Questions 8

Question 8 

Discuss the possible positive and negative media effects a product you have studied might have on it's audience

PLAN: 

Having an impact: 

Hypodermic needle- media messages are injected directly into the brain of passive audience (influenced by message)

Desensitisation- exposure to violent images numbs effects of them (e.g seeing a violent graphic will not make you feel sensitive/shocked and therefore can easily IMITATE

Male Gaze (Mulvey)- Games with male characters- making girls feel inferior

Moral Panic (Cohen)- media creates fear in population over an issue that appears to threaten or harm.

Anderson- Book focussed on exposure to media violence increases the likelihood of agressive violent behaviour 

in young people. 

- The study was based on research carried out oon effects of violence in TV,Film,Music and video games

Not having an impact: 

Uses and gratification- media used for social interaction (as a way to interact with others- build relationships), entertainment 

Gauntlett- believes the effect theory; looks at individuals rather than society in relation to mass media- generalising that all youths are violent,  treats children as inadequete and undermines children capabilities, assumes superiority to the masses (believes undereducated, lower class individuals are heavily effected by media content).

COD- features of game (micro-features, narratives)

Structure: 

Point- idea, category or peice of terminology 

Example- Specific thing from real world media 

Explain- justifying point relating to questions 

Theory- link to theory 

4-5 X PEET

The game 'call of duty' has many positive and negative media effects on it's audience. In my response I am going to highlight these effects and the theories that support and challenge this idea of positive and negative effects on audiences. 

The game 'Call Of Duty' has a positive effect on it's audiences by the theory proposed by Blumler and Katz. This theory looks at the uses and gratifications- the positive effects of media on its audiences. This theory suggests that media, such as the video game 'Call Of Duty' is played for entertainment, through its engaging narratives and eyecatching graphics. They also suggest that media is consumed for social interaction and therefore is a positive for youths to engage through video games by communicating through forums/ chat rooms and with newly advanced headsets where players can speak to their team mates who could be sitting on the other side of the world but CoD allows them to communicate and play together. 

However, the 'Call Of Duty' game may produce negative media effects by the way in which it influences youths to imitate violence in the game play. This idea is supported by the theory of the hypodermic needle, which suggests that media messages are injected directly into the brains of passive audiences- causing them to replicate the actions in the games such as using guns and knives or general violent behaviour. This suggests that media is causing a negative effect on audiences by the way in which the messages are directly taken in. The case study of Anders Breivic futher supports this as he played video games as a way to train for a shooting spree that killed citizens- suggesting the CoD heavily influenced his behaviour. 

Another positive effect that 'Call Of Duty' may have on it's audiences is the idea of escapism, also suggested by Blumler and Katz' Uses and Gratifications theory, which is the explanation of video games ('Call Of Duty') giving a positive effect on youths playing the game to escape to a world of utopia, leaving behind their normal, maybe stressful, reality. This is further reinforced by Gauntlett's theory that challenges the hypodermic needle theory expressing it's ideas that the hypodermic needle is too individualistic and fails to look at society in relation for mass media. This theory generalised that youths are violent and treats children as inadequate and undermines children's capabilities as it does not highlight the capabilities of youths being physically advantaged and easy to make their own choices and in this case choosing toescape through the video game CoD.