The document discusses several theories about the effects of media on audiences: - Early theories saw the media as having a direct influence on audiences' behaviors, but later theories found audiences are not passive and interpret media through their own experiences. - Uses and gratifications theory found audiences are active and use media to fulfill various needs like information, entertainment, social interaction, and identity formation. - Cultural effects theories suggest that while media may not directly influence people, constant exposure to limited perspectives could create unconscious biases over time. However, audiences still interpret media through their own cultural lenses.

1. The Effects of the Media
Audience Theory

2. Effects of the media
 The
creation of a ‘Mass
society’
– Modern societies destroy
individuality by bringing
people under the control of
the owners of large
conglomerates

3. Are modern societies mass
societies?

Frankfurt school (Marxists)
– Feared the power of the Mass Media they
blamed it for destroying free thinking and
creativity.
– Marcuse (1968)
• ‘One dimensional man’ - In other words we are all the
same, no one has individuality any more
– Agger (2003)
• ‘Conformists and consumers’ – again stressing that we
have very little individuality

4. Early Theories




It was thought that the mass media had a
direct and dramatic effect on behaviour
‘Hypodermic Syringe Model’
• (Frankfurt School – Adorno,
Horkheimer)
Widely held view
Stresses the audience’s passivity and
powerlessness

5. Later Theories
 Two
step flow (Indirect
effects)
– Lazersfeld et al
– Individuals are not directly influenced
– Messages are filtered down through
significant individuals
– These individuals are called opinion
leaders

6. 
Uses and gratifications model
• Bulmer and Katz (1974)
– Stresses how audiences are not
passive but in charge.
– No such thing as a single mass
audience
– Audiences are highly differentiated
eg class, race, sex religion,
nationality.

7. Uses and
gratifications
Regularity and structure

Researchers in the 1970’s
argued that audiences use the
media to satisfy certain basic
psychological needs. These ‘uses
and gratifications’ as they called
them, include the need for
information, a personal identity,
social interaction and
entertainment.
The media has its own particular
uses and pleasures for its
audience; it provide many things,
including……..

Shared experiences/ a
sense of Community

Audience identification

Educational uses

Escapism

People centred needs

8. Scheduling and Regularity



The pattern and structure provided by the
media is considered one of the primary
gratifications.
The media can integrate itself into the
rhythms and routines of the home. This
allows advertisers to reach a core audience
at a regular time but also provides viewers
with a means of organising their day and, in
some cases, structuring their lives.
The regularised pattern of interruption
and continuity rewards viewers who
maintain an ongoing engagement with the
text.

9. 



Sharing opinions as social interaction + virtual
community
The fact that the media is discussed among friends
means that it gives a diverse range of viewers something
to share. As EastEnders advertising campaign puts it,
‘everybody’s talking about it’ To miss something in the
media is to exclude yourself from a wider community and
pass-up opportunities for interaction.
A virtual community arises, bound together by the
discussion of last night’s show/ latest film and possible
future plot developments.
As Mal Young (Head of BBC Drama Series) states:- ‘as
real life communities and the traditional family group
have deconstructed, so our reliance on virtual
communities has become more important in our lives. The
TV audience may be going through massive change as the
viewer is confronted by choice, but TV remains the
shared experience

10. 


People identify with the characters and
personalities in the media and get involved with
the programmes
In order to maximise a the media’s potential, production companies
try to reflect the age range and interests of the viewers. People
like to identify with their own peer group - although as David
Buckingham states ‘viewers do not always identify with the
characters or personalities who are most ‘like them’.
Identification (the notion that a character or personality shares
your perspective), and the sense of involvement/inclusion it
promotes, is one of the primary gratifications of the media.
There is an attempt to accommodate a diverse range of character
and personality types, creating an appropriate gender mix, and a
blend of social and ethnic backgrounds which aims to ensure and
‘gratify’ a wide potential audience by reflecting them on-screen.

11. 


Education: People learn from the media
Programme makers acknowledge that, while the media is not always
‘issues-based’, issues arise naturally as a consequence of the
entertainment. As well as entertaining viewers these programmes
have a secondary educational or informational function, offering a
discussion of current topics that may concern them.
David Buckingham notes that the media directly ‘invites its viewers
to make moral and ideological judgements. The kinds of judgements
invited are more frequently moral than ideological – that is
judgements that relate to the rights and wrongs of individual
behaviour rather than broader social forces. Nevertheless, in
criticising and discussing characters and issues, viewers may well
be using television as a vehicle for working out their own ideological
perspectives.’ As Mike Clarke states, ‘viewers explore ways of
dealing with problems which may be useful to them in real-life
situations.’

12. The media provides escapism




While it is true that most of the media aims to provide a sense of
realism, it is also true that one of the chief gratifications of the
media is the sense of removal to a very clearly defined ‘elsewhere’
for some part of each day – an escape during which you can put
your own worries aside.
The media provides a voyeuristic insight into the high points and,
particularly, low points of characters’ and personality’s lives, thus
inducing potential feelings of superiority and relief (rather them
than me).
Research suggests that viewers are not particularly interested in
happy endings, or living out dreams vicariously. The fact that the
fictional woes of characters outweigh your own is in itself a cause
for audience pleasure.
The media offers ‘real life’ X 10

13. The media fulfils people centred needs
(individual viewing pleasure)



It would be a mistake to ignore the fact that the media is intent
on delivering entertainment - incorporating elements from a
variety of genres - from melodrama to sitcom - to provide this
entertainment. Moreover, it is populated by interesting and
attractive people.
We are given events that are occurring ‘now’ and audiences
respond well to the perceived ‘immediacy’ in the media.
As Mike Clarke explains ‘one significant source of pleasure is the
continuity of characters and setting. It is possible for regular
viewers to build up a much more nuanced understanding and a fund
of archival knowledge which enables them to experience the
programmes more fully and more enjoyably.’

14. Most Recent Theory

Cultural effects theories:
• Philo (1990)
– Compare media effects to a ‘dripping tap’
– Constant exposure to certain limited points of
view may create a bias in the audience’s minds
– However we do interpret what we see according
to our own cultural experience