Audience: The Effects Debate

AUDIENCE

• To be 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]

The Effects DebateMedia 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.

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?

The Washington Navy Yard 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 suicideJames 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.

Do you play violent 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.

Do you ever see a product advertised on TV or on the internet and decide you want to buy it?

Advertisers spend millions of pounds promoting theirproducts. 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 luxuryitems they sell.

It’s not just food, it’s M & S food

Have you ever seen 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 haveimpacted on sales.

Audience Theories

• 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

The question 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.

Direct Effect Theories

Hypodermic Syringe Theory

Cultivation Theory (George Gerbner)

These ideas view the media as having a direct effect on the ideas, attitudes and behaviours of the audience.

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 socialisationprocess, 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’.

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.

Which seems more logical?

• Listening to Marilyn Manson caused teenagers to open fire in a high school killing students and teachers?

• 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

Which of these ‘reasons’ for this tragedy would be easiestto address and, potentially,

solve?

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 thistheory when it is considered carefully.

Cultivation Theory

• 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.

The key 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

When being bad is 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?

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

Diffusion Theories

Two-Step Theory (Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz)

Indirect Effect Theories

These ideas focus on the influence media may have but concentrate on the personalised way audiences access texts and consider the influence other people may have.

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 ofconversations 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.

PluralismThe final theoretical position is the pluralist one which sees media

institutions as free to present whatever point of view they wish andaudiences being equally free to choose from the ideas and

representations available. This view sees the audience, not as amanipulated mass, but as individuals who are in a relationship with

the media texts they access. The pluralist view sees the mediaoffering a wide selection of viewpoints to various social groups.

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.

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?