2. The Effects Model
The consumption of media texts has as effect or
influence upon the audience.
Its normally considered that this effect is negative.
Audiences are passive and powerless to prevent
the influence.
The power lies with the message of the text.
3. Hypodermic model
The messages in media texts are injected into the
audience by the powerful, syringe – like media
Audience is powerless to resist
The media works as if it is a drug and the
audience is drugged/addicted.
4. Frankfurt School – theorised in the 1920s and
30s that the mass media acted to restrict and
control audiences to the benefit of corporate
capitalism and governments
The Bobo Doll experiment – This is a very
controversial piece of research that apparently
proved that children copy violent behaviour.
5. Bobo Doll Experiment
Conducted in 1961 by Albert Bandura
In the experiment the children watched a clip of
an adult violently attack a clown toy called a Bobo
doll.
The children were then taken into a room with
attractive toys that they were not permitted to
touch. Then they were lead into a room with Bobo
Dolls
88% of the children imitated the violent behaviour
that they had earlier viewed.
8 months later 40% of the children reproduced
the same violent behaviour.
6. Bobo Doll
The conclusion reached was that the children will
imitate violent media content
There are many problems with the experiment.
The effects model – backed up by the bobo doll
experiment – is still the dominant theory used by
politicians, some parts of the media and some
religious organisations in attributing violence to
the consumption of media texts.
7. Examples of films which are causing
or being contributory factors are:
Child’s Play 3 – murder of James Bulger in 1993
Manhunt – murder of Stefan Pakeerah in 2004 by
his friend Warren LeBlanc
The film A Clockwork Orange (1971) in a number
of rapes and violent attacks
The film Severance (2006) in the murder of
Simon Everitt.
In some countries these films were banned due to
their explicit content.
8. Effects Model
Contributes to Moral Panics whereby:
The media produce inactivity, make us into
students who wont pass their exams or ‘couch
potatoes’ who make no effort to get a job
The media produces violent ‘copycat’ behaviour
or mindless shopping in response to
advertisements.
9. The Uses and Gratifications
model
The Uses and Gratifications Model is the opposite
of the Effects Model.
The audience is active.
The audience uses the text and is not used by it.
The audience uses the text for its own
gratification or pleasure.
10. Here power lies with the audience and not with
the producers
This theory emphasises what audiences do with
media texts – how and why they use them.
Far from being duped by the media, the audience
is free to reject, use or play with media meanings
as they see fit.
11. Audiences use media texts to gratify needs for:
Diversion
Escapism
Information
Pleasure
Comparing relationships and lifestyles with one’s
own
Sexual Stimulation
12. Reception theory – Stuart Hall
The media can help people with issues such as:
Learning
Emotional satisfaction
Relaxation
Help with issues or personal identity
Help with issues of social identity
Help with issues of aggression and violence
13. Controversially the theory suggests that the
exposure of violence can help rather than hinder
The theory suggest they act out their violent
impulses through the consumption of media
violence
The audience’s inclination towards violence is
therefore sublimated, and they are less likely to
commit violent acts
14. Reception Theory
This suggests that texts are encoded with
meaning by producers and then decoded by the
audience.
The theory suggests:
When a producer constructs a text it is encoded
with a meaning or messsge that the producer
wishes to convey to the audience
In some instances audience will correctly decode
the message and understand what the producer
was trying to say
In some instances the audience will either reject
or fail to correctly understand the message.
15. Three types of audience
readings:
Dominant
Negotiated
Oppositional
