Example research essay topic: The Hypodermic Syringe Model - 826 words

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The hypodermic syringe model suggest that the media is alike a magic bullet and when an audience is targeted it will immediately be knocked down when they are hit. The hypodermic-syringe model also suggests that society is passive and the media inject their media influence into society and manipulates it. The Frankfurt school envisioned the media as a hypodermic syringe, and the contents of the media were injected into the thoughts of the audience, who accepted the attitudes, opinions and beliefs expressed by the media without question. This model was a response to the German fascists use of film and radio for propaganda, and later applied to American capitalist society. The followers of the hypodermic model of Effects adopted a variant of Marxism, emphasizing the dangers of the power of capitalism, which owned and controlled new forms of media. Researchers in the fifties also supported the Effects model when exploring the potential of the new medium of television.

Researchers were particularly concerned over increases in the representation of violent acts on television, which related with increases in violent acts in society. In the nineties, there was considerable concern over what were called "video nasties." The tabloid papers created a moral panic over whether particular violet films could influence child behavior and whether Childs Play 3 influenced the child killers of Jamie Bulger, but there was no proof that they had watched it. To combat things like this happening, censorship was brought in on things like films, games and music. Theorists since have thought that media could not have such direct effects on the audiences they serve, and consider the media as a comparatively weak influence in molding individual beliefs, opinions and attitudes. Other factors present in society, such as personal contact and religion, are more likely to influence people. The Effects model is considered to be an inadequate representation of the communication between media and the public, as it does not take into account the audience as individuals with their own beliefs, opinions, ideals and attitudes: Audiences are not blank sheets of paper on which media messages can be written; members of an audience will have prior attitudes and beliefs which will determine how effective media messages are. (Abercrombie 1996, 140) Supporters of the Effects model assume the audience is passive in the receiving and interpretation of media texts.

Great emphasis is placed on the text itself and its power to directly influence the audience. Meanings in the text are readily available and easy to find. The impossibility to measure media effects is as a result of not being able to isolate the media from all the other potential influences at work in society. This leads to the Effects model generally being disregarded when considering the audiences response to the media. A new approach to the dynamics of audience / text relationship was suggested in the Uses and Gratification model. In this model, theorists were not asking how the media effects audiences, but how were the audiences using the media.

They suggested that audiences had specific needs and actively turned to the media to consume various texts to a satisfaction of these needs. The audience in Uses and Gratifications were seen as active, as opposed to passive audience in the Effects model. Uses and Gratifications acknowledged that the audience had a choice of texts from which to chose from and satisfy their needs. Butler and Katz (1974) suggested that there were four main needs of television audiences that are satisfied by television. These included Diversion (a form of escaping from the pressures of every day), Personal Relationships (where the viewer gains companionship, either with the television characters, or through conversations with others about television), Personal Identity (where the viewer is able to compare their life with the lives of characters and situations on television, to explore, re-affirm or question their personal identity) and Surveillance (where the media are looked upon for a supply of information about what is happening in the world). The cultural effects model suggests that the media do have an influence, but where the hypodermis-syringe model suggests that the media is more immediate, cultural effects model has a more long term affect.

This is called the drip-effect. Some call this type of effect brain-washing. This recognizes that powerful groups and dominant people do actually influence the media e. g. Rupert Murdoch.

The cultural effect does allow for individual opinion but over time they will eventually be influenced by the dominant ideologies. Sociologists are often very critical of the hypodermic-syringe model, because they think that it fails to acknowledge different social characteristics of audience members. They also believe that society is not as meek as the hypodermic-syringe model suggests. Regardless of this, it has been very influential with media regulations in Britain, for example, the nine p. m. watershed, age restrictions on films and games and parental guidance stickers on music.

The censorship over British media is among the most restrictive throughout the world.

Research essay sample on The Hypodermic Syringe Model