PowerPoint leading to media effects essay task.

1. The
Media Effects Theory
LO: To define the theory and analyse
whether it can be considered
justified.

2. • Media Effect theory is how media can affect society
and how society affects the media. Some negative
implications of this theory are when people do
“copycat murders”, i.e. when a teenage boy
murdered his best friend in 2004, the game
‘Manhunt’ was banned in the UK, because the
murder was styled upon a murder within the game.
• A theory that tends to see the audience as passive
and sees how exposure to particular aspects of media
content can influence the behaviour of the reader or
viewer.
What is The Media Effect Theory?

3. The theory helps explain Moral panic in relation
to representations of; sex violence and deviant
behaviour and it’s supposed effects on youth.
Moral panic
The feeling that the situation is out of
control in some way, and therefore
represents a threat to the moral order.
•The media effects theory was firstly
proposed by the Frankfurt School of social
researchers in the 1920’s – from people’s
reaction to Nazi propaganda
• Hypodermic Model – refers to the idea that
the media is like a drug that is addicted to.

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt5MjBlvGc

6. What is an active audience ?
• An active audience is one that actively engages
with the text. They do not simply accept every
media message. They question what they see
and develop their own interpretation of a
media product based on their life experiences,
education, family and cultural influences.
‘Bottom up’ theories generally assume an active
audience. Theories such as “Uses &
Gratification” and “Postmodernist theory”
assume that audiences are active.

7. What is a passive audience?
• A passive audience does not actively engage
with a media text. A passive audience is one
that does not question the message that the
media is sending and simply accepts the
message in the way the media outlet intended.
‘Top down’ theories of media influence tend to
assume that audiences are passive. Theories
such as “Bullet/Hypodermic” and “Agenda
Setting Function” assume audiences are
passive.

8. The media effects theory and how it
affects representation of England/
Englishness
The media effects theory affects how English people
view themselves, for instance, in Lock, Stock and Two
Smoking Barrels, the English are represented in a
rough, ‘cockney-geezer’ way…
This is a self-gratifying stereotype, but would likely be
viewed as negative by a non-English audience. The
theory is that these stereotypes that we view of
ourselves are likely to affect the way we view
ourselves, and, in turn act.

9. THINGS WRONG WITH THE THEORY!!!!!
1.The effects model tackles social problems 'backwards‘
A study was carried out by interviewing 78 violent teenage offenders and then tracing their behaviour back towards
media usage, in comparison with a group of over 500 'ordinary' school pupils of the same age - Hagell & Newburn
(1994) found only that the young offenders watched less television and video than their counterparts, had less access to
the technology in the first place, had no particular interest in specifically violent programmes, and either enjoyed the
same material as non-offending teenagers or were simply uninterested.
2. The effects model treats children as inadequate
This situation is clearly exposed by research which seeks to establish what children can and do understand about and
from the mass media. Such projects have shown that children can talk intelligently and indeed cynically about the mass
media and that children as young as seven can make thoughtful, critical and 'media literate' video productions
themselves .
3. The effects model is often based on artificial studies
They may then be observed in simulations of real life presented to them as a game, or as they respond to
questionnaires, all of which are unlike interpersonal interaction, cannot be equated with it, and are likely to be
associated with the previous viewing experience in the mind of the subject, rendering the study invalid.
4. The effects model is selective in its criticisms of media depictions of violence
5. The effects model makes no attempt to understand meanings of the media
6. The effects model is not grounded in theory

10. Task
Your task will be to write an essay based on
whether you think the Media Effects Theory can
be considered a justified theory.
In your response your must:
•discuss examples from four different areas of
the media
•Have an appropriate introduction and
conclusion
•Bring in counter-arguments
•Use media language and refer other theories
too