Step Two: Identifying relevant theories/ issues & debates
Theorist/ issue or debate | Topic Covered/Meaning | Book/ Publication/ Online source | Key Quotes |
Pluralism | Audiences are seen as capable of manipulating the media in an infinite variety of ways according to their prior needs and dispositions, and as having access ... | Gurevitch, M. Culture, Society and the Media, Methuen & CO LTD, 1982 | QUOTE 1: ...to what Halloran calls 'the plural values of society' enabling them to 'conform, accommodate, challenge or reject'. (Gurevitch et al. 1982: 1) |
QUOTE 2 : McQuail's words the 'relationship is generally entered into voluntarily and on apparently equal terms' | |||
Marxism By Karl Marx | Marxists view capitalist society as being one of class domination; the media are seen as part of an ideological arena in which various class views are fought out, although within the context of the dominance of certain classes; | QUOTE 1:”The merit of Marx is that he suddenly produces a qualitative change in the history of social thought. He interprets history, understands its dynamic, predicts the future, but in addition to predicting it, he expresses a revolutionary concept: the world must not only be interpreted, it must be transformed.” | |
Globalization | The way in which in contemporary society, distant countries are inter-related and connected together by trade, communication and cultural experience. | Quote 1: Globalization is generally stated as "more than expansion of activities beyond the boundaries of particular nation states" | |
The hypodermic needle | The hypodermic needle assumed media effects were simple and direct, a casual connection existing between what people see, hear and read in the media and their knowledge, attitudes and behaviour. | 166pg Williams, K. Understanding media theory, Swansea university , 1997 | Quote 1: “It suggests that the media injects its messages straight into the passive audience (Croteau, Hoynes 1997). This passive audience is immediately affected by these messages” |
Two step model | Katz and lazarsfeld(1955) put forward their ‘two step model’, which advances the view the media by themselves are not powerful in influencing people, arguing people are influenced by members of their family, friends..etc. | Understanding media theory, Swansea university , 1997 | |
The uses and gratification By Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch's | Uses and Gratifications Theory is an approach to understanding why people actively seek out specific media outlets and content for gratification purposes. The theory discusses how users proactively search for media that will not only meet a given need but enhance knowledge, social interactions and diversion. It assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. The theory also holds that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs. The approach suggests that people use the media to fulfill specific gratifications. This theory would then imply that the media compete against other information sources for viewers' gratification | Understanding media theory, Swansea university , 1997 | Quote 1: According to Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch's research there were 5 components comprising the Uses and Gratifications Model. 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 media compete with other sources of satisfaction.” · “Methodologically speaking, many of the goals of mass media use can be derived from data supplied by individual audience members themselves.” · “Value judgments about the cultural significance of mass communication should be suspended while audience · Orientations are explored on their own terms.” Quote 2: "The nature of the theory underlying Uses and Gratifications research is not totally clear," (Blumler, 1979) This makes the line between gratification and satisfaction blurred, calling into question whether or not we only seek what we desire or actually enjoy it. (Palmgreen,P., and Rayburn,J.D., 1985) |
Quote 3: “It presents the use of media in terms of the gratification of social or psychological needs of the individual” (Blumler & Katz 1974). Quote 4: “Blumler & Katz (1974) argued that audience needs have social and psychological origins which generate certain expectations about the mass media” | |||
Reception theory By Stuart Hall | Reception theory is a version of reader response literary theory that emphasizes the reader's reception of a literary text. It is more generally called audience reception in the analysis of communications models. | Understanding media theory, Swansea university , 1997 | Quote1: “Media messages are always open and polysemic (having multiple meanings) and are interpreted according the context and culture of receivers.” Quote 2: “Stuart Hall emphasized the stages of transformation through which any media message passes on the way from its origins to its reception and interpretation.” Quote 3: “For ideological and institutional communicators choose to encode messages for ideological and institutional purposes and manipulate language and media for those ends (media messages are given a preferred reading, or what might now be called spin.” Quote 4: “Hall drew on Semiotic theory to argue that any media content can be regarded as a text that is made up of signs, these signs are structured; that is , they are related to one another in specific ways to make sense of a text- to read a text- you have to be able to interpret the signs and their structure. Example when you read a sentence you must not only decode the individual words but you also need to interpret the over-all structure of the sentence to make sense of the sentence as a whole.” Quote 5: “Hall argued that most texts can be read in several ways but there is generally a preferred or dominant reading that the producers of a message intend when they create a message, as a critical theorist, Hall assumed that most popular media content will have a preferred reading that reinforces the status quo. “ Quote 6: “Audiences for particular genres often comprise “interpretative communities” which share much the same experience, forms of discourse and frameworks for making sense of media. Quote 7: “Audiences are never passive, nor are their members all equal, since some will be more experienced, or more active fans than others.” |
More Quotes | Cherry Turkle :all together We make our technologies, and they, intern, shake us. |
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