The EffectS TheorY...
Passive audiences manipulated by forced ideologies from the media.The Frankfurt school
Group of social scientists who were concerned with the impact of the rise of the media industries on society: culture industry – a culture produced by the media with its own values and ideologies which are being accepted by passive audiences.
Mass audiences (seen as passive) are indoctrinated by society (the hegemony of the ruling class) and progressively less able to criticise it. E.g. Hitler during World War used the media as a propaganda tool to brainwash the Germans into his mind of thought.
The Hypodermic needle Model
To inject the passive audiences with ideologies so they agree with them e.g. ‘Triumph of the Will’. The passive audience immediately believe what ever they see in the media.
Violence in the Media
The ‘moral majority’ argue that too much violence, sex…etc must be censored, as audiences will feel influenced by it and therefore act similarly.
Media is blamed for all anti-social behaviour.
Cultivation theory
Repeated exposure of the same text will make audiences less sensitive to it...
Audiences would become ‘desensitised’- audiences are not as sensitive about certain issues in the media, but instead accept the due to social attitudes and expectations changing.
Two-Step Flow
Assumes a more active audience...
If a text is written by someone respected (an opinion leader) we are ore likely to accept it e.g. newspapers and TV critics.
Agree or Disagree?
I think this theory of an audience being passive and highly manipulated by media texts which they consume, is true to an extent. Similar to the Marxist theory, the audience are influenced, and were probably more so in the 1940’s, due to the lack of education, and also them living under a dictatorship. However, audiences nowadays are more media-literate and therefore are able to make opinions and choices without media influences. On the other hand, there is a still a vast majority of the public which still trust everything they read or hear, especially when it comes from ‘trusted’ news reporters. I would say the ‘Two-Step Flow’ theory relates to how audiences mange media texts in the present day; due to so much choice, and many ideologies and values being exposed it would be harder for the media to control audiences and just expose one dominant ideology. However, you also have the ‘Top Dogs’ such as Rupert Murdoch who own Fox TV, The Sun, Sky…etc so their hegemonic views could possibly be overriding all the others.
posted by Dinni @ 6:43 pm
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