Lesson Objectives

• To understand the

effects of media

The Effects Theory:

• The idea that the media can have an effect over its audience- this is often discussed in terms of negative effects.

• Thought of as what the media does to its audience.

Consider both sides…

Positive• Media has a positive

influence on us because….

Negative• Media has a negative

influence on us because…

Hypodermic Needle Theory:• A theory that suggests that the

media ‘inject’ its audience with its ideas like a passive patient rather than a critical and active consumer.

• The focus here is on the fact that we don’t choose to believe certain things;the media chooses for us.

What do you think about this theory?

History and Orientation

The "hypodermic needle theory" implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour change.

Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication, including:• the fast rise and popularization of radio and television• the emergence of the persuasion industries, such as

advertising and propaganda• the Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which focused on the

impact of motion pictures on children, and• Hitler's monopolization of the mass media during WWII to

unify the German public behind the Nazi party

The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response.

War of the Worlds

30th October 1938 when Orson Welles and the newly formed Mercury Theater group broadcasted their radio edition of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds.“ On the eve of Halloween, radio programming was interrupted with a "news bulletin" for the first time. What the audience heard was that Martians had begun an invasion of Earth in a place called Grover's Mill, New Jersey.

Chaos

It became known as the "Panic Broadcast" and changed broadcast history, social psychology, civil defence and set a standard for provocative entertainment. Approximately 12 million people in the United States heard the broadcast and about one million of those actually believed that a serious alien invasion was underway. A wave of mass hysteria disrupted households, interrupted religious services, caused traffic jams and clogged communication systems. People fled their city homes to seek shelter in more rural areas, raided grocery stores and began to ration food. The nation was in a state of chaos, and this broadcast was the cause of it.

Hypodermic needle theory• The media inject messages into their audiences• The audience is seen as passive and unable to resist these

media messages• Theory associated with Marxist academics - Marxists are

traditionally hostile to the media – seeing it as vehicle to enable ruling class to maintain their dominance over society

• The theory first articulated in a different era to our own – a time when the mass media was still relatively new

• Continues to apply to today: e.g. Moral panics

• Also creates feelings of ‘I want it’ / ‘I must have it’ / ‘I must look like this’.

In what ways can we be said to passively consume ideas given to us by the media? Can you think of any modern examples?

Should you believe everything the media tells you? Why or why not?

Clip

• Representations of what a body should look like

• Can be related to both male and female bodies

• It is the representation of a body

What do we mean by body image?

• Size Zero debate

• Anorexia/Bulimia

What issues arise from this?

• Whether this is a neccesity for models?

• Is it a positive representation of women/men?

• Has it led to eating disorders? Copy Cat Theory?

• Celebrity fad?

What is the Size Zero debate?

• Create a case study in pairs:

• Find both positive and negative representations in the media for your debate

• Background of the debate

• Use news/magazines articles, tv shows, films, advertising etc

Task

Achieved

• Can describe what the representation is• How features of the media texts create the

representation• The effect of the media representation

What is it? How do they do it?What’s the effect of that?

Merit

Demonstrate in-depth understanding involves providing reasoned explanations for the effect of the representation. This includes such aspects as• Reasons for the difference between the representation

and reality• Reasons for stereotypes, messages, and/or values created

by the representation• Reasons why the selection and/or omission of material

reinforce stereotypes, messages and/or valuesA reasoned explanation involves a logical argument supported by specific evidence.

Why is it like that?

Excellence

Demonstrate critical understanding involves examining likely consequences of the representation and drawing conclusions based on the evidence. The examination includes aspects of the representation such as:• the effectiveness of the features in creating the representation• implications of the difference(s) between the representation

and reality• the implications and/or effectiveness of the stereotypes,

messages, and/or values that are created by the representation

• the implications and issues associated with the selection and/or omission of material.

So what?

Why does it matter?