The Relationship Between The Media and Audiences

• Functionalists, Marxists and feminists


  They argue the media performs a role where it seeks to shape the norms and values of its audience
• Functionalists


  They see the media's role in secondary socialisation as creating a value consensus and social solidarity
• Marxists


  They see the media as benefitting only the ruling class (the bourgeoisie), not society as a whole
• Ideological state apparatus (ISA)


  Institutions that use ideas to control people, serving the interests of the ruling class
• Repressive state apparatus (RSA)


  Formal institutions (e.g. government and police) used by the state
• False consciousness


  The way the ruling class controls and manipulates the proletariat so they are unable to recognise their own oppression
• Hegemony


  The media (and culture in general) creates a common sense that serves the interests of the ruling class
• Feminists


  They see the media as maintaining a patriarchal society through the objectification and misrepresentation of women
• Interactionists


  They see the media as influencing audience members, although not on the macro, structuralist scale that Marxists and feminists suggest
• Folk devils


  Individuals or groups of people who are portrayed in a negative way in the media, usually in relation to some sort of deviant behaviour
• Moral panic


  A feeling of fear that is associated with a particular issue, usually whipped up by the media
• Deviancy amplification


  The idea that the media makes crime or deviance worse through its reporting
• Postmodernists


  They are more positive about media effects, and see the process as more complex than the wealthy and powerful seeking to dominate the rest
• Simulacrum


  The boundaries between reality and media representations are blurred
• Hypodermic Syringe Model


  Assumes that messages presented by the media are received directly and accepted by a passive audience
• Imitation


  The idea of people doing copycat actions based on things they have seen in the media
• Desensitisation


  The idea that people cease to find violence shocking and wrong because they have been exposed to so much of it, through the media
• Cultural Effects Model


  A neo-Marxist approach that explores how the powerful groups in society (the bourgeoisie) are able to transmit their values through the media and ultimately turn their message into the dominant ideology or hegemony in society
• Preferred reading


  The way the media expects people to respond to and understand their messages, which reflects the values of the ruling class
• Audience members are often able to "decode" the ideological messages that are contained in the media, but that does not automatically mean they will reject them</b>
• Hypodermic syringe model


  Relationship between media and audience is complex, not just passive
• Audience


  • Diverse people with different attitudes, experiences, backgrounds and values
  • Not homogenous
• Measuring the cumulative and diverse effect of media influence between cultures and contexts is extremely difficult
• People may hold attitudes that are present and have been regularly repeated in media messages
• It is very hard to prove the role of media in shaping those attitudes
• Some pluralists argue the audience is effectively passive, media manipulates the audience
• People spend billions on advertising because they believe media can influence audience behaviour
• People buy things they do not actually need, because media messages have successfully created a "false need"
• Reception analysis model


  Different audiences will interpret media content differently
• Ways audience may understand media messages

  • Dominant/hegemonic reading
  • Negotiated reading
  • Oppositional reading
• The audience is neither passive nor homogenous, media messages can be polysemic
• Pluralists question if media messages have a dominant or hegemonic preferred reading


  Media is diverse and heterogeneous, people can choose media they are interested in
• Marxists and radical feminists argue the theory implies it is easy to negotiate or reject media messages


  This ignores false consciousness or cumulative effect of media messages
• Two-step flow model


  Individuals form views based on opinion leaders, who are influenced by media
• Opinion leaders


  People thought to be knowledgeable about an issue, help filter media content to other audience members
• Some research undermined the original two-step flow study, suggesting most people cite media sources rather than opinion leaders
• The process may be more complex than a simple two-step flow
• Opinion leaders may significantly change or reinterpret the intended media message</b>
• Selective filter model


  Audience has choice in how media affects them - selective exposure, selective perception, selective retention
• Media producers have techniques to get past these filters and influence audiences