2 - The Social Learning Theory

The concept of social learning helps me understand why people decide to see certain movies and not see others. The social learning theory explains the media’s effects on society as a behavioral effect, rather than a gratification of needs. The theory suggests that people see or don’t see movies based on their past experiences or the experiences of others. For example, websites such as rottentomatoes or imdb often influence people’s decisions to see a movie, just like the word of mouth influences them. Take the movie Avatar: The Last Airbender. Many people who watch the TV show were psyched when they heard about this movie; however, after hearing bad reviews about the movie and visiting the above websites, many people’s minds changed and they no longer had interest in seeing it. Because of the experiences of others, the movie did not do as well as was predicted. Whether it is a bad review that makes you not see a movie or good acting that makes you want to see other movies that the actor is in, the social learning theory states that it’s these experiences that shape people’s opinions about what types of movies they see and which they avoid.