Audience manipulation and hegemony

Audience manipulation and hegemony 

Demographics- ways audiences can be divided and grouped into categories e.g. student, age, gender 

Assumptions about audiences- easily manipulated, influenced, sells false expectations, makes audiences violent, not intelligent if they are so easily influenced 

KEY THEORY 15 - Albert Bandura - media effects 

the hypodermic needle model/ the effects models:

• propaganda 
• however more factors go into thus than just that- flawed 

KEY THEORY 16 - George Gerbner - Cultivation theory

the idea that prolonged and heavy exposure to [TV]... cultivates"

a view of the world consistent with the dominant or majority view expounded by TV. 

• Tv present a mainstream view of culture, ignoring everything else
• In doing so distorts reality 
• Heavy users more likely to accept the edited and distorted view of reality 

Pros:

• helps understand how people are influenced  

Cons:

• Audiences are influenced in different ways 
• Was looking at extreme cases where people watched 6-8 hours of tv a day, does not apply to everyone
• Similar to the effects model
• Made in the 1970s 

THIS CULTIVATES THE IDEOLOGY THAT...

Hegemony

• where one groups wields power over another not through domination, but trough coercion and consent 

adidas leg hair

Women having leg hair is not socially normal and not seen as hegemonicaly acceptable. showing hegemonic power over social norms 

KEY THEORY 17 - Stuart Hall - Reception Theory 

There are many ways an audience can read or receive a media product

The 'right' reading of tex, which can be enforced by positioning. 

this concept has to be appropriate carefully: often texts intentionally have multiple meanings/readings, and audiences can potentially get what ever they want out of  media product 

hall categorised audience response into three separate groups. 

Dominant reading- the audience agreed with the dominant values in the text, and agrees with the values and ideologies it shows. 

Oppositional reading- the audience completely disagrees with what they see, and reject the dominant reading.

Negotiated reading- the audience generally agrees with what they see, but they may disagree with certain aspects.