4.6 the relationship between the media and its audiences Flashcards
1
Q
What are the different audience theories?
A
- hypodermic syringe model
- two step flow model
- reception analysis
- selective filter model
- uses and gratifications model
2
Q
What is meant by the hypodermic syringe model?
A
- a direct correlation exists between the violence and antisocial behaviour portrayed in films or TV, games, rap lyrics
- suggests that children and teenagers are vulnerable to media content because they are very impressionable
3
Q
What does Grebner focus on in terms of violence and the media?
A
- representations of violence in certain types of media, such as Hollywood films, and suggest that these contribute to violent crime and antisocial forms of behaviour in real life, especially that committed by the young
4
Q
How have Orbach and Wolf shown the hypodermic syringe approach influencing non-violent behaviour?
A
- they argue that representations of femininity may be producing a generation of females who suffer from eating disorders
5
Q
How is the consumption of pornography seen in the hypodermic syringe model?
A
- Dines(2011) = men’s consumption of pornography may be harmful in terms of encouraging negative attitudes towards women
- some feminists = direct causal link between porn and sexual violence
- Dworkin = porn trivialises rape and makes men ‘increasingly callous to cruelty, to infliction of pain, to violence against persons, to abuse of women’
6
Q
How have neo-marxists contributed to the hypodermic syringe model?
A
- Marcuse(1964) = believed that the media transmitted a ‘mass culture’ which was directly injected into the hearts and minds of the population, making them more vulnerable to ruling-class propaganda
7
Q
What do functionalists argue about the hypodermic syringe model?
A
- the mass media is responsible for boundary maintenance - mass media representations of crime reinforce social expectations about normal and abnormal
8
Q
What were the aims of Bandura’s study?
A
- looked for a direct cause-and-effect relationship between media content and violence
9
Q
What was the methodology Bandura used?
A
- they showed three groups of children real, film and cartoon examples of a self-fighting doll (‘bobo doll’) being attacked with mallets
- a fourth group saw no violent activity
- after being introduced into a room full of exciting toys - the children in each group were made to feel frustrated by being told that the toys were not for them
- they were led into another room with a bobo doll - the three groups all behaved more aggressively than the fourth
10
Q
What is meant by the disinhibition effect?
A
- McCabe and Martin = screen violence convinces children that, in some social situations, the ‘normal’ rules that govern conflict and difference can be suspended
11
Q
What does Newson argue about desensitisation?
A
- violent images in films are too easily available and that exposure to screen violence encouraged young viewers to identify with violent perpetrators rather than victims
- children and teenagers are subjected to thousands of images of killings and acts of violence as they grow up
- prolonged media exposure to violence may have a ‘drip drip’ effect on young people
12
Q
How did Newson’s report lead to censorship?
A
- it had a great impact on society and politicians
- The BBFC was given the power to apply age certificates for films, DVDs and music videos
- TV companies agreed on voluntary censorship by adopting the nine o’clock watershed - TV programmes that feature bad language or scenes of a sexual or violent nature shouldn’t be shown before this time
13
Q
What are the two main arguments that suggest that media violence can prevent real lige violenc?
A
- catharsis
- sensitisation
14
Q
What is meant by catharsis?
A
- Fesbach and Sanger = found that screen violence can provide a safe outlet for people’s aggressive tendencies
- the safe release of violent/aggressive impulses by taking part in sport, playing computer games or watching on screen violence
15
Q
What is meant by sensitisation?
A
- seeing the effects of violence - especially the pain and suffering it causes to the victims and their families, may make viewers more sensitive of its consequences an so less inclined to commit violent acts
16
Q
What are some methodological problems of the hypodermic syringe models?
A
- there is a problem with how ‘media violence’ is defined in the first place
- the hypodermic syringe model of media effects underlies much of the research
- it is almost impossible to avoid the Hawthorne Effect
- lab experiments last for only a short time
- lab experiments are necessarily small-scale - can it be generalised
- it is difficult to separate out the effects of violent media imagery from other people’s reactions
17
Q
How can the sophistication of children as media users be used to criticise the hypodermic syringe model?
A
- people and children are not as vulnerable as the hypodermic syringe model implies
- children can distinguish between fictional/cartoon violence and real violence
18
Q
What do active audience theories argue?
A
- media content doesn’t lead to imitation or desensitisation
- people have considerable choice in the way that they actively use and interpret the media
19
Q
Katz and Lazarsfeld(1965)
A
- personal relationships and conversations with significant others, such as family members, teachers, etc result in people modifying or rejecting media messages
- social networks are usually dominated by ‘opinion leaders’
20
Q
What is meant by opinion leaders?
A
- people of influence whom others in the network look up to and listen to
- they usually have strong ideas about a range of matters
- they expose themselves to different types of media and form their opinion on their content
21
Q
What is meant by the two-step flow model?
A
- the media messages must go through two steps or stages:
1. the opinion leader is exposed to the media content
2. those who respect the opinion leader internalise their interpretation of that content
22
Q
What are some criticisms of the two step flow model?
A
- there’s no guarantee that opinion leaders haven’t been subjected to an initative or desensitising effect
- people who may be at risk of being influenced by the media may be socially isolated individuals who are not members of any social network and so do not have access to an opinion leader who might help interpret media content in a healthy way
23
Q
Who came up with the two-step flow model?
A
Katz and Lazarfeld(1965)
24
Q
What is meant by the two-step flow model?
A
- personal relationships and conversations with family, friends and colleagues, etc result in people modifying or rejecting media messages
25
What is meant by opinion leaders?
- they are people of influence whom others in the network look up to and listen to
- they expose themselves to different types of media and form their opinion on the content
26
How does the two-step flow model actually work?
- media messages must go through two steps or stages:
1. the opinion leader is exposed to the media content
2. those who respect the opinion leader internalise their interpretation of that content
27
Who develops the selective filter model?
**Klapper**(1960)
28
What is meant by the selective filter model?
- for a media message to have any effect it must pass through three filters:
1. selective **exposure**
2. selective **perception**
3. selective **retention**
29
What is meant by selective exposure?
- the audience must choose to view, read, listen to the content of specfic media
- media messages have no effect if no one sees/hears them
30
What is meant by selective perception?
- the audience may not accept the message, some people may take notice of some media content but decide to reject or ignore others
- **Festinger** = people will only seek out information that confirms their existing attitudes and view of the world
31
What is meant by selective retention?
- the messages have to ‘stick’ in the mind of those who have accessed the media
- **Postman** = we now live in a ‘three minute culture’ - the attention span of the average member of society is only three minutes or less
32
Who is behind the uses and gratifications model?
**Blumer and McQuail**
33
What is meant by the uses and gratifications model?
- people use the media to **satisfy needs** that they have
- the way the audience use the media to gratify its needs will depend on influences such as social position, age, gender, ethnicity, and so on
34
What are the four basic needs Blumer and McQuail identify?
1. diversion
2. personal relationships
3. personal identity
4. surveillance
35
What is meant by diversion?
- Watson = we may use the media to escape from routines, to get out from under problems
36
What is meant by personal relationships? (UGM)
- the media may provide the means to compensate for the decline of community in our lives
- cyber communities on the web may also be seen by users as alternative families
37
What is meant by personal identity? (UGM)
- people may use the media to ‘make over’ their identity
- social media sites allow people to present their identities to the wider world in a way that they can control
38
What is meant by surveillance? (UGM)
- people use the media to obtain information and news about the social world to help them make up their minds on particular issues
39
What are some criticisms of Blumer and McQuail?
- it is too dependent on the interpretations of the researchers on the audience’s motivations
- fails to appreciate that different age-groups, social classes or ethnic groups may interpret and use the same media in the way that they choose
40
How does **Lull** develop the uses and gratifications model?
- He noted five uses of the media:
1. relational
2. affiliation
3. avoidance
4. social learning
5. competence dominance
41
What is meant by the relational use of media?
- the media is used as a currency of communication - gives people something to discuss
e.g. as demonstrated in Gogglebox
42
What is meant by the affiliation use of the media?
- TV may reinforce family community as some families, parents and children, sit down to watch a popular show that transcends age differences i.e. Britains Got Talent
43
What is meant by the avoidance use of media?
- people may use TV and games to escape from others
- this has been argued to have led to a decline in face-to-face social interaction and community
44
What is meant by the social learning use of the media?
- people may use the media to solve problems, to seek guidance, to access information and learning, and to find role models
45
Why are marxists critical of the uses and gratifications model?
- they suggest that social needs may be socially manufactured by the media
- the mass media in capitalist societies, esp the advertising industry, promote the ideology that consumption and materialism are +ve goals to pursue
46
What is meant by the reception analysis model?
- suggests that the way people interpret media content differs according to their class, age, gender, ethnic group and other sources of identity
- media content is interpreted in a variety of ways
47
What was the methodology of Morley’s study?
- he researched how audiences interpreted the content of a well-known 1970s evening news programme called Nationwide
- examined how the content was interpreted differently by 29 groups made up of people from a range of educational and professional backgrounds
48
What did Morley conclude?
- audiences were far from passive in their reading of media content - instead audiences made up their own minds
49
What are the three different readings that audience members can choose from?
1. preferred
2. oppositional
3. negotiated
50
What is meant by a preferred reading?
- reading based on consensus - most people are likely to go along with it because the subject matter is widely accepted as legitimate
51
What is meant by an oppositional reading?
- a minority may oppose the views expressed in media content to fit in with their own opinions and values
52
What is meant by a negotiated reading?
- the media audience may reinterpret media content to fit in with **their own opinions and values**
53
What is the point of reception analysis?
- to suggest that audiences are not passive, impressionable and homogenous
- media content is ‘**polysemic**’ = it attracts more than one type of reading/interpretation
54
Which perspective developed the cultural effects model?
**Marxism**
55
What is meant by the cultural effects model?
- the media is a very powerful ideological influence that is mainly concerned with transmitting capitalist values and norms
- media audiences are made up of very different types of people from a variety of social backgrounds who have very different experiences
56
What is meant by a ‘drip-drip’ effect?
- audiences have been exposed for a long period of time in which media content has become imbued with ideological values
57
How has the cultural effects model been supported?
- **Lynegar and Simon** = found a framing effect in their study of the news coverage of the Gulf War - respondents who relied the most on TV news, which emphasised the view of journalists embedded with US troops, expressed greater support for a military rather than a diplomatic solution to the crisis
58
How has the cultural effects model been criticised?
- these cultural effects are very difficult to operationalise and measure
