Critical Theory: Audience Theory: The Effects Model

Today we were educated about the relationship between institutions, text and audience. This is also known as the Media Institution.



We learnt today about one of the theories of audience that can be applied to help accumulate a better understanding about the relationship between texts and the audience.

The Effects Model & The Hypodermic Model


The Effects Model is the theory that the consumption of media texts has an EFFECT or INFLUENCE upon the Audience. Such effect is normally considered a negative effect.
It is argued that the audience are PASSIVE and are POWERLESS to prevent the influence.
This theory implies that the POWER lies with the MESSAGE OF THE TEXT- the text control the audience.
Newspapers are considered a prime example, as they tend to influence the opinions of the audience and can manipulate events to create a certain impression which they want the audience to see and believe.


Hypodermic Model

This model implies that the audience is being INFLUENCED and are POWERLESS to stop it. The messages of the Media Text are INJECTED into the audience, SYRINGE-LIKE, and that the audience is POWERLESS to resist.
Therefore it can be argued that the media works like a DRUG and the audience is DRUGGED, ADDICTED or DOPED.



This advert is a good example. This shake n'vac advert is the most successful TV advert in TV history. The company have used same advert for 30 years. This advert caused sales of shake n'vac to increase dramatically. The advert made a good which isn't a necessity, a must have home cleaning product. Recently a special advert has been released to celebrate the success of the original campaign.



Key Evidence for The Effects Model

1) The Frankfurt School

Members of the Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School theorised in the 1920 and 1930's that the mass media acted to restrict and control audiences to the benefit of Corporate Capitalism and Governments.

2) The Bobo Doll Experiment


This experiment is a very controversial piece of research that apparently proved that children copy violent behaviour.
It was conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961.

The Experiment
The children in this experiment watched a video where an adult violently attacked a clown toy called a Bobo Doll. The children were then taken to a room with attractive toys that they were not permitted to touch. The children were then led to another room which contained Bobo Dolls.

The Results

• 88% of Children imitated the violent behaviour they saw on the video
• 8 months later 40% of the children repeated the violent behaviour

This evidence led to the conclusion that children imitate violent media content.
HOWEVER!!
This experiment consists of huge flaws. What else can you do with a Bobo doll? The answer, nothing! The toy is designed to be hit and then 'Bop' back to its original position. This can be used to argue the point that the results are not conclusive as they could not do anything else with the doll.

Key Examples Cited as Causing Violent Behaviour

In lesson we also discussed several high profile cases which can be related to the Effects Model.

Child Play 3

In 1993 a horrific event happened, the murder of Bulger. Two kids were charged with the murder of toddler Bulger. It was reported in the media that the murder was committed BECAUSE the kids saw the film Child Play 3. Subsequently this film was banned for many years in the UK. However, the media failed to report the fact that the Children involved in the murder had very bad backgrounds. In court.

Man Hunt

footage from original Manhunt game

In 2004, Stefan Pakeerah was murdered in 2004 by his friend Warren LeBlanc. It was claimed that the murder was a result of Warren playing the console game Man Hunt. This event happened just before the release of Manhunt 2. The game was not released in the UK and was banned.

A clockwork Orange

In 1971 a number of copycat rapes and violent attacks were committed in the UK, which again the media claimed was due to this film.

Severance

The most recent case was the murder of Simon Everitt. It was claimed that his murder was the result of this film.

HOWEVER, THERE WAS NO PROVEN LINK BETWEEN WATCHING ANY OF THESE VIOLENT FILMS/ GAMES AND THE MURDERS.

• With Child Play 3, the court said that they was no evidence that the offendants even saw the film.
• The case regarding Man Hunt, the judge claimed that there was no link between the game and the crime committed.
• The same verdict was reached with A Clockwork Orange and Severance

The only link between these cases are is that there was a media and political outcry for these texts to be banned!!

This led to a huge moral fear over 100's of films, in which these video's became known as 'Video Nasties'

Moral Panics - Caused by the Effect Model ?

It was claimed that  the consumption of media texts such as films and games produce inactivity, 'couch potato's', and make students have no incentive to look for work.
It was also put forward that the same media texts cause violent 'copy-cat' behaviour and mindless shopping in response to advertisements.

It must be stated that it is still unclear that their is any link between consumption of violent media texts and violent imitative behaviour.
It is clear that this theory is flawed, as if it was 100% correct, then EVERY person who watched violent texts WOULD imitate the behaviour..... this is not the case as a large amount of people appear not to be influenced.