Media Theory 1 - Uses and Gratification - Blumler and Katz
Examples of Uses and Gratification Theory
In situations like watching movies and listening to the music of your own choice, this theory is applicable. People choose from their own choices and moods. The needs of the particular person are met through the media used.
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Media Theory 2 - The Male Gaze - Laura Mulvey
The U&G model is a theory that states that audiences consume media products because they have to satisfy needs:
Goals of Media
The goals of media use are:
- To be informed or educated
- To get entertained
- To develop social interaction
- To feel connected with the situations and characters emotionally
- To escape from real life situations
In situations like watching movies and listening to the music of your own choice, this theory is applicable. People choose from their own choices and moods. The needs of the particular person are met through the media used.
Some people might watch news for information, some for entertainment, and some for self-reassurance. Some watch according to their moods. There are various needs which gets fulfilled by the media.
Similarly, internet and mobile phones have become a source of media that tries to fulfill not only the mass communication needs, but also interpersonal needs like interaction and emotional involvement. People can use internet, text, call, talk with photos or with videos. It is portable and accessible. It has come to be useful for many and serve many purposes.
This theory was developed by Laura Mulvey, and she states that:
The male gaze is the way in which the visual arts and literature depict the world and women from a masculine point of view, presenting women as objects of male pleasure.
Techniques used to encourage Male Gaze:
- Slow motion
- Back lighting
- Body language
- Montage of shots
- Shot-reverser-shot between the woman and the men watching her
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Media Theory 3 - Reception Theory
Passive audience: Accept the text without questioning it.
Active audience: Seek alternative meanings of the text.
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Media Theory 4 - Reception Analysis Reception analysis is an active audience theory that looks at how audiences interact with a media text taking into account their ‘situated culture’ – this is their daily life. The theory suggests that social and daily experiences can affect the way an audience reads a media text and reacts to it.
This theory about how audiences read a text was put forward by Professor Stuart Hall in ‘The television discourse – encoding/decoding’ in 1974 with later research by David Morley in 1980 and Charlotte Brunsden.
He suggests that an audience has a significant role in the process of reading a text, and this can be discussed in three different ways:
1 The dominant or preferred reading. The audience shares the code of the text and fully accepts and understands its preferred meaning as intended by the producers (This can be seen as a hegemonic reading).
2 The negotiated reading. The audience partly shares the code of the text and broadly accepts the preferred meaning, but will change the meaning in some way according to their own experiences, culture and values EG These audience members might argue that some representations – ethnic minorities perhaps – appear to them to be inaccurate.
3 The oppositional reading. The audience understands the preferred meaning but does not share the text’s code and rejects this intended meaning and constructs an alternative meaning.
This theory about how audiences read a text was put forward by Professor Stuart Hall in ‘The television discourse – encoding/decoding’ in 1974 with later research by David Morley in 1980 and Charlotte Brunsden.
He suggests that an audience has a significant role in the process of reading a text, and this can be discussed in three different ways:
1 The dominant or preferred reading. The audience shares the code of the text and fully accepts and understands its preferred meaning as intended by the producers (This can be seen as a hegemonic reading).
2 The negotiated reading. The audience partly shares the code of the text and broadly accepts the preferred meaning, but will change the meaning in some way according to their own experiences, culture and values EG These audience members might argue that some representations – ethnic minorities perhaps – appear to them to be inaccurate.
3 The oppositional reading. The audience understands the preferred meaning but does not share the text’s code and rejects this intended meaning and constructs an alternative meaning.
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Media Theory 5 - Cultivation Theory This theory also treats the audience as passive. It suggests that repeated exposure to the same message – such as an advertisement – will have an effect on the audience’s attitudes and values. A similar idea is known as densensitisation which suggests that long term exposure to violent media makes the audience less likely to be shocked by violence. Being less shocked by violence the audience may then be more likely to behave violently.
Media Theory 5 - Cultivation Theory This theory also treats the audience as passive. It suggests that repeated exposure to the same message – such as an advertisement – will have an effect on the audience’s attitudes and values. A similar idea is known as densensitisation which suggests that long term exposure to violent media makes the audience less likely to be shocked by violence. Being less shocked by violence the audience may then be more likely to behave violently.
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