Audience theory lesson 22 - 24

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Audience
The Effects

The Frankfurt School developed concerns about the power of the modern mass media (propaganda) in the early to mid 1920s.
The founders of this school of thought were left-wing (neo-marxist) and clearly under threat in the context of pre-war Nazi Germany.
They moved to America and refined their model in an era of expanding media output in post-war America.
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The Frankfurt School

Propaganda and Control – links to ideology?

IdiAmin

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The Effects theory
The original model for audience was the effects/hypodermicneedle model which stressed the effects of the mass media on their audiences.
This model owes much to the supposed power of the mass media - in particular film - to inject their audiences with ideas and meanings.
Such was the thinking behind much of the Nazi propaganda that was evident in Triumph of the Will and similar films.
It is worth noting that totalitarian states and dictatorships are similar in their desire to have complete control over the media, usually in the belief that strict regulation of the media will help in controlling entire populations. See next slide for the most modern example.

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A less theoretical variant of the effects model was developed in response to the violent content of certain TV programmes.
Some of the moral watchdogs, or the 'moral majority' as they styled themselves, took issue with TV output that was deemed to be:
explicitly sexual
Too violent
or in other ways offensive
Their concerns were for those vulnerable members of the population who could be corrupted as a result of such material.
The best known of these groups in the UK was the National Viewers and Listeners Association (Mary Whitehouse) which argued that TV was a direct cause of deviant behaviour, especially among the young.
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Some actual psychology - Bandura
Put children in a room with adults and a bobo doll for ten minutes.
In half the cases, adult displayed aggressive behaviour towards the doll.
Children were placed in a room alone with both aggressive and non-aggressive toys for 20 minutes.
In the cases where no adult aggression was demonstrated, no child aggression was demonstrated.
Raises more questions about representation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobo_doll_experiment

The effects model is constantly used by politicians and social commentators when moral panics are generated around issues such as 'video nasties' and their influence on children (eg the Bulger case)
or computer games allegedly damaging literacy skills or contributing to violent behaviour (eg Bully and Grand Theft Auto computer game).
The media violence concerns are often used as scapegoats as if these were the sole factors of anti-social behaviour.
This approach ignores the other factors that work as a mix to influence behaviour i.e. home, school, peers and social interaction.
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The kindest acknowledgement of how the effects model works is shown when the media, especially TV, influence general perceptions about public events and social trends.
Note some of the terms that have entered the language as a result of media exposure:
'double whammy', - Wirt Ross – Boxing promoter.
‘Minger’ – commonly used by Ali G, rarely heard previously
‘Eat my shorts/D’oh!’ – The Simpsons
In some instances, we rely on the media telling us what to think, or what has happened. The News, for example!

And when it goes wrong, we notice!
The picture to the right was used to illustrate a story about anti-government protests in Iran’s recent elections. Keep an eye on the orange banner in the background.
President Armadinejad – the guy who the crowds are supposedly protesting against

This picture was used in a BBC story about Israeli helicopter attacks on Gaza.
The helicopter is actually firing a defensive flare.
 A helicopter firing a missile.
The helicopter was being attacked, not attacking at the time!

Defensive flares
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Problems with the effects model
the behaviourist or stimulus-response explanation of human behaviour (Pavlov) is looking increasingly hard to justify.
There are also the difficulties of linking cause and effect in terms of how we engage with media texts.
The large number of studies that have been done do not prove the case conclusively either way.
Other criticisms of this model centre on the stress that it places on the audience as passive, whereas newer models suggest that the audience is much more active than was initially supposed.
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Quick! Fetch me a cigarette!

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Criticisms…
We need to be aware of a broad shift from a perception of mass audience to one which recognises that, whatever the size of audience, it is made up of individuals.
Also consider what the media do to the audience and accept that audiences bring many different approaches to the media with which they engage.

Rubicam and Young – 7 kinds of people

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Mainstream
Explorer
Aspirer
Reformer
Struggler
Succeeder
The resigned

How would each group respond?
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Broom!
This product is being released onto the market and needs a comprehensive advertising campaign, comprised of 7 still image adverts.
You will be divided up and must focus on one of R&Y’s 7 types of people, ensuring that this product will be something they feel compelled to buy.
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A recent model of audience suggests that there is a highly active audience making use of the media for a range of purposes designed to satisfy needs:
Entertainment
Information
Identification.
In this model the individual has the power and selects the media texts that best suit their needs and attempts to satisfy those needs.
The psychological basis for this model is the hierarchy of needs identified by Maslow.
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Uses and gratifications - McQuail and Katz

The main areas that are identified in this uses and gratifications model are:
a) the need for information about our geographical and social world (news and drama)
b) the need for identity, by using characters and personalities to define our sense of self and social behaviour (film and celebrities)
c) the need for social interaction through experiencing the relationships and interaction of others (soap lives and sitcom)
d) the need for diversion by using the media for purposes of play and entertainment (game shows and quizzes).
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Pick n’ Mix
On the next slide, click the numbered box to reveal a media text or text type.
Which uses or gratifications does this supply?
Is there more than one option per text?
Do we all use the same texts in the same way?

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More recent developments suggest that there is a decoding process going on among the active audience who are not simply using the media for gratification purposes.
Morley's view of dominant, negotiated and oppositional readings of texts is a semiotic approach because it recognises the importance of the analysis of signs, particularly visual signs, that shape so much of modern media output.
In this model, at its simplest level, the audience accept or agree with the encoded meanings,
they accept and refine parts of the text's meanings
or they are aware of the dominant meaning of the text but reject it for cultural, political or ideological reasons.
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The active audience

This refers to the way that a text speaks to us in a style that encourages us to identify with the text because it is 'our' kind of text.
For example Friends is intended for a young audience because of the way it uses music and the opening credits to develop a sense of fun and energy that the audience can identify with.
This does not mean that other groups are excluded, merely that the dominant mode of address is targeted at the young.
Mode of address can even be applied to entire media industries, as in the case of Channel Four which works hard to form a style of address aimed at an audience which is informed, articulate and in some ways a specialised one.
Newspapers, too, often construct their presentation to reflect what they imagine is the identity of their typical readers.
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Mode of address

Ethnographic model, where the researcher enters into the culture of the group and uses questions and interviews to try to understand media engagement from their perspective group. What emerges from this is:
Engagement with the media is often structured by the domestic environment because of the domestication of entertainment. It appears that the home is not a free space and there are issues about:
finance for purchase of media goods
control of the remote
the gendered nature of watching TV
the 'flow' of TV that fits alongside or within a set of domestic relationships.
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Ethnographic model

texts can be identified as belonging to a genre that has gender appeal.
For example, soaps are usually seen to have a strong female audience.
There is also acknowledgement that audience are aware of cliffhangers, the role of character relationships which adds to the pleasures associated with the text.
Think about the texts that you enjoy and even though you know how a text will be shaped or how it will end these are not barriers to your enjoyment of that text.
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Competencies even include the very expectations that you have for the text.
Technologies
the way we engage with the hardware in order to enjoy the output of the media.
There is a strong gender divide here with computers and complex technology described as 'boys’ toys'.
If present trends in technology continue then there is a real danger that just as our society is dividing along lines of information-rich and information-poor then there will be a further demarcation along gender lines.
This explains why schools and TV programmes need to present positive gender representations and good practice that supports females and technological expertise.
many of the lifestyle programmes that are on TV use females in less traditional roles as a way of redressing the balance.
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Audience theory lesson 22 - 24

by Luke Palmer

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