Active and Passive Audience Questions

1.    

The Hypodermic Syringe Model

This is a short term effects theory, that suggests being exposed to for example violent images in media texts, influence the actions and behaviour of the audience consuming it. It doesn’t just suggest violent acts, but it also says that positive images (like a heroic act) ‘injected’ into the audience stimulate a response. An example of this being used in real life cases, was the unfortunate death of James Bulger. His killers were only ten years old, making the media focus on possible reasons they committed this crime and concluding some of the torturing methods were similar to popular film scenes of the time. The media highlighted that one of the murderers spent a few days of the week with his father and it emerged that he had rented more than 400 violent films in the few years before James Bulger was murdered, concluding that this could have been their motivation. The problem with this theory is that it doesn’t consider people’s personal life experiences (mental state, education, class or social group) and it doesn’t view audiences as individuals, but as a mass. 

The Cultural Effects/Cultivation Model

This is the theory that is considered to have long term effects on the ideologies and beliefs we believe. An example of a particular ideology representation, is the way an ‘ideal’ woman has been signified in the media. The media doesn’t tell us what to think, however it does tell us what to think about and how we think, giving people a distorted vision of an ideal woman. Essentially, this image is quite unnatural and gives young girls the idea that they have to be ‘perfect’, for example being extremely thin. This model usually reinforces already sustained outlooks on life.

2.

An ‘active’ audience member, is someone that uses the media as a way to fulfil needs that they have. An example of a need, may be for entertainment purposes and they use things like video games, or Spotify to escape everyday pressures of life while using them as a source of entertainment. On the other hand, a passive audience when they observe the media text, rather than actively responding it. merely observes and event rather than actively responding it. They don’t use the information to form their own ideologies, they just simply consume it. The hypodermic syringe model assumes that the audience is passive.

3.

I don’t think that you can infer from just television and viewing violent images that violent behaviour is a direct consequence. Obviously, I do think that they have an impact on the audience and can give ideas or enhance those of people who already are of a violent nature or think that way. However, not everyone who watches violence on TV is violent in real life. Overall television may be used to take inspiration for people committing these offences, but on the other hand I think people could try and use it to excuse violent behaviour. So, no I do not think it’s a direct cause of this behaviour I think it just increases the likelihood of it taking place, as in theory TV can be used to push the blame on that rather than the individual.

4.

Active audience theories, I think are more acceptable than passive audience theories. This is because passive theories view the audience as a mass rather than an individual. This could make these theories less accurate, because I do not believe that people just let the media wash over them. In reality the audience have control over the media, because media is targeted at specific groups of people and in conclusion the encoders will make that product to fulfil that group’s needs. Passive audiences are seen as easily manipulated and are easily persuaded to buy a product or even listen to corrupt leaders through ‘propaganda’ and follow them. I don’t think this is very accurate anymore, because you can simply not look at media that goes against your ideologies and beliefs making audiences more active as they can use the media they are presented and do something about it.

 5.

Spotify is a platform that I enjoy using, because it fulfils many needs in the uses and gratification theory. It’s a source of entertainment for me and I use to escape with the pressures of everyday life around me. Being able to customise playlists and listen to the songs I want, I think is a much more fulfilling way of entertaining myself than for example the radio. As well as this, Spotify satisfies my need for social interaction. It allows me to share and look at my friend’s playlists and at the same time help me learn more about them and achieve another need which is personal identity. Through the platform, I can choose to save songs that I identify with and music that relates to me and my life. Overall, this media text I find provides me with a sense of gratification, as it fulfils many of the goals in the theory.

6.

 A preferred reading from this match.com advertisement that I recently discovered online is that anyone can find love no matter what they look like. The advert has the hashtag ‘Love Your Imperfections’ written across it promoting that you should learn to love whatever you dislike about yourself and it celebrates confidence due to this. The ideologies associated with this advert connote that everyone’s idea of beauty is different and this is how you could make yourself feel better; the likelihood is this website can help you seek that person out, while reinforcing that people are beautiful in various ways.

The oppositional reading for this advertisement could be that they understand that it is trying to promote love and make people feel better that someone else could love their imperfections, however it is connoting that freckles and eye colour are imperfections. This could in turn make people who were not previously concerned about these now feel insecure about it. They could also think that the advert has negative connotations about confidence, even though the intention was to boost this quality it could tear it down. The reason behind this is that people may start to think that if they don’t love themselves, how could somebody else? The fact that the advert is hinting that eye colour and freckles are imperfect may seem like it is supporting bullying and viewing that as acceptable.