Exam Focus

 There are three main reception Theories. 1. The Hypodermic needle model 2. The Uses & Gratifications model 3. Reception Theory –Encoding/decoding model

 The media “injects” its beliefs & values (ideology) into the passive viewer.

 Dating from the 1920s, this theory was the first attempt to explain how mass audiences might react to mass media. It is a crude model and suggests that audiences passively receive the information transmitted via a media text, without any attempt on their part to process or challenge the data.  Don't forget that this theory was developed in an age when the mass media were still fairly new - radio and cinema were less than two decades old. Governments had just discovered the power of advertising to communicate a message, and produced propaganda to try and sway populaces to their way of thinking. This was particularly rampant in Europe during the First World War

 Images from Leni Riefenstahls Nazi propaganda film Triumph of The will.  Basically, the Hypodermic Needle Model suggests that the information from a text passes into the mass consciouness of the audience unmediated, ie the experience, intelligence and opinion of an individual are not relevant to the reception of the text. This theory suggests that, as an audience, we are manipulated by the creators of media texts, and that our behaviour and thinking might be easily changed by media-makers. It assumes that the audience are passive and heterogenous(all the same).

 Can you think of any specific texts that have influenced the behaviour of the audience?

 Jeffrey Dahmer was a particularly horrible serial killer & cannibal.  In one case, a victim, handcuffed, escaped & ran to the police.  Dahmer followed & convinced the police to let the man go with him. He took him to his basement killed & ate him.  Jeffrey Dahmer had a favourite film that he liked to watch before he went out killing.  In Pairs Make a list of your ideas of which film motivated Dahmer?

1. Have you ever been influenced by a text? 2. List why you think this model is or isn’t relevant today? 3. The hypodermic needle model argues that we are passive viewers, do you agree? Give reasons for your argument.

 The basic idea of this model is that the audience is not passive but active, and USES media texts to gratify a need.  Can you think of any examples of when you use the media to gratify a need?  This model is in opposition to the hypodermic needle model, as it claims audiences have a say in how media influences them.

 During the 1960s, as the first generation to grow up with television became grown ups, it became increasingly apparent to media theorists that audiences made choices about what they did when consuming texts.  Far from being a passive mass, audiences were made up of individuals who actively consumed texts for different reasons and in different ways.

 In 1948 Lasswell suggested that media texts had the following functions for individuals and society:  surveillance – what texts do you consume ?  correlation what texts do you consume ?  entertainment what texts do you consume ?  Cultural transmission what texts do you consume ?

 Researchers Blulmer and Katz expanded this theory and published their own in 1974, stating that individuals might choose and use a text for the following purposes (ie uses and gratifications):  Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine.  Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction, e.g. substituting soap operas for family life  Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts  Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living eg) weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains  Since then, the list of Uses and Gratifications has been extended, particularly as new media forms have come along: video games, the internet

 Watching TV Soap Operas  A major focus for research into why and how people watch TV has been the genre of soap opera. Adopting a U & G perspective, Richard Kilborn (1992: ) offers the following common reasons for watching soaps: regular part of domestic routine and entertaining reward for work Launch pad for social and personal interaction fulfilling individual needs: a way of choosing to be alone or of enduring enforced loneliness identification and involvement with characters (perhaps cathartic) escapist fantasy (American supersoaps more fantastical) focus of debate on topical issues a kind of critical game involving knowledge of the rules and conventions of the genre

I can compare myself with the experts I like to imagine that I am on the programme and doing well I feel pleased that the side I favour has actually won I am reminded of when I was in school I laugh at the contestants’ mistakes Basis for Social Interaction I look forward to talking about it with others I like competing with other people watching with me I like working together with the family on the answers The children get a lot out of it It brings the family together sharing the same interest It is a topic of conversation afterwards

I like the excitement of a close finish I like to forget my worries for a while I like trying to guess the winner Having got the answer right I feel really good I get involved in the competition I find I know more than I thought I find I have improved myself I feel respect for the people on the programme I think over some of the questions afterwards It’s educational (McQuail, Blumler & Brown 1972)

 finding out about relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the world  seeking advice on practical matters or opinion and decision choices  satisfying curiosity and general interest  learning; self-education  gaining a sense of security through knowledge

 finding reinforcement for personal values  finding models of behaviour  identifying with valued other (in the media)  gaining insight into one's self

 gaining insight into circumstances of others; social empathy  identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging  finding a basis for conversation and social interaction  having a substitute for real-life companionship  helping to carry out social roles  enabling one to connect with family, friends and  Society

 escaping, or being diverted, from problems  relaxing  getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment  filling time  emotional release  sexual arousal

 Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine.  Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other  interaction, eg) substituting soap operas for family life  Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning  behaviour and values from texts  Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living eg)  weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains

In the 21 st C, many of us do not just consume one text at a time, for example, I may have the TV on, be on the phone & flicking through a magazine. I may listen to the radio while reading a newspaper. Primary ConsumptionSecondary Consumption  Which texts/media do you consume as primary consumption  Which texts do you consume as secondary consumption?  Which texts do you consume as tertiary consumption?

 Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine.  Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other  interaction, eg) substituting soap operas for family life  Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning  behaviour and values from texts  Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living eg)  weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains

 U & G research has been concerned with why people use media.  Whilst this approach sprang from 'mainstream' research in social science, an interpretive tradition has arisen primarily from the more arts-oriented 'cultural (and 'critical') studies'.  The approach sometimes referred to as reception theory (or reception analysis) (e.g. focuses on what people see in the media, on the meanings which people produce when they interpret media 'texts'

 Extending the concept of an active audience still further, in the 1980s and 1990s a lot of work was done on the way individuals received and interpreted a text, and how their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affected their reading.

TextPair work 5 mins.  Gender  Age  Class  Education  Ethnicity  Nation

 This work was based on Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model of the relationship between text and audience - the text is encoded by the producer, and decoded by the reader, and there may be major differences between two different readings of the same code.  However, by using recognised codes and conventions, and by drawing upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and use of stars, the producers can position the audience and thus create a certain amount of agreement on what the code means. This is known as a preferred reading.

ReadingsFactors that can effect reading  Preferred – we accept the dominant encoded reading of the text  Negotiated- we accept some & reject some of the preferred reading  Oppositional – we reject/disagree with the preferred reading  Gender  Age  Social demographic  Nation  Ethnicity  Cultural knowledge  Social class  Education

 Preferred  Negotiated  Opposiotnal readings of this cover

 Preferred  Negotiated  Oppositional readings of this text

 Gender  Age  Social demographic  Nation  Ethnicity  Cultural knowledge  Social class  Education

 Jeremy Kyle  Mens Health  300  Cosmopolitan  The independent  Saga magazine

 As we have seen with semiotic analysis (Roland Barthes, denotation & connotation)  Semiotic analysis of signifiers is text centred, focussing more on how the text is encoded with a meaning.  Reception theory shows that media analysis now focuses on audiences – as the decoders/readers/u sers, who bring their cultural knowledge to a text. This also show how texts can be read as polysemic(many meanings/readings)

 Hall referred to various phases in the Encoding/Decoding model of communication as moments, a term which many other commentators have subsequently employed (frequently without explanation). John Corner offers his own definitions: 1. the moment of encoding: 'the institutional practices and organizational conditions and practices of production' (Corner 1983, 266);(Corner 1983, 266) 2. the moment of the text: 'the... symbolic construction, arrangement and perhaps performance... The form and content of what is published or broadcast' (ibid., 267); and(ibid., 267) 3. the moment of decoding: 'the moment of reception [or] consumption... by... the reader/hearer/viewer' which is regarded by most theorists as 'closer to a form of "construction"' than to 'the passivity... suggested by the term "reception"' e.g. – we construct meaning from the text (ibid.).–(ibid.)

 The hypodermic needle model The intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver. The hypodermic needle model  Two-step flow The people with most access to media, and highest media literacy explain and diffuse the content to others. This is a modern version of the hypodermic needle model.Two-step flow media literacy  Uses and gratifications People are not helpless victims of mass media, but use the media to get specific gratifications. Uses and gratifications  Reception theory The meaning of a "text" is not inherent within the text itself, but the audience must elicit meaning based on their individual cultural background and life experiencesReception theory

 1. The effects model tackles social problems 'backwards': simplifying the causes  2. The effects model treats children as inadequate: their intelligence is underestimated  3. Assumptions within the effects model are characterised by barely- concealed conservative ideology  4. The effects model inadequately defines its own objects of study  5. The effects model is often based on artificial elements and assumptions within studies  6. The effects model is often based on studies with misapplied methodology  7. The effects model is selective in its criticisms of media depictions of violence  8. The effects model assumes superiority to the masses  9. The effects model makes no attempt to understand meanings of the media  10. The effects model is not grounded in theory‘ Audiences are not blank sheets of paper on which media messages can be written; members of an audience will have prior attitudes and beliefs which will determine how effective media messages are.

     tics.   Google Books:  Understanding media cultures: social theory and mass communication By Nick Stevenson  Media and cultural studies: Page 163 Meenakshi Gigi Durham, Douglas Kellner

1. Apply The Uses & Grats model to your market leader magazine cover 2. Apply Uses & grats to your production cover 3. Evaluate how your cover gratifies needs. 4. Discuss the preferred readings of your market leader. 5. Discuss the preferred/negotiated & oppositional readings of your production 6. Add to you research portfolio