Do TV Crime Dramas Like ‘Breaking Bad’ Generate Moral Panics And Negatively Contribute To Social Issues Through The Impact They Have On Audiences?
'Tread lightly'
'Tread lightly'
There
has been an on-going debate in the media about whether 'it' is to blame for
some people’s heinous actions or whether the people in question acted out of
their own self-interest. It's no word of a lie that the media influences people
do go and do things, for example TV advertisements were made with just that in
mind; but can the media also contribute negatively towards social issues and
create moral panics? This essay will explore whether TV crime dramas like ‘Breaking
Bad[2]’,
(an American TV show about a high school chemistry teacher who decides to
"break bad” [3]
and cook up the finest drugs north of the border), can influence audiences and
add to social issues or resolve them. Audiences can be impacted/influenced by
material they see in the media, we call this media effects and "at its most basic, this theory suggests
the media transmit ‘messages’ (ideas, information, beliefs and so forth) that
are then picked up and acted upon by the audience (receivers) "[4],
so does this mean that if someone were to see a murder constructed in a text
like Breaking Bad that they'll be motivated to go and copy it? The theory does
give us an insight in to how audiences "receive" texts but of course
there are other factors in play and the media effects isn't the only theory
which can be used to rationalise someone’s actions.
TV
crime dramas can take one of two perspectives. We can view the story from the
side of Law or from the side that is going against the Law (criminals). Typically
in TV crime dramas the two “binary opposites” [5]
that are most obvious are good vs. bad and for the most part as an audience we
side with the “good side” because we share the same values as them and because
“watching the good guys win makes us feel better”[6],
so under what circumstances would we side with the “Villain”[7]? ‘Breaking Bad’ is a prime example of how this happens as it goes against the general codes and
conventions of the TV crime drama genre and instead of following the perspective
from the “good side” (police/detectives) it follows the “bad side”. We are not
forced to coincide with the values and ideologies that this side possesses but
with Breaking Bad in particular we sympathise with the characters on this side
and we passively root for their success. Similarly in another TV crime drama
called ‘Dexter[8]’,
(an American TV show which follows the life of a Police blood spatter analyst
who lives a double life as a serial killer who gets the people which the
justice system fails) we are made to sympathise with this “psychotic”
character, why? “Walter White and Serial killer Dexter are not morally good”.
They are not our “Traditional heroes” [9]as
they do not dress up in capes or wear a uniform to fight crime; this can be
linked to Propp’s “character theory” [10]where
he listed seven broad character types including the “hero” and “villain”, so
where do our duo fit in on the list? They are not heroes, this is based purely
on moral conviction and “heroes traditionally embody fulfilment as they strive
to reach goals that are often shared by the audience”[11],
they have to be villains and when a character that is so relatable and made to
be so iconic can be liked and sympathised with, with an entire audience makes
it dangerous because people see them as their heroes and could potentially be
influenced by them. If you can dream about being superman the surely you can
dream about Walter White?
As
mentioned above, Breaking Bad is part of the TV crime drama genre and the genre
has many different codes and conventions. Whilst for the most part Breaking Bad
adheres to the general criteria it does stray away from the structures more
used in the past and has formed a new type of TV crime drama. An example of
this is from a scene is filled with all the essential props such as the drugs
and weapons and other iconography associated with the TV crime genre but what
makes this gratuitously violent scene
stand out more is the music used. In a scene where we see nine murders take
place in the space of two minutes in three different locations you wouldn’t
expect there to be a classical and harmonious song playing and instead you
could expect rap or grime music to accompany a scene like this, this is because
rap music is usually associated with such activities and this is portrayed
negatively in many music videos through “short hand stereotypes” (Medhurst)[12].
From this you could argue that the music used is contrapuntal in the scene as
it does not fit the setting. As the sound is contrapuntal, it could influence
and impact the audience because it is a distraction from reality. This can be
linked to the “hypodermic needle theory” [13]which
states that “audience are passive and they can’t resist the media message”[14]
as the show is “injecting” [15]the
audience with graphical content. Graphical content like gang violence can have an
adverse effect on the people not mature enough to watch and especially in the
scene described where it’s made to seem de-sensitised with the use of music.
This could be dangerous in creating social issues like drug usage and violence
if it were ever copied.
To
answer and debate the question further we must first understand what a “Moral
Panic” [16]
is. A moral panic was first theorised by Stanley Cohen and he states that a
moral panic is “a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to
become defined as a
threat to societal values and interests”[17].
Ways in which this can be constructed range across all media platforms. Moral
panics today are much more widespread but are no different in terms of where
and how they are constructed to those in the past. An example we can compare
this to is a UK TV crime series called ‘Dixon of Dock Green’[18].
Unlike Breaking Bad it did follow the typical conventions of the genre and had
a protagonist who was focused on taking down the villain. However, it did still
have the power to influence the audience because characters like Police
constable George Dixon, were very strong and iconic, “the image of Jack Warner
in police uniform with helmet was well-known to the public and made for a very
effective symbol of policing in Britain[19]”
this quote looks at how people viewed
the police, this can be linked to certain hegemonic values that we still
believe the police is like today and because of this we don’t see past their
imperfections like corruption. ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ explored areas of
corruption in the Met Police force and in its own way spurred on a movement
against corruption in the police. The character portrayed by Jack Warner is on
one side of the proposed binary opposition, the good side, so does this make
the character and its intentions and moral values any more influential then
someone like ‘Breaking Bad’s’ Walter White, whom is on the other side of the
binary opposition? ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ influenced its audience because it
contributed towards the moral panic about police corruption in the 70’s; this
was done through the use of the characters that were morally correct. ‘Breaking
Bad’ has characters who are morally incorrect but just as influential towards
its audience and because of this negatively contributes towards social issues
like drug abuse and violence amongst the youth. Therefore, this tells us that
even ‘Dixon of Dock Green’; something which has been described as an
anachronism can still have an effect on its audience and influences them in
ways unintended just like modern TV crime dramas which are far more explicit.
In-order for the TV crime drama to negatively
contribute towards social issues and create moral panics it must first impact
and influence audiences. Audiences are not all the same and are therefore
impacted in different ways. Just like the “hypodermic needle theory”[20] mentioned,
audiences can be injected with the content they see on screen, there are other
theories which try to also offer an explanation as to how audiences receive the
media. The “dependency theory” (1976) by De Fleur and Rokeach [21] is
another theory used to explain how the media can affect society. One aspect of
the Dependency theory looks at “behavioural effects”[22] that
the media can have on an audience and this can be applied here because Breaking
Bad is notorious for among other things its gratuitous and violent scenes and
this sparks fear among those who believe in media effects and the dependency
theory because it states “aggression maybe activated, depending on the nature
of the television message received[23]”.
This leads on to the belief about the “copycat effect” [24] that people
who view the media can copy what they see which results in terms like “copycat
crimes [25]and
killings”. ‘Breaking Bad’ has been scrutinised countless times about
glamorising the drug lifestyle which draws the audience in closer and almost
encourages them to try it in the real world. There is no shortage of cases
where Breaking Bad has been blamed for inspiring people and influencing their
behaviour, for example the Telegraph reports how Breaking Bad is being “blamed
for shocking rise in crystal meth usage”[26],
figures state how attempts to smuggle crystal meth into the country has risen
by around “400%”[27]
, but can Breaking Bad be the scapegoat for this crystal meth epidemic? To an
extent yes, however the show does not encourage people to go and take drugs but
“it’s very inclusion promotes interest in that substance”[28].
Similarly in the TV show ‘Dexter’, it does not tell people to go out and kill
people it’s all about how the audience receives the message. Dexter has also
come under scrutiny where supposed copycat killers say they were motivated by ‘Dexter’
to go out and perform their heinous actions, “most people convicted of copycat murders admit to being motivated by
something they had seen on the news or in a film”[29], the keyword Is motivation, they are not forced into
anything but instead choose to take what they see on TV as real life and
acceptable, this tends to happen in a case where the people are younger than
the specified age restrictions which opens the case for more censorship in the
media to ‘protect’ younger people.
All
the theories mentioned above about how audiences interpret media texts imply
that they are passive, Stuart Hall talks about another reception theory that
states audiences are active in their decision to view and interpret media
products. Hall initially talks about there being three positions the reader of
a programme might occupy, “dominant (hegemonic reading), negotiated reading and
an oppositional reading (counter-hegemonic)”[30].
In the case of Breaking Bad, readers could adopt any one of these positions
based on what their moral judgements are. Morley suggests that “members of a
given sub-culture will tend to share a cultural orientation towards decoding
messages in particular ways” [31]so
therefore depending on who you are and where you come from, it will determine
your stance on, for example drug usage. This means that not everyone who views
a violent action on a TV show or in the media is then going to replicate it in
real life, there are other factors which determine how someone receives a media
text and the text itself cannot be at blame for creating moral panics and or
social issues. However, depending on the type of show, for example violent TV
crime dramas where we see the protagonist on the “wrong” side of the binary
opposition like ‘Power’ (2014-present)[32]
and ‘Sons of Anarchy’(2008-14)[33],
audiences may have different readings in comparison to TV crime dramas where we
follow the story from the side of a detective (the good side), examples of
these shows include, Law and Order UK (2009-14) [34]and
CSI Miami (2002-08) [35].
People who watch the more violent shows maybe more prone to copy the violence
shown, although people who watch the shows where we see the heroes win may
decide to want to copy this behaviour. An experiment was conducted to show what
caused people to copy what they see. The Bobo doll was an experiment devised
back in the 60/70’s to see how young children reacted to violence, “Children
learn social behaviour such as aggression through the process of observation
learning – through watching the behaviour of another person, this study has
important implications for the effects of media violence on children”[36],
therefore it could be said that although the text does not have the intended
meaning of making people want to replicate the activities shown on screen or real
life it leaves an impression on people who find it hard to distinguish between
right and wrong and reality.
It will be hard to conclude over the
perplexing issue about the whole media effects debate and whether the mass
media has a direct influence on an audience. However, opinions and judgements
can be formed about whether Breaking Bad and TV crime dramas alike can be at
blame for creating/ on moral panics and negatively contributing towards social
issues through the impact it has on audiences. As a non-believer of the media
being able to influence an audience through violence I’d say that “Crime dramas are just that, dramas”[37], we can say that dramas are different from reality of
course but because reality is so mediated and controlled (Jean Baudrillard
simulation[38])
how do we as an audience know what reality is when watching crime dramas or
even the news. However, Baudrillard also stated in his theory of hyper-reality
that media coverage can “mask the absence of a basic reality”[39], this means that although it could be based on what
is happening in the real world these things are created for entertainment and
escapism.
Word Count: 2650 – with quotes
Bibliography – works
cited
Books/journals
- · Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra and simulation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press
- · Ball-Rokeach, S., & Defleur, M. (1976). A Dependency Model of Mass-Media Effects. Communication Research,3(1), 3-21. doi:10.1177/009365027600300101
- · Coleman, L. (2004). The copycat effect: how the media and popular culture trigger the mayhem in tomorrow's headlines. New York: Paraview Pocket Books.
- · Hall, S. (1997). Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices. London: Sage in association with the Open University.
- · Lévi-Strauss, C. (1993). Structural anthropology. Volume 1. Harmondsworth, Middx.: Penguin.
- · Morley , D. (1999). The Nationwide Television Studies. doi:10.4324/9780203983362
- · Propp, V. I. (1968). Morphology of the folktale. Austin: University of Texas Press.
- · Vaage, M. B. (2016). The antihero in American television. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
Newspapers and Magazines
·
Hendry,
S. (2010) Media Magazine, Issue 31
Internet
·
A. (n.d.). Breaking Bad blamed for shocking rise in crystal
meth usage. Retrieved December 28, 2016, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11206140/Breaking-Bad-blamed-for-shocking-rise-in-crystal-meth-usage.html
·
AS & A2 Recommended Media Studies Theorists. (2014).
Retrieved December 30, 2016, from https://oae-media-blog.com/2014/09/11/as-a2-recommended-media-studies-theorists/
·
BreakBad.(n.d.).RetrievedDecember 30, 2016, from
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Break Bad
·
Brown, T. K. (2015). Oregon shooting: The mass killing
'contagion effect' Retrieved December 28, 2016, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34385059
·
Dixon of Dock Green. (n.d.). Retrieved December 30, 2016,
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixon_of_Dock_Green
·
H. (2015). Should TV crime dramas better reflect reality? We
speak to retired officers in the North East. Retrieved December 30, 2016, from http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/should-tv-crime-dramas-better-8894935
·
Imitate modern: Why do people commit copycat killings?
(2016). Retrieved December 29, 2016, from https://drmarkgriffiths.wordpress.com/2016/07/25/imitate-modern-why-do-people-commit-copycat-killings/
·
Leotta, A & Says, M. C. (1970). HOME. Retrieved December
21, 2016, from http://allisonleotta.com/2012/06/love-tv-crime-dramas-hate/
·
Media
Effects Theory - Sociology Central. (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2016, from http://www.sociology.org.uk/AS_Media_effects.pdf
·
MAGIC
BULLET OR HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY OF COMMUNICATION. (n.d.). Retrieved December
21, 2016, from http://communicationtheory.org/magic-bullet-or-hypodermic-needle-theory-of-communication/
·
McLeod, S. (1970). Bobo Doll Experiment.
Retrieved November 17, 2016, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/bobo-doll.html
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Vladimir Propp. (n.d.). Retrieved December 21, 2016, from http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng215/vladimir_propp_character_types-functions.htm
Moving image texts
·
Donahue, A. (Director).
(2002). CSI:Miami [Television series]. CBS.
·
Gilligan, V. (Director).
(2008). Breaking Bad [Television series]. AMC.
·
Kemp, C. A. (Director).
(2014). Power [Television series]. New York city,
New York: Starz.
·
Lindsay, J. (Director).
(2006). Dexter [Television series]. Miami, Florida:
Showtime.
·
Sutter, K. (Director).
(2008). Sons of Anarchy [Television series]. North Hollywood,
California: FX.
·
Willis, T. (Director).
(1956). Dixon of Dock Green [Television series]. London: BBC.
·
Wolf, D. (Director).
(2009). Law and Order: UK [Television series]. ITV.
[1]
White, W Breaking Bad
[2] Gilligan,
V (2008-13), Breaking Bad
[8] Lindsay,
J. (2006-13) Dexter
[9] Vaage, M.
B. (2016). The anti-hero in American
Television - pg 12 Preface
[10] Propp, V.I. (1968), Morphology of the folktale
[11] Hendry,
S. (2010) Media Magazine, Issue 31
[14] Ibid
[15] Ibid
[16] Cohen, S.
(2011). Folk devils and moral panics
[17] Ibid
[18] Willis,
T.& Willis, B. (1955-76) Dixon of Dock Green
[21] Ball-Rokeach,
S.j., and M.l. Defleur. "A Dependency Model of Mass-Media
Effects." Communication Research 3.1 (1976)
[22] Ibid
[23] Ibid
[24] Coleman, L. (2004). The copycat effect: how the media
and popular culture trigger the mayhem in tomorrow's headlines.
[27] Ibid
[28] Ibid
[32] Kemp,
C.A. (2014-present) Power
[33] Sutter,
K. (2008-2015) Sons of Anarchy
[34] Wolf,
D. (2009-2014) Law and Order UK
[35] Donahue,
A. (2002-2008) CSI:Miami
[36]
McLeod, S. (1970). Bobo Doll Experiment.
[37] H. (2015). Should TV crime dramas better reflect
reality? We speak to retired officers in the North East
[39] Ibid
