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.

Identify the potential impact of a media product you have studied on the audience.

Media product studied – Grand theft auto five (GTA 5)

Rock Star Studios are not new to the criticism which they received for their medium defining video game series Grand Theft Auto however the latest title in the series has seen arguably seen more criticism than any of the other titles yet to be released in the series so far.  

The Hypodermic Syringe theory states that Media has a negative impact as that audiences will believe all information they see within media products and it can easily be said that if this theory holds any credibility at all then it is clear that Grand Theft Auto 5 is a very dangerous product to be available to young people as that the main story of the game depicts acts of robbery, torture and murder. One particular sequence in the game (a mission called “By the Book”) features one of the games three protagonists Trevor Phillips using torture techniques including water boarding to extract information from a man named “Mr K”. This is very unsettling for a number of reasons. Firstly, if the Hypodermic Syringe Theory is to be believed then this scene would be likely to encourage the players of the game (mostly Boys and men aged 16-35) to use physical assault in order to achieved a desired outcome from an argument and secondly, if Andersons 2007 “Desensitisation Theory” is to be believed then the crude displays of violence could potentially make the people playing the games less able to distinguish the virtual displays of violence within the game from real, potentially life threatening incidents. This theory has been used in the past to link the use and enjoyment of video games to violent or even sadistic tendencies in the real world such as the 1999 Columbine high school shooting which claimed the lives of 13 people and the two killers were found to have created a map similar to their school within the game “Wolfenstein 3D.”

While the two theories I have stated in terms of violence paint the game of Grand Theft Auto five in a very negative light it would unfair to go forward without mentioning the opposing viewpoint to Hypodermic Syringe theory this being the theory that the audience is in fact active and not passive as the other would suggest. This would mean that the people playing the game would be able to view this over the top violence without internalising it and instead just seeing it as part of the games narrative. The active audience theory is supported by 2007s experiment (conducted by Ferguson) which found no empirical evidence to support the notion that simulated violence causes violent tendencies in people in the long term.

Another large controversy surrounding Grand theft Auto Five is its objectified representation of women which sees many of the female characters being portrayed by their sexual characteristics alone and as such making them into poorly developed characters. A prime example of this would be the games infamous strip clubs and prostitutes who players can choose to kill and assault if they want to if desensitisation theory is to be believed then the inclusion of this mechanic is very worrying as that it may stir up feelings of misogyny within the mostly young male target demographic and as such lead to an influx of sexually motivated violence towards women.

Overall I feel that the games graphic depictions of violence and sexual activity are at least in bad taste and at worst an encouragement for people who may be suppressing the urge to carry out such acts in real life to do so. This type of interactive media as well as the content in which it portrays should certainly be.