MIGRAIN: Audience theory 2 - the effects debate

 Theory questions and your opinion

1) Social learning theory has been criticised for simplifying the causes of violence in society. Do you think the media is responsible for anti-social behaviour and violence?
I think that the media is not entirely responsible for violence and anti-social behaviour as many people consume media and there are people who are fine in terms of their social life and seem to be completely fine in terms of being violent. But then there is a small amount of people that are easily influenced 

2) How is social learning theory relevant in the digital age? Are young people now learning behaviour from social media and the internet? Give examples.
I think that younger kids are following what is shown on social media a lot more as they are young and have a growing mind which will make them replicate what they see on screen. For example there are numerous children that are following popular trends such as eating tide pods which is a laundry pod meant for washing clothes.

3) Research three examples of moral panic from the last 50 years. To what extent was the media responsible for these moral panics? Was the concern in society justified? How have things changed as a result of these moral panics?

Mods and Rockers (1960's)

In the early 1960s in Britain, two main subcultures were introduced as The "Mods and Rockers" where they were two "opposing" sides that would soon be associated with violence and troublemaking amongst the people dues to their culture of bikes, leather jackets, slick hair, etc. which created an almost "gangster" feel to them.

HIV/AIDS (1980's-90's)

This was a viral illness that caused or lead to other health conditions/diseases such as tuberculosis, fungal infections, toxoplasmosis, etc. many people had lots of concerns as to this outbreak of illness. Eventually the media had reported on this event and therefore decided to name is the "Gay Plague" as it was believed that homosexuals passed on this illness and at the time of this occurring people were not as accepting of the homo community which further gave them a reason to stay away and degrade them.

Dangerous Dogs(late 1980's-early1990's)

During this time people had associated Pitbulls and Rottweilers as being "dangerous" due to their physical ability and past unfortunate experiences with humans and such. This soon sparked a campaign that went against these dog breeds, some even going to the extent of wanting them dead.

4) Read this introduction to an academic paper on technopanics. What examples are given of technopanics that create fear in society? If the link is blocked in school, you can access the text here.

They talk about how fear is an "extremely powerful motivational force" which is true as it makes people take decisions faster whether they be more rash or thought through out.

They can even convince people to change or change their opinion or thoughts because of the shear fear that they will experience.


5) Do you think the internet should be regulated? Should the government try and control what we can access online?
I think that the idea of the government regulating content on the internet would be quite difficult and expensive as they need people to constantly be on the look out for any content that they want to regulate/restrict. I feel as if some certain aspect they can control however they must do it in a fashion in which it will not seem like it is silencing the media or completely controlling the users.

6) Apply Gerbner's cultivation theory to new and digital media. Is the internet creating a fearful population? Are we becoming desensitised to online threats, trolling and abuse? Is heavy internet use something we should be worried about in society? Write a paragraph discussing these ideas.

I think that, in a way yes. This can been seen when we look at the example of trolls as seen above; people are either oblivious to the trolling that is happening or some may choose to escalate the situations, this may also link to online threats being a topic due to people going as far as to finding people's home address and then threatening to leak it and some going as far as to finding their victim's IP address and then doing a DOS attack on them.

Some forms of abuse may also become some sort of a joke to some people while other may take that matter more seriously, this may be the result of the internet desensitizing users to things such as racism. In a way it is like Gerbner's Cultivation theory where the people become used to the content.

The effects debate: Media Factsheet

Complete the following tasks using Media Factsheet 030 - The Effects Debate available on the Media Shared drive. You'll find it in our Media Factsheet archive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets. You can also access it via your school Google login here.

Read Media Factsheet 030 - Media and Audiences -The Effects Debate and answer the following questions:

1) Complete the questions in the first activity box (beginning with 'Do you play violent games? Are you violent in real life?')
I play a lot of games that do include violence or include some sort of violence, however I do not appear violent towards my peers and people around me.

2. Do you ever see a product advertised on TV or on the internet and decide you want to buy it?

Very rarely this happens, as I do not watch TV as often, however there are products such as computer components that interest me in buying them. Otherwise I have no interest for what is being shown on TV

3. Have you ever seen a documentary which has drawn your attention to an issue which you now feel strongly about?

I have watched many documentaries, however I do not feel this impact that would otherwise seem to otherwise affect others I think this is because I do not watch documentaries that cause this type of feeling as the documentaries that I have watched are mostly the wildlife ones.

2) What are the four categories for different effects theories?
-Hypodermic needle
-Two-step flow model
-Blumler and Katz: gratifications theory

-Dependency theory

3) What are the examples provided for the hypodermic needle theory - where media texts have been blamed for certain events? 
The claim of video games causing violence and the Columbine school shootings being caused by listening to Marilyn Manson another one is the movie: Child's play causing the murder of Jamie Bulger.

4) What was the 1999 Columbine massacre? You may need to research this online in addition to the information on the factsheet.
The Columbine massacre was a school shooting that was caused by two students, However it consisted of two suspects: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold the shooting resulted in 15 deaths and 24 injuries, the attack included various amounts of explosives, firearms and other weapons being used, acts of arson and mass murder were being committed at the time.
There were many speculations on why the suspects had committed this action illogical theories such as the suspect listening to a certain song that drove them to do this and violent video games being a factor then there is the more logical theories such as the abuse and mental instability that the suspects may have felt which drove them to do such acts.

5) What are the reasons listed on the factsheet to possibly explain the Columbine High School massacre?

These are the reasons listen on the sheet.

The Columbine High School shootings occurred due

to a complex relationship between:

-The ease of access to firearms and the social acceptance of gun ownership

-The isolation felt by teenagers who felt as though they did not fit in

-The hopelessness caused by living in an area where unemployment was high and was

economically disadvantaged

- The general desensitization caused by access to arrange of violent images: film, TV, the

news, the internet.

6) How does the factsheet describe Gerbner's Cultivation theory?

The factsheet states:

"Often more vulnerable groups are a main consideration within this approach. For example, children are often seen to need protection from the cultivation of certain ideas and values."

So as it suggests, overtime people will slowly be influenced by this, however it is not an instantaneous effect but one that happens overtime, eventually they may seem "normal" to a person.

7) What does the factsheet suggest about action films and the values and ideologies that are reinforced with regards to violence?
They do sperate the type of violence in forms of "good" and "Bad" violence for example the good violence would represent a criminal dying and bad would represent hurting innocents for fun or personal gain and such, essentially they look more into the morals of these types of violence.

8) What criticisms of direct effect theories are suggested in the factsheet?
The sheet talks about the two step flow model in which is suggests that because we follow a leader we may be more prone to following their ideas or either being easily convinced as they are people that we may look up to.

9) Why might the 1970s sitcom Love Thy Neighbour be considered so controversial today? What does this tell us about Reception theory and how audiences create meanings?
Apparently the sitcom had handles racism poorly throughout its show due to its creation date being when the British were coming to terms of mass immigration, they even stereotyped their characters that would otherwise be associated with the person's ethnicity or race. 

10) What examples are provided for Hall's theory of preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings?

The preferred readings may be that this was a simple sitcom that was made just to entertain people, however the oppositional readings may be that the show was made entirely to make fun of people and their race. The negotiated reading may be that this was just a simple sitcom made to make people laugh, however due to the time it was created it wasn't meant to really make fun of people as people would wrongly see, otherwise if they were making fun of them then it may have been for the people to have a light laugh over instead of discriminating.