The document discusses various theories about media audiences and effects. It covers topics like: 1) Audience research that produces data on audience behavior and responses to help media producers. It also discusses how audience research is used to test audience theories. 2) Different audience theories ranging from direct effects theory to theories of active audiences. It places these theories on a spectrum from more behaviorist to more active audience-centered. 3) Historical examples of "moral panics" about new media and the idea that media are often blamed for societal issues. Several specific theories and models are also summarized briefly, including cultivation theory, uses and gratifications, and the two-step flow model.

1. Effects and
Audiences
1

2. The Imagined Reader
Breakfast cereal
Car
Holiday destination
Fast food
Furniture
TV show
Music
Pet

3. Audience Research
► Producing data from research
► Providing empirical evidence of audience
behaviour or discursive evidence of
audience responses.
► Done commercially by media producers and
distributors – ratings, market research
► Done critically by media academics

4. Audience Theories
► Creating new ideas / new ways of thinking about
media audiences.
► Audience research used to test out audience
theories.
► Effects.
► Uses and gratifications.
► Reception theory.
► Ethnography.
► Postmodern theory.
► Media 2.0

5. Spectrum of
behaviourism
Direct Theories
Effects of Active
theory Audiences
Media stimulus is Audiences use media
followed by to satisfy particular
straightforward needs and to enable
audience the flow of
response “Effects debate” very communications from
much alive – person to person
See Lasswell
and the mass media and
effectiveness of social panics
propaganda

6. Media Effects ?
(Behaviourism theories)
► Benevolent? (education, Publicity,
entertainment…)
► Malign? (eg propaganda, hegemony)
► Criticism: no study has conclusively
identified or rejected the possibility of media
effects

8. Early Models and Research
► The Hypodermic Syringe Model
► The Two-step Flow Hypothesis
► Experiments
► Claims
8

9. Hypodermic Model
► ‘Effects’theory is / was often limited to the
idea that the media ‘inject’ messages into
audiences who are seen as passive.
► The constant attempt to ‘prove’ that media
violence creates violent citizens (eg horror
films, video nasties in the 1980s, videogames
now) is based on this false premise.
► Effects and ‘moral panics’.

10. ► Violence and sex in media 'damaging
children'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=B5QVaX32OdI&feature=fvw
► 'Video Games Promote Racism, Sexism
and Hatred' - The Alan Titchmarsh Show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_9nj-Xngpc
► Beyond Good & Evil: Children, Media &
Violent Times
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CggjBd7o-
PM&feature=related

11. 11

12. Questions
► How far do we agree that the media affect
us?
► What kind of forms do these effects take?
► Is it possible to measure these effects? How
would you do it?
► What kind of variables or approaches need
to be taken into consideration to explore
audience research fully?

13. Fredic Wertham’s
Seduction of the Innocent (1955)
► Two targets of his vitriolic attacks:
 Crime comics
 Television
► 5 psychological problems identified:
 Passivity
 Misconception
 Imitation
 Identification
 Desensitization

14. Fredic Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent (1955)
► Tests with children but unreliability of these
artificial tests eg. The Duess Test –
encourage research subjects to provide
responses that researcher is expecting
► [Also see the Bobo doll experiment]
► These views :
 overstate media effects
 Understate capacity of children to distinguish
fantasy from reality
 Have captured the public mood ever since!
 Have spurned many similar studies

15. Wertham’s spirit lives on…
► Popular support and publicity, particularly during
heightened incidents of violent crime in the real
world.
► Research: Explore other criticism of Wertham’s
theories, for eg his focus on cases of juvenile
delinquency and his lack of focus on socio-
economic conditions to explain these unwanted
behaviours
► Media as scapegoat for the ills of society?

16. http://www.mediawatchuk.org.uk/

17. Effects research
► Starts from a premise based in morals
► Central question:
 “how much harm is done to vulnerable viewers
by improper media materials?”
► (see Gauntlett’s “10 things wrong with the
effects model” for critique)
17

18. Problems
► Assumes media affects behaviour, but this
needs to be argued and evidenced.
 Distinctive message - can we assume there is ‘a
(singular) reading’? Conceives audience as
passive
► Proof of media effects lies in advertising…
 Why would people pay for advertising if it had no
EFFECT?
18

19. What is Violence?
► What is “media violence”? Rank the following in
terms of the most to the least violent:
 Itchy and Scratchy
 Saving Private Ryan
 The Sopranos
 Sin City
 Rambo
 News (fighting in Iraq)
 Boxing
 WWE wrestling
 Modern Warfare 2
19

20. Define
► The point is are we even talking about comparable
features, let alone are they the same?
► Because “media violence” exists only in the
context of narrative, characters, genres, etc. It is
simply a term that is impossible to define.
20

21. • The common sense argument is based on the
need to protect children.
• Difficult to question as within our society
children are regarded as vulnerable, ignorant
and irrational
• BUT Buckingham (1996) observes that
children become extremely sophisticated in
reading media texts from an early age. Many
children are frightened by horror but this is
also true of the news. The ability to develop
coping strategies for fiction but not for factual
programmes shows the sophistication of
children in reading texts.
• See also Hodge and Tripp (1986)
21

22. Moral Panics and Media Effects
► “It is now perhaps more interesting not to ask what
the effects of television are, but rather why there is so
much concern about the question” (Gauntlett)
► Moral Panic – “a condition, episode, person or
group of persons emerges as a threat to societal
values and interests: its nature is presented in a
stylised and stereotypical fashion by the mass media:
the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops,
politicians and other right thinking people; socially
accredited experts pronounce their diagnoses and
solutions; ways of coping are evolved or (more often)
resorted to.” (Cohen 1972, p.9)
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23. Historical Perspective
► Music halls in Victorian Britain – lawlessness and
immorality
► Football, 100 years ago – hooliganism
► Bicycles, 1890s – cause of chaos and terror
► Rock and roll, 1950s – “the Negro’s revenge”
► Video Nasties, 1980s – “ban this sick filth”
► Video Games, 1990s-now
► Internet (IM, SNS), 2000s - now
23

24. Cultivation theory
George Gerber et al. 1986)
► Seeks to measure the long term effects of tv’s
contributions to our conceptions of social
reality
► Tv (and other media) is too omnipresent for
viewers to escape its “gradual encroachment”
into our everyday lives.
► Continued exposure to tv messages is likely
to “reiterate, confirm and nourish” their values
and perspectives (mainstreaming effect)

25. Cultivation theory
(George Gerber et al. 1986)
► Heavy tv viewers think differently to light viewers
about the world around them
► “Mean World Syndrome”
► Eg. “Crime in prime time is at least 10 times as
rampant as in the real world”
► Concept of mainstreaming – appeal to broad audience
interest  homogenization of divergent views
 Gerber fears that tv broadcasting excludes diverse opinions
(too much consensus – limited choice of ‘reasonable options’
represented)

26. Cultivation theory
(George Gerber et al. 1986)
Involves 3 Types of analysis;
► Institutional process analysis;
Eg. the production and distribution of a televised
sporting event can be analysed in respect of how
decisions are made and power exercised.
► Message system analysis, ie extensive content
analysis of media productions, such as children’ tv
► Cultivation analysis = surveys of people’s opinions
on certain subjects after tv viewing. Measures the
differential in conceptions of “the outside world”
between light and heavy viewers.

27. Cultivation theory
(George Gerber et al. 1986)
► “TV provides a guide and offers ‘tv answers’
to the question of how to act and behave in
the outside world.”
(including promotion of capitalist views in the
western world)

28. Agenda setting and social functions of media
(see McCombs and Shaw, 1972)
similar to cultivation theory
► Concerned with how public opinion is
shaped by media
► Again, looking at long term effects
► Media agenda (patterns of news coverage)
 Public agenda (concerns of the public)

29. Implication – mass media create passive and drowsy
audience

30. McCombs and Gilbert, 1986
► Extensive content analysis to show that “Through
their routine structuring of social and political
reality, the news media influence the agenda of
public issues around which political campaigns and
voter decisions are organized”
► Salience given to certain news item by journalists
► Stories selected in accordance with certain news
values
► See Hasina’s Presentation

31. Giving salience to certain news items:
► Frequency of repetition (rolling news story)
► Prominence with which items are displayed
(headline, salience of media images over issues for readers/viewers
etc.)
► Degree of conflict (political scandals > newsworthy than
consensus)
► Framing of news item (in what context / when it appears
eg. summer holiday weekend = news about excessive teenage
drinking)

33. John Pilger’s The War You don’t See
► http://g325crit.blogspot.com/

34. Ownership and Media
Power
►A Marxist view of media will focus on the
relationship between the providers of media,
broader power structures and the messages
in media products circulated by these
power-holding institutions.
This is media hegemony / ideology theory.
► Outfoxed is a key example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IwIRNM5noY

35. Outfoxed
 What does Outfoxed reveal?
 Is this a shock?
 Power and influence
 Democracy and representation
 Who owns your media?
 How are you influenced?

37. Two Step Flow Model
Katz and Lazarsfeld,
1955
McQuail and Windahl,
1986
The stars are ‘opinion leaders’
The circles are everyone else

38. Two step flow
► Hasina’s presentation
► Study of how people influence the flow of
mass media messages
► FIRST MAJOR REBUTTAL TO THEORIES
OF MEDIA EFFECTS

39. ► Katz and Lazarsfeld compare the role of opinion
leaders to the role of media in influencing
individuals’ decision-making processes.
► Opinion leaders from all occupational groups, all
socio-economic backgrounds
► Ideas can flow from the media source
To opinion leaders
And from them to the less active
Very relevant today with sections of the population
new and social media!

40. Joseph Kappler’s
Phenomenistic approach
(same line as 2 step flow)
► Focuses on how audiences respond to
media messages in a wider context
► Looks at how media generates a stimulus to
which audiences might respond BUT asserts
that mass media cannot be seen in isolation
from all other influences that cause human
behaviour to change, or their attitudes or
actions

41. Kappler’s conclusions
► Media in most cases do not cause effects
on their audiences
► Instead they function as one component
along a spectrum of factors which are “more
likely to reinforce than to change” people’s
behaviour and attitudes.

42. Kappler’s conclusions
5 main mediating factors:
1. An individual’s predisposed opinions and how these tend to
mean they use media in selective ways
2. The group to which the individual belongs and how the
predispositions of the group impact on the individual’s
opinions
3. Interpersonal dissemination of media content (ie like-
minded people)
4. Opinion Leadership (similar to 2 step flow): OL use media
messages to reinforce their predisposed opinions rather
than simply relay what these messages have to say
5. Role of mass media in a free enterprise society
(prerequisite to please both advertisers and audiences 
institutions tend to produce content based on successful
formulas rather than try out more innovative content and
run risk of displeasing stakeholders)

43. Uses and Gratifications
Blumer and Katz, 1974
We USE media (active, not passive) for:
► Diversion
► Personal Relationships
► Personal Identity
► Surveillance

45. Blumer and Katz, 1974
► Find out what they argue in their study
(eg, need precedes the effect)
► Find out in what ways this line of thinking has
been created, particularly in today’s media-
saturated society.
► Eg some say that this theory smacks of a mere
defence of media institutions’ oldest argument, ie.
“we only give the people what they want”

46. Conclusion
► Vested interests in appropriating blame at the
doorstep of the media
► Most frequent concern is new media/cultural
behaviour and practices
► All media content is not the same or even for
everyone
► Simplistic cause and effect claims are problematic
46

47. Spectrum of
behaviourism
Direct Theories
Effects of Active
theory Audiences
Media stimulus is Audiences use media
followed by to satisfy particular
straightforward needs and to enable
audience the flow of
response communications from
person to person
See Lasswell
and the Can you fit in all the
effectiveness of theories we have seen
propaganda along that spectrum?

48. 4 Research Groups
► Conduct your research using the relevant slides and finding
more sources (which you will list), including at least 1 or 2
videos from YouTube or Vimeo or… Find at least one real
example from the media to apply your theory to.
► Prepare to PRESENT and TEACH your findings to the rest
of the group (PPT or Prezi) – aim for 5 to 10 minutes.
► Topics to choose from – 1 per ‘group’:
 Cultivation Theory
 Joseph Kappler’s Phenomenistic approach
 Uses and gratifications - Blumer and Katz, 1974
 Uses and gratifications – criticism of the theory

49. http://www.peersunited.com/media-influenc