- The Effects Model or the Hypodermic Model
- The uses and gratifications model
- Cultivation Theory
- Two step Flow Theory
- Reception Theory
- Suture
- Feminist Audience Theory - Laura Mulvey
The Effects Model: This is a theory which suggests the public are influenced directly by the media, it suggests that the consumption of media texts has an effect and an influence on them. It suggests that audiences are passive and powerless and they cannot prevent the influence. The power lies with the message of the text.
The Effects Model: The Hyprodermic Model
This suggests that the media inject the audience, it is like a syringe and the message directly affects them. Therefore the media works like a drug and the audience gets addicted, unstable and believe this.
Supporting Evidence: The Bobo Doll experiment
The Bobo Doll experiment suggests that children are influenced by films, mainly horrors. It was conducted by Albert Bandura. The idea was that he got a group of young children to watch a video of an adult assulting a Bobo Doll and then they was put in a room full of toys with a Bobo doll to see what they do, they often assaulted the Bobo doll in the same way they saw the adult assult it in the video. According the Albert and many others this was evidence that children copy behavior which they see, such as in horror films, childs play, the actions will be copied and it is therefore dangerous for them to watch it.
88% of the children imitated the violent behavior that they had earlier viewed. 8 months later 40% of the children reproduced the same violent behavior. This suggests that media affects what people do, especially young children and proves that it directly (straight after) affected them.
However the theory is critiqued as it doesn't take into consideration different personalities, age, gender, sexuality, race of the children, the upbringing and range of experiences of the children such as the way they are treated at home, are they neglected or abused at home? It has also said to be bias as they pretty much led the children into doing what they wanted them to do. A gun left in a room would lead a child to play shooting games, a hammer in a room would lead a child to smash things up and a doll which the child has been shown to use as some sort of punching bag would obviously use as a punching bag.
Also examples that the media give out false information is the James Bulger Case where two ten year olds tortured a three year old until his unfortunate death. Media gave out a message that it all happened because the children were influenced by childs play. In actual fact the children had no recollection of ever watching childs play and the reason for there actions was mainly due to there socialisation of being neglected and abused at home.
No case could be proven to demonstrate a link between the text an the violent acts.
Moral Panic: an intense feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order/ a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests. A moral panic can be influenced or created by the media.
88% of the children imitated the violent behavior that they had earlier viewed. 8 months later 40% of the children reproduced the same violent behavior. This suggests that media affects what people do, especially young children and proves that it directly (straight after) affected them.
However the theory is critiqued as it doesn't take into consideration different personalities, age, gender, sexuality, race of the children, the upbringing and range of experiences of the children such as the way they are treated at home, are they neglected or abused at home? It has also said to be bias as they pretty much led the children into doing what they wanted them to do. A gun left in a room would lead a child to play shooting games, a hammer in a room would lead a child to smash things up and a doll which the child has been shown to use as some sort of punching bag would obviously use as a punching bag.
Also examples that the media give out false information is the James Bulger Case where two ten year olds tortured a three year old until his unfortunate death. Media gave out a message that it all happened because the children were influenced by childs play. In actual fact the children had no recollection of ever watching childs play and the reason for there actions was mainly due to there socialisation of being neglected and abused at home.
No case could be proven to demonstrate a link between the text an the violent acts.
Moral Panic: an intense feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order/ a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests. A moral panic can be influenced or created by the media.
Cultivation Theory: A more refined version of the hypodermic needle model, suggests that repeated exposure to a text will desensitise the audience. eg; films such as The Exorcist and The Hills have Eyes were once banned and then re-released were asked questions such as what is all the fuss?
Two Step Flow Theory: rather than the direct influence suggested by the effects model there are two steps. People are not influenced by what they see but by the opinions of dominant figures (opinion leaders) and what they say about it. A common example of an opinion leader is a president or a celebrity.
Twitter, a social networking site where people share their opinions is a way for celebrities and opinion leaders to affect other people that are not as involved in the media's opinions on certain subjects. Advertisement targets celebrities as they realised word of mouth means their products get more well known and sell more.
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