http://lr-media.blogspot.com/2018/09/theorists-and-theories.html

practise

Some theorists like Clay Shirky and Baudrillard say that media products may or may not be shaped by political and economic contexts. Baudrillard says that in postmodern culture the boundaries between the ‘real’ world and the world of the media have collapsed and that it is no longer possible to distinguish between what is reality and what is simulation. This may make media products come across as superficial in new media. An example of this would be from a close study product I have studied: Teen Vogue. An article published on the 25th January regarding whether UV light was safe for nails has come across as a superficial article as some may read the title of the article and question as to why other important issues around the world aren’t being covered like the recent earthquake in Syria costing thousands of people their lives and destroying the lives of those fortunate enough to still be alive. Baudrillard would say that since the postmodern world is like a simulation there may be no deeper meaning to media products anymore and that they are rather surfaced or shallow. Teen Vogue may produce articles like this as they will have learnt their audiences interests therefore will produce what they want in order to boost Teen Vogue economically.

On the other hand, another theorist Clay Shirky argued audience behaviour has progressed from the passive consumption of media texts to a much more interactive experience with the products and each other. Looking at the same article previously mentioned from the csp Teen Vogue, deeper into the article, it discusses matters such as developing skin cancer and how UV light can be a contributing factor to that. In the article there are subheadings which are set out like rhetorical questions and using first person pronouns like “I” to include the reader. This is to encourage involvement and participation within the audience. The article even includes links to medical research articles to promote further reading for the audience. Henry Jenkins theory of fandoms heavily supports active consumption. Fandoms are based on the ideology that individuals will go further than what a media producer specifically produces a media product for. This is sometimes referred to as ‘textual poaching’, fans construct their social and cultural identities through borrowing and utilising mass culture images. This assists media producers economically as these individuals then take ‘boosting the product’ out of the media producers hands.

Another CSP I studied was The Voice Online, which I personally don’t believe uses their products solely for economic purposes. Their articles are focused on black British individuals. The media producers from The Voice make it clear that they know who their ‘fans’ will be. This is due to all their products being related to news regarding black British individuals. They share political and historical stories to educate and engage their audience. An article I read, published on the 7th of February titled ‘Wealthy British family to pay reparations to Grenada for links to slavery’ clearly depicts they want to share successes to their preferred demographic. Upon looking at the Voice I also noticed they did not cover the disastrous earthquake in Syria which has led me to believe that News outlets will not cover news stories that they deem unsuitable for their target audience, this is because they will not achieve the active consumption and participation Clay Shirky talks so much about.

In conclusion, I agree with the view to an extent. I think that in a postmodern world media producers will produce what they see fit to their audience even if it means straying away from relevant economical and political views that are generalisable to the whole world. Both Teen Vogue and The Voice are evidence of this.

Possible questions for Wednesday

Media producers must respond to changing social and cultural contexts to maintain audiences.
To what extent does an analysis of the online Close Study Products The Voice and Teen Vogue support this view? (25) audience, social and cultural theorists

Roland Barthes – Semiotics Media products communicate a complex series of meanings to their audiences through a range of visual codes and technical codes. These codes can broadly be divided in to proairetic, symbolic, hermeneutic, referential, and so on.
• After many years of codes being repeated, their meaning can become generally agreed upon by society. For example, a scar on the face of a character can function as a hermeneutic code, indicating to the audience that they are ‘the villain’.
• Barthes also considered the importance of myths. Myths are stories and legends, which are passed down from generation to generation. They teach us why the world is the way it is, and also offer clues and instructions on how we behave. For example, in Greek myth of Narcissus, Narcissus was a particularly beautiful young man who turned down every woman as they didn’t live up to his expectations. After he ignored Echo for so long, she faded away in to nothing, and became just a voice in the breeze. This is where echoes come from. Narcissus was punished, and was led to fall in love with his own reflection. When he realised that he could consummate his love with himself, he killed himself. This myth warns the listener to not be so self-obsessed, and it is even where we get the term ‘narcissist’ from 

• For Barthes, the myths of modern society can be found in media products. Whereas previously we would learn from legends, now we are more likely to discover social norms and values from advertising. For Barthes, a myth is a widely held belief which is reinforced and emphasised through media language. This concept is closely related to hegemony and stereotypes.

Stuart Hall – Theories of representation Representations are constructed through media language, and reflect the ideological perspective of the producer
• The relationship between concepts and signs is governed by codes
• Stereotyping, as a form of representation, reduces people to a few simple characteristics or traits. However, stereotyping is useful, as it allows producers to easily construct media products, and audiences to easily decode them.
• Stereotyping tends to occur where there are inequalities of power, as subordinate or excluded groups are constructed as different or ‘other’ (e.g. through ethnocentrism).

The target audiences for video games change because of the historical and economic contexts in which they are produced.
To what extent does an analysis of the Close Study Products Tomb Raider: Anniversary and The Sims FreePlay support this statement? (25) audience theorists

George Gerbner  – Cultivation theory Being exposed to repeated patterns of representation over long periods of time can shape and influence the way in which people perceive the world around them (i.e. cultivating particular views and opinions)
• This process of cultivation reinforces mainstream hegemonic values (dominant ideologies).

David Gauntlett –

Stuart Hall – Reception theory To watch/read/play/listen to/consume a media product is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding by audiences
• There are millions of possible responses that can be affected through factors such as upbringing, cultural capital, ethnicity, age, social class, and so on
• Hall narrowed this down to three ways in which messages and meanings may be decoded:
• The preferred reading – the dominant-hegemonic position, where the audience understands and accepts the ideology of the producer
• The negotiated reading – where the ideological implications of producer’s message is agreed with in general, although the message is negotiated or picked apart by the audience, and they may disagree with certain aspects
• The oppositional reading – where the producer’s message is understood, but the audience disagrees with the ideological perspective  in every respect

Katz and Larzasfeld –

Bandura – Media effects This old-fashioned view of how media products effect audiences is associated with the Frankfurt School in Germany
• The effects model suggests that media can implant ideas in the mind of the audience directly. It is also known as the hypodermic needle model
• Audiences acquire attitudes, emotional responses and behaviours through media products modelling ideologies
• If a media product represents  behaviour such as violence or physical aggression, this can lead audience members to imitate those forms of behaviour
• This model has many issues, though it still proves popular with the general public, newspapers and politicians who should frankly read a media studies textbook or two.

B.F. Skinner –

Clay Shirky – ‘End of audience’ theories New media, as in the Internet and digital technologies, have had a significant effect on the relations between media and audiences
• Just thinking of audience members as passive consumers of mass media content is no longer possible in the age of the Internet. Now, media consumers have become producers who ‘speak back to’ the media in various ways, creating and sharing content with one another.
• This can be accomplished through comments sections, internet forums, and creating media products such as blogs or vlogs
X – However, this theory can and should be criticised. Arguably the media industries are just as exclusionary as they always ave been, and audiences are less ‘producers’ than ‘unwitting advertisers’., promoting pre-existing products through retweets, fan accounts and derivative vlogs that could never be financially successful without aggressive monetisation!

McLuhan –

Baudrillard – Postmodernism In postmodern culture the boundaries between the ‘real’ world and the world of the media have collapsed and that it is no longer possible to distinguish between what is reality and what is simulation. In fact, it really doesn’t matter which is which!
• Therefore, in this postmodern age of simulacra, audiences are constantly bombarded with images which no longer refer to anything ‘real’
• Because of this, we are now in a situation that media images have come to seem more ‘real’ than the reality they supposedly represent. This concept is referred to as ‘hyperreality’

Henry Jenkins – Fandom Fandom refers to a particularly organised and motivated audience of a certain media producer  franchise
• Unlike the generic audience or the classic spectator, fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings
• Fans appropriate texts and read them in ways that are not fully intended by the media producers (‘textual poaching’). Examples of this may manifest in conventions, fan fiction and so on
• Rather than just play a videogame or watch a TV show, fans construct their social and cultural identities through borrowing and utilising mass culture images, and may use this ‘subcultural capital’ to form social bonds. For example, through online forums like Reddit or 4chan.

Media products are shaped by the economic and political contexts in which they are created.
To what extent does an analysis of your online, social and participatory Close Study Products (The Voice and Teen Vogue) support this view? (25) economic and political theorists

Saussure – Concept of semiotics and language (linguistics) 1974 – the extended connotations of within a cultural system.

• THE SIGNIFIER – The sign: a word, colour or image (i.e. the colour BLUE)
• THE SIGNIFIED – The concept/ meaning/associations that the sign refers to (i.e. BLUE is often associated with sadness or the sea etc.) https://www.teenvogue.com/story/uv-light-for-nails-safety

Media effects theories argue that the media has the power to shape the audience’s box thoughts and behaviour.
How valid do you find the claims made by effects theories?

You should refer to two of the Close Study Products (Tomb Raider Anniversary, Metroid: Prime 2 Echoes, Sims Freeplay) in your answer.

[25 marks]

• Tomb Raider:
• – gender identity
• – – Lara Croft – on the one hand, subverts the image of women in the home – however, the game developers decision to sexualise her – for the pleasure of young heterosexual men – counteract this.
• — this links to David Gauntlet’s gender identity theory
• …watching Tomb Raider… might encourage girls to become somewhat more independent and feisty, without them needing to directly copy an extensive fight sequence, embark on a perilous quest for ancient artifacts… David Gauntlett.
• we referred to her description of a combative and aggressive representation of traditional masculinity. Since Lara Croft is always depicted posing with her weapons, including on the box art for “Tomb Raider: Anniversary”, it is clear the character transgresses the binary representation of gender because she is active and adventurous. In this way, the protagonist seems to validate Gauntlett’s fluidity of identity concept.
• It is also important note Larson’s sexist language during several of the cutscenes. Reinforcing the imbalance of power between femininity and masculinity, he refers to Lara Croft as “darlin’” and “kitten”. Is he simply performing his gender role?
• – So, is she a feminist icon or does she reinforce sexist ideals?
• Although she may inspire some young women in the same way as Metroid’s Samus Aran, in my view, her representation reinforces sexist ideals, and appeals mostly to young, heterosexual men.

• The Mean World Index is a mathematical analysis of how violent images in the media affect people. 

Gerbner hypothesized that people who viewed violence in media could experience anxiety, fear, pessimism and an increased sense of awareness to perceived threats.-

This suggests that the violence in Tomb Raider may affect its young audience and induce violent behaviour – bobo doll experiment – Children who observed the aggressive model made far more imitative aggressive responses than those who were in the non-aggressive or control groups.

Lasswell – hypodermic needle –  Comparing the communication of a message to a patient being injected with serum, the model suggests the public are easily brainwashed by the media.

• ———— Sims Free play ————–

Representation

Many other video games have limited representation due to only a few playable characters – whereas Sims free play has a wide range of options, allowing the game player (audience) to create their own representation – customizable characters.

• Wide range of skin tones
• outfits
• hair types
• e.t.c.

potentially more left-wing – modern than previous games due to how much control is given to the game player in creating their world

Straight, bi, gay, trans are all possible.

• Sims positive and inclusive representation may make some audiences feel as though the way they feel as normal / ok due to it being normalised in Sims.
• Audience
• female 18-40 casual gamer
• You can play God – control everything in the game.
• Has maternal appeal
• Able to care for / nurture characters

one way in which Sims can be somewhat problematic, is how some users take advantage of the freedom in the game and use it to mercilessly torture their sims – link to bobo doll experiment. – argument to say this makes it even more problematic than tomb raider – because audiences actually can choose to hurt their sims.

PEGI rating for the game – 12 – has mild references to alcohol, sex, other adult themes

Although the game shows drinking, sex, and nudity it is shown in a non-revealing way – a blurring filter used to block anything graphic.

Very hard to regulate mobile/online games.

Likely that many players are u12 – could be influenced by sims portrayal of sex.

The Hypodermic Model

In this model, the media is seen as powerful and able to inject ideas into an audience who are seen as weak and passive.

The hypodermic needle was proposed by Harold Lasswell in the 1920s.

Cultivation Theory

This theory also treats the audience as passive. It suggests that repeated exposure to the same message – such as an advertisement – will have an effect on the audience’s attitudes and values. 

founded by George Gerbner in the late 1960s.

Two Step Flow Theory

Katz and Lazarsfeld assumes a slightly more active audience. It suggests messages from the media move in two distinct ways.

First, individuals who are opinion leaders, receive messages from the media and pass on their own interpretations, in addition to the actual media content. The information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience, but is filtered through the opinion leaders, who then pass it on to a more passive audience.
The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media, with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders. They are not being influenced by a direct process, but by a two-step flow.

This theory appeared to reduce the power of the media, and some researchers concluded that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpret texts. This led to the idea of active audiences.

Uses and Gratifications Model

This model stems from the idea that audiences are a complex mixture of individuals who select media texts that best suits their needs – this goes back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs above.

The users and gratifications model suggests that media audiences are active and make active decisions about what they consume in relation to their social and cultural setting and their needs.

This was summed up by theorists . This means that audiences choose to watch programmes that make them feel good (gratifications), e.g. dramas and sitcoms, or that give them information that they can use (uses), e.g. news or information about new products or the world about them.

Reception Analysis

Reception Theory

Reception analysis is an active audience theory that looks at how audiences interact with a media text taking into account their ‘situated culture’ – this is their daily life. 

This theory was put forward by Professor Stuart Hall in ‘The Television Discourse – Encoding/Decoding’ in 1974, with later research by David Morley and Charlotte Brunsden. 

The theory suggests that social and daily experiences can affect the way an audience reads a media text and reacts to it.

Hall suggests that an audience has a significant role in the process of reading a text, and this can be discussed in three different ways:

• The Dominant or Preferred Reading. The audience shares the code of the text and fully accepts its preferred meaning as intended by the producers.
• The Negotiated Reading. The audience partly shares the code of the text and broadly accepts the preferred meaning but can change the meaning in some way according to their own experiences.
• The Oppositional Reading. The audience understands the preferred meaning but does not share the text’s code and rejects this intended meaning. This can be called a radical reading that may be, say Marxist or feminist or right wing