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Audience theory

B.F. Skinner-

Operant conditioning. eg positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement & punishment. “The fiction of free will”– determinism, no free will, result of environmental and biological factors.

Harold Lasswellhypodermic model

He was involved in ww1, he explored propaganda techniques ww1 in book (1927), “brew up a subtle poison, which could be injected into the veins”

Hypodermic model– direct injection= passive audience.

Propaganda is overtly political and manipulative, and the processes of persuasion is invisible at first glace.

Liner model of communicationwho (sender), says what (message), channel (media), to whom (receiver), with what effect (feedback)

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Adapted by Shannon and Weaver in 1949, to become Transmission model of Communication, including elements like noise, errorencoding and feedback.

The age of surveillance capitalismZuboff

Emerging behavior control technology (mobile phones) used to stimulate certain behaviors. “technology had begun to develop new methods of behavior control capable of altering not just an individual’s actions but its very personality and manner of thinking.”

Cambridge Analytica

Alexander Nix- harvesting data and using it to tailor ads. Influenced Brexit, and Trump 2016 campaign by targeting ads on Facebook to influence voting.

Two Step Flow of Communication (active consumption)

Paul Lazarfeld– developed the two step flow of communication this in 1948, messages are not directly injected to into the audience but in fact they go through a opinion leaders first, who interpret media messages first and then relay them back to a bigger audience. Audiences are active not passive

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Uses and Gratifications (active selection)

This approach doesn’t categories audiences as passive or active more focuses on the decision making process of the audience themselves. Research began with Denis McQuail and Jay Blumler, in 1969 as they looked into the 1964 UK Election. In the early 1970’s they were joined by Elihu Katz, Joseph Brown, Michael Gurevitch and Hadassah Haas.

There researched showed that individual audience members were more active and as a result a key part of the processes of selection, interpretation and feedback.

Audiences used media to gain gratifications. Which could be categorised into;

  1. information / education
  2. empathy and identity 
  3. social interaction  
  4. entertainment 
  5. escapism

Or categorised as:  diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance

This links into Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs, which shows social and psychological needs of the audience which is why they use the media in order to gain these.

Cultivation Theory – effects over time

George Gerbner– worked on a large-scale, positivist, in-depth, longitudinal study into the effects of television, which started in 1975- developed cultivation theory

television cultivates from infancy the very predispositions and preferences that used to be acquired from other primary sources‘ (Gerbner et al 1986)- tv shapes the way individuals see & think.  ‘watching television doesn’t cause a particular behavior, but instead watching television over time adds up to our perception of the world around us‘ (cited in West, 2014).

Noam Chomsky- manufacturing consent

Louis Althusser-  IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPRATUSES (ISA’s)

The Theory of Preferred Reading

Stuart Hall- critical theory that looked to analyse mass media communication and popular culture as a way of both uncovering the invidious work of the State and Big Business.

He provided three main distinct positions that could be occupied by individual viewers;

  1. A dominant position accepts the dominant message 
  2. A negotiated position both accepts and rejects the dominant reading
  3. An oppositional position rejects the dominant reading

Clay Shirky: The End of Audience

A theory that through new media technology there is no longer an audience but instead only individuals.

the more ideas there are in circulation, the more ideas there are for any individual to disagree with.’ 

media psychology

B.F. Skinner

  • behavioral signs/operant conditioning
  • the notion of free will is fiction
  • states that we are acting under the conditions of a social structure
  • schedule of reinforcement

Harold Lasswell

  • involved in the first world war
  • wrote book in 1927 called ‘propaganda technique in the world war’
  • highlighted the brew of a ‘subtle poison which industrious men injected into the veins of a staggering people’
  • hypodermic model – suggests the direct injecting of media messages into the passive audience
  • highlights the difference between propaganda and persuasion
  • developed the theoretical tool of ‘content analysis’

My example:

who: Nigel Morris – journalist for ‘The i’

says what: ‘No more left and right: UK’S ‘seven political tribes’

channel: The i newspaper

to whom: readers of ‘The i’ newspaper who are centrally politically aligned/ more left leaning

with what effect: suggests that

Shoshana Zuboff

  • the age of surveillance capitalism – book
  • emerging behavior control technology e.g. phones, used to stimulate certain types of behavior
  • “the behavioral technology being developed in the united states today touches upon the most basic sources of individuality and the very core of personal freedom”

Cambridge Analytica

  • Alexander nix – CEO

Shannon and Weaver (1949)

 Laswell’s hypodermic model of media effect was adapted/developed by Shannon and Weaver in 1949 as the Transmission model of Communication, which included other elements, such as NOISE, ERROR, ENCODING and FEEDBACK

Paul Lazarfeld

  •  recognised that a simple, linear model may not be sufficiently complex to understanding the relationship between message sent > message received
  • , in 1948 he developed the Two Step Flow model of communication
  • Lazarfelds model also took account of the way in which mediated messages are not directly injected into the audience, but while also subject to noise, error, feedback etc, they are also filtered through opinion leaders, those who interpret media messages first and then relay them back to a bigger audience.
  • audiences are active, choosing which opinion leader/influencer to listen to

uses and gratifications (active selection)

  • Research into this area began with Denis McQuail and Jay Blumler, who in 1969, looked to study the 1964 UK Election. In the early 1970’s they were joined by Elihu Katz, Joseph Brown, Michael Gurevitch and Hadassah Haas. 
  • they put forward research to show that individual audience members are more active than had previously been thought and were actually key to the processes of selection, interpretation and feedback
  • suggested people seek particular pleasures/uses and gratification that are catogorised into ;
  1. information / education
  2. empathy and identity
  3. social interaction
  4. entertainment
  5. escapism

Or categorised as: diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance.

It is suggested that much of this research was informed by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1954)

George Gerbner’s cultivation theory

  • George Gerbner, Larry Gross and others worked on a large-scale, positivist, in-depth, longitudinal study into the effects of television, which started in 1975
  • Looking primarily at the relationship between violence on television and violence in society. They developed what is known as  cultivation theory, noting the distinct characteristics of television in relation to other media forms.
  • Quote: ‘television cultivates from infancy the very predispositions and preferences that used to be acquired from other primary sources

Stuart Hall’s theory of preferred reading

the theory suggests that there are three different ways of reading/interpreting a text, dominant/negotiated/oppositional which suggest;

  1. A dominant position accepts the dominant message
  2. A negotiated position both accepts and rejects the dominant reading
  3. An oppositional position rejects the dominant reading

Audience theories and behaviour

Behavioural/operant conditioning – B.F. Skinner (pigeon experiment)

Propaganda is the expression of opinions or actions carried out by a group or individual to manipulate and influence the actions and beliefs of other individuals and groups.

Audience Theories

1920-30: Lasswell – Hypodermic model (passive consumption):

  • Wrote about propaganda for mass groups
  •  Lasswell, as a behavioural scientist researching areas connected with political communication and propaganda, believed each government had ‘manipulated the mass media in order to justify its actions’ in World War 1.
  • For example spoon feeding people and they will believe you
  • Linear model of communication:
  • Eg: WHO: Caroline Jones, SAYS WHAT (message): ‘Boris Johnson has dandruff’, CHANNEL: Daily Mail, TO WHOM: Middle aged women, WITH WHAT AFFECT: Embarrassing and suggesting Boris Johnson has dandruff caused by the stress of covid.

1940’s: Shannon and weaver:

  • Shannon and weaver developed this as they suggest that the linear model of communications is not complex enough as people may read things in a different way or not understanding or decoding the message that is being sended out.

1950’s: Laserfeld 2 step flow:

  • Two step flow of communication:
  • What is significant here is that this theory suggests that the audience are ACTIVE NOT PASSIVE, in that audience consumption is based on consideration of what others think not a PASSIVE process of unthinking consumption.
  • Depending on where you get your information from can influence your opinions, and they can differentiate from others opinions.

1960’s: Uses and gratifications:

  • Idea that audiences actively choose the media they consume ie newspapers and media they watch and read.
  • In essence, they put forward research to show that individual audience members are more active than had previously been thought and were actually key to the processes of selectioninterpretation and feedback. In essence, individuals sought particular pleasures, uses and gratifications from individual media texts, which can be categorised as:
  • information / education
  • empathy and identity
  • social interaction
  • entertainment
  • escapism
  • For example, a cartoon in a newspaper could be enjoyment and escapism but if it is about world hunger it is also knowledge about the world.

1970’s: Gerbner – Cultivation Theory:

  • Looking primarily at the relationship between violence on television and violence in society. They developed what is known as cultivation theory, noting the distinct characteristics of television in relation to other media forms, they suggest that ‘television cultivates from infancy the very predispositions and preferences that used to be acquired from other primary sources‘ (Gerbner et al 1986).
  • In other words, television shapes the way individuals within society think and relate to each other
  • Althuserr and Chomsky were also in the 1970’s

1980’s: Stuart Hall – The theory of preferred reading:

  • Stuart hall is a black academic that said ‘The world is looking very white’
  • For example you can present something that people will receive in a different way
  • For example tv used to be mostly white which black people would reject because they’re not represented.
  • He says there are 3 ways of receiving a message:
  • A dominant position accepts the dominant message
  • A negotiated position both accepts and rejects the dominant reading
  • An oppositional position rejects the dominant reading

2000’s: Clay Shirky – End of audience:

  • There isn’t a collective mass audience but a mass audience of individuals.

2019: Zuboff – surveillance capitalism:

  • Theory that we are all complete individuals but we are individually profiled and targeted. ie, manipulated.

media psychology

B.F Skinners – Operant conditioning

– ‘fiction of free will’

– behaviour is taught from rewards ( can be applied to phones. Does technology control us or do we control technology)

Propaganda & Persuasion

Harold Lasswell – wrote a book called ”propaganda technique” in which he highlighted the brew of ‘subtle poison,which industrious men injected into the veins of a staggering people until the smashing powers… knocked them into submission’. ‘manipulated mass media to justify actions done in WW1’

– hypoderminc model

– direct injection

– passive audience

WHO –Larisa Brown -> WHAT –Russia tried to sabotage Olympics with cyber attacks-> MEDIUM Daily Mail -> TO WHOM  lower-middle-class British women ->WITH WHAT EFFECT negative ideas are formed around Russia and its intentions

Paul Lazarfeld – thinks that linear model may not be sufficiently complex to understanding the relationship between message sent > message received. Suggests communication of information is an active form of consumption.

Shoshana Zuboff – ”a major segment of the emerging behavior control technology is concerned with conditioning, through which various forms of persuasion are used to control behavior” – social media with influencers etc.

”new technology has begun to develop new methods of behaviour control capable of altering not just an individuals actions but his very personality and manner of thinking…the behavioral technology being developed in the united states today touches upon the most basic sources of individuality and the very core of personal freedom…the most serious threat… is the power this technology gives one man to impose his views and values another

Blumler and Katz – Uses and Gratifications

Maslows Hierarchy of needs –

George Gerbner – developed what is known as CULTIVATION THEORY, noting the distinct characteristics of television in relation to other media forms, they suggest that ‘television cultivates from infancy the very predispositions and preferences that used to be acquired from other primary sources‘ (Gerbner et al 1986). In other words, television shapes the way individuals within society think and relate to each other.

Stuart Hall – Theory of preffered reading (British Jamaican Sociologist)

  1. A dominant position accepts the dominant message
  2. A negotiated position both accepts and rejects the dominant reading
  3. An oppositional position rejects the dominant reading

Clay Shirky – End of Audience

There is no audience, only a large group of individuals who recieve different readings (not just 3)

the more ideas there are in circulation, the more ideas there are for any individual to disagree with.’

Alexander Nix

CEO of Cambridge analytica

targeting potential people who may be persuaded in politics

Audience Thoery/ Social Behaviour CSP 12

BF Skinner, operant conditioning

Automatic Reward

“The fiction of freewill”

The difference of Propaganda and Persuasion. Propaganda is overtly manipulative where as Persuasion is Covert and is used in subtle ways.

Harold Lasswell, Theory about audience behavior. Wrote the pook “Propoganda in war”. Talks about the poison” BEING INJECTED INTO THE VEINS//// Hyperdermic model= we have a passive audience fed by the media.

Zuboff= conditioning people/ new technology stimulates new behavior. New technology makes new methods to control behavior.

Cambridge analytica Alexander Nix

  • Who? Article by Barbra Jones
  • Says what? Rhinos were butchered by a poaching epidemic because an animal reserve lost millions because a lack of tourism
  • Channel? l was a Newspaper of the Daily Mail
  • To Whom? to viewers of the daily mail ( A right winged bias paper)

Paul Lazarfield suggests that a linear model may not be difficult to understand the message sent to the message received. In 1948 he developed the two-step flow model of communication. This suggests a message isn’t directly absorbed by the audience. This means it’s filtered through opinion leaders who interpret media and then feed it back to a bigger audience

The Theory of preferred reading. same time as Stuart Hall looked to analyse mass media communication and popular culture to work to uncover invidious work and big businesses.

Clay Shirky end of audience. Radical view

Audience theory

  • Cat flaps
  • B.F. Skinner, operant conditioning
  • Schedule of reward
  • ‘the friction of free will’
  • Propaganda – political and manipulative
  • Persuasion – discrete (invisible)
  • Harold Lasswell – Book after WW1 about propaganda techniques in war
  • Hypodermic model – ‘Subtle poison’ ideologies being ‘injected’ into the ‘veins’ of a passive audience- Lasswell
  •  the SENDER is transferring a MESSAGE, through a MEDIUM (eg Print, radio, TV, etc) that has a direct effect on the RECEIVER.
  • Zuboff – The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
  • Zuboff was a student of Skinner
  • Negative adverts in elections
  • Facebook altering their page layout for trump election
  • ‘The most serious threat … is the power this technology gives one man to impose his views and values on another.’
  • Alexander Nix – former CEO of Cambridge Analytica and a former director of the Strategic Communication Laboratories Group
  • Persuade people with emotions not facts
  • In 2018 Cambridge Analytica was dissolved after undercover video footage showed Nix claiming his company was using honey traps, bribery stings, and prostitutes, among other tactics, to influence more than 200 elections globally for his clients.
WHO The mail on sunday – Says What Left positive message supporting the work of the NHS – Channel Newspaper – To Whom British public – With What Effect positive effect informing them of good work and use of tax money within the public interest.
  • Shannon and Weaver 1949
  • Two Step Flow of Communication (active consumption)
  • The Theory of Preferred Reading :At around the same time Stuart Hall, working at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS), at the University of Birmingham, was also developing a critical theory that looked to analyse mass media communication and popular culture as a way of both uncovering the invidious work of the State and Big Business, as well as looking for ways of subverting that process. Hall was working at a time of great societal upheaval and unrest in the UK (read this article as a useful insight) and was therefore committed to understand the relationship between power, communication, culture, control and . . . behaviour management.

audience theory

H.F Skinner (Operant conditioning) – no person has free will, schedule of reward is shown in his study, the fiction of free will means that an individual believes their actions determine an outcome whereas in reality the causes for these outcomes are external factors.

Propaganda is a manipulative and influential way of expressing opinions based on a authorities or publishers interests.

Persuasion

Harold Lasswell – Involved in WW1, wrote a book called “Propaganda technique in the world war” this book highlighted the “subtle poison” injected into the veins of staggering people until they are knocked into submission.

Hypodermic model – Suggest that we have a passive audience that are spoon fed by the media, relates to direct injection.

The Age of Surveillance, by Shoshana Zuboff explain that behaviour control technology is linked with conditioning, “technology has begun to develop new methods off behavior controlcapable of not just altering just an individuals actions nut his very personality and manner of thinking… the behavoural technology being developed in the United States today touches upon the most basic sources of individuality

Cambridge Analytica, Alexnder Nix is the leader

audience theories

-Bf Skinner: Operant Conditioning- Suggests we don’t have a free will ‘the fiction of free will’ – he’s deterministic suggesting that the environment has an effect on our behaviour and other outside factors are the reasoning for our behaviour making us not responsible for what we do.

-Schedule of reward- Instant gratification

Propaganda and Persuasion

Harold Lasswell- Involved in 1st world war- ‘Subtle Poison’ something injected into the veins of people

Hypodermic Model- Suggests we have a passive audience, spoon fed by media

Shoshana Zuboff- Speaks about behaviour management to persuade people to interact with certain types of behaviour

Cambridge Analytica-Alexander Nix

Early theoretical work on the relationship (or effects) of media consumption are often traced back to Harold Lasswell, who developed the theoretical tool of ‘content analysis’ and in 1927 wrote Propaganda Technique in the World War.

Shannon Weaver-1949- Developed and Criticized that model^– Maybe the message won’t go through ‘noise’-

Paul Lazerfeld-1948- 2 Step Flow– Tell one person they then tell other people- Those who interpret media messages first and then relay them back to a bigger audience.

Uses and Gratifications- Katz, Gurevietch, Haas- (1973)

Cultivation Theory- George Gerbner and Larry Gross and others worked on a large-scale, positivist, in-depth, longitudinal study into the effects of television, which started in 1975.

The Theory of Preferred Reading- Stuart Hall– Was developing a critical theory that looked to analyse mass media communication and popular culture as a way of both uncovering the invidious work of the State and Big Business, as well as looking for ways of subverting that process.

Clay Shirky-The End of Audience– To bring this summary of different audience approaches towards a conclusion, would be to look at Clay Shirky‘s notion of the end of audience. Because what could happen if, instead of the choice of three subject positions as offered by the theory of preferred reading, there were limitless, individual subject positions available to all of us, at any time, in any place, from any perspective?

audience theory

B.F Skinner operant conditioning “The fiction of free will” and schedule of reward

Progaganda Vs Persuasion

Propaganda is the expression of opinions or actions carried out by individuals or groups with a view to influence the opinions or actions of other individuals or groups for predetermined ends through psychological manipulations.

Hypodermic Model= The hypodermic needle model is a model of communication suggesting that an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver

Direct Injection= (in diesel engines) the use of a pump to spray fuel into the cylinder at high pressure, without the use of compressed air.

Passive Audience= A passive audience is an audience that merely observes and event rather than actively responding it. There’s been a few studies done on what is called the ‘audience effect’. Those studies seem to show that a passive audienceworks well for some performers that don’t require a whole lot of skill.

Harold Lasswell- Propaganda technique in the world war (1927) highlighted the brew of ‘subtle poison, which industrious men injected into the veins of a staggering people until the smashing powers knocked them out of submission’

Individuality and personal freedom vs behaviour modification

technology has begun to develop new methods of behaviour control capable of altering not just an individual’s actions but his very personality and matter of thinking

the behavioural technology being developed in the United States today touches upon the most basic sources of individuality and the very core of personal freedom

the most serious threat is the power this technology gives one man to impose his views and values on another.

Cambridge analytica Alexander Nix

Audience theories

B.F SKINNER

  • Operant conditioning
  • schedule of reward
  • “the fiction of free will”
  • You think you’re doing one thing but you’re not
  • we’re socially conditioned

PROPAGANDA VS PERSUASION

  • PROPAGANDA
  • expression of opinions and actions carried out deliberately to influence opinions and actions of others ending in psychological manipulation
  • overtly political and manipulative
  • PERSUASION
  • often appears invisible at first glance
  • concealed strategy manipulation
  • direct

ZUBOFF

  • (BOOK) the age of surveillance capitalism , the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power
  • “technology has begun to develop new methods of behaviour control capable of altering an individuals actions, personality and way of thinking”

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA

  • Alexander Nix
  • “the right message, to the right person, at the right moment”

LASSWELL

  • Propaganda Technique in the World War
  • believed all goverments ‘manipulated the mass media in order to justify its actions’ in World War 1
  • 1948 – linear model of communication
  • SENDER is transferring a MESSAGE, through a MEDIUM (eg Print, radio, TV, etc) that has a direct effect on the RECEIVER
  • hypodermic model
  • keep building your business – right wing (authoritarian, statement), focus on own success not treatment of employees
  • who – Daily Mail
  • what – advert for building your business
  • channel – newspaper
  • to whom – Daily Mail readers with own business (entrepreneurs)
  • what effect – you now know where to go to help grow your business

TRANSMISSION MODEL OF COMMUNICATION

  • lasswell’s model was later adapted by Shannon and Weaver in 1949, as the Transmission model of Communication
  • including noise, error, encoding and feedback
  • suggestion that sending and receiving a message is clear-cut, predictable, reliable or dependent on certain factors

TWO STEP FLOW COMMUNICATION

  • Paul Lazarfeld (sociologist)
  • more likely to be influenced by other people than the media
  • media messages aren’t directly injected
  • filtered through opinion leaders who interpret messages then relay them back to the bigger audience eg journalists
  • Martin Moore
  • ‘people’s political views are not, as contemporaries thought, much changed by what they read or heard in the media. Voters were far more influenced by their friends, their families and their colleagues’
  • key individuals in society influence the communication process making it subject to bias, interpretation, rejection, amplification, support and change.

USES AND GRATIFICATIONS

  1. information / education
  2. empathy and identity
  3. social interaction
  4. entertainment
  5. escapism
  • linked to maslow’s hierarchy of needs
  •  ‘only through constant self-improvement and self-understanding can an individual ever be truly happy‘.

GERBNER

  • television cultivates from infancy the very predispositions and preferences that used to be acquired from other primary sources
  • cultivation theory
  • seeing something repeatedly makes you remember / believe it

STUART HALL

  • theory of preferred reading / reception theory
  • active in the making (or rejecting) of meaning through mass communication
  • dominant, (accepts)
  • negotiated, (Accepts and denies)
  • oppositional (denies)

CLAY SHIRKY

  • the end of audience
  • radical
  • there is no audience only a group of individuals