Media effects models

Question 1

Media acts as a _______ agent of socialisation and an agency of ______ social control

Answer 1

• Secondary

- Informal

Question 2

Are we influenced by the media

Answer 2

Yes - Effects approach

No - Active audience approaches

Question 3

The effects approach sees the audience as…

Answer 3

• Passive
• Weak
• Homogenous
  > A society that is relatively uniform demographically

Question 4

The Hypodermic Syringe Model

Answer 4

• Feared the effects of the media
• Vance Packard ‘hidden persuaders’
• Ordinary people were persuaded to consume goods
• Mass media directly injects messages like a magic bullet

Question 5

Dworkin

Answer 5

View suggests audiences watch a violent film and commit violence, suggests that men viewing pornography therefore are more likely to abuse women

Question 6

Marxists explain the ideological power of media owners

Answer 6

• Marcuse = media gives w/c false needs

- Miliband - powerful opium (passive)

Question 7

Evidence: James Bulger murder

Answer 7

• Bulger was murdered by 2 12 year olds who had seen the film child’s play
• Reenacted what they saw
• Copycat violence
• Media referred to as ‘Jamie’
• Children exposed to violence from a young age
• Violence = a norm

Question 8

Evidence: Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment

Answer 8

• Example of copycat violence as the children imitated the violent adult who hit the doll
• Copycat violence in a lab
• Ethics questioned

Question 9

What examples show the law protecting people?

Answer 9

Watershed age restrictions

Question 10

Why might sociologists be critical of this model

Answer 10

• Assumes audience is passive, don’t question just absorb

- Ignores role of socialisation, rather than blaming media

Question 11

Cultural effects model

Answer 11

• A slow drip drip of information
• Neo-marxist
• Media is very powerful tool in transmitting capitalist ideas, norms and values
• Gramsci capitalist norms = part of cultural hegemony

Question 12

Examples of capitalist ideology

Answer 12

• Money makes us happy
• Individual greed is good
  > Don’t question

Question 13

Brainwashing

Answer 13

Gradually shapes people’s view of the world

Question 14

Marxists

Answer 14

Believe television content has deliberately been dumbed down that might make audiences think critically

Question 15

Evaluation of cultural effects model

Answer 15

Good
- More realistic than immediate effect, instead capitalist ideology becomes part of the cultural hegemony that we dont question according to Gramsci

Bad
- Still sees audience as passive and denies that capitalism has been good for m/c who have high quality of living

Question 16

Active audience approach sees the audience as…

Answer 16

• Active (don’t question world)
• Diverse (not all the same)
• Free will (can choose what to be influenced by)

Question 17

The selective filter model - Klapper

Answer 17

• Selective exposure = Audience choose
• Selective perception = Audience may not accept message
• Selective retention = messages have ‘stuck’ in the mind of those who have accessed the media content

Question 18

The uses and Gratifications model - Blumler and McQuail

Answer 18

• Audience = active
• Satisfy social needs
• Diversion = Lack of satisfaction
• Personal relationships = Soap operas
• Personal identity = Media to modify identity
• Surveillance = News

Question 19

The two-step flow model - Katz and Lazarsfled

Answer 19

Social networks are dominated by opinion leaders, choose to adopt a particular opinion not passive but active

Question 20

The reception analysis model - Morely

Answer 20

Choose to interpret media in three ways

• Dominant = they agree
• Oppositional = they disagree
• Negotiated = reinterpret views to fit in with their own views

Homogenous audience