Audience: The Effects Debate

Audience: The Effects Debate

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  AUDIENCE • Tobe aware of ‘The Effects Debate’ • Identify some theories of the way the media may affect an audience • Support a critical engagement with the theories • [email protected]
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  The Effects Debate Media producers think carefully about identifying their target audience and providing a text which will interest and engage them. However, the mass media is such a major part of people’s lives that one of the major debates in media studies is the effect that the media may have on its audience. However, the mass media is such a major part of people’s lives that one of the major debates in media studies is the effect that the media may have on its audience. This issue focuses on the negative effects that may be created by media texts; for example, considering if there might be a link between violent behaviour and representations of violence in the media.
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  The Effects Debate Does the media have the power to change peoples’ behaviour, attitudes or promote values and ideologies? 1. Do you play violent video games and/or watch violent films? Are you violent in ‘real life’? 2. Do you ever see a product advertised on TV or on the internet and decide you want to buy it? 3. Have you ever seen a documentary which has drawn your attention to an issue which you now feel strongly about?
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  The Washington NavyYard shooting occurred on September 16, 2013, when lone gunman Aaron Alexis fatally shot twelve people and injured three others in a mass shooting at the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) inside the Washington Navy Yard in Southeast Washington, D.C The Columbine High School massacre was a school shooting which occurred on April 20, 1999. The perpetrators, two senior students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered a total of 12 students and one teacher. They injured 21 additional people, with three others being injured while attempting to escape the school. The pair then committed suicide James Patrick Bulger was murdered on 12 February 1993, at the age of two. He was abducted, tortured and murdered by two ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. Bulger disappeared from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, while accompanying his mother. His mutilated body was found on a railway line two-and-a-half miles away in Walton, Liverpool, two days after his murder. Thompson and Venables were charged with Bulger's abduction and murder. The pair were found guilty on 24 November 1993, making them the youngest convicted murderers in modern English history.
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  Do you playviolent video games and/or watch violent films? Are you violent in ‘real life’? Whilst some people do act violently, many do not and in today’s culture it is almost impossible to avoid violent representations. This seems to support the view that the media does not directly cause people to act a certain way.
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  Do you eversee a product advertised on TV or on the internet and decide you want to buy it? Advertisers spend millions of pounds promoting their products. The Marks and Spencer’s food adverts have increased the grocery sales for the high street shop and encouraged customers to indulge themselves with the luxury items they sell. It’s not just food, it’s M & S food
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  Have you everseen a documentary which has drawn your attention to an issue which you now feel strongly about? Viewing a documentary can provide access to information that may change the way you feel about an issue. It may even make you want to act differently, eat more healthily, join a political group or simply tell your friends about what you have learnt. This seems to support the view that the media does have the potential to influence people. MacDonalds began offering ‘healthy options’ after concerns raised in this documentary appeared to have impacted on sales.
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  Audience Theories Thequestion of media effects is a difficult one and it is impossible to prove either side of the argument. Several theories have been developed which offer specific viewpoints on the effects the media may have. • Audience theories regarding the effects of the media on audiences can be divided into these categories: • Direct Effect Theories • Diffusion Theories • Indirect Effect Theories • The Pluralist Approach
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  Direct Effect Theories These ideas view the media as having a direct effect on the ideas, attitudes and behaviours of the audience. Hypodermic Syringe Theory Cultivation Theory (George Gerbner) This is one of the simplest models used to explain the way the media can have an effect on the audience. It assumes that the audience are passive and that all members of the audience group are the same and respond in similar ways. 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. For example, if someone watches violence, it will make them behave violently or accept violent behaviour. This theory considers the way the media affects attitudes rather than behaviour. The media is seen as part of our socialisation process, communicating ‘appropriate’ attitudes and the norms and values of the culture. According to this theory, while any one media text does not have too much effect, repeated exposure to certain ideas and values may make the audience less critical of the ideas presented as they appear ‘normal’.
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  Hypodermic Syringe Theory • The Hypodermic Syringe Theory is often used as a method of scapegoating and some types of texts seem to get blamed more than others such as horror films, rock music and video games. Scapegoating is when a simple reason (a media text) is blamed for a specific action or event. It is often easier to scapegoat a media text rather than look at the more complex reasons why something may have happened.
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  Which seems more logical? • Listening to Marilyn Manson caused teenagers to open fire in a high school killing students and teachers? Which of these ‘reasons’ for this tragedy would be easiest to address and, potentially, solve? • The Columbine High School shootings occurred due to a complex relationship between:* • The ease of access to firearms and the social • acceptance of gun ownership • The alienation felt by teenagers who felt as though they did not fit in • The hopelessness caused by living in an area where unemployment was high and was economically disadvantaged • The general desensitisation caused by access to a range of violent images: film, TV, the news, the internet • * This is the argument offered by Michael Moore in his film Bowling for Columbine The Hypodermic Syringe Theory can offer quick, simple reasons for behaviours with apparently simple solutions but does not take into account that a range of factors may influence audience behaviour. It is an idea that is popular with the tabloid press and politicians who attempt to provide solutions to problems to reassure their audience/constituents. However, there is little to support this theory when it is considered carefully.
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  Cultivation Theory Thekey ideas here are that: • Through repetition attitudes, ideas and values may become normalised or naturalised; they are accepted rather than considered • Through repetition the audience may become desensitised towards negative and/or violent representations • Often more vulnerable groups are a main consideration within this approach. For example, children are often seen to need protection from the cultivation of certain ideas and values. This concern has led to the banning of fast food advertising during children’s TV programming, responding to recent concerns regarding nutrition and childhood obesity.
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  When being badis good • Consider a typical action film you have seen recently. It is likely it contained the following values: • Violence for a ‘good’ reason is acceptable. • Violence for a ‘bad’ reason must be punished. • Complete the following table giving textual examples of how your text represented these ideas. Do these values appear in any other action films, other genres or other types of media texts?
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  Cultivation Theory •Although cultivation theory goes beyond a simple ‘cause and effect’ approach to audience effects, critics see both these direct theories as having an elitist element suggesting a judgement is being made about the mass audience as they are assumed to be easily led and not perceptive or self-aware. The individual nature of the members of the audience is not taken into account. • This theory identifies the media as being a negative influence but does not consider forms of ‘high art’ in the same way. Some of Shakespeare’s plays are extremely violent but are not seen to be a problem whereas games and television programmes are open to criticism
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  Diffusion Theories Theseideas focus on the influence media may have but concentrate on the personalised way audiences access texts and consider the influence other people may have. Two-Step Theory (Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz) Indirect Effect Theories This theory acknowledges that we often access media texts with others or, if alone, we may well talk about our media experiences with our friends and family later. One argument is that these kinds of conversations have more influence on potential behaviour than than media text itself. 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. Pluralism The final theoretical position is the pluralist one which 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.
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  Two-Step Theory •This theory states that, whatever our experience of the media, we are likely to discuss it with others. If we respect their opinion (the theory calls these people opinion leaders), the chances are that we may be affected by the opinion leaders’ responses as well as by the text itself. • Opinion leaders can come in the form of reviewers, presenters on television or people from groups we admire such as religious leaders, politicians etc. as well as from our family or social groups.
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  Indirect Effect Theories: Reception Analysis • Reception Analysis is based on the idea that no text has one single meaning. The audience create meanings for themselves based on many individual factors such as: • Gender • Age • Race • Religious beliefs • Personal values • Upbringing and education • Geographical location • Historical location How might different people interpret these texts? How might a religious person respond to Skins? What would a pensioner make of Hollyoaks? Why do many teenagers find Question Time boring?