Audience Effects

• Hypodermic Syringe Model suggests audiences are completely passive and will accept anything the media presents
• Bandura's Bobo Doll study - children who were show a video of violence against the doll mimicked it when playing, while the control group who saw no video did not act violently towards the doll
• The murder of James Bulger was carried out by two children recreating a scene they had seen in the movie Child's Play 2 - this is called copycat violence
• Hypodermic Syringe fails to account for the wide range of ways people react to the same media
• Lazarsfeld - in the Two Step Flow model, media messages are interpreted by key individuals called opinion leaders, who then share their thoughts and influence the opinions of everyone else
• An example for Two Step Flow could be influencers reviewing movies or TV shows - their audience might then accept these opinions rather than forming their own
• Hobson studied an office environment and found opinion leaders that influenced what everyone else in the office watched and thought of TV programs
• The Uses and Gratifications Model by Blumer and McQuail suggests that people actively use media to satisfy specific needs
• Watson suggests many use the media as escapism from real life. It may also be cathartic or make up for a lack of stimulation
• Many access the media and especially the news because they want to be informed about what is happening both locally and globally
• Media may now be used as a way to form identity, especially via new media. People often identify themselves via the media they consume, or consider it a hobby
• For many, media helps with companionship - new media sites allow for digital communication, and other forms of media can help people connect with others, real or fictional
• There has been a growth of online communities around specific media which make it easier for people to connect with people who have similar interests to them
• The Uses and Gratifications model does not factor in the media's role of transmitting messages and how these impact audiences
• Lazarsfeld - the Selective Filter Model suggests audiences filter out what they consume. Katz says these filters are exposure, perception and retention
• People will usually engage with content they are more likely to agree with
• People take messages away from media that align with their pre-existing beliefs
• People are most likely to remember things that support their opinions and beliefs, and forget things which are contradictory
• Selective Filter helps to identify how audience beliefs influence how the media affects them, but ignores that the filters do not always work
• The Cultural Effects Model is a Neo-Marxist theory that says the ruling class slowly transmits dominant ideology over a long period of time
• People may reject a message at first, but if this message is repeated constantly and simplified to a presented objectivity, people may slowly accept it
• Reporting on immigration and benefits scroungers is constant, so even though people may disagree at first, it is always there and over time people will accept it
• Cultural Effects is like a drip drip effect from a leaking tap. Very subtle, but racks up your water bill over time
• Cultural Effects is good for understanding that audiences still interpret media in different ways, but are unknowingly confined by the dominant culture
• Postmodernists say the world is media-saturated and that people have limitless choice on what they consume or create
• Baudrillard talked about simulacra and hyperreality
• Postmodernist views are hard to evaluate because there is no evidence for or against them - it is very theoretical
• Newman says watching violent content can make you desensitised to it - you find it less shocking and are more likely to think it's okay to be violent
• McCabe & Martin said violence is often portrayed as heroic, leading to the disinhibition effect where people think it is acceptable under some circumstances
• Himmelweit et al say it is the drip drip effect which causes desensitisation, and that people become comfortably numb
• Gerbner says there is an exaggeration of the fear of violence. Violent media does not make people violent, but it may make them more afraid of violence in the real world
• Research often has methodological issues, such as the Bobo doll study being done in lab conditions, which Gauntlett says made it artificial
• Young counters by saying violence may cause sensitisation - people become more aware of the consequences
• Ramos et al point out that people are more empathetic when they know violence and victims are real rather than fictional
• Fesbach and Sanger suggest violent media may allow for catharsis - people can release aggression in a safe environment through fictional settings, so they are less aggressive in real life