Passive & Active Audiences: Homework Questions

1) I think that the hypodermic syringe model and the inoculation model are associated with the effects debate. The hypodermic syringe model suggests to us that if we are actually exposed to a certain media text for a long time we can actually be affected by it. This has arguably happened many times in real life, for example it has been proven that the death of Jamie Bulger was triggered by violent films (more specifically child's play 3). Whereas with the inoculation model, this actually suggests to us that the more media we are exposed to, the less and less it has an impact on us. This mainly happens if the media text contains gore, violence or even swear words and over time we become less and less disgusted by them. For example if I were to watch the TV show Dexter when I was a child then I would have been disturbed by the sight of blood however now I wouldn’t be too phased.

2) Active audiences are people who are known to have their own personal opinion about a media text. Basically the media text doesn't have much control over this person as they are not easily manipulated and they can think for themselves due to them being independent. The uses & gratifications model supports this because this model shows that people use the media text for their own personal needs. People will watch media texts so that they are able to escape from reality. People will relate to a media text meaning that they have their own personal identity, this means that they are still an active audience.
Passive audiences are people who don't have their own personal opinion. They can be best described as "sheep". They are easily influenced and manipulated by the media simply because they are more of a follower instead of a media text leader. The narcotising dysfunctional can treat its audience as passive due to the fact that it believes we can be known as "Zombies". This model believes that after prolonged exposure to a media text we will become affected by it. In other words we are basically a couch potato. The media texts have the same affect on our brain as a narcotic drug therefore causing apathy, a lack of caring. This model completely ignores that we can use media for social needs. It ignores the fact that we can still think for ourselves.

3) I believe that violence on TV has had a bad impact on our society because whether we like it or not we have more people who are apart of the passive audience rather than the active. The hypodermic syringe model suggests that if the user is passive then media texts can actually have a bad impact on us resulting in the user causing bad behavior.

4) I believe that active audience theories are more acceptable than passive audience theories because passive audience theories tend to exaggerate a lot. The hypodermic syringe model suggests that once we watch a media text with a bit of violence in it that we will become mass murderers and the narcotising dysfunctional model believes that we actually do nothing with our lives when we a exposed to media texts. When we are passive we are actually referred to as zombies, as if we have no moral compass and it completely ignores our right to free will.

5) The Flash - I like watching this TV show because it is a very good form of escapism. It engages the user with a thrilling storyline and very good CGI effects within its show. Whilst watching this show I completely forget about reality and get extremely engaged with the story, even when I am up to date with the show.

6) Maybelline Adverts
The preferred reading towards these adverts are that they are aimed at people who want to make themselves look beautiful. They believe in the ideology that beauty is everything so if they are provided with new make up which is being shown on a professional model then surely they will want a try. This is simply because they think that the make up will work as well as it did on the model which is on the TV advert even though the model has actually been edited so that they look more beautiful.
The oppositional reading towards these adverts are that people believe that beauty isn't everything. Some people think that they don’t have to look beautiful in order to get along in life. They believe in that true beauty is on the inside (personality) They aren't too bothered about having all of the up to date clothing or all of the new make up, they are just bothered about being happy with themselves with whatever they do.