Audience models Flashcards
Describe the hypodermic syringe model
Media ‘inject’ their messages into their audiences, who accept these messages uncritically - means media is very powerful/audience is passive
Human behaviour is strongly influence
People may copy/imitate what they say in the media
Young people are especially vulnerable to being influenced
How does the Bandura study support hypodermic syringe model?
Found children imitate behaviour done by adults - whether its violent or not
Evaluate the hypodermic syringe model
Sensitisation - Young - violence can shock the audience into not committing violent acts themselves
Buckingham - children are not as easily influenced as the model suggest and that they can distinguish between real life and fiction
Describe the cultural effects (Marxist) model
Sees the media as a powerful ideological influence
Acknowledge that audiences are made up of people with different social backgrounds so they will interpret media differently
Audiences are exposed to a ‘drip-drip’ effect whereby media content is saturated with capitalist values which turns capitalist ideologies into common sense values
Evaluate the cultural effects model
Pluralist critique - Marxists over emphasise how much media owners control the ideological messages of media
Journalists/editors have codes of ethics to follow and want to maintain pro-standards so they are not completely under the control of some elite group of media owners
Describe the two step flow model by Katz and Lazerfield
- Media messages are reached and interpreted by opinion leaders
- Opinion leaders pass on views/interpretations of media based on their own norms and values onto followers
Media messages don’t reach audiences directly as its gone through opinion leaders first - therefore they’re not passive recipients
Evaluate the two step flow model
Pew - internet research - 71% of online users received news from other (email/twitter/text)
X - exaggerates influence of opinion leaders as research suggest - information from mass media goes directly to audience
Describe the selective filter model
Klapper - for media to have an affect, it must go through 3 filers
- selective exposure - audiences must chose to see the content of the media - depends on age/educational background etc
- selective perception - audiences may or may not accept the message (smoking adverts make some people stop but not others
- selective retention - people needs to remember the media message, however research shows people remember more when messages are linked to what they already believe in
Evaluate the selective filter model
Berry - found grammar school students only remembered 90% of the information after viewing
Describe the uses and gratifications model
People are active choosers and interpreters of media
Media performs a positive function in meeting their needs: could be used as a diversion (escapism), used to develop self identity, used to improve personal relationships, to gain information
Evaluate the uses and gratification model
Livingstone and Bouril - kids used TV for diversion and internet for learning - positive function
X - doesn’t acknowledge that media can create needs - not pre-existent
Describe the reception analysis model
Way in which people interpret media in accordance to their class/age/gender/ethnicity and other sources of identity
Preferred (dominant) reading - interpret the way media intended
Oppositional reading - opposed the intended views/ messages conveyed through the media
Negotiated reading - re-interpret the intended media content to make it fit in with their own values
Evaluate the reception analysis model
Morley - looked at how audiences interpret the content nationwide, found that the sample did not just absorb ideological perspectives and intended to agree more with the views if they had any pre-existing attitudes
Describe the Postmodernist approach to audience models
Strinati - media has a huge influence on sense of identity of audience, choice and diversity are central, signs and symbols have become more important than the actual things they represent
Thompson - global communications means that there is more hybridised culture
