Media Effects And Theories: It's Never Just HIV

Media Effects And Theories – “It’s Never Just HIV”
Media affects how people behave by what it displays and portrays be it crime, violence or sexual inappropriateness. This essay serves to discuss the effects of media and how media can influence human actions and behaviour in life. In the first paragraph I shall define and discuss the media effects. Following that, in the second paragraph, I will explain my media item and its perceived effects on an audience. Lastly, I shall link up my media aspect with the relevant media effect theories, clearly showing how they relate with one another.
As I have stated in the introduction that media affects the way people think and behave we firstly have to understand what media effects are. Media effects
are how stories or messages published in the media influence thoughts and trends of the public. There several known effects which fall into two categories namely Behavioural effects, Planned and unplanned effects. There are also two types of theories which influence the media effects which are the Short-Term Theories and the Long-term Theories. Under Behavioural effects there is the Cognitive effect which influences how the audience thinks. Secondly there are the Affective effects which influence our feelings about something. There are also Manifest and Latent effects which affect the audiences immediately such as watching a food commercial and then suddenly feeling the need to eat. Intended and Unintended effects occur as well where by the with intended, the audience understands what the media is meant to depict and the unintended effect is when the audience misinterprets the message and understand what the media was not created for.
Under Short-Term effect theories there are the Hypodermic needle theory which means that media is immediate and powerful proving that the people believe everything that the media tells them or show them and they react. Secondly there is the Two step Flow theory which states that people decide on what they want to get exposed to in the media and one chooses whether they would like to believe what they see or not. This is because of the existence of many media resources and how they compete with one another hence forth telling the same stories or messages but in different ways in order to capture an audience. Following that there is the Uses and Gratification Theory which states that the different individuals in an audience have different ways of using and relating to media. Some use the media as an escape from the reality or they use it as a companion or as a focus for interaction with others. It also tells us that some people use media content to explore their identity or adjust it as they compare themselves to those on television or the books they read. Lastly under short term effect theories there is the Reality Television Phenomenon Theory. This is widely found in reality shows where the media keeps the audience involved and gives out a lot of messages to them. This highly influences audience opinions as they are directly involved with a show or program that they are watching.
Long-Term effects happen over time and the theories state that the media do not have an immediate impact on behaviour and peoples way of thinking but can affect behaviour over a longer exposure to media content. Firstly under Long-Term Theories there is Stereotyping. This is when the media reinforces a certain message about specific individuals or groups to the audience over time and this idea that the media keeps engraving in their minds becomes what is known and presumed by the audience. Another Long-Term Theory is the Framing Theory. This is when journalists or publishers choose a certain angle to tell a story either negatively or positively so that they may have the audience understanding and accepting their own point therefore influencing public opinion. Lastly there is the Meaning Construction Theory which implies that the media tries to attach meanings towards concepts that we already know so that we believe what they want us to believe as the audience. Due to a certain message, the audience undergoes change in their personal interpretation of a message. The audience then communicates with other people using this media influenced meaning. This meaning is therefore sharpened and strengthened through further interpersonal communication and ultimately becomes the new real meaning of the initial message. My chosen media item is a video which focuses not only on HIV but on the other diseases that come with HIV. Beginning to watch the video one might not realise at all that the message is based on the negative effects that homosexual sexual intercourse have upon those who practice it. This media item possesses several media effects and theories which I have discussed earlier in this essay. Firstly, this video has intended effects because the creator’s intention was to inform and educate people about the various conditions a homosexual male could end up in if they practiced unsafe intercourse. In addition to that, there is also an unintended effect. This video is allowing homosexuality indirectly by the last statement with says “Use a condom”. Some young people after watching this may think it is proper for such types of relationships to occur because of the encouraging statement. This video also has a Cognitive effect where by people in my country, Mozambique, may be influenced in the way they think about homosexuality. The video is letting them know that homosexuality can also lead to sexually transmitted disease and worse therefore instilling fear in them. There are also some Long-Term theory effects that the video exudes one of them being Stereotype.
The video paints a picture in the audiences’ head that Homosexual men are the only ones that may get these diseases due to the fact that the video only shows men and not a single woman. This will therefore lead to the audience making the assumption that any gay man that practices unprotected sexual intercourse has these diseases. In addition to that there is also framing in the video. The main aim of it is to focus mainly on the downside of gay sexual intercourse as it just shows the terrible conditions a gay man could land in if they had unprotected sex. Lastly, there is meaning construction effect theory that could come from the video. The audience already knew that homosexual sexual intercourse could pass on HIV but now the media has painted a bigger picture on the other existing conditions in a way that when people think of homosexual sex the dangers they fear more the osteoporosis and anal cancer and not really the HIV and this message is passed on in the way that media has shown it. I therefore find it conclusive to say that this video manages to affect and provoke several audience thoughts and inform them about the other likely dangers of homosexual intercourse other than HIV using the long term theories and causing some of the behavioural effects on the audience. Thoughts and perceptions were created whereby the video painted a new picture in our minds showing the influence that media has on people. “Media will always influence us and be a natural part of us just like the
temperature”.

References Fourie, P.J. (2007). Chapter 5 - The Effects of Mass Communication. In Media Studies –Media History, Media and Society. Edited by Fourie, P.J. Cape Town: Juta. URL It’s Never Just HIV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0ANiu3YdJg