Problems with the Media Effects Model

BCM 110 revision
PROBLEMS WITH THE MEDIA EFFECTS MODEL
Anxiety about media effects began in 19th century about ‘mass media’ and ‘mass audience’
Gustave Le Bon: “the real has about as much influence on them as the real”
Dystopian view: Inspires anxiety about its possible negative effects
Utopian View: Inspires hope about its positive role in society
People most at risk: children, youth, uneducated, working class, women, ‘not me’ view

Shannon and Weaver (1949)
Possibilities that could go wrong:
Sender ancodes message
Receiver decodes message
But do they share the same code
Or do they have different interpretations of the code
Causality: One thing (a media message) causes another thing (a media effect) to occur
And so… television -> makes us fat
Case- Alfred Bandura and The Bobo Doll:
American psychologist –advocate of ‘social learning theory’
Based on a ‘behaviourist’ concept of human psychology Conducted a series of ‘laboratory’ experiments to demonstrate the social learning of aggression – taken by many as ‘proof’ that watching violence promotes violence
Media Violence debate: Anxieties about the effects of new mass media on behaviour- particularly children.
“Cultivation Theory” Gerbner
Undertook content analysis of television shows in order to prove that exposure to violence is cumulative in its effects
That violence on the screens cultivates violence in society
Where is the evidence?
Jamie Bulger: ‘In my opinion the home background, upbringing, family circumstances, parental behaviour and relationships were needed in the public domain so that worthwhile debate can take place for the public good in the case of grave crimes by children….’
Has been found that persistent young offenders do not watch more violent films or television than ‘ordinary’ school children and they prefer soap operas to video nasties
Cases reveal: Social anxieties or events can trigger anxieties about media effects.
Imagining the Child:
As emerging innocent into the world (Wordsmith)
Or as a feral animal needing to be tamed and civilised (Rousseau)
Martin Bryant: Media led public to believe that actions related to consumption of violent video games… in reality sound of music and babe were found in video collection
Obviously the media do have effects on us but what are the better questions to ask about the role of media in our lives rather than blaming it for violent actions

Semiotics
Signs and images: refer to things in the world- they are not the things themselves- we are dealing with a representation.
Semiotics:
The science of signs
Origins in linguistics and the study of meaning
Ferdinand de Saussure: Swiss linguist and semiotician. A founding father of semiotics. Noted that language is a system of signs and signs are arbitrary. Different languages used different words for the same thing.
He proposed that: signifier + signified = sign
We have the