Media
theories
• Effects theory
(Hypodermic Syringe,
Innoculation) – what
the media does to
audiences
• Uses and
Gratifications –
what audiences
do with the
media
•Reception theory
(Nationwide audience
Dallas, Seinfeld, etc) –
what audiences do to
the media
Effects Theories
• Mass media/mass communications make
people powerless to resist messages the
media carries
• Consumers are ‘drugged’, ‘addicted’ or
‘hypnotised’
• Effects theories taken up with protection of
young, link between violence and the
media
Effects Theories
Historical stuff
• Frankfurt School: Marxist German
intellectuals reacting against Nazi
propaganda and US advertising –
suggested the power of big corporations
and the state to control how we think
• Rise of TV in the 50’s and 60’s – fear of
danger to children
Effects Theories
Historical Stuff
• Influence of behavioural scientists (think of
Pavlov’s dogs) – media may reinforce
attitudes through repetition
• Bobo doll experiment (1963) – Bandura
and Walters – children imitate adult
treatment of doll seen on film
Fiona Geraghty inquest: fashion industry
blamed for girl's death
Coroner says industry should stop using very thin models after schoolgirl suffering from eating disorder hanged herself
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 June 2012 18.14 BST
Fiona Geraghty killed herself last year because she believed she was overweight.
The 14-year-old was described by her school as 'charming, talented and lively'.
A coroner has blamed the fashion industry for the death of a schoolgirl found hanged after becoming convinced she was overweight.
Michael Rose, the West Somerset coroner, linked the death of 14-year-old Fiona Geraghty directly to the industry and called on magazines and
model agencies to stop using very thin models. During the inquest in Taunton it was claimed that other girls at the public school she attended,
King's College in Taunton, had taunted her about her weight. There was also criticism from her family of the way she was discharged by a
community psychiatric nurse after being seen only four times.
Recording a verdict of misadventure, Rose attacked the fashion world. "The one class of person not here who I hold directly responsible for
what happened is the fashion industry," he said. "The problems of eating disorders amongst young people, particularly girls, did not exist before
the 1970s. From that period onwards the fashion industry and the magazines promoted thin models and the thin figure.
"I do ask, particularly the magazines in the fashion industry, to stop publishing photographs of wafer thin girls. I do implore it, because at the end
of the day for their benefit, families like this must suffer. It is, I am afraid, an increasing problem and until they control themselves it will
continue."
Fiona was found hanged at the family home in Nailsbourne, near Taunton, in July last year.
Before the verdict was given Richard Biggs, head teacher at King's College, vigorously denied Fiona had been bullied about her size. He told
the inquest: "She was involved in a disagreement with third form girls. My understanding of the incidents with the other girls was that they were
more along the lines of clashes of personalities, which I don't think are unusual at that age.
• The Health Initiative
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LAUREN MILLIGAN
03 May 2012
12 comments
•
THE HEALTH INITIATIVE, a pact between the 19 international editors of Vogue to encourage a
healthier approach to body image within the industry, is unveiled today in the June issue of
Vogue.
"As one of the fashion industry's most powerful voices, Vogue has a unique opportunity to engage
with relevant issues where we feel we can make a difference," editor Alexandra Shulman explains
in her editor's letter, adding that the Initiative will "build on the successful work that the Council of
Fashion Designers of America with the support of American Vogue in the US and the British
Fashion Council in the UK have already begun to encourage a healthier approach to body image
within the industry".
In line with the Health Initiative, the international issues of Vogue jointly pledge - among other
things - to "work with models who, in our view, are healthy and help to promote a healthy body
image" and to "be ambassadors for the message of healthy body image".
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Size zero debate
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H&M under fire for using model so thin
she's been called 'corpse-like' for launch
of Marni collection
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By DEBORAH ARTHURS
PUBLISHED: 14:55, 9 March 2012 | Comments (318)
Share
High Street store H&M has come under fire today for its use of
a model some have said is so thin as to be 'corpse-like'.
•
The model was used in PR material for the clothing giant's
Marni campaign, the latest high profile designer collaboration to
be launched by the firm.
•
But some have complained that 26-year-old Aymeline Valade
looks 'ready to collapse'.
•
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article2112617/Marni-H-M-collection-campaign-uses-model-shescalled-corpse-like.html#ixzz1yVjXKhR1
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http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2012/05/03/kate-moss-cover-june-vogue---olympics-jubilee-london/gallery#
• Girl, 15, who went on a postChristmas diet dies from
anorexia in a year
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By LIZ HULL
UPDATED: 10:27, 29 September 2010
Comments (99)
Share
When Anna Wood said she was joining her
mother on a post-Christmas diet, they expected
to lose a few pounds then carry on life as
normal.
But within months the grade-A student at an
independent school was caught in the grip of a
terrible eating disorder.
Her battle with anorexia took her through
several crises, all the time reducing her frail
body’s ability to survive.
And just over a year after starting the diet, she
died aged 16.
A shadow of her former self: Anna in the grip of
her anorexia and before she started the diet that
ended up causing her death
•
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article1315734/Anna-Wood-15-went-post-Christmas-diet-diesanorexia-year.html#ixzz1yVkca6e8
Effects Theories
• Moral panics: Concern, hostility,
consensus, disproportionality, volatility
• Two step flow:
Media
Text
Effects Theories
• Moral panics: Concern, hostility,
consensus, disproportionality, volatility
• Two step flow:
Media
Text
Opinion
Leaders
Effects Theories
• Moral panics: Concern, hostility,
consensus, disproportionality, volatility
• Two step flow:
Media
Text
Opinion
Leaders
Media
Consumers
Effects Theories
• Moral panics: Concern, hostility,
consensus, disproportionality, volatility
• Two step flow:
Media
Text
Opinion
Leaders
1
Media
Consumers
Effects Theories
• Moral panics: Concern, hostility,
consensus, disproportionality, volatility
• Two step flow:
Media
Text
Opinion
Leaders
1
Media
Consumers
2
Effects Theories
What’s wrong with effects theories?
• The problems with violence are often
social/psychological not to do with the media
• The media can often be positive rather than
harmful
• Criticism of the media using the effects model is
often politically motivated
• There is not real grounding of research and
theory for this model.
U&G
• Users of the media use media texts to
satisfy certain needs
• Based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs
U&G: Denis McQuail (1987)
• Information: finding out about the world; seeking advice;
satisfying curiosity; education; gaining security though
knowledge
• Personal Identity: reinforcement of personal values;
models of behaviour; identifying with valued other;
gaining insight into oneself
• Integration and Social Interaction: gaining insight into
circumstances of others; identifying with others; basis for
conversation with others; substitute for real life
companionship; helping to carry out social roles;
enabling connection with family friends and society
• Entertainment: escapism; diversion; relaxation; cultural
or aesthetic enjoyment; filling time; emotional release;
sexual arousal
U&G: James Lull (1990)
Structural
•
•
Environmental: background noise; companionship; entertainment
Regulative: keeping time; part of pattern of daily life
Relational
•
•
•
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Communication Facilitation: experience illustration; common ground;
conversation starter; anxiety reduction; agenda for talk; value
clarification
Affiliation/Avoidance: physical/verbal contact/neglect; family
solidarity; family relaxant/conflict reducer; relationship maintenance
Social Learning: decision making; behaviour modelling; problem
solving; value transmission; legitimization; information dissemination;
education
Competence/Dominance: role enactment; role reinforcement;
substitute role portrayal; intellectual validation; authority exercise;
gatekeeping; argument facilitation
U&G: Richard Kilborn (1992)
• Part of routine and entertaining reward for work
• Launchpad of social and personal interaction
• Fulfilling individual needs – a way of choosing to
be alone or of enduring enforced loneliness
• Identification or involvement with characters
• Escapist fantasy
• Focus of debate on topical issues
• Kind of critical game involving knowledge of
rules or conventions of the genre
U&G: Problems
• We may not have choice about what we
watch
• Neglects any aspects of effects theories
• Neglects socio-economic factors
Reception Theory
• Often as opposite to Effects theories
• Sees media consumption as active not
passive
• Suggests media texts are polysemic
• Research examines social, cultural,
economic, gender, sexuality as influence
on the reading of media texts
Reception Theory
Active
versus
Passive
Reception Theory
Reception Theory
versus
Effects Theory
Reception Theory
Nationwide Audience
David Morley 1980
• Different social/economic groups watched
same TV programme
• Interviews reveal different readings of
same text
Nationwide Audience
• Dominant (Hegemonic) reading: reader
shares the encoded meanings of the text
• Negotiated reading: reader shares some
of the embedded ideologies but not all
• Oppositional (counter-hegemonic)
reading: where the reader does not share
the programme’s code and rejects the
preferred reading
Nationwide Audience
• Members of the same subculture will tend
to decode texts in similar ways.
• Individual readings of texts will be
framed by shared cultural formations
and practices.
Reception Theory
Watching Dallas
Ien Ang 1985
• Different social/cultural groups watched
same TV programme
• Interviews reveal different readings of
same text
Watching Dallas
• Importance is the pleasure derived from
‘Dallas’ as entertainment
• Independent of ideas about mass culture
Watching Dallas
• Readers saw characters as either realistic
or unrealistic
• All saw characters as ‘genuine’
• ‘Emotional Realism’
• May see the programme as lowbrow but
accept that it is entertaining.
Reception Theory
Leibes and Katz on Dallas
(1984)
• International cross cultural groups
watched Dallas
• Retell the story
• The retelling was shaped by cultural
background although there were similar
patterns amonst all groups
Reception Theory
Watching Seinfeld
Lori Yanish 1995
• Canadian and Dutch viewers’ reactions to
Seinfeld
• Dutch viewers associated American
comedy with low class television
• Media as cultural imperialism
Reception Theory
Madonna
John Fiske 1989
• Does Madonna exploit the music industry
or does the music industry exploit
Madonna?
Modes of Address
How a text is constructed to make us feel
that it is specifically aimed at us
The ways in which texts built to appeal to
particular audiences (Skins, any
children’s programme, The Sun)