The effects theory is basically the idea that the media can have a strong influence on the audience's behaviour, changing viewer opinions and drastically altering an audience's perception of the world. Even gatekeeping or framing to mold their story.
This is quite simple for whomever controls said media because they have full control over what they want to show, meaning if they want to portray a: celebrity, game, world event, etc. in a certain way then they can withhold certain aspects of the story (gatekeeping). An example of this that I have personally had to face is when I was in year 9 of high school.
In year 9, me and a handful of friends were chosen to represent our school in the RECLAIM project; this was a project to help shape young black males into respectful role models and to break the stereotype that all black boys from the ghetto are violent thugs. This was a really helpful project for me and my friends taking into consideration all the peer pressure we had at the time and surely it changed us for the better. RECLAIM started getting recognition due to friends and family spreading the word and eventually our team leaders wanted to get the message out to the nation via newspaper, so after a few meetings etc. The Sun newspaper had eventually agreed to listen to our story (this is where the story ties in with the gatekeeping), however they had no interest in "positive young black males" and only wanted to continue writing about "violent black thugs"; portraying only one side of the tale and fortifying the stereotype that black youths won't try to achieve anything in life. This I found to be very saddening considering all the hard work we as a team had put into showing what we can achieve rather than focusing on what the minority ruin.
In the end, The Sun still didn't want our story and moved on to another group of black youths that didn't mind a negative portrayal, but fortunately for us The Guardian newspaper did care and still allowed us to get our message out to the rest of Manchester.
Uses and Gratifications
Diversion is to use different forms of media to escape from reality it's everyday problems. An example of diversion could be how millions of people worldwide play games like World of Warcraft which have their whole virtual world for people to escape to.
Personal Relationships is to use the media for an emotional and other interactions, such as substituting soap operas for family life or developing a relationship on a dating site.
Personal Identity is where one might mold themselves under the influence of certain characters in the media (fictional or not) and they view them as idols or role models.
Surveillance is essentially information gathering via methods like using the internet, reading magazines and new papers, watching the news. Surveillance is generally used to satisfy curiosity and interest, it's also for seeking and learning about recent events.
These can be broken even further to:
- Personal Identity
- Finding reinforcement for personal value
- Finding models of behaviour
- Identifying with celebrities
- Gaining insight into oneself
Integration and social interaction can be used for gaining insight into the circumstances of others, identifying with other people for a sense of worth or belonging, finding a basis for conversation ans social interaction, substituting real life relationships, carrying out social roles and enabling one to connect with friends, family and society.
Here are a few example of my personal experience that involve: Diversion, Personal Relationships/ Identity and Surveillance:
My most adamant use of diversion through media would be watching anime. On a regular basis I probably watch around 4 - 7 hours of anime daily and sometimes even more dependent on if I have a responsibilities or plans concerning that day. The anime I watch are usually set in Japan (somewhere I wish to live for a few years in the future) and so I believe that alone is away of me trying to break free of the reality that I don't live in Japan. Constantly throughout each day I have hundreds of randomly thought up scenes that run through my head (consisting of both fictional and non-fictional characters/people) and the anime I watch I believe attributes towards these images and so even when I'm not actually watching anime I am still able to escape to my imagination.
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| Son Goku, a hero amongst heroes |
My personal relationships are usually made in person however I do have a mobile phone (like most people) and occasionally I may receive and send a text or two, sometimes several dependent on whom I'm interacting with. To be honest though I am a much bigger fan of using Facebook as a means of communicating with people (it is a social site afterall), mostly because I spend most of my free time in my room (watching anime - hah hah) as well the fact that I can type way more comfortably using my computer keyboard rather than my mobile's keyboard.
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| Nokia E7, this is the same model I own |
Different aspects of my personality I admit have been influenced by characters in different medias such as game, film and anime characters. Characters that appear in films are usually meant to portray positive qualities (unless they are villains or evidently flawed characters) that we as an audience would like to portray ourselves. An example of how a character from the media has influenced me would be the protagonist from the movie 'Undercover Brother' (played by Eddie Griffin); the Undercover Brother was a vigilante of the 70's that was righteous and proud man, he lived by the philosophy that his father taught him which was to always stay true to himself. To this day I can say I still feel somewhat moved when watching Undercover Brother (even though it was a comedy and it's deep moments are pretty cheesy) and ever since I watch that film I have also sported the Afro hairstyle to which I am incredibly proud of.
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| Eddie Griffin as the 'Undercover Brother' |
I generally use the internet as a means of surveillance and information gathering as it is almost always available to me at my home and I can freely search for the information or form of media I am looking for. The most notable sites I have used for surveillance would have to be both Google which I use for any kind of search as it is my most favoured and powerful search engine and Youtube which I use specifically for videos because out of all the video hosting sites I have come across Youtube is the most trustworthy and reliable.
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| Google Search of the 'UK floods' |
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| Highlight from a One Piece episode |
Reception Theory
Basically it is how different individuals interpret different media products, one person's understanding or reading will likely be different from another person's regardless of how similar the individuals may be. Reception theory is based on the notion that no media text has one single meaning; as I've mentioned it suggests we all create our own meanings for a text.
David Morley has studied the 'politics of the living room' - the idea that the media is just part of all the different things that may going on in your home. In a typical family household these can sometimes be the root of conflict.
Reading can be categorised into three types:
Dominant (or hegemonic) reading - the reader shares the programmes code (it's meaning system of values, attitudes, beliefs and assumptions) and accepts the preferred reading.
Negotiated reading - the reader partly shares the programmes code but modifies it in a way that reflects their own position and beliefs
Oppositional reading - the reader does not share the programmes code and rejects the preferred reading, bringing to bear an alternative frame of interpretation (e.g. a feminist reading of a 'lads' magazine).
An example of a dominant reading of mine would be for the cartoon 'The Boondocks', this cartoon is based on two young boys,the grandfather raising them and how they get themselves into the craiziest situations. The main character Huey Freeman (based on Huey P. Newton) is a radical and borderline militant character, he is politically aware and keeps up with most current events or affairs, has very strong beliefs and is very wise for his age. Due to all of these reasons Huey always finds himself involved in various politcal disputes. The reason this show is an example for one of my dominant readings is because it often recreates events that have or may occur in real life, usually exaggerating or making fun so the stupidity and ignorance that breeds these situations become evident. The Boondocks is a black dominated show meaning a lot of the focus is on black culture, humour or stereotypes these are all topics I can relate to and so when certain incidents are brought to light via The Boondocks I usually agree with the message they're portraying.
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