audience effects models

Question 1

Hypodermic syringe model

Answer 1

• direct and immediate effect on audience and their behaviour
• the audience are passive and uncritical
• some feminists argue that media is creating a generation of women with EDs
• Norris (1999) claims that media coverage of political issues can influence voting behaviour
• primarily use of lab experiments to demonstrate relationship between media and violence, eg Bandura (1963), McCabe and Martin (2005) claiming that violence causes a disinhibition effect where normal rules can be suspended and replaced with violence.
• Newson (1994) argues that violent images are too widely avaiblible for young viewers which might desensitise them.

Question 2

Uses and gratifications model

Answer 2

• the audience are active users of media content and have 4 basic uses of TV:
  1. diversion
  2. personal relationships
  3. personal identity
  4. surveillance
• Blumler and McQuail (1968) argue that peole use the media to satisfy particular needs which can be social biological or psychological and are relative to CAGE
• the gratification gained from the media is taking on a more interactive quality due to sites like reddit, ted talks and wikipedia

Question 3

Two step flow model

Answer 3

• indirect effect through the opinion leader
• Katz and Lazarsfeld (1965) suggest that personal relationships and social networks are dominated by opinion leaders
• the audience are not completely passive as they are influenced through discussion and indirectly
• opinion leaders interpret and judge the media content then pass onto others
• media content goes through two stages before it has an effect:
  1. opinion leader is exposed to content
  2. opinion leader disseminates their interpretation upon those whom they influence
• examples include Andrew Tate, Elon Musk, commentary channels etc

Question 4

Cultural effects model

Answer 4

• marxist model that sees the media as an ideological way of transmitting capitalist values
• like the reception analysis model it recognises that the audience is made up of very different types of people who have different interpretations
• media producers expect that audiences will agree with their own preferred reading of an issue
• the media coverage leads to a consensus perspective on most issues
• the ‘drip drip’ effect leads to a dumbing down of important issues and a reduction of critical analysis of society influenced by the media over a period of time
• Curran (2003) argues that the frequent reading of particular newspapers leads to the reader interpreting the world in a particular ideological way- this becomes what they view as ‘common sense’
• the audience are not completely passive as people respond due to their own interpretations, social circumstances and beliefs

Question 5

selective filter model

Answer 5

• Klapper (1960) suggests that for a media message to have an effect it must pass through three filters
• selective exposure= for an effect to take place the audience must choose to red, view, or listen to it: this is called
  -selective perception= the audience may view media content but may decide to reject it because it doesn’t fit their social world
• Festinger (1957) argues that people seek out media that confirms their existing attitude of the world
• selective retention= Media content has to ‘stick’ in the mind if it is to have an effect but research shows that people remember the things they broadly agree with
• there is a degree of active choice by the consumer, they challenge the HSM suggesting that audiences are homogenous
• this is an interpretivist view of media effects

Question 6

reception theory

Answer 6

• people interpret the media in a variety of ways due to their different social backgrounds
• Morley (1980) researched how 29 groups of a range of backgrounds interpreted the news in 3 different ways: preferred reading, oppositional reading, negotiated reading
• subcultural characteristics determine how we interpret the media, but these are the most predictable
• the audience act in a variety of ways because media content is polysemic
• examples: social media algorithms think for you based on your preferred reading, echo chambers

Question 7

postmodern theory

Answer 7

• the audiences create their own values and understandings from the global info around them
• personal identity is experimental and is expressed and invented by choosing from the diversity of lifestyles on offer through the media
• an extension of the reception analysis model
• individuals create their own meanings from a media text
• Philo (2002) argues that all definitions of reality which are constantly changing
• it is impossible to make generalisations about the media due to the variety of ways in which it can be interpreted
• cannot determine whether the media is having a positive or negative effect