Effects Theory

Effects theory is an audience theory that suggests audiences 'absorb' media messages and are influenced by what they have seen to change their behaviour. It is this theory that lies behind the justification for censorship, as it is believed that exposure to violence in films and on tv could lead to causing people to be violent after watching them. This theory is backed up by Bandura's 'Bobo Doll' experiment. In the experiment, Bandura, a psychologist, observed the behaviour of children after they had watched violent tv shows and compared this behaviour to a control group that hadn't watched violent tv. He found that after watching the violent shows, children were more prone to acting violently towards a 'bobo doll' toy, whereas the other children would play calmly with other toys. However this experiment can be refuted, as the bobo doll that the children were given to play with is a toy designed for being violent towards in the first place. Therefore children acting violently towards it doesn't suggest that violent media caused them to be violent at all.

Effects theory is often discredited, as it relies on the belief that all audiences receive media messages in the exact same way, with no room for interpretation, and that when audiences have seen the media, they are effected by it. This does not hold true, as if it were so everyone who saw an advert would go out and buy the product advertised, and two different people wouldn't be able to have different opinions on the same film. Clearly this is not true, however despite this effects theory still has a great effect on censorship and therefore on all our lives.