Transcript Safe Sex Messages – How Can Media Help Educate Adolescents

Risky Behavior in Movies
A Content Analysis
COM 633
Elisabeth Tselebidis
12-12-2011
Background
• Increase in quantity of media content that glorifies risk-taking
behavior in recent years
• Exposure to such media depictions can increase media users’
risk-taking inclinations
• Particularly children, adolescents, and young adults susceptible
of being influenced by media portrayals of risky behaviors
• Consequences of risky behaviors: impaired health, financial
problems, employment problems, social problems, financial
burden for society
 Analyses about how risky behaviors are portrayed in different
media formats could help shed more light on how these
portrayals may influence people
 Present study took a first step by developing a coding scheme
for analyzing broad range of risky behaviors in movies
Literature Review
• Derevensky, Sklar, Gupta, and Messerlian (2010) investigated
the impact of gambling ads in different media types on Canadian
youth
 Young people exposed to a great amount of gambling ads
 Many young people prompted to gamble by such ads, especially those
with gambling problems
Literature Review cont.
• Primack, Kraemer, Fine, and Dalton (2009)
examined the effects of different media on
U.S. students’ health behaviors
 Greater exposure to movies related to
more alcohol consumption
 Comparable relationship between exposure
to music and usage of marijuana
• Wills, Sargent, Stoolmiller, Gibbons, & Gerrard
(2008) examined the influence of smoking in
movies on smoking onset among children
 Smoking in movies was found to be a predictor
of favorable smoking expectancies
 Main effect of movie exposure on smoking
onset
Literature Review cont.
• Fischer, Greitemeyer, Kastenmüller, Vogrincic, & Sauer (2011)
meta-analysis summarizes accumulated findings about effects of
risk-glorifying media exposure
 Results showed positive relationship between overall risk taking and
risky behaviors, risk-positive attitudes, and risk-positive emotions
 Stronger effects for actively consumed media (e.g., video games) than for
passively consumed media (e.g., music)
Rationale
• Some effect studies have only measured general media
consumption “that happens to include risk-glorifying content”
(Fischer et al., p. 384)
• According to social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986, 2009)
specific depictions of risky behaviors can initiate media users to
adopt risk-positive attitudes and behaviors
• Therefore, it should be paid more attention to how exactly those
portrayals are depicted in the media
• Moreover, looking at all kinds of risky behaviors depicted in
media, instead of just looking at one single behavior provides a
better overview of which risky behaviors are prominently
portrayed
Research Questions
RQ1: What types of risky behaviors are most prominent in which
movie genres?
RQ2: Is there a difference between the amount of risky behaviors
portrayed in older movies compared to newer movies in the
different genres?
RQ3: How much emphasis do the movies’ storylines place on the
portrayed risky behaviors?
RQ4: What types of characters are mostly involved in risky
behaviors?
RQ5: Are the majority of the risky behaviors positively or
negatively reinforced?
Population and Sampling
• Population: all non-animated movies of the ten top-grossing
movie genres that earned money in the United States between
the years 1995 and 2010 (according to www.the-numbers.com)
• Sampling frame consisted of 7,068 movies
• Simple random sample of 20 movies was pulled from each of the
ten movie genres, for a total of 200 movies
• For pilot study, a second random sampling was used to
determine a sample of ten movies, each of which represented a
movie of one of the ten different genres
• Of each of these ten movies, a 15-minutes time segment was
randomly selected and analyzed
Definition of Risky Behavior
“One’s purposive participation in some form of behavior
that involves potential negative consequences or losses
(social, monetary, interpersonal) as well as perceived
positive consequences or gains” (Ben-Zur & Zeidner,
2009, p. 110). It is any “activity that entails novelty or
danger sufficient to create anxiety in most people”
(Levenson, 1990, p. 1073) and that “can lead to not only
grave losses to self and significant others but also
unintentional harm to innocent others” (Ben-Zur &
Zeidner, 2009, p. 110).
Unit of Data Collection
• Unit of data collection is any single incident of a risky behavior
carried out by a human being (no matter if risky behavior is
interrupted by a scene change or the like)
• A risky behavior can only be carried out by one single individual ,
that is, if more than one person engage in the same behavior, two
different lines of coding are required
• If more than one risky behavior is carried out by one person
simultaneously (e.g., heavy drinking and smoking at the same
time or speeding and driving while intoxicated), each risky
behavior has to be coded separately
Variables – Risky Behavior
• Classic risk-taking domains according to literature:
 Risky driving
 Smoking
 Drug consumption
 Alcohol consumption
 Gambling
 Delinquency
 Sexual risk taking
• These typical risky behaviors were taken into account +
expanded by including behaviors that are not considered to be
conventional risky activities, but that fit within the conceptual
definition of risky behavior
• All in all, 19 different subcategories of risky behavior were
defined
Variables – Risky Behavior cont.
Risky Behavior (variable no. 2)
o Risky Driving (represented by codes 0101-0199 in the codebook)
o Risky Riding (0201-0299)
o Risky Bicycling (0301-0399)
o Risky Use of Any Other Non-Motorized Vehicle Other Than a
Bicycle (0401-0499)
o Risky Behavior as a Pedestrian (0501-0599)
o Risky Aviation (0601-0699)
o Risky Driving or Steering a Ship/Boat/etc. (0701-0799)
o Heavy Drinking (0801-0899)
o Smoking (0901-0999)
o Substance Abuse (1001-1099)
Variables – Risky Behavior cont.
Risky Behavior (no. 2)
o Risky Sexual Behavior (1101-1199)
o Suicide Attempt (1201-1299)
o Playing Russian Roulette (1300)
o Hazarding One’s Physical Health (1401-1499)
o Dangerous (Extreme) Sports (1501-1599)
o Unlawful Activities (1601-1699)
o At-Risk Gambling (1701-1799)
o Being in Unsafe Areas (1801-1899)
o Fighting (1901-1999)
o Other Risky Behavior (2000)
Variables – Context Variables
Risk Taker
o Sex of Risk Taker (variable no. 4)
o Race of Risk Taker (no. 5)
o Age of Risk Taker (no. 6)
o Hero versus Non-Hero (no. 7)
o Role of Risk Taker (no. 8)
o Physical Attractiveness of Risk Taker (no. 9)
o Motive for Risk Taking (no. 10)
Variables – Context Variables cont.
Intervention
o Intervention yes/no (variable no. 11)
o Intervening Person or Group (no. 12)
o Sex of Intervening Person/Group (no. 13)
o Race of Intervening Person/Group (no. 14)
o Age of Intervening Person (no. 15)
o Hero versus Non-Hero (no. 16)
o Role of Intervening Person/Group (no. 17)
o Relation of Risk Taker to Intervening Person/Group (no. 18)
o Intervention Success/Failure (no. 19)
Variables – Context Variables cont.
Consequences
o Consequences of Risky Behavior (CRB) I – Physical Injury/Death to
Risk Taker (variable no. 20)
o CRB II – Physical Injury/Death to Innocent Party/Parties (no. 21)
o CRB III – Conviction by Legal Authority (no. 22)
o CRB IV – Occupational or School Problems (no. 23)
o CRB V – Financial Problems (no. 24)
o CRB VI – Interpersonal Problems (no. 25)
o CRB VII – Diseases (no. 26)
o CRB VIII – Unwanted Pregnancy (no. 27)
o CRB VIIII – Material Damages (no. 28)
o CRB X – Other Negative Consequence (no. 29)
o CRB XI – Positive Outcomes (no. 30)
Variables – Additional Variables
Other/Form Variables
o Overlap (variable no. 3)
o Length of Risky Behavior Portrayal (no. 31)
o Foreground or Background (no. 32)
o Degree of Focus on Risky Behavior (no. 33)
Coding Examples
http://riskybehaviormovieexamples.tumblr.com/
Any…
… comments?
… questions?
… suggestions?
References
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Bandura, A. (2009). Social cognitive theory of mass communication. In J. Bryant, & Oliver M. B.
(Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research. (3rd ed., pp. 94-124). New York City, NY:
Routledge.
Ben-Zur, H., & Zeidner, M. (2009). Threat to life and risk-taking behaviors: A review of empirical
findings and explanatory models. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 13(2), 109-128.
Derevensky, J. L., Sklar, A., Gupta, R., & Messerlian, C. (2010). An empirical study examining the
impact of gambling advertisements on adolescent gambling attitudes and behaviors.
International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 8(1), 21-34.
Fischer, P., Greitemeyer, T., Kastenmüller, A., Vogrincic, C., & Sauer, A. (2011). The effects of riskglorifying media exposure on risk-positive cognitions, emotions, and behaviors: A meta-analytic
review. Psychological Bulletin, 137(3), 367-390.
Levenson, M. R. (1990). Risk taking and personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
58(6), 1073-1080.
Primack, B. A., Kraemer, K. L., Fine, M. J., & Dalton, M. A. (2009). Media exposure and marijuana
and alcohol use among adolescents. Substance Use & Misuse, 44(5), 722-739.
Wills, T. A., Sargent, J. D., Stoolmiller, M., Gibbons, F. X., & Gerrard, M. (2008). Movie smoking
exposure and smoking onset. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 22(2), 269-277.