audiance effect.

Audiance Effect.

The article featured is from the perspective of the journalist who researched Iain Duncan Smith’s opinion on the dark themes of the dark knight and how in turn he feels that the film should have a 15 age certificate opposed to the 12A which the British Board of film Certification (BBFC) awarded it.

Personally I don’t not agree with Duncan Smith as that the film itself, while having the appearance of being grounded in reality, is very surreal. The “Batman” character in itself could never and has never existed in real life. As well as this the 12A certificate would only allow children of under 15 (and over 12) to see the film if they were admitted with an adult. This, of course, means that if the adult present felt that the “dark themes” or “Psychopathic” characters in the film were too extreme for the child which they had brought with them they could leave bringing the child with them.

Hypodermic Syringe theory – Media has a negative impact as that audiences will believe all information they see within media periods.

This theory does not hold much positivity for the audience as that it implies a completely unintelligent audience. The theory is commonly used by politicians and advertisers.

The theory is explained in “Hidden persuaders”

The mass media often demonises certain groups that they believe to be threats to society. this process is known as a “moral panic” (Stanley Cohen 1972)   

The groups in questions are referred to as “folk devils”

Violence in the media:

Anderson (2007) argued that high exposure to fast paced violent video games can lead to changes in brain function when processing violent imagery, including dampening emotional responses to violence. One of the high risk factors?

This is known as desensitisation.

Ferguson (2012) showed no long term link over three years. (May be a short term effect)

Examples:

Marilyn Manson – This “shock rock” band is often blamed for violent amongst adolescence in America due to the violent imagery included in their lyrics. This criticism began with the columbine shootings (as well as those within Colorado and Littleton) which were conducted by two teenage students who were known to be fans of the band.

Several quotes about this from rolling stone and others magazine include.

“When it comes down to who's to blame for the high school murders in Littleton, Colorado, throw a rock and you'll hit someone who's guilty. We're the people who sit back and tolerate children owning guns, and we're the ones who tune in and watch the up-to-the-minute details of what they do with them”

The earliest reports about the Columbine High School shooting linked Manson to the tragedy after students reported that Klebold and Harris were fans of Manson, though that was later proven to be false. Many also pointed out that the boys were dressed in trench coats, which they believed to be similar to Manson's typical attire. Some early headlines read, "Killers Worshiped Rock Freak Manson" and "Devil-Worshiping Maniac Told Kids to Kill."

Grand Theft Auto- Another product often blamed for real life violence the game is also blamed for the shaming of certain female body types and pressuring young women and girls to strive to possess a body type which is present in the game and yet non obtainable in real life. This causes many mental health issues and in some cases even suicides.

There are three lead characters that players can control in the game: all male. The women characters are often leered at or cast as nags. One of the player characters’ daughters has “skank” tattooed across her back, one mission has you chaperoning a paparazzo as he tries to photograph an aging actress’s “low-hanging muff.”

 Representation

Stereotypes and counter types

Objectification of Women.

Representations of men in terms of pathological control and violent.

  Gay people (Butler, 1993)

Alvarado (1987), Hall (1995) – ‘exotic, dangerous, humours, pitied.   

Turton (2014) – hooligans, trouble causers. Black and Asian boys

Lloyd (1995)- Girls as “double deviant” a that they are troublemakers but shouldn’t be.  

The Revenant.

This film could very easily be applied to the Anderson desensitisation theory as that it as many scenes of graphic violence/ rape and even brutal murder.

As well as this the fact that there are only two female characters in the film and one of them is essentially a ghost while the other we only know about because she is rescued by the main character.

Active audience theory:

Other school of thought- we are able to adapt and filter the content within the media (Gauntlett, 1955)- backwards.

we all have uses and gratifications (Mcquail 1972) theory

• Surveillance
• escapism
• building personal relationships
• building personal identity.

Hall (1980) encoding / decoding model.
preferred reading - by audience depending on their background but accepts the dominant viewpoint/ story.
Negotiated reading - Partially agrees with meaning
oppositional reading - meaning understood but don't agree and think opposite.
Aberrant - Meaning completely misunderstood.

NEXT LESSON.

1) The two main schools of thought when speaking about media texts are that of a passive audience (or hypodermic syringe theory) where audiences are not able to filter media texts to distinguish between good and bad messages and that of an active audience which uses media for its intended purpose (that being to entertain) while not being overwhelmingly affected by the messages of the narrative in which they are witnessed. (encoding and decoding model audience background and individual experience plays a part n how they read a text, and Uses and gratifications theory.)

2) One example of a media text which has caused a moral panic would be the music of renowned rock music icon "Marilyn Manson" as that the violent imagery depicted in his lyrics has been linked to two mass shootings in the United States Of America.

Regulation:

BBFC
British board of film certification

Protect the public from violent and other inappropriate content by providing an age rating for every film that is released.
The BBFC used to be know as the British board of film cencors however they changed their name in 1984 when being forced to adapt into rating videos (VHS.)
in 1984 the video recordig act was passed which saught to certify all films that were avalible to the public.

The Revenant Age Classification
initally the revenant was given a 15 rating duie to the graphic violance, language and sexual content (which was infrequant and mild).
The violance in the film is highly graphic and as that the whole narrative is centered on the protaanist overcoming their injurys there is ,naturally, a lot o emphasis placed on it. One exampl of the violance in the revenent would be the fight scene between he potaganist and antagonit near the end where we see one of the anagonists fingers being cut off his hand in explicit detail.