In the world today the media has a major impact on individuals who are involved in it. Rather it be through the radio, television, or the internet the majority of individuals have access to this and are susceptible to the impact that it has. There are many theories that define the relations between individuals and the impact that media has. One theory out there is based off of a learning theory. This theory is the Social Cognitive Theory, and it revolves around the “functions and processes of observational learning. By observing others’ behaviors, including those of media figures, one may develop rules to guide one’s own subsequent actions prompted to engage in previously learned behavior” (Nabi & Oliver 2010).
Media directly influences individuals simply by the viewers watching or listening to the media and picking up the behavior of that media. According to Bandura (1986, 2002), “observational learning is guided by four processes. Attention to certain models and their behavior is affected by source and contextual features such as attractiveness, relevance, functional need, and affective valence. Second, retention processes focus on the ability to symbolically represent the behavior observed and its consequences, along with any rehearsal of that sequence. The third is production, which focuses on translating the symbolic representations into action, reproducing the behavior in seemingly appropriate contexts, and correcting for any errors based on the feedback received. The last is the motivational process which is symbolically represented behaviors that are enacted based on the nature or valence of the reinforcement.” These steps work together in order to explain how individuals learn from the media. In other words this theory breaks down the ways that individuals pick up behavior from the media.
I feel that the Social Cognitive Theory most accurately