Audiences

• Active Audience Approaches


  See the media as far less influential, see people as having choice in the way they use and interpret media
• Various versions of Active Audience Approaches

  • The two step flow model
  • The selective filter model
  • The uses and gratifications model
  • The reception analysis model
  • The cultural effects model
  • The post modernist model
• Two step flow model

  Personal relationships (parents, friends etc) result in people modifying or rejecting media messages, social networks are usually dominated by 'opinion leaders' who share their interpretations with the rest of the social network
• Opinion leader is exposed to media content


  They share their opinion and the social network internalise that interpretation of the media content
• The audience chose to interpret the media and adopt a way of behaving or attitude after discussing it with the opinion leader. They are not directly influenced by the media – they are active not passive.
• There is no guarantee that the opinion leader has not been subjected to an imitative or desensitizing effect, and people who are more likely to be at risk of being influenced may be socially isolated (loners) and so will not have an opinion leader to guide them.
• Selective filter model


  The media message passes through 3 different filters with choice at each level: selective exposure, perception, and selective retention
• Selective exposure

  The audience need to choose to consume the media type
• Selective perception


  Different people take notice of some things others reject
• Selective retention


  The message has to stick, people have a tendency to remember things they agree with
• Postman (1986) argued we live in a 'three-minute culture', i.e. average attention span is about 3 minutes.
• Uses and gratifications model


  The audience use the media to satisfy their needs, which might be biological, psychological or social and vary according to the audience's social position, age, gender, ethnicity and so on
• Watson notes that more children have their own access to the media, which will lead to the obsolescence of the social needs relating to social interaction and community as more gadgets probably means less communication and interaction between family members. There is less need for face to face interaction (Facebook friends)
• Maists suggests the needs may be manipulated by the media in the first place, they are false needs – the need for material items rather than social interaction
• Reception analysis model


  The way people interpret media depends on their class, age, gender, ethnic group and other sources of identity, this means media content can be interpreted in different ways
• Morley (1980) gave in-depth interviews to 29 groups of people from different backgrounds to see how they interpreted, decoded the message or if they had rejected it, of a programme called Nationwide and their story of strike action. The results show people made up their own minds, there was opposition to the slant of the producers and agreement was not blind acceptance but based on the audiences' own knowledge of the story. BUT it was watched in an artificial environment.
• Ways people interpret media

  • Preferred or dominant reading
  • Oppositional reading
  • Negotiated reading
• The content is polysemic, it can attract more than one interpretation.
• Morley suggests that the average person belongs to several subcultures and this may mean their interpretation of a story may change.
• Cultural effects model


  The media is a powerful ideological tool transmitting the norms and values of capitalism, media producers expect the audience to interpret the message in a particular way, to agree with their own reading, and over time the ruling class message becomes unconsciously shared by most
• The cultural effects model does not suggest that the media is simply brainwashing people, but that it helps those who manage capitalist society to obtain the active consent of the majority.
• The cultural effects model accepts different audiences interpret media in different ways, but within confined limits.
• The GUMG research on public perception of the 1984/5 strikes found that the sample quickly recognised the ideological message of the pictures (it was violent and miners were at fault), people who were sympathetic had this view weakened by viewing the news, and the majority of people who had no experience of the strike saw it as violent and illegitimate, though some questioned rejected the message.
• Philo (2001) notes how without other experience of an event the media message of the event will be very strong and is likely to shape individuals' views.
• Criticisms of the cultural effects model include that it implies the Marxists are the only ones to see the true message, the rest of us are cultural dupes, and pluralists question the idea that the views of the capitalist elite make up the main constituents of the ideology, the Marxists have underestimated the professionalism of many journalists.
• Hypodermic model of media violence

  Suggests a direct correlation between violence & antisocial behaviour portrayed in the media and in real life
• Hypodermic model of media violence


  • Suggests children and teenagers are especially vulnerable as they are in the early stages of socialization
• Hypodermic model of media violence

  • Columbine High School Massacre (April 1999 - 2 students took guns and a bomb into their school and killed 13, Marilyn Manson's music and a video game Doom were blamed)
  • Abduction and murder of Jamie Bulger (February 1993, blamed on consumption of violent films such as Child's Play 3)
• Imitation or copycat violence

  1. Bandura et al (1963) showed 3 groups of children a video of a bobo doll being attacked, then allowed them to play in a room with a bobo doll - the 3 groups shown violent behaviour all behaved more aggressively

  2. McCabe and Main (2005) argued imitation was a likely outcome of media violence, as it is often portrayed as a heroic way to solve problems and often goes unpunished and brings rewards
• Desensitization


  Children & teenagers exposed to thousands of killings and acts of violence, over time, a drip-drip effect, became used to them, desensitized
• Censorship


  • Video Recordings (labelling) Act 1985
  • British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) censoring film releases
  • TV agreeing on 9pm watershed
• Censorship examples


  • 2006 - advertising campaign with 50 Cents criticized for glamorizing gun crime
  • 2007 - government review into violence, sexual behaviour and language in video games and the internet
  • 2008 - Ofcom survey reported 2/3 of children aged 12-15 claimed violence in video games had more of an impact than violence in film or TV
• Feminist perspective - negative effects of porn

  • Morgan (1980) suggests 'pornography is the theory, rape is the practice'
  • Dworkin (1990) suggests porn trivialises rape and makes men 'callous to cruelty, to infliction of pain, to violence against persons, to abuse of women'
  • Studies suggest watching x-rated material makes men and women less satisfied with their partner, less supportive of marriage, more interested in emotionless sex and more accepting of female subservience
• Feminist perspective - positive effects of porn

  • Hald (2007) in Denmark, concluded men and women generally considered porn as a positive influence in their lives- it improved their sex lives, sexual knowledge, their attitudes towards the opposite gender and the general quality of their lives
  • Malamuth (1984) in America found that those who already had violent tendencies were worsened from watching porn, although it did not make the non-violent violent
• Catharsis

  Screen violence provides a safe outlet for people's aggressive tendencies
• Sensitization


  Seeing violence and its consequences increases awareness of the pain and suffering to the victim and puts people off violent behaviour
• Evidence to support the claims of the hypodermic syringe model is weak
• Many studies which look at the way children behave when TV first arrives shows little change, as shown by Charlton et al. (2000) in St Helena
• Cumberbatch (2004) suggests if one conclusion is possible, it is that the jury is still out. It's never been in