Flashcards on Relationship Between the Media and their Content, Presentation and Audiences (4.7)

According to the hypodermic syringe model, what is there a direct correlation between?

Who is the most vulnerable to these media images of violence and antisocial behaviour, and why?

Some sociologists take a hypodermic syringe approach to how the mass media may shape non-violent forms of behaviour. What does feminist Naomi Wolf accuse the mass media of causing?

Similarly, which feminist sociologist argued that the mass media's portrayal of women, particularly in pornography, has contributed to the negative attitudes towards women?

Early marxist sociologists have also used the hypodermic syringe approach when examining the relationship between the media and its audiences' behaviour. What did Herbert Marcuse believe the media transmits?

Likewise, which sociologist argues that media coverage of political issues can influence voting behaviour?

Which perspective has a more positive attitude about the hypodermic syringe approach?

According to functionalists, what can the hypodermic syringe approach be credited with?

Where did early hypodermic syringe model studies of the relationships between the media and violence occur?

Albert Bandura et al conducted perhaps the most famous laboratory experiment to identify a cause-and-effect relationship between media content and violence. What did he find?

Kimberly McCabe and Gregory Martin put forward a similar argument. What sort of effect do they say screen violence has?

Which sociologist argues that violent images in films are too easily available and that exposure to screen violence encourages young viewers to identify with the perpetrators, rather than the victims?

Newson noted that children and adolescents are subjected to thousands of violent images on television and in films as they grow up. For example, how many television murders has the average American 18-year-old viewed, if estimates are correct?

How does Newson describe the effect of prolonged exposure to media violence?

Newson's conclusions have significantly impacted society and politicians. What did her report directly lead to?

Similarly, what have television companies agreed to adopt to help censor 'adult' content?

While most of the above approaches regard media violence as having a negative impact on its audiences' behaviour, some media sociologists argue that it can actually prevent real-life violence. What two reasons do they give for this?

Which two sociologists argued that screen violence can actually act as a catharsis - that is, it can provide a safe outlet for people's aggressive tendencies?

Which sociologist argued that seeing the effects of violence can make the viewers more sensitive of its consequences and thus less inclined to commit violent acts?

Another criticism of the hypodermic syringe model is that studies that use it often have a handful of methodological issues. Why is David Gauntlett critical of Bandura's experiment?

If participant bias does indeed occur, what happens to the data gathered?

Why was Bandura's study especially susceptible to participant bias?

Additionally, studies using the hypodermic syringe model aren't clear about what?

Similarly, the model can be criticised because it often fails to put violence into context. Who illustrated that the context in which screen violence occurs affects its impact on the audience?

Another critique of the hypodermic syringe model is that studies tackle the issue of violence from the wrong 'end'. What is meant by this?

Critics of the model dispute the claim that people, and especially children, are vulnerable. Research shows that children can distinguish between fictional violence and real violence from a very young age and generally know that it shouldn't be imitated. Which sociologist found no evidence of children being confused between the two?

However, research provided by Ofcom indicates that children may lack online understanding. How many children don't question the content they see online?

What did the Institute for Public Policy Researcg find out about teenager's attitudes to pornography?

A final criticism of the hypodermic syringe model is that it arguably scapegoats the media. What is meant by this?

Which filmmaker argued that blaming the media for the Columbine massacre made as much sense as blaming bowling - a hobby of both of the offenders?

Which sociologist noted that youth violence in America has actually fallen by 83% in the past two decades, despite an explosion in the number of violent computer games?

Ferguson gives two reasons why violent computer games might've actually helped to reduce youth crime rates. What are they?

When examining all evidence supporting and contradicting the hypodermic syringe model, which sociologist concludes that there is still no conclusive evidence to prove or disprove the model?

Contrary to the hypodermic syringe model, which type of approach argues that media content doesn't lead to imitation by or desensitisation of audience members?

Why is the active audience approach critical of the hypodermic syringe approach?

There are six respective branches of the active audience approach. Name as many as possible (three minimum):

Which two sociologists developed the two-step flow model?

According to Katz and Lazarsfeld, who dominates personal relationships and social networks?

These opinion leaders typically have strong ideas and opinions about a range of matters. How have they formed these?

Katz and Lazarsfeld suggest that media content goes through two steps before it has an effect. What are these two steps?

In this way, media audiences aren't directly influenced by the media - the audience, in the form of the opinion leader, are active in their interpretations. However, what are the two problems critics have pointed out with this model?

Which sociologist developed the selective filter model?

According to Klapper, for a media message to any effect, it must pass through which three filters?

What is 'selective exposure'?

What is 'selective perception'?

What is 'selective retention'?

In line with selective retention, what did Neil Postman argue we now live in?

How can the three filters involved in the selective filter model be used to argue that audiences are active, rather than passive and homogeneous?

Which two sociologists strongly advocate for the uses and gratifications model?

What does the uses and gratifications model suggest?

Blumler and McQuail argue that these needs may be biological, psychological or social and, furthermore, they are relative - they depend on gender, age, class, etc. However, they do identify four basic needs that all people use the media to satisfy. What are they?

What is meant by 'diversion'?

What is meant by 'personal relationships'?

What is meant by 'personal identity'?

What is meant by 'surveillance'?

The uses and gratifications model has been criticised for several reasons. Firstly, methodological problems have been identified. Discuss:

Marxists criticise the model for exaggerating the audience's freedom to interpret media content as they so choose. What do the Glasgow University Media Group argue?

Finally, how do postmodernists respond to the uses and gratifications model?

What does the reception analysis model of media effects suggest?

Which sociologist argued that people actively choose to make one of three readings or interpretations of media content?

What are the three readings of media content, according to Morley?

What is the 'preferred reading'?

What is the 'oppositional reading'?

What is the 'negotiated reading'?

Morley suggests that all three interpretations of media content can occur within the same social group. Why might the average person have a complicated interpretation of media content?

The reception analysis model does not believe that audiences are one passive group. Rather, it looks at audience members as individuals who act in a variety of subcultural ways. As such, how does the model portray media content?

However, it has been argued - and conceded by Morley himself - that the research may have been compromised. Why?

Which perspective formulated the cultural effects model?

How does the marxist cultural effects model see the media?

There is disagreement among marxists about why this process occurs, with three main explanations being presented. What are they?

In its focus on audiences, what does the model recognise?

The cultural effects model is therefore similar to the reception analysis model in its understanding of the media audience. However, how does the cultural effects model differ from the reception analysis model?

What is media coverage of particular issues resulting in, according to the cultural effects model?

Like Newson, marxists believe that audiences have been exposed to a 'drip-drip' effect through which media content has become saturated with ideological values. What do marxists think of television content in particular?

What impact does the 'dumbed down' television content have on audiences?

What is the long-term effect of this preferred reading of media content?

Which two sociologists' findings support the cultural effects model?

What did Reese and Lewis find regarding news reports following 9/11?

What does the cultural effects model state about the way that audiences interpret media messages?

Which sociologist shows how audiences are limited in the interpretations they can make about media content? How does he do this?

What criticism can be made of the cultural effects discussed in the cultural effects model?

Pluralists question the marxist view that these cultural effects benefit the capitalist elite. Why?

Why are certain views projected more than other views, according to pluralists?

Pluralists are also critical of the marxist view that the media is creating a homogeneous worldview underpinned by capitalist ideology. What counterargument do they make?

How do postmodernists view the media?

In particular, what do postmodernists believe individuals now search for?

What does the search for one's authentic self often result in?

Postmodern perspectives on the effects of media content are essentially are an extension of which model?

How do the reception analysis model and the postmodernist model differ?

Which sociologist stated that postmodernists see media content as producing multiple definitions of reality, each of which has the same degree of importance as the others?

Furthermore, how do postmodernists see definitions of reality?

How do postmodernists apply this belief to the media and its potential influence over audiences?

As such, rather than seeing the audience as a homogeneous group or as divided into cultural or other groupings, what do postmodernists argue about media effects and audiences?