Movies influence people?
It has been noticed that movies and television influence people’s behavior. The influence appears in different forms such as the way of eating, the kind of food, and general attitudes.
Recently, there was a show called “Super Star” on Arabic Television networks where it showed how the actors are in their normal life situations. I have seen mature people as well as yang children imitating the actor’s behavior. They started eating pasta and kind of foods that won’t increase the fat in the body. Also, they took more care to eat in a prestige manner such as using the spoons and forks. On the other hand, people started wearing clothes that doesn’t fit the society standards. The actors in the show were wearing short and sexy clothes. This attitude reflected on the teenagers. They started wearing similar clothes since they feel that those actors are the models to follow.
A research done by Ohio State University at 1998 has indicated that people go into four stages when being influenced by a movie or Television. First, the model: the model is a person that wakes up people’s awareness for something. For example, super Star actor’s new attitudes. Second is selective attention: people selectively start to imitate the model behavior. For example, the way of eating and kind of foods or clothes used. Third, selective retention: people still selectively repeat the model attitude even though he/she is no longer their. For example, the show ended but still some people retain the behavior. Forth, feedback: it is the information perceived by people wither what they are doing is acceptable or not. Here people decide wither to continue or stop the model’s behavior based on the standard norms.
In conclusion, movies and televisions have great influence on people. The influence can be in form of learning new attitudes, wither it is good or bad. It could be good behavior if it fits the standard norms or improve the daily behavior such as eating healthy foods and practicing sports. Or it could be bad behavior such as wearing clothes and performing unethical attitudes that contradict social standards.
