Responsibilities Carried Out

Components

The Effects/Hypodermic Model [Hayley Male]

This theory is the most simple to understand. It has grown very popular over the years as people fear the effects the media will have on them. The theory suggest that the media acts like a 'syringe' that injects ideas and beliefs aswell as attitudes in to the minds of the audience who basically have no choice but to be influenced by what the media says. For example, if you see a group of teenagers being violent on TV the audience are to assume that this is how all teenagers lead their lives. It has commonly been used to explain why some films have been banned as they have been thought to encourage people to copy what is shown in the film. Although is have never really been claimed that all viewers will be effected in the same way. This is simply because is does not include individual differences. However it is still popular as an excuse, especially among politicians as a reason for society being at a downfall. Everytime a young person does something violent, all forms of mass media and MP's will try to link the crime to video violence. [Taken from, Media Studies Key Concepts - Audience Booklet]

Graphs for Poll Results [Hayley Male]

Graphs for Blog.

The Cultivation/Culmination theory (Thibaut Nyemba)

This theory is about media texts such as films having effects on the audience. Also this theory explores whether media texts can change a person's way of thinking and desensitize someone towards certain things such as violence. This theory asks if years and years of watching something like a a woman being mistreated in soaps would we be more excepted to it happening in real life?

There is not yet concrete proof that media texts can change ones behavior. Advertisers may use this to attract their target audience to buy their products. They spend a lot of money trying to do so and researchers try to prove the cultivation theory. This theory can also be split ion to two parts. The first part is violence in the media desensitizes children to violence, thus they are more tolerant towards it. The more they see the more it entices them for more. The second part suggests sexual and violent behavior is broken down and is seen as normal, especially when it is going unpunished in the media text.

W.Belson conducted research with males between the age of 12 and 17 to see how violent they are. He discovered that:"Children who tend to watch violent TV programs do become more violent themselves to some extent, largely because violence comes to be seen as a legitimate problem solving device for them." A lot of the times surveys show that violent people enjoy violent programmes.