media effects theory essay

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Craft, S., & Wanta, W. (2005). The theory is now being utilized in political campaigns, political advertising and debates, business news and corporate reputation, business influence on federal policy, role of groups, legal systems, trials, public opinion and audience control to influence the society into thinking their line (McCombs, 2005). They were an active audience, according to Fiske, who could resist the hegemony of media and create their own readings. For example, during campaign periods to elect leaders, the media can tactfully influence the voting pattern by either showing positive or negative bias towards a specific candidate or party (Wanta & Miller, 1996). Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UKEssays.com. The agenda setting theory reaffirms the press power while maintaining individual’s freedom. “Its value for us lies in its shift away of emphasis away from the textual and ideological construction of the subjects to socially and historically situated people. A look at agenda-setting: Past, present and future. Gerbner’s idea was widely accepted however, similar to the previous media effects theories, it supports the notion that audience is vulnerable and easily manipulated. Expanding Morley’s approach which looks at how people from different cultural backgrounds interpret representations in media, researchers were interested to explore people’s personal and socio-cultural context as an integral part for understanding the rich range of meanings ‘decoded’ and understood by media audience. The writer assumes that the society has bestowed great trust in the mass media and relies heavily on it for information creating a scenario whereupon the media easily influences them to think differently. Their work appeared from the early 70s to the mid 80s and mostly conducted qualitative field work on small groups from targeted socioeconomic backgrounds (Nightingale 1996). First, there seems to be a great deal of backtracking and shifting over how much meaning should be assigned by the audience and how much on the text amongst its protagonists with disagreements as to how far audiences were interpreting texts through their social backgrounds with Nightingale (1996) pointing out that many later research studies backtracked into textual analysis. 0 However, hypodemic needle model or “magic bullet” theory is flawed in so many ways. Scholars have developed many different approaches and theories to figure this out. 0000000016 00000 n In fact, in 1993, at a conference of the National Council for Families and Television, it was estimated that ten percent of the violence in the United States could be attributed to television (UCLA Center for Communication Policy, 1997). When critics claim that a particular media outlet has an agenda, they are drawing on this theory. Fiske maintained that this multiplicity of meaning amounts to a ‘semiotic democracy’ (Fiske 1989, p95) where people are ‘culturally competent’ enough to not need media experts to help them. I will also explore studies conducted in different cultural settings, which hopes to highlight the different ways culture and religion can influence infant feeding practices and their overall understanding of breastfeeding. Retrieved 01 April 2009 from . One of the reasons why encoding/decoding model is significant in media studies is because it balances the relationship between the media and audience, returning some power to the media while maintaining audience as active participants. The theory proposed that the media has long term effects on audiences, nurturing certain ideas through representations and media discourse. The Internet and its accompanying cultural revolution have made McLuhan’s bold utopian visions seem like prophecies. The media is a powerful force in contemporary society, which determines our actions and identities. For example, following the radio broadcast of War of the Worlds in 1938 (which was a fictional news report of an alien invasion), some people panicked and believed the story to be true. For example, the agenda-setting theory explains such phenomena as the rise of public opinion against smoking. In social action theory, the media directly influences the society reasoning by constructing meaning in its contents. For example, you may enjoy watching a show like Dancing With the Stars while simultaneously tweeting about it on Twitter with your friends. 0000005171 00000 n You may assume the person is successful or powerful because of the car he or she is driving. The effect of this is that a bad image of this leader is created on people’s minds and people start perceiving him as a bad leader. This theory states that consumers use the media to satisfy specific needs or desires. xref Blumler and Katz (1974) proposed four broad audience needs that are fulfilled by the media. Many people use the Internet to seek out entertainment, to find information, to communicate with like-minded individuals, or to pursue self-expression. Then, write a one-page essay about the topic you’ve selected. Researchers have identified a number of common motives for media consumption. Fiske incorporated this into the idea of the ‘active audience’ (Fiske 1989, pp 62-83), believing that audiences constantly tried to find new meanings inside media and that it was programmes that were made by industry, not text. The many limitations of media effects theories have prompted researchers to switch focus. Hall’s approach is in line with the social constructionists, where previous knowledge as well as experience of the media and the subject discussed played an important part to help construct people’s perception. The influence results from the pictures which the media creates in audience members’ mind eye by setting an agenda for what people should think about and the importance order of these thoughts. The now largely discredited direct effects model of media studies assumes that media audiences passively accept media messages and exhibit predictable reactions in response to those messages. This approach suggests that people have specific needs and use the media to satisfy them or gain specific gratifications. In essence, the meaning of a text is not inherent within the text itself, but is created within different processes involved in the relationship between the text and the reader. Televised violent acts, whether those reported on news programs or portrayed on television dramas, for example, greatly outnumber violent acts that most people encounter in their daily lives. Fiske was influenced heavily by the French polymath Michel de Certeau (Underwood, 2008), who advocated that people were continuously trying to undermine the dominant culture by creating tactics of resistance within everyday life. Today, the deep rooting of media in the cultural conciousness means that media consumers need engage for only a few moments with a particular television program to understand that it is a news show, a comedy, or a reality show. In conclusion, despite new audience research’s critics saying that that it dissolves the meaning of the text, is not anything new, and individualises and pluralises audience research to a point to where meaning almost evaporates (Curran p 260), the concept behind it has still proved to be revolutionary. This theory most commonly applies to analyses of television because of that medium’s uniquely pervasive, repetitive nature. The society on its part is to blame for ignorance and laziness in quest for the truth other than accepting everything from the media as the gospel truth. A significant body of work developed in the UK focused on audience studies, but positioned within cultural framework (for example see Ang 1985; Morley, 1980; Radway, 1987). By using symbolic interactionist theory, researchers can look at the ways media affects a society’s shared symbols and, in turn, the influence of those symbols on the individual.Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, Consumer Psychology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010), 59–62. Morley (cited in Curran et al, 1990) replied to Curran’s argument by saying that he criticised the new research with the gift of hindsight given to him by new audience research’s work, and that none of the previous authors whose work focused on the audience would have been brought to light if it was not for new audience research raising the audience as an issue once again. This means that the media is determining what issues and stories the public thinks about. Gerbner and its fundamental claim is that persistent and long-term exposure to television content has little but measurable effects on the perceptual worlds of audience members (Gerbner et al, 1986). Also influencing media dependency is the social stability whereby in cases of instability, reliance on the media increases (DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989). How teens use social media also might determine its impact. Their decisions are to a greater degree a function of obtained knowledge (DeFleur et al, 1992). What this suggests is that although people can individually respond actively to the media, their predisposed collective needs, beliefs and interests may influence their response. In Maxwell McCombs’ and Donald Shaw’s (theorists of the agenda-setting theory) explanation, agenda is “not what to think, but what to think about” (McCombs & Shaw, 1972). The modern televangelist has evolved from the adoption of television-style promotion by religious figures, while the utilization of television in political campaigns has led candidates to consider their physical image as an important part of a campaign (Altheide & Snow, 1991). Cultivation analysis projects involve a number of different areas for research, such as the differences in perception between heavy and light users of media. The way in which media influence is contextualised in this research however, should not be misunderstood as trying to prove any direct impact media have on people. In Ruben, B., Ed. In J. Bryant & D. Zillman (Eds), Perspectives on media effects (pp. A theory stating that the self is derived from and develops through human interaction. The four identified readings are (1)Dominant – when audience recognise and agree with the preferred meaning offered by media text (2)Oppositional – when audience understand the preferred meaning but disagree with it because it contradicts to their own set of beliefs and attitudes (3)Negotiated – when audience opposes or adapts to the preferred meaning and (4)Aberrant decoding – when audience gives meanings deviant to the preferred meaning. In her research she found out that people’s understanding sometimes intersect with pre-existing knowledge and mental pictures of other things, particularly when an issue is new and has not received much media attention. ��-���l Analysis of McLuhan’s work has, interestingly, not changed very much since his works were published. Do you think these theories are still relevant for modern mass media? Gerbner further claims that heavy television viewing creates an exaggerated belief in a “mean and scary world” and that television has surpassed religion as the key storyteller of our culture (Gerbner et al, 1986). To effectively communicate, people use symbols with shared cultural meanings. It has had a lasting effect on audience research globally, whilst the discourse has moved on, the social, cultural and economic etc’ background of an audience is seen as a major component of audience studies research (Jensen et al, 1991). 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Through representations and construct meanings effects include theories that explain how the mass media began taking an antismoking stance smoking. World but a world in itself and a host of other issues for example the. Supporters point to the hopes and achievements of digital technology and the effect of media. Base their perceptions in – CC BY-SA 2.0, https: //doi.org/10.1002/9781118541555.wbiepc156 within of... If the mass media and Crime essay is published for educational and informational purposes only potentially different sites this... Them incapable of producing their own interpretations the inherent stratification in society ( ibid, p )!

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