audiences Flashcards
hypodermic syringe model
- views media like a syringe which injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audiences, who are a powerless mass with little choice but to be influences
bandura et al
violent media could lead to imitation or ‘copycat’ violence
newson - desensitisation
prolonged exposure to media violence may have a ‘drip drip’ effect on young people over course of their childhood and result in their becoming desensitised to violence
eval of hypodermic syringe model
catharsis, sensitisation, methodology, children as sophisticated media users, audiences are not homogenous. scapegoating the media
two step flow model
- opinion leaders receive messages sent out by the mass media
- they then pass on this information and their own interpretation and viewpoints to individuals in social contact with them
lazarfield -voting research
conducted 1940s, oversaw a team of 15 local interviews who interviews 2400 citizens to track their decision making during campaign
- people referred to people they had spoken to or been influences by more
stengths of two step flow model
- acknowledges that audience is made up of individuals who actively interpret media messages and are influenced by those around them
- suggests that ‘opinion leaders’ are the ones most subject to media influence, not the whole audience
- recognises that opinion leaders can give meaning other than those presented and intended by the media
weakness of two step flow model
- opinion leaders are not one simple group, and may have different opinions. could be many steps
- rests on basic assumption that the influence of media flows from the media to the audience, and assumes that media audiences are more or less victims of media content
- people most at risk of being influenced by the media may be isolated, not members of any social network and so don’t have access to an opinion leader to help them interpret media content in a healthy way
selective filter model - kalpper
- selective exposure; what audience chooses depends upon their interests, education, age, gender
- selective perception; may decide to reject it because it does not fit their perception of the social world
- selective retention; media content has to ‘stick in’ the mind if it is to have an effect but research indicates that most people have a tendency to remember only the things they broadly agree with
strengths of the selective filter model
- recognises social characteristics and audiences as having individual experiences
- recognises difference between retention of information and exposure
weakness of selective filter model
- too much generalisation that effects of media is through 3 filters
- places too much emphasis on the control of the audience- still media producers that decide on content
reception analysis
- media content is polysemic it attracts more than one type of reading
- audience interprets meaing of text based on their individual cultural background, the meaning of a text is not inherent within the text itself but is created within the relationship between the text and the reader
3 main interpretations audiences make;
- dominant reading - reader fully accepts and reproduces message
- negotiated reading; partly shares the message, sometimes resists and modifies it in a way which reflects their own position
- opppositional reading; understands but refuses to accept a media message, bringing to bear an alternative frame of reference
morley
- researched how audiences interpreted a news programme called nationwide
- 29 groups from a range of educational and work backgrounds. in - depth intervies
- audiences made up their own minds
cultural effects model (drip drip effect)
suggests media content contains strong ideological messages that reflects the values of those who own, control and produce the media
