Media Factsheet 030 - Media and Audiences -The Effects Debate

1) Activity

•  I hardly play video games, but i have sometimes played violent video games, like GTA 5. I don't specifically look for violent movies to watch but if they are on and there is nothing else to watch i might watch them, but it depends on what movie it is. No, I am not violent in real life, because I know that this behaviour isn't reality and by acting in this way you could face consequences, so I can control myself.
• I see a lot of products advertised on TV but I don't instantly buy it, because I know that you could potentially get a better deal somewhere else. Additionally, it depends on what product they are advertising.
• I hardly watch any documentaries, but I see clips of some about endangered animals and animal cruelty. I don't have really strong beliefs but I still think that it's wrong to abuse animals.

2) The four different categories for effects theories are:

• Direct Effect Theories-These ideas view the media as having a direct effect on the ideas,attitudes and behaviours of the audience.
• Diffusion Theories-These ideas focus on the influence media may have but concentrate the personalised way audiences access texts and consider the influence other people may have.
• Indirect Effect Theories-These theories acknowledge that the media may affect people but focuses on the fact that people respond differently to media texts and images and the environment we are in may be a part of that too.
• The Pluralist Approach- Sees media institutions as free to present whatever point of view they wish and audiences being equally free to choose from the ideas and representations available. This view sees the audience, not as a manipulated mass, but as individuals who are in a relationship with the media texts they access. The pluralist view sees the media offering a wide selection of viewpoints to various social groups.

3) Examples provided for the hypodermic needle theory (It states that the media has a direct

    influence on the audience and it ‘injects’ its beliefs and values directly into the viewers or                readers.) :

•  Child’s Play – The murder of Jamie Bulger
•  Marilyn Manson – The Columbine High School shootings
•  Natural Born Killers – a number of murders committed by romantically linked couples. in one case, the director was sued for inciting violence although the court case was later dismissed

4) The 1999 Columbine massacre:

• This event was a school shooting that occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School, in Columbine. The attack was well planned, and involved a fire bomb, propane tanks,  99 explosive devices and car bombs. The attackers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and 1 teacher. In addition to this,they injured 21 others. The pair subsequently committed suicide. The massacre had been reported as  "the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history." on USA Today. This attack created moral panic over goth culture, gun culture, social outcasts, the use of pharmaceutical anti-depressants by teenagers, internet use and violence in video games.

5) Reasons listed on the fact-sheet to possibly explain the Columbine High School massacre:

• The fact that society accepted the use and ownership's of guns and how easy it was to access them.
• The fact that some teenagers felt like they didn't fit in with the society and were left unstable.
• The fact that they lived in a place where unemployment was high and was economically disadvantaged.
• The general desensitisation caused by access to a range of violent images: film, TV, news and internet. 

6) Gerbner's Cultivation Theory

• This theory suggests that the media affects attitudes of audiences rather than behaviour. Repeated exposure to certain ideas and values may make them seem normal, because the audience is used to continuously watching them and will become desensitised.

7) The front page of the Daily Mail links to Cultivation theory because it shows how children       nowadays spend a lot more time on screens, which ultimately makes them accustomed to this attitude as it's the norm. We can see how this has impacted their attitude because the article says that "Headteachers have told us that children seem less empathetic and have shorter attention spans than before" Therefore, this proves that children are repeatedly exposed to the content on screen they think that what they are doing is normal and have become desensitised to certain values and beliefs. One person said that that they are "very concerned about figures because if they are online so much they are not moving and playing. And then there are the safety issues of child protection and radicalisation to think about", which implies that children that spend a lot of time on screen are exposed to more content which could desensitise them.

8) The fact-sheet suggests that action films have 'good' violence e.g. protecting a family member, stopping a criminal and killing someone who wants to hurt a weaker person. And 'bad' violence e.g. financial gain or fun, threatening a weaker person and threatening the state/government. The repetition of these events make them seem natural.

9)  The criticism of The Direct Effects Theory is that it is largely discredited as it makes simplified judgements about the audience. It uses a Scapegoat.

10) The 1970s sitcom may be seen as controversial nowadays because it's seen as racist and offensive by modern viewers. The society these days consist of different races and religion so racism isn't tolerated anymore. So what was accepted at that time as 'comedy' is seen as racist and rude in our society. Therefore Stuart Hall's Reception Theory links in as it proves that texts are polysemic and can have different readings to different audience members.

11) Stuart Hall's Reception Theory examples:

• The Sun
• The Guardian

They may form the same facts but in different ways. They are encode in different ways, decoded in different ways and have external factors which influence opinion. Violet behaviour and Chocolate.

12) I think that the Uses and Gratifications theory is the most convincing. This is because society these days is able to make a judgement on what they believe is right and wrong. I think it is important for people to make for and against judgements of the different theories because people are aware of the way that media portrays certain texts. The hypodermic needle model is weak because it only says that media injects information and that audiences are indoctrinated straight away. Whereas the Uses and Gratification theory suggests how audiences watch certain texts for a need or purpose e.g. watching the news for info. However, I also find Reception Theory convincing as it takes in all the factors of audiences environments, such as religion and age etc and has polysemic ways of interpreting it.