Critical Research Study

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Critical Research Study

• Useful Theories

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Aims

• Cover theories that you can use in your research
• Help you work out how to apply them to your own
  study
• You MUST cover at least ONE audience theory
• Consider all theories that are relevant the
  more you use, the more critical your study

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Which theories?

• Audience Hypodermic needle model, two-step flow,
  cultivation theory, uses and gratifications
  model, reception theory.
• Male Gaze and voyeurism
• Representation theories

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Audience Theory 1 Hypodermic Needle Model

• Theory developed in 1920s
• First theory applied to how audiences receive the
  media
• Principle that audience passively receives a text
  without processing or challenging the data
• Governments cottoned on to this and used the
  theory to their advantage by creating
  propaganda (e.g. Hitler).
• Theory suggests that intelligence and opinion of
  audience are irrelevant.
• Theory suggests we are manipulated by media
  texts.

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Audience Theory 2 Two Step Flow

• Sometimes referred to as limited effects paradigm
• Suggests information does not flow directly from
  text to mind of reader
• Info flows through opinion leaders who add
  their own spin to an idea
• This is then communicated to the general audience
  who assimilate the primary information
  incorporating the ideas of the opinion leaders.

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Audience Theory 3 Uses and Gratifications Model

• During 1960s it became apparent that audiences
  consumed texts for different reasons and in
  different ways
• Diversion escape from everyday problems
• Personal Relationships using the media for
  emotional and other interaction
• Personal Identity finding yourself reflected in
  texts, learning behaviour and vales from text.
• Surveillance Information useful for living, such
  as weather reports.

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Audience Theory 4 Reception Theory

• Theory extends the concept of an active reader
  still further
• Describes how gender, class, age, ethnicity
  affects our reading of texts
• Meaning is encoded by the producer, then decoded
  by the reader
• Use recognised conventions and audience
  expectation to position the audience
• Producer and reader then have certain amount of
  agreement on what the text means this is known
  as preferred reading.

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Audience Theory 5

• A direct development of the hypodermic model
• Came about because its difficult to prove effect
  of media text on audience
• States that one media text will not have too much
  effect on behaviour
• However suggests that repeated viewing of violent
  material may decrease sensitivity to violence and
  violent behaviour
• Some media companies use this to their advantage
• No proof has been uncovered to ratify this
  theory, but it doesnt mean its not a good idea

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Moral Panics

• Directly related to the hypodermic needle theory,
  as it relies on audiences being passive enough
  that their behaviour is changed
• Famous cases include Natural Born Killers
  producers, who were sued by the families of
  murder victims
• Families believed producers should be held
  responsible for the killers actions as they were
  influenced by what they had seen
• Process by which members of society become
  sensitive to challenges to their own moral
  values, as a result of the media construct of an
  attitude towards social problems.

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Male Gaze and Voyeurism

• Developed by Laura Mulvey, prominent feminist
  film critic
• Defines the relationship between female
  characters and the male audience
• Describes how females are set up as sexual
  objects within films through soft focus
  camerawork and mise-en-scene

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Representations

• Characters are constructed in a series of
  different ways
• Caricature exaggerated construct of existing
  characteristic e.g. Little Britain
• Cultural exact reconstruction of social group
  e.g. Soap opera
• Stereotype generic representation of a group
  e.g. 24