The mass media have direct and immediate effects on the ideas and behaviour of audiences. To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view?

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“The mass media have direct and immediate effects on the ideas and behaviour of audiences.” To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view?

There are a variety of sociological theories and evidence that suggest the media has direct and immediate effects on audiences, such as Bandura’s hypodermic syringe theory, Katz and Lazarsfeld’s two-step flow model theory and McQuail’s uses and gratifications model. However, these theories have been subjected to criticisms, which shows there are opposing sides to the view that the mass media has effects on audiences.

The hypodermic syringe theory assumes that media messages are directly “injected” into audiences, as if by a syringe. The media can act like a drug or narcotic, directly changing behaviour. This process was demonstrated by Bandura, who conducted psychological experiments which showed that boys would imitate aggression in films they had watched. However, the hypodermic syringe theory has been criticised because audiences are very diverse and react in different ways, and the theory also ignores the different uses audiences make of the media; TV programmes may be used as background noise and not watched closely, for example.

Katz and Lazarsfeld argued that media effects may not be direct, but that messages are interpreted by key individuals who then influence others. This is known as the two-step flow model; step one is the media message reaching audiences and step two is the message being interpreted by the audiences and it influencing them. Social interaction is an important element of step two, because opinion leaders (those whose views are respected) interpret messages for others and shape what influences the messages might have. Hobson’s multi-step flow model refines the two-step flow model by recognising that there may be several stages in the interpretation of media messages. Hobson’s evidence shows how discussions about soap operas at work may change people’s interpretations of them. Hobson’s research is useful because it focuses clearly on media audiences and what they do with messages. However, there may be no dominant consensus about the meaning of media messages, and the two-step flow model ignores the possibility that the meaning of media messages might be imposed by powerful groups within society.

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McQuail’s uses and gratifications model is based on the idea that people use the media in a variety of ways. McQuail suggests four possible uses: diversion (escapism), personal relationships (feeling part of a soap opera community for example), personal identity (confirming or weakening the sense of who we are by using certain media messages) and surveillance (finding out what is going on). McQuail also mentions that the uses made of the media may vary according to a variety of factors, such as age and gender. However, the model fails to explain why people use the media in different ways, and ...

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