Media modles

• Hypodermic syringe model


  Media injects itself into the mind of the audience, in the same way drugs are directly injected into the body

  all individuals = affected in the same way
• Audience for hypodermic syringe

  Passively accepts the message injected into them
• Hypodermic syringe belief on violence

  direct correlation between violent behaviours shown on TV, computer games and anti social/criminal behaviour in real life
• Problem with hypodermic syringe model

  too simplistic and treats people as passive and very easily led

  not all audience react in the same way to media, growth of new media means audience can influence media
• HSM audience influencing media (criticism) example

  Refugee crisis in 2015 photographs of the body of a 3 year old syrian refugee who drowned was shared on social media

  People used this to criticise the European Government approach to crisis. Mainstream media message about refugees then became more sympathetic
• Selective Filter Model 


  Audience chooses which media to experience and control which part of media message to pay attention/engage with.

  pick out part of message which fits in with their view of the world and ignores the rest
• SFM Fiske


  argues individuals become very experienced readers of the media

  argues individuals can understand one 'media text' in several ways on several different levels in relation to other 'media texts' on the same subject
• SFM Klapper


  to get media across, media goes through 3 selective filters
• SFM Klapper, 3 selective filters

  Selective exposure - people can only consume media they want and are able to get

  Selective perception- people may ignore messages they don't want to hear

  Selective retention - people tend to only remember what they agree with
• What does the selective filter model stress


  the power of the individual
• Who developed the Uses + Gratification Model

  Blumer + Katz
• Uses + Gratification Model 


  People use the media to meet their needs
• What does the audience do in Uses + Gratification Model 


  actively choose what media to experience, using tools such as free will and the remote control

  everyone chooses for themselves, each media diet = unique
• U+G Model McQuail

  audience used coronation street to fulfil a need for social companionship
• U+G Model Lull


  men,women,young and old all use media to meet different needs
• Which theory does Uses + Gratification Model align with

  Functionalist theory

  argues media exists to serve needs of the public
• When was the two step flow model developed

  1950s
• Two step flow model


  media influence people but not everyone is influenced directly
• Two step flow model steps


  1.media message reaching an audience member

  2.how their understanding of the message is shaped by social interactions with other audience members
• 2 step flow Katz + Lazarsfeild 


  argues key individuals in each community whose reactions directly influenced others. these 'opinion leaders' openly expressed theur reaction/opinion and other followed their lead
• 2 step flow, Katz + Lazarsfeild American voters

  studied media influence on American voters, most people followed leaders views but the opinion leaders often got their ideas straight from the media messages
• is the 2 step flow only 2 steps


  does not have to be, can go through several
• Cultural Effects Theory

  social context = important when looking at the effects of the media, claims different people interpret media in different ways
• How does the audience interpret media CET

  context of culture they already belong to, so the effect of media is no the same for everyone
• CET- War of the World Broadcast context

  response was created by the cultural context in which it was heard, today it would not create the same response

  at the time there was insecurity in American society due to financial crisis and the move towards war - radio programmes frequently interrupted for news reports
• CET- War of the World Broadcast result


  people would not have been surprised to hear a real report of bad news interrupting so its more likely members of audience would believe it

  Hall argued media has dominant ideological messages 'encoded', but people of different backgrounds can 'decode' these messages differently - varying degrees if agreement or opposition
• Structured interpretation model


  social context creates a 'preferred reading' of media message
• What does SIM argue

  dominant interpretation individuals pick which media to engage with and process takes place in a social context, different social groups have different dominant interpretations of the same text
• SIM Morley

  studied how television audience responded to news programme. showed some programmes to several different social groups and found their response varied hugely but within each group most individuals responded in the same way
• Media Models

  Hypodermic syringe

  Selective filter

  Uses and gratification model

  Cultural effects Theory

  2 Step flow

  Structured Interpretation