Selective Filter Model

Selective Filter Model

1. Klapper (1960) suggests like Hall and Morley, for media messages to have any effect it must pass through three filters. He suggests that the three filters have a degree of active choice for an audience

   • 1) Selective exposure
     • The audience must choose to view, read or listen to the content of the media
     • It can only have an effect if someone sees/ hears it
     • The audience choose this based on their interests
   • 2) Selective perception
     • The audience will react differently to the same message; they may choose to accept or reject, depending if it fits with their own views. So they may just ignore certain news stories
   • 3) Selective Retention
     • The messages have to stick in the mind of those that have accessed the information- people tend to remember what they agree with
   • Example Brexit broadcast
     • Selective exposure- may turn it off or choose to watch
     • Selective perception- some would agree- work for NHS. Disagree- racist bigots
     • Selective retention- 350million to NHS by voting Brexit
   • Strengths
     • Accepts not all audiences are passive
     • Klapper SFM reinforced by Philo- personal experience
   • Limitations
     • Outdated- not talking about new media responses
     • Assuming audience have not been 'drip-drip' brainwashed- cultural effects
   • While seeing audiences as more active rather than passive, allows us to understand how and why different groups read media text in a variety of different ways, there are still many problems with the methodology. It is almost impossible to disentangle the effects of the media on audiences of things like violence, stereotypes, consumerism and prejudice. Pluralists would argue that media owners do not encode messages into the media, they simply give the audiences the media they want and there is a wide variety of media available, so audiences will choose the media that suits their views

2. AO3: Postman (1986)

   • Suggests we live in a three minute culture, this is the attention span of an average member of society
     • Supported by selective retention- choosing what they want to remember based on what they have seen.
   • Moral Panics- A moral panic is a wave of public concern about some exaggerated or imaginary threat to society, stiffed up by exaggerated and sensationalised reporting in the media
     • Young people as moral panics- Stanley Cohen (may not accept this message sent by media)
     • Selective retention- remember the panic and fear that is created- knife crime/ immigration