Timed Essay 6
Evaluate the effectiveness of the following theories in understanding how cultural and historical circumstances can affect audience interpretations of news stories: Hall’s reception theory, Bandura’s media effects theory.
In this essay, I will evaluate the effectiveness of Bandura’s media effects theory in understanding how cultural and historical circumstances can affect audience interpretation of news stories.
Albert Bandura’s media effects theory explores the idea that the media directly implants messages into the minds of its audience, suggesting that they are passive. This assumption that the audience is passive and will therefore accept the message presented to them in the text disregards their sense of identity and individuality, which results in the audience being exactly the same. The problem with this theory is that it removes the concept that the audience have their own ideologies fuelled by social, cultural and historical contexts, and instead suggests that they will all interpret a news story in the same way. This passive acceptance implied by media effects theory means that it is not directly helpful in understanding how cultural and historical circumstances can affect audience interpretation of news stories, as it suggests these aspects do not influence an audience’s reading of a text at all.
George Gerbner’s cultivation theory works in a similar way to media effects theory yet is arguably more effective and accurate. Cultivation theory explores how repeated exposure to certain messages in the media over a long period of time influences an audience’s beliefs, values, attitudes, and perceptions of reality. It suggests that audiences will actively seek out texts that reinforce their viewpoints, so an audience that leans left-wing is highly likely to seek out sources from liberal newspapers such as ‘The Guardian’. An audience will avoid cultural representations that they do not agree with.
The issue with these two theories is that they do not regard identity. David Gauntlett’s identity theory explores how each person has their own complicated, individual identity, influenced by their class, age, gender, upbringing, and media consumption – all aspects of cultural and historical circumstances. Their identity is fluid, constantly evolving, due to the media that they consume, and their age, meaning that their views on the world change. However, these individuals also exist in wider, generalised social groups. For example, an audience that maintains a mainstream right-wing ideology will identify as a supporter of the conservative political party. The media acts as a trigger for identity, providing places of conversation, exchange, and transformation which people use to shape their identity. The influence that media consumption has on an individual’s identity and therefore their interpretations of news stories relates to Curran and Seaton’s Power in the Media theory. This theory suggests that monopolies dominate the newspaper scene, using propaganda to project a limited range of ideas and messages to large audiences, influencing their values and beliefs. This influence will affect the way that an audience views the world culturally, therefore having an impact on how they interpret news stories.
However, an audience will not always agree with the message presented in a news story. Stuart Hall’s reception theory demonstrates that the encoded message in a media product can be decoded and interpreted by the audience in three ways: the preferred reading, the negotiated reading, or the oppositional reading. The preferred reading is when cultural and historical circumstances will cause an audience to accept the message that is being presented to them, relating back to the idea presented in cultivation theory that an audience will seek out texts that they agree with. The negotiated reading is when these circumstances cause an audience to both agree and disagree with aspects of the text. Finally, the opposed reading of the text is when historical and cultural circumstances result in an audience rejecting the message presented in the news story.
Overall, Gauntlett’s identity theory and Hall’s reception theory are most effective in understanding how cultural and historical circumstances can affect audience interpretations of news stories, as they indicate that an audience is active, and have a unique identity, which influences how they read a text.
In this essay, I will evaluate the effectiveness of Bandura’s media effects theory in understanding how cultural and historical circumstances can affect audience interpretation of news stories.
Albert Bandura’s media effects theory explores the idea that the media directly implants messages into the minds of its audience, suggesting that they are passive. This assumption that the audience is passive and will therefore accept the message presented to them in the text disregards their sense of identity and individuality, which results in the audience being exactly the same. The problem with this theory is that it removes the concept that the audience have their own ideologies fuelled by social, cultural and historical contexts, and instead suggests that they will all interpret a news story in the same way. This passive acceptance implied by media effects theory means that it is not directly helpful in understanding how cultural and historical circumstances can affect audience interpretation of news stories, as it suggests these aspects do not influence an audience’s reading of a text at all.
George Gerbner’s cultivation theory works in a similar way to media effects theory yet is arguably more effective and accurate. Cultivation theory explores how repeated exposure to certain messages in the media over a long period of time influences an audience’s beliefs, values, attitudes, and perceptions of reality. It suggests that audiences will actively seek out texts that reinforce their viewpoints, so an audience that leans left-wing is highly likely to seek out sources from liberal newspapers such as ‘The Guardian’. An audience will avoid cultural representations that they do not agree with.
The issue with these two theories is that they do not regard identity. David Gauntlett’s identity theory explores how each person has their own complicated, individual identity, influenced by their class, age, gender, upbringing, and media consumption – all aspects of cultural and historical circumstances. Their identity is fluid, constantly evolving, due to the media that they consume, and their age, meaning that their views on the world change. However, these individuals also exist in wider, generalised social groups. For example, an audience that maintains a mainstream right-wing ideology will identify as a supporter of the conservative political party. The media acts as a trigger for identity, providing places of conversation, exchange, and transformation which people use to shape their identity. The influence that media consumption has on an individual’s identity and therefore their interpretations of news stories relates to Curran and Seaton’s Power in the Media theory. This theory suggests that monopolies dominate the newspaper scene, using propaganda to project a limited range of ideas and messages to large audiences, influencing their values and beliefs. This influence will affect the way that an audience views the world culturally, therefore having an impact on how they interpret news stories.
However, an audience will not always agree with the message presented in a news story. Stuart Hall’s reception theory demonstrates that the encoded message in a media product can be decoded and interpreted by the audience in three ways: the preferred reading, the negotiated reading, or the oppositional reading. The preferred reading is when cultural and historical circumstances will cause an audience to accept the message that is being presented to them, relating back to the idea presented in cultivation theory that an audience will seek out texts that they agree with. The negotiated reading is when these circumstances cause an audience to both agree and disagree with aspects of the text. Finally, the opposed reading of the text is when historical and cultural circumstances result in an audience rejecting the message presented in the news story.
Overall, Gauntlett’s identity theory and Hall’s reception theory are most effective in understanding how cultural and historical circumstances can affect audience interpretations of news stories, as they indicate that an audience is active, and have a unique identity, which influences how they read a text.
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