Media Magazine - how to make sense of audience theories

These notes are taken from an article published in Media Magazine, 17/12/03, pages 52-55

The approach you take to audience theory, and therfore your opinions and conclusions, are dependant on who you are, what you are investigating, and why you are researching.

• Audience research tries to find evidence to support and argument, while audience theory simply describes different ways of thinking about audiences.
• When carrying out research, it is important to bear in mind and assumptions you have made as a researcher, for example, you may have assumed the effects theory, when trying to find out the reactions to a particular program by different members of a group. In this example, you would be assuming that the program has a different effect on each person.
• Assuming an audience theory is not a problem, but it is important to acknowledge this and identify the resulting downfalls or implications for your research.

Effects theories.

• Effects theories are not purely about sex, violence and the issues seen during the censorship debate. There are other less publicised theories, below are some examples
• Right wing - Popular culture, programmes such as Big brother, Trisha, have a negative effect on peoples psychological and mental well-being, as they seek to dumb-down television.
• Left wing - The media is controlled by those in power, the texts within it, therfore seek to keep the power difference, by placing importance on people higher up in the class system, eg. the prime minister, the royals, where as normal people are given less emphasis. This theory says that the effect of this is to reinforce the powerful image of these people, and keep the powerless in their place. I thought this was particularly relevant to my work, as i could investigate the idea that coverage of youth crime, and its connections with single parents, and working class families seeks to reinforce their position in the class system, by making them appear deviant and out of controll to the general public. This Theory also links in with my reading on moral panics, as it sees the press, and the media as having the power to affect public perception, and potentially cause panic, or concern about the subject.

I havent completed the article yet, there is more to come later on.

Audience theory

Below i have summarised what i have read about different audiences theory. While they are not all relevant to my project, it is important to know about all of them so i can comment on why i have chosen to focus on certain ones.

The Hypodermic needle model

• People are directly affected by the media they consume
• They are passive
• The producers of texts are very powerful
• Focuses on negative effects and not positive
• Focuses on women and children, the vulnerable
• Doesn't take into account active viewing and the different ways people use and enjoy the media.

Cultivation theory

• The more an audience consumes parts of the media, the more they develop certain kinds of views about the world. These, many are concerned will be false views.
• An example is, coverage of crime in Crimewatch feeds the perception that crime is increasing
• Acknowledges that people can obtain some views of the world from television
• Notes that the media is an important feature of social lives.
• The influence of these is not measured against the influence of the wider world
• There is more crime in the world for reasons other than the media

Desensitisation

• Exposure to too much fictional violence, desensitises people to real life violence.
• Draws attention to the fact that there is a lot of on-screen violence
• Asks the question of how much exposure to on-screen negative behaviour people and children should have
• It is very difficult to prove long-term effects
• Can one stimulus cause such a huge problem?

Modelling or copycatting

• Kids/people will copy behaviour or actions they see on screen/in the media
• Plays on the insecurities of parents
• Leads to limiting children's viewing of television/consumption of the media.
• Short-term effects are measurable, but long-term ones are not so easy to monitor

Uses and Gratification theory

• People 'read' the media differently according to their personality, upbringing and their position in society.
• The media will affect people if it: confirms or enhances their role or image
• It will not affect their beliefs that have accumulated from life experience
• The audience is thought to be thoughtful, intelligent and able to distinguish between fact and fiction.
• Explores the ways in which the audience use the media
• Life experience is more important and relevant than media experience
• Media is considered as a source of pleasure and therefore a good thing
• It is considered that audience power arguments at made at the expense of the questions of media power or the power of certain texts
• Some theorists have claimed that the media has no influence of effects, which is a little bit silly don't ya think?

Summary

I have come across different areas of each of these theories throughout my research, however some are more relevant than others. I think that the Cultivation theory and perhaps desensitisation or copycat theory are most relevant as i have raised questions over the reasons for gang behaviour, and the potential influences of male role models in the media, e.g. 50 Cent. The uses and gratifications theory will also crop up as a result of my questionnaire, as it will determine whether people mix their ideas of fact and fiction.

Moral Panics

What is a moral panic?



A moral panic is an unjustified fear of somthing which tends to find expression on a wide scale in the public arena; Blaming an object or activity for wider social evils/ills.



Typically they feature:

• Anxieties about the young and working class 'getting out of hand'


• fear of new technologies


• fear of the modern world and nostalgia for the 'golden age' in the past


• assumption of copycatting


• sex and violence: young people finding out about the adult world

Some well known moral panics from the past

• Childs Play and video nasties


• Mods and Rockers


• Internet porn

Effects on society

These moral panics cause a big reaction in society.

Action Plan

Having wasted the easter holidays i have finally decided to do some work. I seem to have half done some of the following jobs but haven't finished them so in order to see some development i plan to complete them by next wednesday.

• Summarise sociological theory on blog - haralambos
• Look on amazon for BFI book
• Read up on moral panics
• Re-view kidulthood and select a clip for focus group
• Re-view why kids kill and ross kemp and take notes
• Pick a news broadcast focussing on youth/gang crime
• Collect newspaper clippings
• Write questionnaire
• Prepare follow-up interviews