Models of media (more models?) Flashcards
What is the cultural effects model?
Audience passive
Marxist model
Drip Drip effect
Slowly introduces capitalist ideologies into media which they accept.
What is preferred reading?
the interpretation of events promoted by media producers, which audiences without direct experience are likely to accept.
What is an example of preferred reading?
Headlines from newspapers
Nurses on strikes leads to people dying
Nurses new what they were getting into
Nurses with direct experience
NHS is underfunded we can do our jobs properly
Our working conditions are unacceptable
What are criticisms of the cultural effects model?
Difficult to operationalise and measure
What do pluralists argue about the cultural effects model?
It overstates medias power and ignore journalist objectivity
Media is diverse, constructed for audience benefit and not solely controlled by elites.
What did Iyengar and Simon find about the Gulf War?
Those who relied on TV news were more likely to support military solutions over diplomacy.
What did Reese and Lewis find about post-9/11 media?
Media repeated government framing of a “war on terror,” helping justify the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
What is reception analysis?
People interpret the same media in different ways due to their social background.
What did Morley research?
29 groups
different educational and professional backgrounds
researched how the different groups interpreted the content of news programmes
What are the readings (Morley)?
Preferred reading – accepts the media’s message.
Oppositional reading – rejects the media’s message.
Negotiated reading – mixes media message with personal opinions/values.
What did Morley find?
That all three types of readings could be found within the same social group due to overlapping subcultural influences.
What does it mean if media is polysemic?
It attracts more than one type of reading and interpretation.
What is a strength of reception analysis?
Recognises that audience are not passive, impressionable and homogenous.
What is a methodological criticism of Morley’s study?
It was not conducted in a natural environment, and participants may have shown demand characteristics.
What is the postmodernist model?
Media is central to postmodern life, allowing individuals to construct identities and explore multiple realities.
How does the postmodernist model build on reception analysis?
It focuses more on individual interpretation rather than group-based responses.
What did Philo say?
Media produces multiple realities, each as valid as the other, with no single dominant version.
Why do postmodernists believe it’s meaningless to talk about media “effects”?
Because individual interpretations vary so widely that generalisations can’t be made.
What’s an example of the postmodern media world (AO2)?
Social media and on-demand platforms
What is a criticism of the postmodernist view?
It ignores that some people are negatively influenced by media and may passively accept harmful content.
