Audience theory

Psychologist Bandura created an experiment where children from Stanford nursery were made to watch a clip of adults violently attacking a "bobo doll". The children were then left in a room where there was a bobo doll of there own that they could play with. Bandura found that due to watching adults being violent towards the bobo doll, the children were more likely to display aggressive behaviour. This research supports Katz and Lazerfeld's hypodermic needle idea as it shows that children act immediately on what they see in the media. It also promotes the idea that children are very likely to imitate what they see people that they perceive as role models do. 

In opposition to this theory, some theorists would argue that the consumption of violent images may be helpful rather than harmful as it may be a way the audience members release their violent impulses which would make them less likely to imitate violent behaviour.