Media Consumption (AQA A-Level Sociology): Revision Notes
Media and Its Audience
Media creates and transmits messages to the public, but the actual impact of these messages varies greatly depending on how different audiences receive and respond to them. People may accept media messages completely, reject them entirely, or interpret them in ways that differ from the original intention. Understanding this relationship between media and audience has been a central concern for sociologists studying media effects.
The hypodermic syringe model
The hypodermic syringe model emerged in the 1920s when radio and newspapers were gaining prominence in society. This early theory proposed that media operates like a medical injection - directly inserting its message into the minds of audience members in the same way that drugs are injected into the body.
According to this model, media possesses such overwhelming power that its messages directly influence individuals, who remain powerless to resist or reject what they receive. The theory assumes that all individuals in the audience are affected in identical ways, treating the audience as a homogeneous mass of passive recipients.
Classic Example: The War of the Worlds Broadcast (1938)
The famous 1938 radio broadcast of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds by Orson Welles appeared to support this theory. The programme included fictional news bulletins reporting a Martian invasion of Earth. Some radio listeners believed the fake news reports were genuine and panicked, which media observers interpreted as evidence of the dangerous and direct power of media. For supporters of the hypodermic syringe model, this incident provided proof of media's ability to manipulate audiences directly.
However, this theory has faced substantial criticism. Sociologists argue that it oversimplifies how adults actually engage with media content, treating people as passive and easily manipulated. Critics point out that not all audience members react identically to the same media content - studies as early as the 1920s showed this variation. The theory also failed to account for how media can influence children differently than adults, and research has shown that audiences are far more active in interpreting media messages than this model suggests.
The growth of new media platforms means that audiences can now directly influence media content themselves, reversing the traditional power relationship. This represents a fundamental shift from the one-way communication model assumed by early theories.
Additionally, during the 2015 refugee crisis, photographs of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian refugee who drowned off the Turkish coast, were shared widely on social media. Public response to these images led to criticism of European governments' refugee policies, forcing mainstream media to adopt more sympathetic coverage of refugees that aligned with public sentiment expressed on social platforms.
The two-step flow model
Developed in the 1950s, the two-step flow model offers a more nuanced understanding of media influence. While acknowledging that media does affect people, this theory argues that not everyone experiences direct influence from media messages.
The model operates through two distinct stages. First, media messages reach audience members directly. However, the second and more important step involves how individuals' understanding of these messages is shaped through social interaction with other audience members. For example, workers discussing a television soap opera during their coffee break will influence each other's opinions about the storyline and characters through these conversations.
Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) identified opinion leaders - key individuals within communities whose reactions directly influence others. These opinion leaders openly express their reactions and opinions, which others then follow. The researchers studied media influence on American voters and found that most people followed opinion leaders' views on voting choices, while the opinion leaders themselves often obtained their ideas directly from media messages.
The process doesn't always follow two clear steps. Hobson (1990) studied office environments and discovered that a few key individuals influenced what others watched on television and their reactions to programmes. These opinions were then passed on to other colleagues, creating a ripple effect throughout the workplace. New employees typically had to conform to these established viewing preferences to fit in socially.
This model helps explain how media influence spreads through social networks rather than affecting isolated individuals. It recognises that audiences actively interpret and discuss media content, making the process of media influence more complex and socially mediated than the hypodermic syringe model suggested.
Cultural context and audience response
Cultural effects theory introduced the idea that social context plays a vital role in determining how media affects audiences. Rather than assuming uniform effects, this theory recognises that individuals from different cultural backgrounds will interpret media messages in varying ways based on their existing cultural framework.
The theory suggests that audiences interpret media within the context of the culture they already belong to, making media effects quite complex and variable across different groups. Culture encompasses both the smaller subcultural groups individuals belong to and the broader general culture of society. For instance, in England, an individual's response to Arsenal winning a match would depend on whether they support Arsenal, but audience response to England winning the World Cup would be broadly similar across the population due to cultural norms around supporting national sports teams.
This cultural framework helps explain why the same media content can produce different responses. The War of the Worlds broadcast provides an example - if aired on radio today, it would not create the same response because the cultural context has changed significantly since 1938. At that time, American society was experiencing insecurity due to financial crisis and approaching war in Europe. Radio programmes were frequently interrupted for news reports, and audiences expected bad news, making them more likely to believe a dramatic report interrupting regular programming.
Stuart Hall (1980) developed these ideas further, arguing that media contains dominant ideological messages that are 'encoded' into content. However, people from different backgrounds can 'decode' these messages differently, showing varying degrees of agreement or opposition to the ideology expressed. This encoding/decoding process demonstrates how cultural background shapes audience interpretation of media content.
Media reporting and moral panic
Stan Cohen (1973) described how media reporting of expected 'trouble' can create a moral panic - a situation where public concern about a social issue becomes disproportionate to the actual threat it poses.
Case Study: Mods and Rockers Conflict (1960s)
Cohen studied the example of conflicts between Mods and Rockers in the 1960s. Media reports suggested there would be fights between these two youth subcultures, which attracted public attention. Many people attended these events partly due to media publicity, and the public subsequently panicked over reports about the level of violence and participation.
The process follows a predictable pattern: a small group behaves in a deviant way, media reports the story, media continues reporting similar stories, the original group becomes labelled as a threat to social order, and more people join in with the deviant behaviour. This creates a cycle where media coverage amplifies the original problem, leading to increased public concern and demands for action.
Moral panic occurs when public demands for action exceed the actual scale of the problem. The media's role in amplifying and sensationalising deviant behaviour transforms minor social issues into major public concerns, demonstrating how media reporting can actively shape social problems rather than simply reporting on them.
Long-term effects of media messages
Media effects often build up gradually over time to create or reinforce cultural norms rather than producing immediate, dramatic changes. This cumulative process can be particularly powerful in shaping social attitudes and behaviours.
Media representations of women provide a clear example of these long-term effects. Consistent portrayal of women in stereotypical ways creates expectations about gender roles and behaviour. Feminist campaigns have worked to remove objectifying images of women from newspapers, arguing that these representations reinforce the view that it is acceptable to treat women primarily as sexual objects. The Sun newspaper ended its 'page three' feature in January 2015 following sustained criticism.
Marshall McLuhan (1964) argued that media technology itself has a greater effect on society than media content. He distinguished between 'hot' and 'cool' media - 'hot' media like films require little effort to understand, while 'cool' media like comics need more interpretation from audiences. Different forms of media can be described as requiring different levels of engagement from their users.
Some theorists emphasise that the technology of media has transformed how people communicate, shop, apply for jobs, and conduct daily activities. The internet represents a particularly significant change in how society operates, affecting everything from social relationships to economic activity.
However, measuring long-term media effects objectively proves difficult, making discussions about these effects largely theoretical rather than empirically proven.
Effects of violent media on audiences
Research into violent media effects has focused heavily on whether exposure to violent content influences audience behaviour, particularly among young people who are often considered more impressionable and likely to repeat behaviours they observe.
Newson (1994) argued that people can become desensitised to violence through repeated exposure on television, in films, and in games. This desensitisation means individuals become accustomed to seeing violence and no longer find it shocking or disturbing.
Research Study: Bandura et al (1963) - The Bobo Doll Experiment
Bandura et al (1963) conducted influential research suggesting that children exposed to violent media content may imitate violent behaviour they have seen. In their experiment, children watched a film showing an adult hitting a doll, then were given the opportunity to play with the same type of doll.
Results: Children who had seen the violent film hit the doll in similar ways to what they had observed, while those who had not seen the film played with the doll non-violently. The researchers concluded that violent media could directly cause violent behaviour.
The hypodermic syringe model has been used to link fictional media violence with real-world incidents. In 2012, a gunman killed 12 people at a screening of the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, dressed as the film's villain, the Joker. Media coverage linked the attack directly to the film's violent content, suggesting the gunman was influenced by what he had seen. Similar connections are often made between mass shootings in America and violent films or computer games, even when no clear evidence exists of such influence.
Glasgow University Media Group research
The Glasgow University Media Group (GUMC) has conducted longitudinal research into media effects since 1974, providing substantial evidence about how media influences audience attitudes and beliefs over time.
GUMC researchers have analysed the effects of news and current affairs reporting by examining media content for its messages and values. They also survey and interview audiences to determine how much influence media has on their thinking and behaviour.
GUMC Research Finding: 1984-5 Miners' Strike Study
Their research argues that media strongly affects audiences' attitudes and beliefs through cumulative exposure over time. In one significant study, they examined audience reactions to reports of violence during the 1984-5 miners' strike.
Key Finding: They found that 54% of their audience sample who had seen media coverage of the strike believed the picket lines were mostly violent. However, police officers and people who were actually present on the picket lines reported that there was not as much violence as media coverage suggested. This demonstrates how audience beliefs can be shaped by media representation rather than reflecting actual events.
The GUMC's longitudinal approach provides more reliable evidence of media effects than short-term experimental studies, as it examines how media exposure influences people in their natural social environments over extended periods.
Criticisms of violent media effects research
Several researchers have challenged the assumption that violent media necessarily produces negative effects on audiences.
Cumberbatch (2004) reviewed over 3,500 research studies about violent media effects and concluded that none provided clear evidence that violent media influences the behaviour of children or adults. According to his analysis, no definitive link exists between media violence consumption and real-world violent behaviour.
Young (1981) argues that violent media may actually have positive effects on attitudes towards violence. He suggests that viewing violent media content may result in 'sensitisation' to violent crime, making people more aware of the consequences of violent actions. Through exposure to fictionalised examples of violence and their consequences, individuals may learn to avoid committing violent crimes themselves.
Fesbach and Sanger (1971) proposed that violent media provides people with an opportunity to release aggression in a positive way. They argued that engaging with violent content, such as playing computer games, offers a safe method for releasing anger and negative emotions without causing harm to others. This process, known as catharsis, suggests that violent media may actually reduce rather than increase aggressive behaviour by providing an outlet for natural aggressive impulses.
Methodological criticisms of effects research
David Gauntlett (2008) has provided extensive criticism of the methods used in media effects research, while acknowledging the value of some research approaches like those used by GUMC.
Laboratory Environment Problems
Gauntlett attacks experimental methods such as those used by Bandura et al in their doll experiment. He argues that laboratory environments make research results artificial because experiments do not reflect how children behave in real-world situations. Away from laboratories, children are influenced by parents and other children, creating different behavioural patterns than those observed in controlled experimental settings.
He also challenges the assumption that children are powerless recipients of media messages, arguing that other research demonstrates children can recognise from an early age that it is not acceptable to imitate fictional violence. This contradicts the view of children as passive consumers who automatically copy what they see.
Gauntlett advocates for ethnographic studies where researchers observe people in their natural settings. He studied schoolchildren in Leeds, asking them to make their own videos about their environment while observing their behaviour. This approach provides more realistic insights into how people actually interact with media in their daily lives.
Additional Methodological Problems
Additional criticisms highlight other methodological problems:
- Media effects studies often fail to clearly define what they mean by 'violence'
- Research focuses primarily on fictional violence without considering how audiences might react differently to various types of violent content
- Studies using the hypodermic syringe model often fail to account for individual differences in audience responses
- Research assumes uniform effects across different age groups despite evidence that ten-year-olds vary in maturity and will respond differently to media content
Morrison (1999) emphasises that context matters when studying media effects. Some research ignores how violent media is presented in different contexts, which affects audience interpretation. Violence presented in a comedic context may have different effects than brutal violence shown in realistic war scenes, but many studies fail to account for these contextual differences.
Key Points to Remember:
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Media influence theories have evolved from simple direct effects (hypodermic syringe) to more complex models recognising audience agency and cultural context
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Opinion leaders play a vital role in mediating media messages through the two-step flow process, making media influence more socially mediated than direct
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Cultural background shapes interpretation - the same media content can produce different responses depending on audiences' existing cultural frameworks
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Long-term cumulative effects may be more significant than immediate impacts, gradually building up to reinforce or create cultural norms over time
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Research methods matter - laboratory experiments may not reflect real-world media consumption, and ethnographic studies can provide more realistic insights into media effects