Final Question
Usually, a debate question between 16-20 marks.
This question requires a lot of theory all surrounding the media effects model (what are the effects media has on audiences?) To get top marks, you must include counter arguments.
Media effects model: The model concerns how media can affect society/individuals and vice versa.
These are very negative implications of this model, but you will also learn some counter arguments.
You will lose marks if you write about too many or not enough.
• ‘A sector’- only one
• ‘A product’- only one
• ‘Examples’- multiple
• ‘Products’- multiple
Media is violent
1. Active/ passive audiences: when you think or challenge the idea presented in the media is active and passive is when you just accept it.
2. Hypodermic Needle theory: when the media an audience consume ‘injects’ the ideas.
- Theorises that audiences are essentially passive and will readily absorb messages relayed to the by the media.
- This means that, after watching a violent horror film will negatively affect the audience.
- This presupposes that audiences are passive (unable to reject media messages) rather than active (make sense of media messages through personal and social contexts.
3. Cohen (Moral Panics)
- In 1972, Stanley Cohen developed the moral panic theory. This encompassed ideas of folk devil theory in society.
- Moral panic happens when 'a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests'.
- His research was based on the mods and rockers in the 1960s, but has since been applied to the media.
- Examples: squid games, blue whale challenge, It- killer clowns, 13 reasons why
4. Desensitisation
- Audience's reactions are weaker to their exposure to extreme violence, sex, and death
- This decrease in fear and sensitivity links to the extreme rise of societal violence and behaviours.
- There is constant exposure from video games, films, Tv, etc. which is a reason why we are desensitised. Another reason could be due to learning and gaining knowledge about how these media products are created and therefore knowing it isn't real.
5. Mulvey (Male Gaze)
- A feminist perspective on media effects.
- Gaze: how an audience views people that have been presented
- How men look at women, how women look at themselves, how women look at other women.
- Mulvey believes that audiences have to view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male and that the camera is always of that viewpoint. Cameras linger on women's body/curves.
- Women are regulated as sexual objects and therefore are heavily sexualised.
6. Anderson (Media violence on youth)
- Exposure to violence increases the likelihood of aggressive violent behaviour in young people.
- The study was based on research carried out on the effects of media violence in TV, film, music, and video games.
- It says two of the main ways aggressive or violent behaviour is seen in young people: desensitisation and imitation (of violent behaviour)
- The degree to which media affects aggression and violence in young people can depend on other factors such as their social environment.
- No one is immune to the effects of media violence.
Counter argument
7. Guantlett (Media effects)
8. Blumler and Katz (Uses and Gratifications)
Case studies- arguments
Scream 2001:
Thierry Jaradin killed a girl after she rejected him, he stabbed her 30 times while wearing the same mask used in the movie. The theory is this was because he was unstable but also due to the viewing of the movie, relating to the Anderson (media violence on youth) and the media effects model.
Colorado shooting 2012:
During the airing of the dark knight rises, James Holmes set off tear gas grenades and shot into the audience. He claimed to be influenced by the film and killed 12 people, injuring 70 others.
Relates to moral panic as this will hit the news and society will be scared to watch the film incase of being influenced by it.
Drill music (current):
Promotes gun and knife crime, this encourages gang violence and creates moral panic in current society
The columbine massacare 1999:
Two students carried out a school shooting
Dexter copycat: Mark Andrew Twitchell 2011
Dexter Morgan was a fictional character who killed people in his free time, Mark Andrew Twitchell claimed to be inspired by this character and therefore killed people too. He was convicted for first degree murder, linking to passive audience theory where he was unable to reject the media message and make sense of it in a social context.
Slendermen stabbing 2014:
In an attempt to become 'proxies' for the slender-man after watching the film they lured their friend into the forest and stabbed her 19 times
GTA drives 8 year old to murder his grandmother
ripple effect camaign
Anders Breivik shooting:
Practiced shooting through video games and went to a summer camp and shot 77 people
Counter arguments
David Gauntlett:
Advocate for media studies, challanges the media effects model.
Gauntlett states there are '10 things wrong with the media effects model'
The effects model treats children as inadequate/ incapable of understanding mass media. A study showed children could speak intelligently and negatively about media.
This challenges the hypodermic needle theory, Anderson's theory and to be extended children being passive audiences.
The effect model tackles social problems backwards, Gauntlett claims that there is a mistake of looking at individuals, rather than society, in relation to the mass media.
Just because a group of individuals are violent, there is no need to generalise that ALL youths are violent.
The effects model assumes superiority to the masses. People believe that media is influential on others and that it could never influence themselves. Further, it is wrong to believe that uneducated, lower class individuals are more heavily affected by media content.
The effects model is selective in its criticisms of media depictions of violence.
The acts of violence which appear on a daily basis on the news and in serious factual programmes are seen as somehow exempt. Instead, media depictions of violence, which the effects model typically condemns are limited to fictional productions.
Uses and Gratification:
Audiences consume media for specific reasons: personal relationships, personal identity, surveillance, escapism.
This can be used as a counter argument as it challenges the hypodermic needle theory and suggests we are active audiences and consume media for specific reasons and therefore aren't influenced by the media we consume.
Regulatory bodies:
TV- OFCOM, since 2004 they have regulated all broadcast content across UK television channels.
It protects the public by regulating content.
OFCOM, ASA, IPSO, PEGI, BBFC, W3C, VSC
Celebrity big brother to be investigate by OFCOM:
This was actionary, it was only regulated due to public complaints
One of the show members was physically abused by a co-star on the show and therefore was seen as offensive content.
OFCOM investigated it, however she supposedly overreacted as they were play fighting.
Three Love Island suicides have raised concerns:
Caroline Flack's death, Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassis were all suicides after being on the Love Island show.
These associations with love island caused people to worry. People want the show to look after peoples mental health while they're in the spotlight during and after the show.
Each islander on their way home now receives 8 therapy sessions to combat the poor mental health and online abuse some contestants received.
- Relates to male/female gaze theory
Video games have become a lot more popular over the past few years- violent and other
There is a difference between violence and aggression.
- Aggression: angry or hostile thoughts, feeling, or behaviours
- Violence: Physical harm
Comments
Post a Comment