Monday, November 20, 2006

Effects theory

Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School was concerned with the influence of the media on the society. They argued that the rise of "culture industry" resulted in increased standardisation within society. The mass audience is manipulated by the hegemony of the ruling classes. The early Frankfurt theorists explored the early power of US media, including advertising and entertainment forms. They emphasised the power of capitalism.

The hypodermic needle model
This model owes much to the supposed power of the mass media, in particular film, to inject the passive audiences with ideologies.

Violence in the media
In our society, effects theory is most often cited as evidence of the dangers of violence. Some of the "moral majority" argue that TV output which is explicitly sexual, too violent or in other ways offensiver it should be censored.

Cultivation Theory
When a single text has been repeated, it will make the audience less sensitive - desensitised

Two step flow
Two step flow assumes a more active audience, who will discuss media texts with each other



My opinion :D
Personally i think that media does influence the audience, whether or not they decide to take action it will always be there. Especially in children who are easily influenced by what they see on TV. Children find TV as a source of information and accept everything that is shown on TV, which can't be controlled by their parents. Parents cannot sit and control what their children see as they might not be around in the first place and therefore should be censored. Not everything we see on TV influences us - in some cases parents do not want their children to watch sex but are fine with violence not because they will do it but its more of a respect thing. I couldnt sit and watch a sex scene with my parents because i would feel uncomfortable. I have a few young cousins who are highly influenced by what comes on TV thats not to say it is all to do with violence but the way they talk, their way of thinking and how they are with people around them.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Women Adverts

At the end of this advert, we realise that we have been forced to be constructed as the male audience as it is a "male fantasy advert" - this is what the males would like to see. It shows how they concieve women and how they are objects of the male gaze. The women in this film are shown to be sexy and stripping each other in a fight and therefore amusing the men. They also kiss at the end and the males who are watching this say thats their ideal advert. This shows clearly that men like women to be percieved this way and like to watch them in action. Right at the end we see two women look at the men in disgust.


This advert shows the stereotypical roles of women. We don't see her much, but when we do she is fulfilling her duty as a mother. She is looking after her child and feeding her, which is seen as the stereotypical role of a woman - as a housewife. She is fully clothed and doesn't look seducing or provocative.

This advert is a fetishitic advert which is aimed at the females. It is celebrity endorsed and shows that this is the product you need to look like your idol. Scarlett Johannsen here looks natural and pretty and allows the female audience to relate to her.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Pluralism

Pluralist view society as a system of competing groups and interests, none of them predominant.

Pluralism:

  • rejects the concept of mass culture
  • audience are able to choose from a wide variety of cultural optiuons
  • class distinctions are less important
  • individual has freedom to make choices about what text to consume
  • media is seen as the fourth estate
  • no hegemonic message
  • assumes active audience

Fourth Estate: the role of the media is seen as being that of the fourth estate, whose role is to keep the public informed about what is happening in each of the other three (government, legal system and the church)

Why I am a Pluralist
I am a pluralist because i agree that the audience is active and can chose for themselves what they want to watch and what to take in, but on the other hand i agree with the Marxist view that everything in the media is owned by the bourgeoisie who have power and control to influence their ideologies on the audience so wherever you turn you are bound to be influenced by the ruling class. I strongly agree that the media is the fourth estate which allows us to see what everyone is up to which is democratic but also an invasion of our privacy... so as you can see i am more Marxist then Pluralist

Marxism


Karl Marx argued that capitalism is based on the profit motive and that under capitalism, profits are generated by expolited workers. He believed that capitalist society is divded into two social classes: the working class and the bourgeoisie.

Marx believed that the "culture industries" see a mass audience and would construct texts in order to appeal to these and generate a wider audience. He also believed that mass media is seen as a way of entertaining the working class while DRIP FEEDING them ideologies and beliefs (effects theory)

Althusser studied the Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA's) act to interpellate an audience - that is to position the audience in such a way that they presume that these ideologies are correct

Gramsci came up with the term HEGEMONY. He basically said that what we see in the meida and the representations are hegemonic therefore reinforce dominant ideology.

Why I am a Marxist
I think I'm a marxist because i believe that we live in a capitalist society where the working class sell their labour to the bourgeoisie who are the ruling class. I also believe in the term hegemony because i think that there are people more elite then others who have subconcious power and control over the audience but only to a certain extent as humans have their own brain to know what to take in and what not to.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

What do you think of my blog...?

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The comment buttons down there somewhere.... i don't know what to put here....