media ‘effects’ debates
TRANSCRIPT
Media ‘Effects’ Debates:
Introduction
Why do we have media regulation?
Classification? Censorship?
Because it has been argued that the
media has the potential to influence an
audience, to ‘effect’ them in negative
ways, and that there is a need to
‘protect’ people from material which
might cause harm of one kind or
another.
‘who’ is protecting ‘whom’ from ‘what’?
There tends to be three voices in
this debate:
Those who articulate their concerns about the effects of
the media without any actual evidence (politicians, the
media itself, campaigning groups etc);
Those who have conducted research into media effects,
whether the outcomes are positive of negative
(academics in various fields)
And those who are the subject of the debate, usually
children or teenagers consuming new forms of media
which the ‘adult culture’ are worrying about (slasher
movies or videogames etc)
Can you think of other examples of
media that has been part of this
debate?
Important to understand the
distinction between
Regulation
Classification
Censorship
Regulation The monitoring of and intervention in media
production and consumption. The media industries are subject to regulators of various types.
Some are government-appointed (state regulation or statutory regulation). This means that the media can be controlled by laws set out in parliament. In film, one of the most important pieces of statutory regulation was the Video Recording Act 1984.
There is also self-regulation, voluntary controls over a sector of the media industries, usually adopted out of fear that statutory control would be more severe. The PEGI age ratings on most video games are a good example.
Classification
Restricting access to media material
on the grounds of age.
The BBFC is the body responsible for
the classification of all films released
in the cinema or in other formats,
including DVD, as well as some video
games.
Censorship
The use of power by authority figures
to control what individuals, groups or
society can or cannot see, hear or
read in media products.
It would be useful firstly to distinguish between
psychological and sociological approaches to
effects and secondly, to bring them together for
our purposes.
Broadly speaking, psychological theories relate to
what is going on in the mind of the individual human
being when immersed in the video game or watching
the film.
Whilst sociological theories look at the broader impact
of games/films on groups of people or society in
general.
In practice the two come together because a
psychological effect on a human being that leads to a
change in behaviour will lead to consequences for
others, and if this effect is shared by a number of
people, then the wider society may change
John Stuart Mill (1806 – 73)
was a political philosopher
whose ideas we can apply to
make this point more clearly.
In trying to work out how to judge
human behaviours (which ones should
be allowed in a society based on
liberty and freedom), Mill distinguished
between self-regarding and other-
regarding behaviours or practices.
Mill said that human beings in a free
society should be allowed to do
anything they like as long as it does
not affect others in a negative way.
But judging this is not as easy as it first seems.
Consider the debate over the legislation (which has become statuary regulation) to ban smoking in public places.
This law is based on the idea that smoking is other-regarding, as research has proven that passive smoking can contribute to cancer and heart disease. But many smokers argue that they are only harming themselves, so that it is self-regarding.
Driving while under the influence of
alcohol, on the other hand, is clearly
other-regarding.
What about:
‘There is nothing wrong with a
drunken prostitute, smoking a
cigarette, whist riding a motorbike
without a helmet in the privacy of
his/her own home’
What this extreme example illustrates isthat it is never very easy to work outwhether individual behaviour is limited toeffects on the individual.
Where does the individual end andsociety begin?
For this reason, we can say thatpsychological approaches togaming/films will always be connected tosociological ideas.
‘Classic’ effect theories
Hyperdermic syringe model
Cultivation theory
Desensitisation
Copycat theory
Criticisms?
More complex audience theories:
Uses & gratifications
What people do with the media to satisfy various individual & social
needs that we have
Reception theory
Showing how we make different polysemic meanings from the same
media