Effects Theory
The Effects Theory is the idea that the media can effect the behaviour and opinion of their audience controlling the way the audience act. These media sources can effect the way we view the world.The media controls what we think about because they get to choose what they write about them. This is called "agenda setting" or "gatekeeping". For example, the media can choose to make taxes and education prior topics in the newspaper, but leave out stories about the banks and climate change.
There are other manipulative techniques that the media use as well like Framing. This is where the media is purposely trying to make the audience take a side. For example, scientists could find a cure to a disease but they tested on animals first, meaning that the media can go two different approaches with this either focusing on the merits of the scientists or the fact they tested on animals therefore choosing a bad guy for the situation and manipulating the audiences opinion because we don't get the whole story or only partial parts of a story.
The point in which media became a popular way of receiving information into it's own was in the 1940's because of all the propaganda that either side of the war was spreading and they used the Effects Theory to their advantage to get the people on their side.
These are all different ways that the media can effect the behaviour of an audience
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| This is an example of the type of properganda used in the 1930's. |
Hypodermic Needle Model
The Hypodermic Needle Model is the idea that the audience of media, for example, newspapers, television, radio, etc, will willing accept everything told to them as fact and label them as "passive". It also suggests that we are all the same in the way people think and that we respond to media messages exactly the same as everyone else.It was created in the 1920/30's after the way that propaganda was spread in World War I, and though many people think it's an outdated approach to the way we think about things, the model is still used sometimes today. For example, many people still worry about the effects of violent games and the media can use this to their advantage blaming the acts of someone on video games like Grand Theft Auto and Saint's Row.
In 1938, Orson Wells played a radio drama of The War of the Worlds caused many people to panic as they thought the attacks were real and that the Earth was being taken over by martians causing a lot of people to be hysterical. This shows how powerful the media can actually be as a lot of people took what the radio was saying as the truth.
Another good example of the Hypodermic Needle Model coming into action is the Nazi film "Triumph of the Will", which is one of the best known examples of using propaganda in film history,
Despite all this however, the Hypodermic Needle Theory is inadequate as it focuses on the idea that everyone is the same and easily manipulated which isn't the case. Though some people can be influenced by the media, it doesn't mean that everyone can.
Cultivation Model and Desensitisation
Cultivation Model (or Cultivation Theory) is a social theory that examines the long-term effects of television on people.The overall definition of the Theory is that watching too much television will cultivate the viewers perception on reality.
The creators of the theory state:
"Television is a medium of the socialisation of most people into standardised roles and behaviours. Its function is in a word, enculturation"
This suggests that television is shaping the way we behaviour and act and shaping us to be accepted and similar to each other. Another idea of the Cultivation theory is that the more people watch cinema with lots of gore and warped imagery, the more used to it they become.This means that a person may search out for more extreme types of gore because of how used to the imagery they've become.
This is called "Desensitisation". Desensitiation is an important survival mechanism, if you take a job as a roofer, then it is to your advantage to become less frightened by heights over time. Same thing with a doctor, a doctor who can’t stand gore or body parts won’t be that effective. However many people think that desensitisation can change a way a person thinks. For example, the 1999 Columbine shootings. There was a massive debate around what caused the two shooters to kill 12 students, 1 teacher and wound several others, a source said they played games such as Wolfenstein and Doom (Which had a lot of blame placed on it)
Choose a game thaat you think you might like (maybe for Xmas)
Look at advertisements for that game and explain why they might make you want to buy the game how are they influencing you?
Then discuss the game with your friends - how might this influence you what do your friends say? Is it positive or negative?
Read a selection of expert reviews of the game, what do these tell you, how do these influence you?
Finally, which of the 3 factors has influenced you the most and why?
Reception Theory
While uses and gratifications research is concerned with why people use media, the approach often referred to as 'reception theory' focuses on what people see in the media, on the meanings they produce when they interpret media texts.
- Reception Theory
In a sense this is an extension of uses and gratifications theory. Reception analysis is based on the idea that no text has one single meaning. It suggest that the individual members of the audiences help to create the meaning of the text. We decode the texts in our own individual way - which may be a result of our upbringing, the mood we're in, where we are or any combination of these factors. So you might watch and enjoy a TV prgramme while your friend will hate it, you may actually find different meaning for it.
Reception analysis tries to understand these differences. Factorssuch as gender, social status and social context can have a major impact on the way we construct the meaning of a text. #
Dominant (or hegemonic) reading - the reader shares the programmes code (it's meaning system of values, attitutes, beliefs and assumptions) and accepts the perferred reading. An example of this is the news.
Negotiated reading - the reader partly shares the programmes code but modifies it in a way which reflects their position and interests.
Oppositional (counter hegemonic) reading - The reader does not share the programmes code and rejects the preferred reading , bringing to bear an alternative frame of interpretation (e.g. A feminist reading of a 'lads' magazine).
Activity 2:
One example for myself that's been in the line of Dominant reading was the opinion of Egoraptor who creates flash animations and videos for YouTube and Newgrounds. He goes on to state how games in the past taught the player progressively and kept a steady learning curve while still adding some challenge which games of today, like Call of Duty for instance, aren't doing and prompt the player with unnecessary pop-ups of how to play the game and I completely agree with his opinion. A link to the episode can be seen here:
An example of negotiated reading for me happened recently. I was looking at the top 100 most disappointing movies of the decade and the movie Tropic Thunder came into the list. The critic said that the film was extremely disappointing because of the amount of potential the movie had like being one of the most funded comedies of all time and having an a-list cast but resorting to "retard jokes" and "Robert Downey Jr in black face."
I did agree with the points that the critic put across because I do feel that there could have been a lot more to the movie and it seemed a little underwhelming at times. However, I don't think that I personally would name it one of the most disappointing movies of the decade because there were also many funny and enjoyable moments within the movie but there obviously could have been more to it.
The final example I have is oppositional reading which is the recent headline of the nurse, Jacintha Saldanha and the prank that lead her to commit suicide. I feel that areas of the media have been demonising the two DJ's that prank called the hospital which isn't right to me because they didn't have the intention of taking someone's life when they started the prank call, however, I do admit that the act was inappropriate because it is a hospital and calling such a place can be unnecessarily time-wasting.
Two different newspapers wrote two different articles on the subject:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jacintha-saldanha-laid-to-rest-but-familys-hunt-for-answers-goes-on-8422459.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4699301/jacintha-saldanha-children-unfillable-void-in-our-lives.html
The Independent goes for a less biased approach to the funeral.
Genre
What kind of games are the GTA games?A free-roaming, RPG, action-adventure, open-world third person shooter with driving elements.
Games are developing and becoming a mixture of different genres and as a result, it's becoming more and more difficult to put games into a category.
We classify things by comparing them to cultural norms. We can classify people, objects or media texts for example, we classify people using a range of different ways from gender and sexuality to the types of movies and music that a person may like.
We use genres to look for a particular type of game. I may look for RPG's for instance, because that is a genre which I enjoy. One of my favourite games is Final Fantasy and by using the genre I may want to look for games similar to it.
The way we catergrise things is how similar something is to something else but also what they are dissimilar to something else. We make sense of the world by comparing one thing to another thing because this makes stuff easier to understand. If I need to describe a game for instance like Resident Evil, I can tell people that it's similar to Silent Hill to make people understand.
Objective - to develop your understanding to identification of generic types and to apply this to examples
What to do -
Pick between 3-5 games
For each game think through the narrative structure, how you control your avatar and how the game 'handles'.
The work out how it fits into different genre box by thinking about the key reference points of time, location, iconography and how you actually play the game. Use your notes on classification and genre to help you do this.
Final Fantasy X is a JRPG which is set in a fantasy setting. The game sets itself into this genre by taking a turn from traditional westenised RPGs like Skyrim of which the lore consists of Orcs, Trolls and things of that nature. Japanese RPGs base some of their content on Japanese mythology but mostly, a JRPG can take place anywhere from a fantasy setting, near future, oriental setting, or in a science fiction setting.
The game includes a lot a religious referencing as the game revolves around one of the main characters, Yuna, going on a pilgrimage as a Summoner. The game deals with both discrimination as the Yevonites (The religion of the game is named Yevon.) and a race of people named the Al Bhed are at constant war because of the religion's banning of technology.
If we compared this to a game like Call of Duty, you can see the difference in feel. The Call of Duty title focus on action and mindless fun. Though there is a narrative to some of the games, and some of the story is upsetting, it is closer described as the Rambo or the Terminator of the game world as that action is the main focus of the movies. Spirited Away, however, aims to get you emotionally invested in the start with a whole new world just as Final Fantasy does.
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