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