Media theories

                                                              Media Theories


1.   Effects theory (hypodermic syringe inoculation)- what the media do to audiences...

2.   Reception theory- Nationwide audiences (e.g Dallas, Seinfield etc..) & What the audience do to the media...

3.   Uses and Gratifications- what audiences do with the media...

Effects theory (hypodermic syringe inoculation)- what the media do to audiences...
    

• Mass media/mass communications make people powerless to resist messages the media carries
• consumers are "drugged, addicted or hypnotised"
• Effect theories taken up with protection of young link between violence & the media

 

Historical stuff

• Frankfurt school: Marxist German intellectuals reaching against Nazi propaganda & US advertising- suggested the power of big corporations & the state to control how we think

• Rise of TV in the 50s & 60s- fear of danger to children
• Influence of behavioural scientist (think of Pavlovs dogs)- media may reinforce attitudes through repetition
• Bobo doll experiments (1963) - Bandura & Walters- Children imitate adult treatment of doll seen on film

                                               


Effects Theories

• Moral Panics: concern, hostility, consensus, dis-proportionality, volatility

• 2 step flow: 

                      MEDIA TEXT-----> OPINION LEADERS-----> MEDIA CONSUMERS

                                  ^                                                                            ^

                                 1                            ------------------------->          2

What's wrong with Effect Theories?

• The problems with violence are often social/psychological not to do with the media
• The media can be positive rather than harmful
• Criticism of the media using the effects model is often politically motivated
• There is not real grounding of research & theory for this model

Reception Theory: Stuart Hall

The meaning of texts are not passively accepted by an audience, but the individual reader comes up with his/her own meaning of the text based on what cultural and life experiences they've had. Hall stressed the role of social positioning in the interpretation of mass media texts by different social groups. He suggested three hypothetical interpretative codes or positions for the reader of a text. 

• Preferred/Dominant reading- Producers encode texts which the reader then decodes. Interpretations vary from each individual, however producers can write things which allocate the reader to create agreements on what certain codes mean.

• Opposition reading- The audience rejects the preferred reading and creates there own view or meaning.

• Negotiated reading- A compromise between the dominant and oppositional reading. The audience accepts part of the directors views but also have their own view

Uses and Gratifications- what audiences do with the media...

• Users of the media use media texts to satisfy certain needs
• Based on Maslows Hierarchy of needs as seen below:

   

Problems of U&G



• We may not have a choice about what we watch
• Neglects any aspects of effects theories
• Neglects socio-economic factors



Direct effect theory

• These theories view the media as having a direct effect on the ideas, attitudes & behaviours of the audience
• One of the hypodermic syringe theory

Hypodermic Syringe

• Assumes the audience are passive and that all members of the audience group are the same and respond in different ways
• It's this theory that blames texts for specific events

'Demonised media text' e.g. the 80s horror film 'Childs play'

• Childs play (1988) was blamed for influencing the murder of James Bulger
• Marilyn Manson was blamed for the Columbine High School shootings
• The director of Natural Born Killers was sued for inciting violence although the case was later dismissed

Cultivation Theory

• This theory considers the way the media affects attitudes rather than behaviour
• The media is seen as part of our socialisation process
• Through repetition attitudes, ideas, & values may become 'normalised' or 'naturalised'

Because of the media, many groups are targeted, mainly in negative ways such as Fat people, Youths and middle Easterns.