The copycat theory

Copy Cat or Modelling Theory: The copycat theory relates to something which is publicized in the media that creates a lot of attention, resulting in other people to imitate, or ‘copy’ this in order to gain the same level of attention. The well known example of this is copycat murders, suicides and other violent acts that come with no other motive other than attention, caused by seeing the same acts in the media, be it film, television or books.

• Audience react differently to various situations as they have different interpretations. An individual perceives a form a behavior described or portrayed by a character in media content
• The individual judges this behavior to be attractive and potentially useful for coping with some personal situation
• The reproduced behavior proves useful or effective in coping with the situation thus, rewarding the individual
• With model use, the behavior becomes habitual for that situation
• Copycat effect - you do what you see
• Centers for disease control and prevention recommendations- 1994
• They began telling news media how to portray news media about suicide to prevent copy cat