Media effects Flashcards
Explain the hypodermic syringe model of media effects.
The hypodermic syringe model argues media messages are like a drug injected into the body; the media transmit messages that are picked-up and acted upon by the audience (receivers) in ways that change or reinforce their behaviour in line with whatever message is being pushed and promoted.
Outline the positions in favour of the hypodermic syringe model (i.e. what you could use to support the idea that the media can cause violence!)
Feminist sociologists such as Susie Orbach and Naomi Wolf have suggested that media representations of femininity may be producing generations of girls and women who suffer from eating disorders.
Others such as Dines have argued that men’s consumption of pornography may be damaging in terms of encouraging negative attitudes towards women.
Some early Marxist commentators- particularly those belonging to the Frankfurt School- suggested that the media transmitted a ‘mass culture’ which worked to prevent the development of working-class class consciousness.
Functionalists also tended to believe that the mass media have a hypodermic effect, though viewed favourably, believing that the mass media are responsible for ‘boundary maintenance’.
Explain the effect of the media on violent behaviour according to the hypodermic syringe model.
Early hypodermic model studies of the relationship between the media and violence focused on conducting experiments in laboratories, some of which suggested that people may imitate observed violence- e.g. Bandura et al
McCabe and Martin (2005) argue that, particularly for those individuals without strong social connections, the media is an important agent of socialisation. Screen violence has a ‘disinhibition effect’- it convinces children that, in some situations, the ‘normal’ rules can be suspended: that negotiation and discussion can be replaced with violence.
Explain desensitisation according to the hypodermic syringe model.
Following the murder of Jamie Bulger, Elizabeth Newson (1994) argued that sadistic images in films were too easily available and that films encouraged viewers to identify with violent perpetrators rather than victims. Furthermore, Newson noted that children and teenagers are subjected to thousands of killings and acts of violence as they grow up through viewing television and films.
Newson suggested that such prolonged exposure to media violence may have a drip-drip effect on young people over the course of their childhood and result in their becoming desensitised to violence.
Newson argues that they see violence as a normal problem-solving device and concluded that, because of this, the latest generation of young people subscribe to weaker moral codes and are more likely to behave in anti-social ways than previous generations.
Outline the research evidence for desensitisation.
Huesmann et al. (2003) found a longitudinal relationship between children’s exposure to television violence and their aggressive and violent behaviour in young adulthood.
Anderson and Bushman (2009) conducted research with 257 college students who played violent computer games and found that sustained exposure to these games increased the students’ levels of aggression and made them more accepting of real life violence. They concluded that prolonged exposure to media violence does not result in copycat behaviour but they claim that it does change the way people think about violence.
Explain desensitisation according to the hypodermic syringe model.
Newson’s report (which was submitted to the Home Secretary) led directly to increased censorship of the film industry with the passing of the Video Recordings (Labelling) Act 1985, which resulted in videos and DVDs being given British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) age certificates.
The BBFC also came under increasing pressure to censor films released to British cinemas by insisting on the film makers making cuts relating to bad language, scenes of drug use and violence.
Television too was affected by this climate of censorship. All the television channels agreed on a nine o’clock watershed, i.e. not to show any programmes that used bad language or contained scenes of a sexual or violent nature before this time. Television channels often resorted to issuing warnings before films and even edited out violence themselves or beeped over bad language.
Explain preventing real life violence as a criticism of the hypodermic syringe model (and as an argument for the positive effects of the media on crime and deviance!)
A number of critiques have developed of the imitation-desensitisation model of media effects, e.g. some media sociologists claim that media violence can actually prevent real-life violence.
Fesbach and Sanger (1971) found that screen violence can actually provide a safe outlet for people’s aggressive tendencies. This is known as catharsis. They suggest that watching an exciting film releases aggressive energy into safe outlets as the viewers immerse themselves in the action.
Young (1981), argues that seeing the effects of violence and especially the pain and suffering that it causes to the victim and their families, may make us more aware of its consequences and so less inclined to commit violent acts. Sensitisation to certain crimes therefore may make people more aware and responsible so that they avoid getting involved in violence.
Explain methodological techniques as a criticism of the hypodermic syringe model (and for the idea that media content causes crime)
Gauntlett (2008) argues that people, especially children, do not behave as naturally under laboratory conditions as they would in their everyday environment, e.g. a lab context rarely takes into consideration that fact that children’s media habits are generally influenced and controlled by parents, especially when they are very young.
The hypodermic syringe model fails to be precise in how ‘violence’ should be defined. There are different types of media violence such as in cartoons, images of war and death on news bulletins and sporting violence. It is unclear whether these different types of violence have the same or different effects upon their audiences or whether different audiences react differently to different types and levels of violence. The effects model has been criticised because it tends to be selective in its approach to media violence, i.e. it only really focuses on particular types of fictional violence.
The effect model also fails to put violence into context, e.g. it views all violence as wrong, however trivial, and fails to see that audiences interpret it according to narrative context. Research by Morrison (1999) suggests that the context in which screen violence occurs affects its impact on the audience- participants were show excerpts from violent films and were most distressed by a clip of a man beating his wife in the film Ladybird, Ladybird because of the realism of the setting. In contrast, a violent clip from Pulp Fiction was seen as humorous because there was light-hearted language.
Correlation rather than causal relationship?
Identify criticisms of the hypodermic syringe model.
Children are sophisticated media users
Methodological techniques
Preventing real life crime
Scapegoating the media
Conflicting evidence
Outdated model
Explain children being sophisticated media users as a criticism of the hypodermic syringe model.
Some sociologists believe that children are not as vulnerable as the hypodermic syringe model implies, e.g. research indicates that most children can distinguish between fictional/cartoon violence and real violence from a very early age, and generally know that it should not be imitated.
Millwood and Hargrave (2003) found no evidence of confusion in children’s minds between fictional and real-life violence.
Sociologists are generally very critical of the hypodermic syringe model because it fails to recognise that audiences have very different social characteristics in terms of age, maturity, social class, education, family background, parental controls, etc. These characteristics will influence how people respond to and use media content.
Explain scapegoating the media as a criticism of the hypodermic syringe model.
Following the Columbine massacre in April 1999, a number of media influences were cited as being primarily responsible for the teenage murderers’ actions: the computer game Doom, listening to Marilyn Manson, and watching violent videos, most notably The Basketball Diaries. This is an example fo the media being scapegoated for violence by supporters of the hypodermic syringe model.
This perspective fails to consider other social and psychological factors that may motivate violent behaviours
As Michael Moore points out in his documentary, blaming the media makes as much sense as blaming ten-pin bowling, which both killers were very keen on.
Explain conflicting evidence as a criticism of the hypodermic syringe model.
Charlton et al. (2000) carried out a natural experiment on the island of St Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic Ocean, that was not connected to TV. They observed children’s playground behaviour prior to and after the introduction of television and found no evidence that watching television increased the children’s aggressive behaviour (although it is possible that less violent television was broadcast to the island than was the case on the mainland).
Cumberbatch (2004) looked at over 3,500 research studies into the effects of screen violence encompassing a range of mediums and genres and concluded that there was no conclusive evidence either way that violence shown in the media influences or changes people behaviour, and that people had unfairly blamed the media “with almost any evidence used to prove guilt”.
Explain being outdated as a criticism of the hypodermic syringe model.
The hypodermic syringe model is tied into technological changes in how media are delivered. Each technological development has, in its different way, given rise to a resurgence of interest in this model, which helps to capture people’s concerns.
In the early - mid 20th century, the apparent success of political propaganda techniques - British, German, American and Russian - lent the model a certain credibility. State propaganda, for example, particularly but not exclusively during the 1st and 2nd World Wars, seemed to exert a powerful, almost hypnotic, influence over the behaviour of many millions of disparate individuals.
We also need to be aware that the kinds of societies in which modern forms of mass media developed were quite different in scope to the kinds of late / post modern society that have developed in the late-20th - early-21st centuries.
The former were, for example, much more rigidly-stratified in terms of media ownership: the mass of the population had little or no access to the production of media messages (production was in the hands of governments, hugely-powerful individuals (“media barons”) and large-scale corporations. In such a situation, therefore, it’s not difficult to see why audiences were generally considered uncritical, gullible, passive and receptive individuals easily influenced and led by whatever they read, saw or heard in the media.
What is an active audience approach to the media?
Active media approaches argue that media content does not lead to imitation or desensitisation. They are critical of the HSM because of the assumption that audiences are homogenous, when, in reality, they are heterogenous.
Active audience approaches believe that people who constitute audiences have considerable choice in the way they actively use and interpret the media: audiences are not merely passive recipients of media content
Briefly outline some active audience approaches to the media, and how they may relate to the media’s effects in relation to crime.
- The two step flow model suggests that media messages have to go through two steps or stages: 1) The opinion leader is exposed to the media content, and 2)Those who respect the opinion leader internalise their interpretation of that content- so it is via opinion leaders that e.g. people may develop a fear of crime.
- The selective filter model suggests that there are three stages to the media having an effect on its audience: selective exposure, selective perception, and selective retention.
- The neo-Marxist cultural effects model recognises that audiences are active and that they interpret media content in diverse ways, but they argue that interpretations are narrow due to long term ideological framing of media content- this produces a dominant reading. The cultural effects model essentially argues that the media has a ‘drip drip’ effect, and the long-term effect of media content is that the values of the rich and powerful (hegemonic views) come to be unconsciously shared by most people- e.g. that society is fair and crime represents a grave threat to the order of the society .
