Audience effects models Flashcards
(15 cards)
What does the Hypodermic Syringe Model suggest about media effects on audiences?
A:
The Hypodermic Syringe Model argues that media messages are directly injected into passive audiences, leading to immediate imitation or belief. Audiences are viewed as homogenous and powerless to resist media influence. Although no single sociologist is credited, the theory is linked to early mass media theorists and supported by Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment. This model highlights media imitation, moral panic, and assumes direct effects.
What is the key idea of the Marxist Cultural Effects Model?
The Marxist Cultural Effects Model (GUMG, Curran) argues that media gradually transmits dominant ideology through a drip-drip process, shaping the worldview of audiences over time. In the 1984 miners’ strike, GUMG showed repeated framing of miners as violent led many to internalise elite perspectives. Curran found that frequent reading of biased newspapers immerses readers in specific ideologies. This model emphasises false class consciousness, media hegemony, and long-term ideological shaping.
What does the Two-Step Flow Model say about media influence?
Katz and Lazarsfeld’s Two-Step Flow Model suggests that media does not influence audiences directly, but through opinion leaders who interpret and pass on messages. These leaders, embedded in social networks, shape how others internalise media. Although people aren’t fully passive, the model still implies indirect control. It highlights the role of social networks, indirect influence, and opinion filtering in shaping audience response.
What is the Selective Filter Model and how does it explain audience activity?
Klapper’s Selective Filter Model states media must pass through three audience filters to have any effect: selective exposure (choosing what to consume), selective perception (accepting or rejecting based on beliefs), and selective retention (remembering certain content). This shows an audience exercising active choice. However, critics argue cumulative exposure still matters, and cultural background shapes these choices. It reflects limited effects, active filtering, and contextual interpretation.
What does the Uses and Gratifications Model suggest about media use?
Blumler and Katz argue that audiences are active and use media to fulfil needs such as diversion, personal identity, relationships, and surveillance. People are not manipulated but rather seek media for satisfaction. Park et al. supported this with findings on social media use. Critics, including Marxists, argue this model overestimates audience freedom and ignores ideological constraints. It introduces media needs, audience agency, and personal gratification.
How does the Reception Analysis Model describe how audiences interpret media?
Stuart Hall (with Morley) argues that audiences decode media differently based on social background. He identified three readings: preferred (dominant), negotiated, and oppositional. Morley found different social groups responded uniquely to the same news. The model highlights that media effects are shaped by group identity and context. However, the method was criticised for demand characteristics. Key concepts: encoding/decoding, polysemy, social construction of meaning.
How does the Postmodernist Model understand audience-media interaction?
Philo critiques postmodernism but Baudrillard argues we live in a media-saturated world where hyperreality blurs truth and fiction. Postmodernists believe audiences construct their own meanings from fragmented media sources. Meaning is fluid, and no single “truth” exists. Critics (Marxists/Feminists) argue it ignores power and inequality in media access. Key concepts include hyperreality, fluid interpretation, and media as simulation.
Which audience models are deterministic and why?
The Hypodermic Syringe, Marxist Cultural Effects, and Two-Step Flow models are deterministic. They all assume media has strong influence over passive or semi-passive audiences. The Hypodermic model assumes direct injection of ideas, Marxists see gradual ideological control, and the Two-Step Flow limits interpretation to the views of opinion leaders. These models view media as shaping belief and behaviour with minimal resistance.
Which audience models are interactive or postmodern, and why?
The Selective Filter, Uses and Gratifications, Reception Analysis, and Postmodernist models are interactive or postmodern. They highlight audience agency, interpretive diversity, and the role of social context. Selective filtering shows active consumption; Uses and Grats focuses on personal needs; Reception Theory shows multiple readings based on identity; and Postmodernism sees meaning as subjective and constantly shifting. These models reflect active audience and media literacy.
Which audience effects models should you use in essays about media violence or moral panics?
Use the Hypodermic Syringe Model to argue for direct imitation (e.g. Bandura).
Use the Reception Analysis Model to show audiences interpret violent media differently based on background.
Add Postmodernism to explain desensitisation and hyperreality, where media violence feels real.
Together, they let you contrast passive and active interpretations of violent media.
Which models help in essays about media control, ownership, and ideology?
Use the Marxist Cultural Effects Model to argue owners drip-feed dominant ideology to shape false consciousness.
Use Two-Step Flow and Reception Analysis to challenge this — showing media is filtered by opinion leaders or decoded differently.
Add Postmodernism to argue that media power is fragmented, and audiences are now content creators too.
This gives a balance between structural control and audience agency.
Which audience models support essays on identity and representation (e.g. gender, ethnicity, age)?
Use the Reception Analysis Model to show that media messages are interpreted through identity lenses (e.g. oppositional readings by marginalised groups).
Use Uses and Gratifications to argue audiences seek media that reinforces or challenges their identity.
Add Postmodernism to highlight how fragmented media lets people construct their own identities (e.g. Instagram, TikTok, fandoms).
These models help show that identity formation through media is active and complex.
If asked on Evaluating the view that the media directly impacts audiences, How does the hypodermic syringe model explain copycat violence from media?
The hypodermic syringe model suggests media messages are directly injected into a passive audience.
Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment supports this — children who viewed violent films imitated aggression, showing media content can directly influence behaviour.
Shows cause-effect between media violence and copycat behaviour.
Criticism: Gauntlett argues Bandura’s study lacks ecological validity — children acted unnaturally in a lab. Also risks the Hawthorne effect, where participants guess expected behaviour.
Concept: Copycat violence, passive audience, Bandura (1961)
In terms of the Hypodermic syringe model, What is the disinhibition effect and how does media influence it?
McCabe and Martin argue media violence causes disinhibition — it lifts everyday restraints, encouraging rule-breaking.
Media portrays aggression as acceptable in some contexts (e.g., road rage), replacing negotiation with violence.
Example: Violent media convinces some that conflict can be resolved through force.
Criticism: Ramos et al. found that real violence often makes viewers more empathetic to victims, increasing sensitivity rather than reducing it.
Concept: Disinhibition effect, McCabe & Martin, suspended social norms
What is the drip-drip effect and how does it relate to desensitisation?
Newson and others argue constant exposure to violent media leads to desensitisation.
An average 18-year-old has seen over 16,000 TV murders — normalises violence and socialises audiences into seeing it as acceptable.
Supported by Ofcom (2015): 1 in 10 children don’t question online content, suggesting vulnerability to media messages.
Criticism: Hypodermic models fail to define types of violence — cartoon vs. authentic vs. sport (e.g., boxing).
Concept: Desensitisation, drip-drip effect, Ofcom, Newson
