Factors affecting addictive behaviour-media influences

Factors affecting addictive behaviour-media influences

1. AO1

   • The media has an important role to play in shaping and reflecting human behaviour. It seems likely that the way in which smoking, drinking, gambling and drug taking are portrayed in the media could have an effect on people's attitudes towards them. The media includes TV, cinema, films, radio, newspapers, magazines and the internet
   • Advertising is one obvious way in which the media is used to manipulate opinion and behaviour. It can be used to encourage sales of tobacco, alcohol and gambling
   • Research on the effect that celebrities have on behaviour is lacking but Boon and Lomore (2001) found that 59% of young people have had their attitudes and beliefs influenced in some way by a celebrity, e.g. drug using celebrities can make is seem glamorous making them more likely to start using drugs. This can be explained by the social learning theory, particularly if the addictive behaviour is seen to be reinforced

2. Use of the media to change addictive behaviour

   • TV is increasingly being used to promote healthy lifestyles and behaviour change such as smoking and physical exercise. The success of these programmes and adverts has been mixed, e.g.viewers of a series entitled 'Psst...the really useful guide to alcohol' did show an improvement in alcohol-related knowledge, but they did not show any change in attitude or actual alcohol consumption

3. Smoking AO2

   • Dalton et al (2003) showed that mass media can influence behaviour- the more adolescents are exposed to smoking, the more likely they are to start smoking. Supported by Sargent et al (2007) who used a US adolescent sample and demonstrated the exposure to smoking in movies predicted the risk of the observer becoming an established smoker. This is called the 'movie exposure effect'
   • Also, research has shown that the likability of film actor/actresses (on and off screen) relates to their adolescent fans decisions to smoke (Distefan et al (1999)
   • Commercials that associate smoking with excitement-seeking cues and social popularity have been shown to be important influences on the initiation of smoking (Susan and Ames)

4. Gambling AO2

   • Griffiths (1997) believes that the National Lottery is so successful because it is heavily advertised on billboards, TV and in newspapers, but also, accessibility to it is widespread so it is hard to get away from it. Griffiths looked at studies of lotteries around the world and found that people from working-class backgrounds are over represented while middle-class backgrounds are unrepresented. This could be to do with the levels of TV watching- Lower classes watch more TV
   • Viewers of TV are fast becoming persuaded that gambling is normal. In terms of he lottery, Walker (1992) stated that the televised draw highlights the simplicity of winning while at the same time, hiding the huge number of viewing losers

5. Evaluation

   • Research on the role of media effects is inconclusive- more research is needed that investigates direct, indirect and interactive effects of media portrayals on addictive behaviour.
   • Relationship between advertising and addictive behaviour is mostly correlational and so it is not possible to make casual connections
   • There could be different media effects for different addictions (link between tobacco advertising and smoking uptake but not the case for alcohol Nelson 2001)

6. Synoptic AO3

   • Media sources are especially influential with young people, which suggest there should be a ban on programmes with nay content pertaining to addictive practices until after children's bedtimes
   • The Centre of Addiction Recovery has developed the Internet Addiction Test so that people can assess whether they are at risk at developing social media addiction (SMA). Kimberely (2006) found increased usage of social media led to sustained 'highs' and increased anxiety without periodic access. SMA is a real and problematic condition
   • SMA is an increasing problem at work, with people feeling a persistent need to access social media sites, impacting on their performance, costing the company money (Farber 2007)