Effects On Audience Theories

NEGATIVE EFFECTS

DIRECT EFFECTS

HYPODERMIC THEORY

The "hypodermic needle theory" implies mass media has a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were percieved as a power influence on behaviour change. Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication, including:

1. The fast rise and popularization of television and radio
2. The emergence of persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda
3. The Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which focused on the impact of motion pictures on children
4. Hitler's monopolization of the mass media during WWII to unify the German public behind the Nazis.

However, it also suggests that whilst a film can 'inject' an idea into an audience, the audience's morals or feelings can reject these ideals - known as 'filters'. 

For example, the film A Clockwork Orange may suggest to an audience that 'violence is good'. Filters, however, stop the audience from being violent like the characters in the movie, filters such as the law, a person's own morals, or their dislike for violence/conflicting feelings on violence. For certain people, namely psycho-socio-paths, filters aren't there to stop these messages, therefore they may provoke a person to be violent.

COPYCAT THEORY

The copycat theory relates to something in the media, such as a film, that causes an audience to imitate actions in the film. For example, well known examples include copycat murders, suicides and other violent acts that are caused by seeing the same acts in the media.

Here are some real-life newspaper examples of alleged copycat crimes:

Copycat theory can often cause Moral Panics surrounding certain films.

MORAL PANICS

A moral panic is an intense feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. Moral panics are in essence controversies that involve arguments and social tension, and in which agreement is difficult because the matter at its centre is taboo. The media are key players in causing moral panics. Simply reporting the facts can be enough to generate concern, anxiety of panic.

Moral panics have several distinct features. According to Goode and Ben-Yehuda, moral panics consist of the following characteristics:

1. Concern: There must be belief that the behaviour of the group or category in question is likely to have a negative effect on society. 
2. Hostility: Hostility towards the group in question increases, and they become "folk devils". A clear division forms between "them" and "us".
3. Consensus: Though concern does not have to be nationwide, there must be widespread acceptance that the group in question poses a very real threat to society. It is important at this stage that the "moral entrepreneurs" are vocal and the "folk devils" appear weak and disorganised. 
4. Disproportionality: The action taken is disproportionate to the actual threat posed by the accused group.
5. Volatility: Moral panics are highly volatile and tend to disappear as quickly as they appeared due to a wane in public interest or news reports changing to another topic. 

LINK TO A NEWS REPORT ABOUT MORAL PANICS LEADING TO FILM CENSORSHIP

INDIRECT EFFECTS

INOCULATION THEORY

1. Inoculation theory is a passive audience theory, which suggests that audiences who are exposed to extreme media messages will become "immune" to them once viewed, and that long-term exposure can result in audience desensitisation to such imagery. 
2. It can be argued that as a result, media messages are becoming more extreme in order to shock audiences. 
3. For example, early horror films such as 'Night Of The Living Dead' contain scenes of very mild violence that would have shocked audiences in the 1960's (its release), however modern horror films such as 'Saw' contain violence and gore that is much more explicit - yet it shocks audiences in the same way. If 'Saw' was shown in the 60's it would be an unthinkable thing to watch on film, and this shows that over time audiences have become used to violence in films.

1. Here are two videos containing death scenes from the films - the top one is all the death scenes from the 1960's film 'Night Of The Living Dead' and the bottom one is a montage of all scenes using the Reverse Bear Trap in numerous 'Saw' movies. Both sets of footage would shock audiences from the time of their release, and both films have an 18 rating as of 2015. However 'Saw' is viewed as a lot more explicit and gory, and would probably horrify audiences in the 60's. 
2. This shows that audiences could have become used to seeing violent films.

1. Inoculation theory has been used in attempts to blame violent media for alleged copycat crimes.

MEAN WORLD SYNDROME

1. Mean world syndrome is a term coined by George Gerbner to describe a phenomenon whereby violence related content of mass media makes viewers believe that the world is more dangerous than it actually is.
2. For example, watching many horror films could make a person believe that the world is more violent and more people are killed than actually are, and could even lead to people never leaving their homes in fear.

POSITIVE EFFECTS

CATHARSIS

1. The catharsis effect mechanism is decoded through that, that in their daily life people are confronted with frustrating situations which can lead to acts of violence. The catharsis offers liberation from these frustrations through imaginary participation in acts of violence and aggression present on television. 
2. The crucial point in catharsis theory is that the observed aggressive action does not necessarily need to be executed in reality - it can instead take place in the actor's fantasy or in the media. 
3. The model goes back to Aristotle who used the term "catharsis" in his Poetics to describe an effect of the Greek tragedy on its spectator: by viewing tragic plays the spectators own anxieties are put outward and purged in a social harmless way.

USES & GRATIFICATIONS


Uses and gratifications theory (UGT) is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs.
According to research, goals for the media use can be grouped into five uses. The audience wants to:

1. be informed or educated
2. identify with characters of the situation in the media environment
3. simple entertainment
4. enhance social interaction
5. escape from the stresses of daily life