MEDIA - Audience Effects Models Flashcards

Question

(CEM) What are the Evaluations of the CEM Model? HINT: There are 2 Positives and 5 Negatives here!

Answer 1

POSITIVES: - Depicts the Marxist perspective of the media and reinforces Althusser’s study into the media being an ISA - Suggests that main media perspectives all aim to preach the hegemonic view in society and suppress the masses / the working-class NEGATIVES: - It is methodologically difficult to measure any theory's long-term effects and impact PLURALIST EVALUATION 1 - They question the Marxist view, because they believe that the professionalism and objectivity of modern journalists ensure that media output is constructed for the audience’s benefit. They say that, if the media do project a particular point of view at the expense of another, it is because the audience already believes in it and they demand it - Democratic Mirror PLURALIST EVALUATION 2 - Pluralists also argue that the diversity of media content means that the Marxist concern that the media is creating a homogenised worldview is untrue - Representative and a ‘Window into the World’ - The range of media sources in contemporary media has led to more critical views of the dominant reading / consensus approach that is offered by mainstream media sources - Covid-19 = Journalists reported uncritically on certain policies and decisions, in order to get access to major politicians! (This goes against the Pluralist Evaluation that Journalists have integrity and are not affected by bias)

Answer 2

They identified 3 filters that involve a degree of active, consumer choice! They challenge the HSM and the idea that the Audience is homogeneous and that everyone engages with media and interacts with it in the same way = Klapper is aware that the audience is diverse!

Answer 3

SELECTIVE EXPOSURE = The Audience must choose to read, view or listen to Media! What they choose to consume depends on their social characteristics, such as their Age! SELECTIVE PERCEPTION = The Audience view Media Content, but they may decide to reject it because it does not fit their world view / social world! SELECTIVE RETENTION = Media Content has to 'stick' in the mind of the Audience if it is to have an effect. However, research shows that people remember the things that they broadly agree with! EXAMPLE - Covid-19 ads + Daily mass media briefings = People either agree, challenge or are somewhere in between the messages that are presented --> Links to Anti-vaxxers, those who were sceptical, and those who fully supported what the government were doing! Also links to Yorkie Ads and Climate Change (Climate Change deniers, like Donald Trump, vs Climate Change Activists, like Greta Thunberg)!

Answer 4

Festinger argues that people seek out Media Content that reaffirms their existing attitudes and world view = This reinforces the creation of echo-chambers!

Answer 5

Postman argues that we now live in a '3 Minute Culture'; the attention span of the average member of society is only 3 minutes or less! However = Is this study outdated? Will it be even lower now, due to the emergence of New Media?

Answer 6

POSITIVES: - This Model depicts how audience members have agency and how audiences will, most likely, consume media that reinforces their own echo-chamber (Links to algorithms on apps like TikTok)! NEGATIVES: - With the growth of new media, the selective exposure filter is removed and can be called into question, as people have less choice with the media they can access (the ‘illusion of choice’)! MARXIST EVALUATION - Marxists suggest that the dominant ideology of society is spread via other institutions, like education, which removes and lessens the impact of selective exposure - 'Illusion of choice’ - Links to Althusser and the Media being an ISA

Answer 7

The CEM - This is because they both suggest that people interpret the media in a variety of ways, due to their different social backgrounds!

Answer 8

Morley researched about how around 30 different groups (made up of a range of people from different educational backgrounds) interpreted the content of a news programme. They concluded that people actively choose to make one of 3 readings or interpretations regarding Media Content!

Answer 9

PREFERRED / DOMINANT READING = This reflects the consensus and the norms and values of society; people go along with this Reading, because it is accepted as 'legitimate' and it is rarely criticised. EG: The Royal Family (However = Is this still true today, due to the recent criticisms of the Royal Family - Links to Kate and Prince Andrew)! OPPOSITION READING = A minority of people may oppose the views expressed in media content. EG: People who are anti-Monarchy or Republicans may be critical of stories about Royal celebrities. NEGOTIATED READING = The Media Audience may re-interpret media content, in order to fit it within their own opinions and values (echo-chambers)! EG: People may not have any strong views about the Royal Family, but they may enjoy reading about celebrities and gossip!

Answer 10

FALSE - People CAN belong to several different sub-cultural groups! Morley argues that the average person belongs to several different sub-cultural groups and this may complicate a person’s reading of media content (in the sense that may not be consistent in their interpretation of it) = Characteristics and subcultures are not predictable in the way in which they influence responses to media content.

Answer 11

TRUE! POLYSEMIC = There is numerous meanings for just 1 Media Message!

Answer 12

POSITIVES: POSTMODERNIST EVALUATION - Promotes a polysemic view of the media - Multiple interpretations of media sources reflects our postmodern society and how people today have begun to reject metanarratives - Explains how the media can typify their audiences, such as readers of ‘The Sun’ often being from more working-class backgrounds and readers of the Daily Mail often having more conservative values (did they pick this media source to preach their own values and reinforce their echo-chamber or has their ideology been shaped by the media?) --> (Links to Cicourel and Typification, in regards to Crime and Deviance) NEGATIVES: - Morley did suggest that his research might have been compromised by the fact that his sample group did not see the news values used in the research in their own, natural environment (Links to Lab Experiments having controlled variables)! Therefore, the responses of the sample to the news content may have been influenced by the research context - EG: Demand characteristics may have undermined the quality of the interviews that were conducted by the researchers (links to the Hawthorne Effect)

Answer 13

This Model is often seen as an extension of the RAM! Postmodern perspectives on the effects of media are similar to the RAM! However = Whereas RAM focuses on explaining the influence of sub-cultural differences in the ways that audiences might respond to media messages, the PM focuses on how individual members of audiences create their own meanings from a media text and how they choose to interpret it. Sub-cultures vs Individuals!

Answer 14

This is because the CHOICES that the media can offer mean that members of society can create their own unique set of values and understanding from the global information around them (they are in control of what they actively choose to consume). Postmodernists believe that individuals in postmodern societies are involved in a search for their ‘true’ or authentic self and that this often gives way / opens up to a ‘playfulness’ in which personal identity is experimental and is expressed and invented by choosing from the diversity of lifestyles on offer through the media --> This links to Pluralism and Democratic Mirror!

Answer 15

Philo = They argue that postmodernists see media content as producing multiple definitions of reality, each with the same degree of importance as the other; polysemic media! Interpretations of media reality are constantly changing and being modified every single day; they are not fixed or stationary. They argue that, in regards to the Media: "It is all relative to who is looking; ‘truth’ and ‘reality’ are in the eye of the beholder”. → Rather than seeing the audience as an undifferentiated mass (as seen with the HSM), postmodernists argue that generalisations about media effects and audiences are impossible, since readers and viewers may react and engage to the same media message in a variety of ways. Because postmodernists believe that there is ‘no such thing as the absolute truth’ all of these reactions and interpretations have a relative value. It is impossible to judge whether media content is having a positive or negative effect, as it is based on the person themselves!

Answer 16

POSITIVES: - The media today is full of choice, hybridity and individualism; people can ‘pick and mix’ what media content they want to consume - Supports the decline in metanarratives which is evident in a postmodern society - People can consume the media in different ways and can also ‘mix and match’ what type of content they consume NEGATIVES: MARXIST EVALUATION - Marxists would argue against this theory; especially Traditional Marxists who believe that the media, which acts as an ISA, reinforces the hegemonic and dominant ideology - Do we really have this much control and choice over the media? - Algorithms create an ‘illusion of choice’ that can perhaps lead to the creation of echo-chambers! - We cannot determine if the media is having a Positive or a Negative Effect = Links to 'Deep Fakes' and the emergence of TikTok (decreasing attention spans) and the use of AI etc!