... of frustration in the individual that it may lead to aggression. The sociologist Feshbach (1961) argues that viewing violence may in fact act as a deterrent to real life violence because watching violence on our screens relieves our feelings of frustration. Therefore the viewing of screened violence may actual defuse potentially aggressive behaviour in individuals. Also, Feshbach and Singer (1971) maintain that this cathartic effect may be more pronounced in working class viewers because their socialisation has resulted in their being less self-disciplined than the middle classes. Another model, which would agree with the view that the mass media creates violence amongst its audience, is the hypodermic syringe model. The sociologist Bandura created a situation where young children were shown a video of other children hitting a 'bobo doll' with a toy hammer. In one of the videos, the child was rewarded for hitting the doll, in another the ...

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