factor for society to function. Ordinary people can commit horrible acts because they have been taught their whole lives that they must follow authority figures. On the other hand, people who are suddenly given a position of power over others can easily abuse their authority because their subordinates are expected to follow any order they command. These experiments practically predicted the events that occurred in Abu Garaib, Iraq 2003. Soldiers who had never been experienced in acting as prison guards began to humiliate and torture prisoners of war. They abused their power, and prisoners complied with their sick requests out of fear and intimidation. 

Television, Cell phones, and other media have intertwined with our everyday life. I found the video we watched in class on Monday very interesting and its focus on the mean world syndrome that media has instilled with us. Mean world syndrome is the idea that the more negative information and news that you are shown and influenced by the more dangerous you will the world is, and on a personal level, the more likely you may think that you have the chance of becoming a victim. To expand from this it has been found that the more you feel as though you will be victimized the more likely you will be (a self-fulfilling prophecy). Gerber expressed that the more television that you watched (the more media you were exposed to), the more paranoid and fearful you may become; the cultivation theory. What is most fascinating about this theory is that even though the crime rate is shrinking drastically, the majority of people believe that it is increasing and that there is a higher chance of the day to day violence.

Something else that I found very interesting was the idea that we are all born into a mediated environment. We have all constantly been exposed to media since the time that we were born, there is no “before” for us, especially our generation, just “now” the media current effects on each individual, the only thing we have to compare is comparing each others screen usage.

In the chapter we read this week we focus on ethics, what the media deems right and wrong, as well as who decides. It appears to be that it is the media’s “responsibility” to inform the general public of what is going on in our world. As the book pointed out, and I agree, I think the harshest consequence to a journalist or broadcaster is the public opinion. If the public finds out that you lied or shared an extended truth, it is your reputation and company that will get hurt, less than the consumers who will most likely stop watching or trusting that specific source.

While each is entitled to their freedom and speech, professional codes often enforce or simply recommend not misrepresenting information to their consumers.  We all have grown up hearing “not everything you hear or see on the internet is true”, while this has been preached to us from a young age I think that false information can still be quite harmful to those who may be easily persuaded, something we all may be prone to at times.

-Grace Hanlon

In class we discussed something called the Gerbner Theory. Our professor asked us what we thought this theory was. My first thought was that it would be about the idea that what people watch on TV and any other means of media would have a direct connection to how we act, such as becoming less violent because we fear what we see. My thought was somewhat correct, but not completely. The Gerbner Theory is based on the idea that heavy users of television would view the world as a more dangerous and violent place versus users who did not consume as much television.

I found this fascinating because it makes so much sense and I can’t believe I had not realized this before. There we studies done to test whether or not this theory was true and sure enough the heavy TV users’ answers said they were more scared of the world than light TV users.

I also think that what you watch has something to do with how you view the world as well. Speaking from personal experience I can say that since I began watching Criminal Minds I am more scared of things than I was before. There are all these terrifying stories of bad things happening to people that you could never imagine. After I watch the show I am more scared to sleep alone, or to walk back to my dorm in the dark, etc. This is because the show has scared me into thinking I need to be on alert 24/7. I don’t think that I would be as scared as I am if I had never started watching the show. Yet, I continue to watch it even though it scares me. Why? I have no idea.

Another topic discussed in class was the power of authority. One example that stuck out to me was the fast food manager strip searching a high school employee because someone on the phone was telling them to do so. Because the person on the phone claimed they were the police and of a high authority the manager felt as though she had to listen. The employee feared getting in trouble so she did what she was told. The entire scenario was crazy because I kept thinking that I would have never done those things even if someone was telling me to. But then I remember that I don’t really know how I would react because I was not there. It makes me wonder what people are truly capable of given a particular circumstance.

The last topic that was discussed in class was the Agenda Setting Theory. It measures “saliency”– is there a relationship between what we think and what the mass media says to us? I believe that there is a direct connection to our thoughts and what the media tells us. The media controls what they are showing us, when they show us, and how much of it they show. With this power they are able to make us, the viewer, think a certain thing. The more we hear about a topic the more likely that topic becomes important to us. There could be a major issue in the world that is never talked about so as the public we cannot say that it is even an issue. The media has too much power over public knowledge.

There are many elements to human behavior and how it can be altered and effected. Media and the news can have a major effect on human behavior and the way that people act. This has been a topic of interest dating back to as early as 1920. The Payne Fund Studies, in the 1920s and 1930s were conducted to determine the effects of movies on children and adolescents. The studies have been criticized for lacking scientific explanation, but they were the first attempt to study the media.

 While in class this week, we discussed the Agenda Setting Theory. The Agenda Setting Theory focuses on the relationship between what we think and how mass media portrays information to us. Ultimately, the news will concentrate on certain issues which leads the public to think that these issues are more important than others. The press does not always reflect reality, and they also filter it to make us believe certain things. This theory is so important because, it shows that the publics thoughts can be altered to believe what the news wants it to believe. 

The Agenda Setting Theory is not the only way that our thoughts can be altered by another person. Another example of how human behavior can be affected is its compliance to authority. There have been multiple experiments done to show that people comply to authority quite easily. Two that we learned about in class this week are the Milgrim shock experiment and the Stanford prison experiment. The Milgrim Shock Experiment was conducted by Yale University and psychologist Stanley Milgrim in 1961. The experiment would measure how people would obey to authority. Participants in the experiment were told that they were helping with an experiment, their job was to administer electric shocks to a “learner” in a different room. The participants were accompanied by the experimenter who acted as an authoritative figure. The electric shocks were fake, and the entire experiment was staged but the participants had no clue. Unbelievably, many of the participants obeyed the instructions and complied to authority. Many of these participants administered shocks that would have been fatal if the experiment they were helping with was real. 65 percent of the participants in the experiment administered the final shock, which was 450 volts, due to an authoritative figure telling them that they had to continue.  Another experiment that would show how people obey authority was the Stanford Prison Experiment. This experiment was done in 1971 and conducted by a research group led by psychology professor, Philip Zimbardo. In the study volunteers were assigned to be guards or prisoners in a mock prison. The experiment was supposed to last two weeks but ended after 6 days due to the assigned guards acting in authoritative ways towards the prisoners. The study was done to investigate the effects of perceived power on an individual. Both experiments discussed in class showed the power of authority and how human beings comply to it. 

The documentary film “Why Be Good” describes how sex and scandals is portrayed in films, even in the early cinemas. Of course this came with the threat of censorship though. Sexuality in the early 1800’s was almost foreign. With the introduction of nickelodeons was possible to see on screen what a kissed looked like.

With this arose the question of what exactly could be screened. Film gave Americans a whole new view of sex and freedom. Women were given the right to vote and could see films. These films could give them a view on fashion but also freedom. Scandals broke out in the film industry when Fatty Arbuckle, an American film star, was caught in the middle of a murder scandal. This was considered Hollywood’s first major scandal.

Censorship would play its part in deciding what is and isn’t appropriate for viewers. It has been constantly debated what exactly “is okay” and “not okay” to screen on TV. Media exposure was known to impact people. That is why politics, parents, and the film industry have argued for years what is okay to show children, especially when violence is being aired. Many people questioned, does exposing children to violence in film and TV make them more violent? This introduced the idea of the mean world syndrome.

The mean world bias is coined by Dr. George Gerbner. The concept suggests that people exposed to heavy levels of violence media, such as violent movies or TV, would see the world as a more violent, or “mean”, place. Gernber wanted people to realize the impact that media could have.

Social Psychology has been known to show the impact and influence that social factors such as authority can have on a person. The famous Stanford prison experiment showed how influential power can be on a person. Normal people were transformed into brutal prison guards. The experiment is famously known for exposing true human nature and many documentaries have been made about it.

The bystander effect was discovered when Kitty Genovese was murdered as multiple witnesses heard and did nothing. The bystander effect states that people are “less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present; the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that one of them will help.” Experiments have since shown similar results supporting the idea of the bystander theory. It must be human nature to diffuse responsibility but the question is why??

The influence people can have on each other is astonishing but so is the influence the media can have on people. News stations set agendas to decide what information they think is most important for people to see. By doing so many news stations will broadcast bias reports, influencing the viewers perspectives on things whether the viewers may realize it or not.

Which news station a person watches may even influence who they decide to vote for in the future. Other stations will broadcast information for the views and what stories they think are the most entertaining whether or not the issues are actually important. So many TV channels focus on celebrity drama and will try to exploit celebrities for the views. People form opinions on celebrities based on the stories they hear online and over and over again on TV. Without even fact checking information viewers minds have been made up. It is important to fact check what you may see or hear on TV because the TV stations agenda may not always be the same as yours….

During the 20’s there were a multitude of scandals over the news media. The main news just became a place where the scandals were told left and right. One of the more famous actors that took the most heat during this time was a beloved actor named Phatty Arbuckle. Because of this scandalous period in news media time he lost everything because the certain legal trouble that he got into. Not only was he attacked for these scandals, but so were the movie themselves. Scandals like these situations are the exact reasons why Hollywood tried to keep negative news out of the media.

In class the other day we watched a documentary about authority. In previous classes I have watched that entire thing, and even to this day, it completely amazes me that those results came about. Why is it that people just obey authority even though deep down they know its wrong. In a real world situation like that I wouldn’t be able to continue at all knowing that someone was in pain due to my actions. I’ve always been about respect because thats how I was raised, but theirs a clear difference between respect and obedience. I was told to obey anything an officer or someone with high power has to say, but in situations like these you need to know the difference between right and wrong and go about it accordingly. If someone important keeps telling you to shock some random person just because they said so I really don’t think I would. Although I know now that the shock was fake and there really wasn’t anyone there, I feel like I’d be one of the certain people who wouldn’t comply.

The Stanford prison experiment is another example of strange obedience. At first it didn’t really startle anyone, but soon enough people began thinking this was the worst idea of they’re lives. Everyone in this experiment signed up for this “torture” and began to hate every second of it, because the people actually began to live they’re assigned roles. These people were completely convinced that they were indeed prisoners or guards of a real prison. These prisoners were humiliated by the guards, to the point they began having mental breakdowns and would lose control of themselves. The torture tactics would only increase from there, and soon enough people wanted out of the experiment. Zimbardos experiment didn’t last very long after that, but the results are clear. If people are given roles they are most likely gonna fill them to they’re perceived view of the role.