Effects theories

• 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.