Media - Topic 5

Question 1

A media text

Answer 1

Any media product which describes,defines or represents something, such as a movie or video

Question 2

Polysemic

Answer 2

Means that a media text can be interpreted in different ways by different people

Question 3

Methodological problems of researching media effects

Answer 3

It’s practically impossible to establish what people’s beliefs, values and behaviour might have been without any media influence
E.g. Neo-marxists like GMG argue that the media encourages audiences to accept the cultural hegemony of the dominant class

Question 4

Media effects the models

Answer 4

Based around 2 key and related questions:
1. How passive or active are the audiences? - are the passive ‘dopes’ mindlessly consuming media texts who accept everything the media throws at them, or do they actively interpret and criticize media texts
2. How powerful are the media in affecting audiences? - how influential are the media if at all, compared to other influences on audience behaviour, such as their own experiences or the influences of other agencies

Question 5

The hypodermic syringe model

Answer 5

Suggest the media act like a syringe, injecting media texts into the ‘veins’ of media audiences.
Audiences are seeing as unthinking, passive receivers of media texts.
The media messages fill audiences with dominant ideologies then immediately acts on the messages

Question 6

What does Dworkin say about the hypodermic syringe model

Answer 6

Radical feminists - it’s what lies behind moral panics over the effects of the media on behaviour and it was the model sometimes used to partly explain the Tottenham/London riots in August 2011

Question 7

AO3 criticisms of the hypodermic syringe model

Answer 7

1. The model assumes the entire audience is passive and will react in the same way to media content
2. It assumes the media have enormous power and influence

Question 8

Active audiences

Answer 8

They see the media as less influential than the passive audience approach of the hypodermic syringe model
They believe audiences vary in terms of social characteristics like age,class etc
These factors will influence their choices in the way they use the media, what they use them for and the ways they interpret media texts

Question 9

The two-step flow model (Katz and Lazarsfeld)

Answer 9

This model suggests that the media still have quite strong effects on audiences, but they do not simply passively and directly react to media content and will respond in a variety of ways to it.

The opinion leaders select, interpret and filter media texts before they reach mass audiences (first step)

Opinion leaders selectively pass on these messages from interpretations from audiences from first step (second step)

This model recognizes that media audiences are social groups which people belong to

Question 10

Opinion leaders

Answer 10

Within the social networks to which audiences belong
Those respected members of any social group who get information and form views from the media who lead opinion and discussion in their social groups

Question 11

AO3 criticisms of the two-step flow model

Answer 11

1. It suggests that people are very vulnerable to influence and manipulation by opinion leaders
2. With the rise of the new media and social networking sites, the role of opinion leaders may be less influential

Question 12

The cultural effects model - the ‘drip drip’ effect (neo-marxist)

Answer 12

Suggest that the media do have an effect on the audience. However it does not regard media audiences as simply passive consumers of media texts

Question 13

Neo-marxists and cultural effects model

Answer 13

Theory recognizes that the media are owned and heavily influenced by the dominant and most powerful groups in society and their interests strongly influence the content of the media

Accept that audiences interpret the media they consume and may respond in different ways depending on their social characteristics e.g. class, gender

Question 14

Further information on the cultural effects model

Answer 14

Suggests the media gradually influence the audience over a period of time - a sort of slow, drip-drip effect. A process of brainwashing which gradually shapes people’s taken-for-granted common-sense ideas and assumptions

Question 15

Encoding/Decoding and reception analysis

Answer 15

How audiences receive and interpret media texts and therefore what effects they have on audiences

Question 16

Hall (Encoding/Decoding)

Answer 16

Content of the media messages such as TV and current affairs programs are ‘encoded’ by those who produce them, they contain a particular intended meaning which they expect media audiences to believe

Encoding - the dominant hegemonic viewpoint which takes the dominant ideology for granted and accepts it as the norm

Question 17

What does Hall continue to say about encoding/decoding

Answer 17

Most audiences will receive and interpret or decode media texts containing this dominant hegemonic viewpoint in the way they were intended or encoded

Other audiences may decide or interpret the same media texts differently, relating to their social situations

Question 18

What did Morley find

Answer 18

Suggested people might read, or decode and interpret media texts in one of 3 ways based on their knowledge and social group:
1. a preferred reading
2. a negotiated reading
3. an oppositional reading

Question 19

1) A preferred reading

Answer 19

Where audiences read or decide media texts in the way that those producing media content intended, and which they would prefer their audiences to believe

Question 20

2. A negotiated reading

Answer 20

One in which media audiences generally accept the preferred or dominant meaning of a media text, but amend it to some extent

Question 21

3. An oppositional reading

Answer 21

Which media audiences oppose or reject the preferred or dominant of media content

Question 22

Selective filtering - an interpretivist approach (Klapper)

Answer 22

People have experiences of their own, make choices and interpret and filter what they read, see or hear in the media

Question 23

3 filters that Klapper said people apply in their approaches to and interpretations of the media

Answer 23

1. Selective exposure
2. Selective perception
3. Selective retention

Question 24

1. Selective exposure

Answer 24

People must first choose what they wish to watch, read or listen to in the media and they only choose media messages which fit in with their existing views and interests
E.g. they might refuse to watch a programme exposing alleged benefit fraudsters

Question 25

2. Selective perception

Answer 25

Filter means people will react differently to the same messages and may choose to accept or reject the a media message depending on whether or not it fits their own views and interests E.g. people may ignore aspects of news reports that suggest welfare claimants are largely undeserving fraudsters

Question 26

3. Selective retention

Answer 26

Filter means people will forget material that is not in line with their views and interests and will tend to remember only those media messages with which they generally agree

Question 27

The Glasgow Media Group (GMG) - Philo

Answer 27

Critical of the suggestion in the encoding/decoding and selective filtering approach. He accepts that audiences are are active and can be critical of media accounts However GMG research over the years shows that the media has a great deal of power in forming the way audiences view the world

Question 28

Philos study of 1984/5 miners’ strike in Britain

Answer 28

TV news repeatedly showed images of miners and pickets in violent clashes with police Found people of different classes and political backgrounds saw these images and interpreted them in the same way that was being shown. The decoding and selective filtering underestimate the serious extent of the media’s ability

Question 29

GMG and agenda setting

Answer 29

Media influences what we do think about by removing issues from public discussions Very difficult to criticise a dominant media accounts if there is little access to alternative sources of information

Question 30

What does the cultural effects model highlight

Answer 30

1. Dominant class’s influence on media content, promoting a shared ideology amongst journalists 2. Media’s biased portrayals favouring the dominant class, but audience actively interest content differently

Question 31

AO3 criticism of cultural effects model

Answer 31

Assumes media personnel like journalists work within the framework and assumptions of the dominant ideology. Fails to recognise that journalists have some independence in their work

Question 32

The uses and gratifications model

Answer 32

A view that media audiences are thinking, active and creative human beings who use the media in various ways for their own gratifications

Question 33

What does the uses and gratifications model assume

Answer 33

That the media have the weakest effects and the audience is the most active

Question 34

McQuail and Lull suggest a variety of uses and gratifications of the media:

Answer 34

Diversion Personal relationships Personal identity Surveillance Background wallpaper

Question 35

Diversion

Answer 35

For leisure,entertainment and relaxation, to escape from daily routines

Question 36

Personal relationships

Answer 36

Keep up with family and friends through identification with media communities like Corrie Facebook or chat rooms may be used to establish relationships with people you’ve never met

Question 37

Personal identity

Answer 37

Explore and confirm peoples identities or to seek out new sources of identity E.g. keeping up its fashion trends

Question 38

Surveillance

Answer 38

Access information about things that might affect users to find out more about the world or help them to do things E.g. facebook

Question 39

Background wallpaper

Answer 39

While doing other things

Question 40

What did Park et al find

Answer 40

Online groups were used to satisfy multiple needs for entertainment and amusement, maintaining and seeking out their personal status and to receive information about events This variety of uses shows that people are able to make conscious choices and select what they want to watch etc

Question 41

AO3 criticisms of the uses and gratifications model

Answer 41

1. Model overestimates power of the audience to influence media content. Media companies set the choices and the media may create different pleasure through advertisement 2. Model overestimates audience influence on media content while underestimating media companies power to shape choices

Question 42

Violence and the media

Answer 42

May people are able to access violent imagery and it’s almost impossible to control Digital technology means that media violence is now also interactive

Question 43

Case study of James Bulger

Answer 43

1993 2-year-old James Bulger was killed by 2 10-year-old boys Found this attack was based on the violent imagery and games that the 2 boys were exposed to

Question 44

What did Newson find

Answer 44

Established a link between video violence and real-world violence. Claimed it was even stringer than the on established between smoking and lung cancer

Question 45

What did Anderson et al find

Answer 45

Research shown indisputably that media violence increased the likelihood of aggressive and violent behaviour

Question 46

AO3 criticisms of violence and the media

Answer 46

Cumberbatch et al criticises Newsons report, arguing that its findings were nothing more than speculation fuelled by the popular press

Question 47

Range of different and contradictory conclusions reached on violence and the media

Question 48

Copycattingor imitation

Answer 48

Exposure to media violence causes children to copy what they see

Question 49

Catharsis

Answer 49

Media reduces violence instead of promotes it Allows people to live out their violent tendencies in the fantasy world or media rather than in real life

Question 50

Desensitization

Answer 50

Writers like Newson - repeated exposure of children to media violence has gradual ’drip-drip’ long-term effects, where violence is seen as normal. Means people become ‘comfortably numb’ - less sensitive and disturbed over violence shown

Question 51

Sensitization

Answer 51

Exposure to violence in the media can make people more sensitive to the consequences of violence

Question 52

Media violence causes physiological disturbance in some children

Answer 52

Watching media violence often frightens young children, causing nightmares etc. These effects may be long lasting

Question 53

The exaggeration of the fear of violence

Answer 53

Gerbner - those who watch more TV are more exposed to violence that lead to them having exaggerated fears about crime May believe their neighborhoods are unsafe etc

Question 54

Methodological problems of researching media violence (Livingstone)

Answer 54

Any link between media violence and violent behaviour didn’t not mean media violence causes physiological disturbance the behaviour

Question 55

Livingstone found that researchers must resolve 3 questions:

Answer 55

- Whether more aggressive people chose to watch violent programs - Whether violent programs make viewers aggressive - Whether certain social circumstances both make people more aggressive and lead them to watch more violent television

Question 56

What did Livingstone and Ferguson find

Answer 56

Media effects models have tried to resolve these issues by using experimental methods by researching small samples

Question 57

What did Baudura et al find

Answer 57

‘Bobo Doll’ - exposed 3 groups of children to violent scenes involving attacks. One group was shown the doll attacked by an adult in real life, another was the same adult attacking a doll in film and the other was shown same scene involving cartoons A fourth group wasn’t exposed to violence When children were put in a room after with a doll they acted the same way as they watched

Question 58

There is a problem with how ‘media violence’ is defined in the first place

Answer 58

Boxing,fights,murders in TV dramas etc All depict violent scenes but they may not be seen by researchers in the same way

Question 59

The hypodermic syringe model of media effects underlies much of the research

Answer 59

Doesn’t deal with how people interpret what they see with the context in which they view the violence

Question 60

It is almost impossible to avoid the hawthorne effect

Answer 60

People may alter their behaviour to media violence as a response to being observed etc

Question 61

Laboratory experiments last for only a short time

Answer 61

Therefore can only measure the immediate effects of media violence Doesn’t mean they are long-lasting effects

Question 62

Laboratory experiments are necessarily small-scale, using small samples

Answer 62

Raises questions over whether the results can be applied to, or generalized to the whole population

Question 63

Conclusion on violence and the media

Answer 63

There is little reliable and undisputed evidence about whether violence in the media leads to increase in aggressive behaviour. Gauntlett - one conclusion to be drawn from the failure to identify the direct effects of media upon people’s behaviour