- Mass media/mass communications make people powerless to resist messages the media carries.
- Consumers are "drugged", \2addicted" or "hypnotised".
- Effects theories taken up with protection of young, link between violence and the media.
- Frankfurt School: Marxist German intellectuals reacting against Nazi propaganda and US advertising suggested the power of big corporations and the state to control how we think.
- Rise of TV in the 50's and 60's - fear of danger to children.
- Bobo doll experiment (1963) - Bandura and Walters - children imitate adult treatment of doll seen on film.
- Moral panics: Concern, hostility, consensus, disproportionality, volatility.
What's wrong with effects theories?
- The problems with violence are often social/ psychological not to do with the media.
- The media can often be positive rather than harmful.
- Criticism of the media using the effects model is often politically motivated.
- There is not real grounding of research and theory for this model.
According to Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch's research there were five components comprising the Uses and Gratifications Approach. The components are: The audience is conceived as active. In the mass communication process, much initiative in linking gratification and media choice lies with the audience member. the audience has power over their media consumption and assumes an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. Unlike other theoretical perspectives, UGT holds that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their desires and needs to achieve gratification. This theory would then imply that the media compete against other information sources for viewers' gratification.
