Media Effects

Media Effects

1. Effect of the Media on individuals and what they do with it

   • Challenges to the Effects perspectives
     • Media creators manipulate 'passive' audiences
     • Focused on vulnerable groups e.g. young children, teenagers, the elderly - suggests they cannot tell the difference between the media and lived experiences

2. It is often assumed that media texts carry hidden messages

   • This is not the case with all media
   • Adverts are a type of media that convey a clear message

3. Information Source > Transmitter > Channel > Reciever > Destination

   • Message > Noise Source > Message

4. Social-Learning Perspective

   • We learn from consuming the media E.G Bobo Doll experiment conducted by 'Bandura'
     • Children shown a clip of someone beating up a Bobo doll - They got put in a room with the same doll and they did the same thing they had just witnessed
       • This experiment, however, is unlikely to indicate how children would react with others: The doll is not to be mistaken for a real person

5. Messages in TV/Film

   • Positive
     • Sex in the City: Age is just a number? You don't have to obey traditional conventions?
     • Surprise, Surprise: You will be rewarded for doing good
     • News Success Stories: Sports awards/titles etc
     • Sesame Street: Preparing children for school through soft education?
   • Negative
     • Breaking Bad: Faults in the American Health System? Desperate times call for desperate measures?
     • Paranormal Activity: Something unknown will return to haunt you?
     • Game of Thrones: Incest is OK? Death looms? It is OK to commit murder?

6. Theories

   • Uses and Gratifications
   • Two-Step Model
   • Agenda Setting
     • The idea that what the audience thinks about is set by the media. Reality is filtered and shaped - not a true reflection
   • Hypodermic Needle
   • Cultivation Theory
     • The combined effect of massive television exposure by viewers over time subtly shapes the perception of social reality for individuals and, ultimately, for our culture as a whole. Cultivation theorists argue that television has long-term effects which are small, gradual, indirect but cumulative and significant.

7. The Cultivation Perspective

   • The Cumulative Effect: Effects are constructed from the cumulation of ALL the media audiences consume (Hard to prove)
     • Audiences become 'numb' to scenes of explicit violence and sex if they consume too much
   • E.G. DESENSITISATION: If you're constantly exposed to the same issue in the media, over time you will begin to believe in it and it will become less shocking to you as an audience member
     • *Unrealistically thin women - audiences will start to believe this is the norm and how women should look
     • *Violence - The 'shock factor' is decreased the more death is brought to audiences' attention
   • Problems/Issues
     • Is it the media or other influences that matter?
     • Is it hard to prove as it requires long term exposure?
     • Even audiences did become 'desensitised' to violence on screen they may react differently if it happened right in front of them
     • If some consumers are violent individuals already, they may be more likely to consume violent media