5-Media effects model Flashcards
What is the hypodermic syringe model?
Marxist theory that argues that audiences are passive.
-Audiences are unthinking passive recipients of media
content – content is injected into them and they cannot resist it.
-The media fill audiences with the dominant ideology and the audience then act in accordance with this.
They argue that the media directly influence peoples actions and behaviour.
Evaluation of the hypodermic syringe model:
1-It assumes that the entire media audience are homogenous and will respond in the same way.
2-It assumes audiences are passive, gullible.
3-It assumes the media can over-ride all other factors
influencing views and behaviour.
Katz and Lazarfeild -What is the two step flow model?
Argues that the media has a strong impact on people but audiences act differently.
-Opinion leaders (sociology teacher, popular student,
priest, elder) within social groups impact the way in
which audiences react.
Specific opinion leaders interpret and filter news in a
particular way and form their own opinion on it (Step 1).
They then pass this opinion of the news onto their
social-group (Step 2).
What are the impact of the two step flow model?
Show how influential people have power in shaping our view of the world.
Evaluation of the two step flow model:
-There could be more than two steps, many opinion leaders in different and overlapping groups could be acting in concert or conflict with each other.
-Audience not given enough credit + why do only some have access to media and the rest depend on opinion leaders?
-New media means that opinion leaders are so diffuse and democratised that it doesn’t make as much sense.
Neo-Marxists - What is the Cultural effects model?
Because the media is strongly influenced by media owners and powerful people most media content will be encoded with messages and meanings which are in support of the dominant ideology in society (Capitalism, patriarchy, white superiority, middle-class superiority etc.)
-majority of individuals will end up agreeing with the encoded messages supporting the dominant ideology the media pushes because it is constantly fed to them in a “drip drip” fashion.
-However this theory also states that some people can interpret media messages differently depending on their CAGEDS.
Impact of cultural effects model:
As a result, the dominant-ideology view comes to be seen by the majority of audiences as the common-sense, normal, sensible view of the world.
Evaluation of the cultural effects model:
Morley (1960) Encoding - 3 different ways in which audiences respond to encoded messages in the media:
1- Preferred dominate reading.
2- Negotiated reading
3- Oppositional reading.
-Klapper - Selective perception: people will choose to accept or reject all or parts of the same media text depending on their views and interests.
Uses and Gratifications Model:
This model assumes that the media has the
weakest effects and the audience are most active.
-we use the media in a variety of ways in order to
satisfy our desires and interests therefore the media will have to respond to the needs of the audience.
Ways in which the audiences use the media:
1 To escape daily routines.
2 To support personal relationships
3 To explore an identity and to confirm an identity.
4- Surveillance ( to stay informed)
5- Background (use it while doing something else)
Evaluation of uses and gratification model:
Underestimates the power that the media has and its influence on people.
Media owners publish things which get the attention of the readers such as clickbait meaning that they don’t always have to produce media in favour of the audience.
Impact of Violence shown in the media:
Violence in the media can create moral panics in society.
Violence in the media could lead to copy cat behaviour- Bandura Bobo doll.
-Desensitisation – Newson (1994) – audiences become comfortably numb to violence, they do not see it as problematic, they may see it is a legitimate way to solve problems.
-Sensitisation – it can make people more aware of the impacts of violence and thus less tolerant for it in real life.
The exaggeration of the fear of violence
AO2: Examples of effects on violence shown in the media
Bandura Bobo Doll Copy Cat.
James Bulger Case - Copy cat
Moral panics - Mods and Rockers.
Evaluation of impacts of Violence shown in the media:
Livingstone (1996) any link between media violence and violent behaviour does not mean the media has caused the violence.
-It is almost impossible to find a group who haven’t been exposed to media violence so how can we tell if it is the media making the difference or something else.
