Audience Theories

The effects model otherwise known as Hypodermic Model, This theory was introduced by Croteau (1997) he believed that the media influenced all viewers, if you listened or watched the media you have no choice you will be influenced by what you have seen. Croteau compared watching and listening to media to taking drugs, he claimed that the effects of drugs were just like being the viewers of media, it controlled you once it was in your system it would start to take over and there would be nothing you can do about it, this is how he felt it was with media. That people would be so influenced and would not be able to control the fact that if they had watched something filled with violence that they would have that same feeling of wanting to be violent, He went through  with an experiment to prove his theory called 'The Bobo doll' with this experiment he had an adult violently attack this doll in front of an audience of children the children were then eft in he room with the doll and filmed they were seen to copy the adults and violently attack the doll, one young boy had a hammer in one hand and a gun in the other while hitting and shooting this doll. This experiment proved his theory was right and that what we see influences how we act.

The other theory was created by Blumler and Katz (1974) The uses and gratifications theory, they believed that the audience of media were active and more than able to not be influenced to copy what they see, they don't say that the viewers are not influenced at all because the audience can be influenced for instance if they was to watch something bad like bullying or drugs they are more than able to have there opinion to say that this is wrong, this doesn't mean it has not influenced because they could feel sorry for the person being bullied and this could cause them to help people being bullied cause the media have presented how bad it can be. This theory is basically the opposite of the effects model because they believe the audience do have power and can control there feeling and that they will have there own opinion on if they think what they a watching and listening to is right or wrong.

As a class we watched 'Time - Chase and Status' 

As we was watching the music video as a class we individually had to think of how the two theories would link to this video, so I had taken notes on each theory that would relate to this music video.  Firstly Croteau's The effects model theory, could be applied to this music video by saying that the audience will watch this and be influenced by it to copy the behaviour so for example a husband or boyfriend could watch it and be influenced to believe that they can abuse there partner which is negative effect on the audience, but the same theory could also have a positive effect on the audience because at the end of the music video the abuser get caught and locked up in prison so if the same effect was to apply then the audience would see that the bad behaviour has been punished.
  The second theory from Blumler and Katz, The uses and gratification theory. This theory believed  that the audience was active and has the ability to decide if what the was watching was right or wrong so applying this theory to this music video, the audience would see that what the abusive husband was doing was wrong and that he was punished for his actions. This theory would also support the  side of this video that shows anyone who could possibly be in the same situation that they are able to speak up and this video shows them that it's the right thing to do.
These two theorists can be applied to this music video I am not going to chose a music video of my own and then analyse it and apply the two theories to my music video choice.

My chosen music video 'Stole - Kelly Rowland'

This music video is about a young boy who watches him mum get domestically abused and he gets bullied at school, his life proving to hard he kills himself in the school toilets by shooting himself, the girl who liked him and had previously slept with him hears the gun shot and runs into the toilets to find him dead. The video then continues on to show the girl finding out that she is pregnant. There is also another young boy who dies in this video while he is playing basket ball and suddenly drops and dies. At the end of the video we see a memorial wall in remembrance of the young lives lost.
 To apply The effects model theory from Croteau, Watching the students in school bully a boy could influence the audience to bully people similar to this boy, He was bullied because he was smart but smart wasn't cool this could force the audience who are also smart to want to hide the fact that they are smart because as they would see in this video you will get bullied and be lonely if you don't act "cool". This theory would also support that if you are going through these sort of problems then the way to get out of it is to kill yourself, because Croteau said that what you see is what you believe to be true.
 On the other hand there is The uses and gratification theory that was put forward by Blumler and Katz this theory would support the idea that this music video would have very much the opposite effect on the audience, because they believed that the audience were able to decide on the opinion of the actions they see so they would watch the video and see that bullying people will end badly and it is mean, it would show people that if you bullied someone to the extent that they killed themselves you would feel very guilty because you would have chipped into killing them. It will also show the audience that if you was to kill yourself the pain and hurt that you will leave behind you will be horrible and you will upset many people even if you believe that no one would care this video shows them that people would be effected. This would be a positive effect on the audience in comparison to The effects model theory.
Also the message at the end of the video "Think before you act" if you was to apply this to either theory it could be positive so The effects model could support it by saying the audience are forced to believe and listen to what they see so this message would get across to the audience and if you was to apply The uses and gratification theory then you could say that the audience will see the message and feel like its a good message to listen to.

Introduction

Introduction to blog

My name is Kala-Louise Hill, my candidate number is 3075 and I am studying A2 media at Swakeleys 6th form.
Last year in AS media studies, I had learnt in depth all the media terminology and the correct concepts to use the key words in. I also learnt how to use editing facilities like iMovie and my knowledge of camera angles and how to use the basics of a camera and editing. We also covered the music industry learning about the rules of piracy and copy right.
In another unit of AS media we covered TV drama which widened our knowledge and skills on how to  analyse the representations of things such as Gender, Sexuality, Age, Race and Religion and Disability.  The skills we learnt from analysing all the different types of TV drama's we was able to apply in our AS media studies exam.
We also created a Media portfolio as a group and created a two minute clip including an opening to a movie. The piece i created was in a group of 3 an we had a horror theme, we had to create a story board and script, short clips to practise the basic editing skills we would use in our clip this all helped us create our clip to the best of our ability.

This blog will now take you through the journey of my A2 media course work, including a digipak and advert all leading up to my groups (Myself, Faye Curry and Georgia Pearce) final piece of a music video.