two step flow theory

Two step flow theory

was developed by lazersfiels and he believed that social media communicted to people by opinion leaders. these people gave their views and their understandings to others, who were influenced by them.
mass media - opinion leaders - audience
the aidience is SEMIPASSIVE. they are actually doing something, but they are still taking in what the opinion leadres are sawing

Uses and gratifications theory

Uses and gratifications theory

Uses and Gratifications theory was developed by Bulmer and Katz (1940 - 1970s) and it deals with the effect that people have on the media.  It suggests that media users play an active role in choosing and using the media and Bulmer and Katz believed that the user seeks out the media source that best fulfils their needs.
The uses and gratifications theory assumes the audience chooses what it wants to watch for five different reasons.
The audience is ACTIVE. they choose the media they want to watch

It assumes that the audience is not passive, but takes an active role in integrating media in their own lives.

Media is used from 5 different reasons:

1. Identify - we look up to characheters or people on television. we learn from them and mimc their behaviours (some traits of them we can take and integrate in our own identity)
2. Be informed or educated  - through news or documentaries
3. Be entertained - can make us laugh cry, or think deeply
4. Social interaction and integration - people take the programs they see and talk about them later. the is the idea of imagine community
5. For escapism - the feeling of escaping in someone elses' life or be someone else for as long as you watch the program

criticism: people suggest that we get all our needs from television, and we can become depended from television.

Reception theory

Reception Theory

Developed by Stuart Hall, it suggests that media texts are encoded (be the creators) and then decoded ( by the audience). They can do this in 3 different ways:
- Dominant (Intened reading by the media creators - audience and media producers share same ideas )
-Negotiated (you understand the meaning and the connotations of the message of the producer, but you adapt them to fit them to your own beliefs)
-Oppositional ( the audience rejects the producer's message despite understanding its connotations)

the way the audience reacts depends on their cultural background, income or social class .
The audience is active as they can react in different ways

Cultivation theory

Cultivation Theory 

was developed by George Gerbner and argued that television has gradual long term effects. they argue that these changes are not actually changes, but just reinforce the norms. People who watch more television are more likely to be influenced. This happens over time and with lotsof television viewing. it reinforces a person's opinion, rather than changes it.
Gerbner called this effect ‘mainstreaming’. Cultivation theorists distinguish between ‘first order’ effects (general beliefs about the everyday world, such as about the prevalence of violence) and ‘second order’ effects (specific attitudes, such as to law and order or to personal safety). There is also a distinction between two groups of television viewers: the heavy viewers and the light viewers. The focus is on ‘heavy viewers’. People who watch a lot of television are likely to be more influenced by the ways in which the world is framed by television programs than are individuals who watch less, especially regarding topics of which the viewer has little first-hand experience. Light viewers may have more sources of information than heavy viewers.
this theory does not take into account a persons' experience or personal background.
The audience is PASSIVE.

Mean world syndrome
television violence influenced the public's conceptions of violence in their lives and in society, making them more fearful. it is the belief that the world is more violent and brutal and dangerous than it really is.

those who absorb more media are the ones most influences. television and media cultivate the status quo, they do not challenge it.

Hypodermic needle theory

Hypodermic needle theory

It suggests that the media sends messages into the audiences’ head. it influences them and changes their opinion. it was developed by theorists during ww1 by the frankfurt school.
 They are passive so they are immediately influenced by it. This can be done through radio, television, advertising and magazines. Mass media could influence a mass group of people, depending on their aim.
It suggests that media messages are injected directly into the brains of passive audiences.
In this theory the media is seen as powerful and able to ‘inject’ ideas into an audience who are seen as weak and passive and could be influenced by a message. In Nazi Germany in the 1930s and during World War 2 films were used to ‘inject’ propaganda ideas promoting the Nazi cause to the German audience.
The Hypodermic theory comes from a fear of the mass media, and gives the media much more power than it can ever have in a democracy. The concept ignores the idea that not everyone in an audience behaves in the same way.

Audience theories

Audience

 Audience are the people who consume a media product and they are important to make profit.
The target audience is the main audience
Secondary audience is the second most important asit has less demand for a media product.
Mainstream = targeting a  wide target audience
Niche= targeting a small group of people
corssover audience = when the media product can appeal people outside their main target audience.
Pshycographics devises Audiences by their gender, ethnicity, age, nationality and social group.
Mainstreamers-  seek security
Aspires -seek status
Succeders- seek control
Resigned- seek survival
Explorers- seek discovery
Strugglers – seek escape
Reformers- seek enlightenment
Fragmented audience= dividing audiences into smaller groups.

Representation of ethnicity - introduction to colonialism

 Mandatory theory:

WHAT IS COLONIALISM?

Colonialism is an extension of a nations’ rule over territory beyond its borders, which means a population [country] is subjected to the political domination of another population [country].

• In other words, colonialism is the building and maintaining of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is about the dominance of a strong nation over another weaker one. 

Task 

Match the following countries to the correct empire 

The basic assumptions in defense of colonial actions are:

• The colonized are savages in need of education and rehabilitation 
• The culture of the colonized is not up to the standard of the colonizer 
• The colonized nation is unable to manage and run itself properly, and thus it needs the wisdom and expertise of the colonizer. 
• The colonized nation embraces a set of religious beliefs incompatible with those of the colonizer 
• The colonized people pose dangerous threat to themselves and to the civilized world if left alone 

White Man’s Burden

The white man’s burden is the supposed duty and obligation of White people to “civilize” non-white and non-European people who were regarded as backwards through education and Western culture supported by through colonialism.

The Effect of Colonialism = Othering

The process of Othering creating negative identities, often in binary opposition to western ideals... 

• Savage 
• God-less 
• Stupid 
• Cultural lacking 
• No technology 
• Sexually easy 
• Exotic

Provide the potential binary opposition for the following:

Challenge 

   Which advert do you think is the most offensive? Justify your answer with examples from the text and relate it to the social context. 

I believe that the advert in the middle is the most offensive one as it shows young children who are having a bath together. This highlight how children, who are usually associated with innocence, were thought to be dirty and with fault even from very young. In addition, we see the young girl bathing the black boy and this suggest that white people should take the responsibility to make the nonwhite better, cleaner. This highlights the fact that the western society was thought to be superior and better, and it reinforces Paul Gilroy’s theory that civilizations constructs racial hierarchies and sets up binary oppositions based on notions of otherness. It shows how discrimination was caused between the different raced, and this was largely influenced by the media. In addition, we see that after the boy has bathed he becomes white in the body, but still remains dracker in the face. This could suggest that white people can make nonwhite ones better, but they will never be able to complete “clean” them, and make them like they are.