Media Audience n Relationship

• Audiences are viewed by sociologists as being either...

  –Passive–Active
• Passive Audience


  •This is the earliest model of media effects and popular with many people who fear the moral effects of the media.•It views the media like a syringe which injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience, who are a powerless mass with little choice but to be influenced. In other words, if you watch something violent, you may go and do something violent.•If you see a woman washing up on TV, you will want to do the same yourself if you are woman, and if you are a man you will expect women to do the washing up for you.•
• Passive Audience


  •There have been films such as The Exorcist and  A Clockwork Orange which have been banned, partly because of a belief that they might encourage people to copy the situations within them.•1993 Toddler James Bulger was abducted from a shopping centre in Liverpool, tortured and murdered by 2-10-year old boys. According to the press, they mimicked scenes from the film Child’s Play 3. The Sun Newspaper attempted to get other violent films banned. After this time such films were referred to as “Video nasties”.•
• Passive Audience - THE HYPODERMIC SYRINGE MODEL

  1.Assumes the audience is homogenous, reacting the same way to all media.2.Assumes the audience is gullible and easily manipulated3.Assumes the media and its owners have enormous power4.Little evidence to support it
• Two-step flow model


  The idea that, whatever our experience of the media, we will be likely to discuss it with others. If we respect their opinion, the chances are that we will be more likely to be affected by it.
• Opinion leaders


  The people the theory calls who influence others
• Your opinions about television, films or groups can be influenced by other people
• A friend's ideas about a media text


  Could affect your behaviour
• Active Audience the two step flow model


  ●Opinion leaders are not one simple group, and may have different opinions (e.g. teachers, parents and bosses). Therefore there could be many steps.●It still considers the audience as passive to an extent●New media has disrupted the idea of ‘opinion leaders’ creating more of them and/or alternatives to them.
• Active Audience

  THE CULTURAL EFFECTS MODEL (DRIP DRIP EFFECT)

  •This model also sees the audience as passive (in a way but not like the hypodermic syringe)•However the effect of the media is less immediate than suggested by the hypodermic syringe model•This model is a Marxist model which suggests that the media is a very powerful tool in transmitting capitalist ideas, norms and values.

  The model suggests that the media content contains strong IDEOLOGICAL messages that reflect the values of those who own, control and produce the media.
• Active Audience

  THE CULTURAL EFFECTS MODEL (DRIP DRIP EFFECT)

  Marxists would argue that audiences have been exposed over a long period of time to a slow ‘drip drip’ effect process

  Media content gradually gains ideological values which are transmitted over a long period of time.

  Eventually, most people come to accept the preferred reading of such events in the mass media.
• Active Audience

  THE CULTURAL EFFECTS MODEL (DRIP DRIP EFFECT)

  Morley explains that preferred reading is the most common of the three reading types:

  ••Preferred reading - Reading and interpreting a story in the way that it was intending to be interpreted as.••Negotiated reading - Reading and interpreting a story generally in the intended way, but making some amendments.••Oppositional reading - Rejecting the story and seeing through the dominant ideology.
• Active Audience

  THE CULTURAL EFFECTS MODEL (DRIP DRIP EFFECT)

  •Those producing the media promote a particular interpretation of events - the preferred reading•Those lacking direct experience of the events covered in the media are likely to accept this preferred reading. For example?•Those with direct experience of events being covered are more likely to reject the preferred reading. For example?•Repetition of the preferred reading over a period of time means that most people accept it and it becomes part of our culture.
• Active Audience

  USES AND GRATIFICATION MODEL

  This model is the model with the most active audience, and the weakest effects of the media. It suggests that we use the media in any way that we want, when we want, for specific purposes.

  McQuail (1972) and Lull (1990, 1995) identified five main uses:

  •Diversion (leisure, relaxation & escape)•Personal relationships (either with people in the media, or through the media)•Personal identity (e.g. music choice)•Surveillance (e.g. the news)•Background wallpaper (using media whilst doing other things)
• Active Audience

  USES AND GRATIFICATION MODEL

  It can be seen as a pluralist approach (think back to section 1)

  They believe the audience is active, and if a media outlet constantly spouted ideology that the audience didn’t believe or agree with, they would have no audience, therefore would not make money, and therefore would go out of business.
• Active Audience

  USES AND GRATIFICATION MODEL

  How else could we criticise this model, maybe from the perspective of the other models we’ve looked at?

  ●It overestimates the ability of the audience to be critical and active●It underestimates the power of media and its owners.●You could argue that although it appears as though the consumer chooses how they use the media, you could say it's the media who ultimately provide all of those choices.
• Violence And The Media

  RESEARCH CONCLUSIONS:

  There has been lots of research on this issue, which has led to four general contradictory conclusions:

  1.Copycatting - Linked to the hypodermic syringe model.2.Catharsis - People are less violent as they live out their violent tendencies through the media rather than in real life.3.Desensitisation - Exposure to violence in the media normalises it. Linked to the drip drip effect.4.Sensitisation - Exposure to violence in the media exposes people to its consequences, and therefore makes them less tolerant of it.