6.5.1: Models of media effects

hypodermic syringe model

• suggests propaganda works like a drug injected directly into a vein

• direct and powerful effect

• welles and theatre

• evaluation:

  • over simplifies media effects

  • wrongly assumes audience is passive and all affected similarly

  • pictures audience as ‘atomised mass’ - response unaffected by social relations with others

two-step flow model

• katz and lazarsfeld

• opinion leaders dominate social networks

  • strong ideas

  • exposure

  • form opinions and pass interpretations on to other members of their social circle

• media doesn’t directly influence media audiences

• audiences adopt a particular opinion after negotiation amd discussion

• active audience

• evaluation:

  • simplistic

  • audience members may or may not discuss what they see

• widely accepted interpretation

uses and gratifications model

• asks how audiences use media

• blumler and mcquail

• wood

• lull

• audience isn’t passive

• evaluation: nothing about possible effects

reception analysis model

• identifies ways in which audiences are active and receptive:

  1. selective exposure: audiences select which media messages they expose themselves to

  2. selective interpretation: audiences don’t necessarily simply absorb unquestioningly the messages they recieve, but may challenge them

  3. selective recall: audiences forget info which doesn’t fit in with their pre-existing world view

• key assumption: media messages are polysemic

  • carry many potential meanings

  • open to different interpretations

• suggests that the way people interpret media content differs based on social identity and CAGE

• morley

• argues audience members actively interpret media according to pre-existing attitudes

• livesey

cultural effects model

• insists that audiences are active doesn’t preclude possibility of attitude and behaviour

• question where pre-existing ideas come from

• suggest media played no part in formation of pre-existing ideas

• philo

• left wing - critical of models suggesting media is ineffectual

• kitzinger

• neo-marxist cultural effects model:

  • constant exposure to media over long term results in internalisation of an ideology which portrays capitalism as both natural and inevitable

  • media portrays neoliberal policies as in the interests of all

• baumberg, bell and gaffney

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