Media- Indirect Effects Flashcards
What is an indirect effect?
The effect on the audience is a product of an interaction between different influences alongside the media messages and acknowledges there are many factors that affects the reception
Who created the 2 step flow model?
Katz and Lazarsfeld
What is an opinion leader?
An individual who has more exposure to media views on a particular topic and so they become regarded as, by social contacts, an expert on the topic
What is a social relationship?
An individual/ group who have repeated interactions with each other, e.g family, friends, opinion leader, partner etc, and therefore are more likely to be influenced by those people they trust
What are the 2 steps in the 2 step flow model, explaining how the influence of the media reaches the audience?
1)the opinion leader takes in the media messages
2)the opinion leader transmits these on within the context of social relationships
Why are the audience not seen as entirely passive in its interactions with media messages?
The main message can be taken in different ways dependent on level of trust, values and social relationship with that person- thinking and behaving in a particulate way based on interaction with that opinion leader
What are three evaluations of the 2 step flow model?
•difficult to measure the effect the media alone compared to all other factors that influence an audience
•some are socially isolated and may not be member of a social network so do not have opinion leaders
•possibly outdated as they underplayed the way the audience can be active in their use of the media
Which theory believes in the cultural effects model?
Neo-Marxism
What is the ‘preferred reading’?
The particular way in which media professionals( usually white, middle-aged, men) want and expect the audience to respond to the dominant ideologies in the media messages( often ruling class ideology)
What is cultural effects model?
Argue that the media affects the attitudes and behaviour of people based on their cultural background and so media effects, though significant as it tends to have the power to force audiences to adopt a view that is influenced by the preferred reading as it was constructed to be read that way, are not direct but are shaped by the norms, values and experiences of the audience
What does Gramsci mean by cultural hegemony and its impact in the media?
In order to keep people favouring capitalism, capitalists ideas are presented as natural and common sense- so anyone that opposes these are seen as deviant and subject to ridicule- Gramsci argued that the audience must consent to these ideas and so media has a role in gaining this consent, which is dependent on experience of the audience
Why is the cultural effects model also known as the drip-drip model?
Process of the media influencing the audience and reinforcing capitalist ideologies gradually over long term exposure by drip feeding values of the ruling class, to maintain their social supremacy, eventually wearing down the audience until they are accepting and advocating for the way in which they think (shaping value and attitudes) e.g representations of social groups shape audiences view over time as they do not have knowledge to confirm it right or wrong since they get information from the media which carefully selects certain images, based on the agenda of those in control, to present them in a negative way- causing desensitisation and prejudice
The media professionals+owners, mainly from ruling class, drip feed messages in this subtle way so that the audience don’t become aware of their manipulation.
