Uses and Gratifications...

The uses and gratifications theroy assumes a more active audience which chooses the texts it consumes. Therefore individuals will have different reasons for consuming these texts.

• Blulmer and Katz expanded this theory in 1974 suggesting a series of different reasons why certain audience members might consume a media text.
• Diversion- escape from every day problems and routine: I use the media in this way by watching soaps and films to take my mind of things. Media texts such as soaps also contain everyday realistic problems that different audience members like me can identify with. Films can also help me escape from every day problems and routines because films gradually engage the audience throughout, where everyday issues and forgotten about.
• Personal relationships- Using the media for emotional and other interaction: I regularly watch different soaps on televison such as Eastenders and Hollyoaks as a form of escapism. These soaps as I said before contain different realistic situations and also realistic characters that i can interact with. Certain issues are also depicted in these soaps that occur in real life that can also be interacted with.
• Personal identity- Constructing their own identity from characters in media texts and learning behaviour and values:

  I don't really aspire to be like characters in films that I watch or in soaps. However I can identify with the characters being portrayed in soaps as they are situated in real life situtations and in this way i can feel the emotions the character on screen is feeling. I can also identify with females that are shown in magazines(popstars) or different print texts as they are portrayed to be living great lifestyles making me want to live in a similar way.
• Surveillance- Information gathering: I watch the news on a regular basis to see whats happening in the world. I also watch educationsl programmes such as documentaries based on different issues as I find them interesting and informative to watch.

Denis McQuail suggests a more detailed breakdown of audience motivation:

• Information- finding out about relevent events and conditions:
• I use the media in an informative way as I watch the news on a regular basis to find out the latest on goings world wide. I also have a genereal interest in watching different documentaries that have a key purpose in informing the audience. This increases my knowledge on different issues and also educates me in a way.
• Learning- self education:
• I feel that if I watch the news and different types of documentaires my knowledge is increasing and I am educating myslef. I also consume the Guardian newspaper on a regular basis which also helps me keep on track with different issues and debates that are going on in the media industry. Therefore in a way I am educating myslef and also gaining knowledge if I am consuming these media texts.
• Personal identity- finding reinforcement for personal values:
• As i metioned before i watch different soaps that help me to identify with different characters as i can feel the emotions that certain characters are feeling. In the magazines i consume on a weekly basis certain "rich celebrities" are featured that makes me want to aspire to live a lifestyle like them.
• Intergration and social intergration- gaining insight into circumstances of others:
• This can be applied to reality television. I tend to watch alot of reality tv when I get the chance to. This applies to my media consumption as I can gain an insight on the way others are living. I also watch the news and other documentaires that gives me the chance to socially intergrate with others on different issues that are occuring in the world.
• Entertainment- escaping, or being diverted, from problems:
• I consume mass media texts such as magazines and newspapers and watch soaps and films on televison as a form of escapism from every day problems. In this way this type of entertainment helps me to relax and also helps with filling my spare time that I have.

The Effects Theory...

The Frankfurt School:

• The frankfurt school were a group of left wing socialists challenging what was going on in Nazi Germany in the 1930's.
• They were concerned with the power which modern mass media had to propagandiseon behalf of fascism.
• They clearly articulated criticisms of a capitalist system which controlled media output creating a mass culture that eliminated opposition or alternatives.
• The mass audience are seen as being passive and are therefore manipulated by the hegemony of the ruling classes.

The Hypodermic needle:

• The needle demonstrates the effects of the mass media on their audiences.
• The model owes much to the supposed power of the mass media- in particular films to inject the passive audience with ideologies.
• Such mass media involves televison, newspapers, magazines etc...therefore by these different media tools we are being injected with ideas.
• Therefore the audience can be seen as being passive and powerless.
• The ruling class promote their dominant ideologies and this remains in society.
• This links to the hogemonic model as everything seems right to the audience.
• This was most commonly seen in nazi propaganda films such as "Triumph of the will "- where the audience are seen as passive and will accept what ever version of events is given in the media.

Violence in the media:

• The moral majority(eg people like Mary Whitehouse) argue that TV output which is explicitly sexual or violent must be censored ot it may influence the audience to act in the same way.
• Many people in todays society are media literate and are able to decode media texts in their own way without being injected, however politicians still argue that when there is a moral panic the audience to become passive again.

The Cultivation Theory:

• According to this, while a single text does not have much effect, repeated exposure will make the audience less sensitive.
• Critics call it becoming desensitised.

The Two Step Flow:

• This theory assumes a more active audience who will discuss media texts with each other.
• However if the text is discussed with someone we respect(opinion leader) we might become passive to accept their received views of the text.

My opinion:

I personally think agree with the hypodermic needle as part as the effects theory because people do buy magazines and newpapers(parts of the mass media) and also do watch televison therefore making it much easier for the ruling classes to promote their ideologies and makes us passive consumers. Therefore we seem to think what ever we see or buy in the media is true. I also agree with the cultivation theory to a certain extent. This is because violence from TV output can influence children to become more violent and act like what they are seeing in the media. However everyone is an individual person at the end of the day and they can make their own choice on weather to act like that or not. This brings me on to the two step flow theory which i do agree on as the audience can be seen as being active however again can be influenced by opinionated leaders, making us passive.

Women In Adverts...

This advert basically has a negative stereotype on women and also mocks them in a negative way. This is becasue the women featured in this advert does not know what she is doing with the car and has endless attempts to figure out what she is doing. Also the women featured in this advert is "blonde" and does conform to the negative stereotype that all blonde women are bimbos. This again links to having a patriachal society as the man is just sitting in the car and not helping, having more power and dominace ober the women.

Women In Adverts...

This advert uses celebrity endorsement (kate moss) a very attractive model who has sexual appeal. The main reason why i think this advert is effective in showing the represenation of women is because many women in society will aspire to be like her and she is portrayed to be a role model to many young women. However she can still be portrayed to be an object of the male gaze as she is not fully coverd in the advert and many parts if her body are ofetn fetisished. This also helps rimmel to sell their product and sends a messsage out to the female audience that if you wear this product, you will become more attractive.

Women In Adverts...

This advert focuses on the fact that all men will get women if they use the lynx spray. This is shown as women are running towards the male protagonist and he gets all of them in the end linking to the slogan "spray more get more". By the fact that women are running around half naked on the island promotes the idea that women are objects of the male gaze and are viewed as sexual objects according to Mulvey. This also conveys the message that men are more powerful then women in society and links to the idea of a patriacal society.

Marxism.

Marxism is a political practice and socail theory based on the works of Karl Marx. He argued that capitalism is based on the profit motive and that under capitalism, profits are generated by exploiting workers. He aslo believed that capitalist society is divided into two social classes.

• The working class- who sell their labour and do not own the means of production.
• The bourgeoisie- Who own the means of production and employ the working class. The bourgeoisie can be further subdivided into the wealthy bourgeoisie-who aslo do not need to work themselves and the petty bourgeoisie-who employ others but also owrk themselevs.

Marxism and the media:

• Media producers produce media texts within the society which maintain these social divides.
• The culture industries- constantly see greater audiences becasue of the profit motive. Therefore they will construct texts intended to generate mass audiences.
• He also believed that the mass media are seen as a way of entertaining the working class whule drip feeding them ideologies and beliefs(effects theory).
• Althusser identified what he called the ideological state apparatus(ISAs) which operate alongside the repressive state apparatus(military, police etc) to maintain these bourgeoisie ideologies:
• Religion
• education
• family
• legal and politcal system
• cultural and communication systems.

Therefore he studied the way in which these ISAs interpellate an audience- position the audience in such a way that they persume these ideologies are correct.

Gramsci:

He used the term HEGEMONY which is the dominace of the ruling class with all the beliefs and values that they incorporate. He believed that this process is so successsful that it becomes "common sense" and these ideologies thereofre become dominant.

Why I am a marxist?

I am a marxist because i personally do think that we live in a capitalist society in which the bourgeoisie do rule. I also belive in the term hegemony because people in the ruling class do have alot of power and domiance in the media and do have control to put thier views forward which we are likley to believe, linking to the dominant ideologies of the ruling classes. However we do have our own brain and can make our own choices at the end of the day.

Pluralism

pluralists view society as a system of competing groups and interests, none of them perdominanat.

Pluralists take a more open view that arguing for a classless society and media organisations which are responsive to an audience and economically determined.

Audiences are percieved as capable of manipulating the media and having access to what Halloron calls "the plural values of society", enabling them to conform, accomodate or reject.

Pluralism:

• The pluralist tradition starts from the opposite of Marxists and rejects the concept of a mass culture.
• As we become more media literate we become more demanding consumers that are able to choose from a variety of cultural options.
• Class distinctions are less important in influencing the choices made by individuals.
• The individual has the freedom to make choices about what texts to consume based on their personal preference.
• The media are seen as acting in the public interest of the fourth estate.
• The audience are seen as active selecting texts from a vast range consuming them and not recieving them passivly.

The Fourth estate:

The role of the media is seen as being that of the fourth estate whose role is to keep the public informed about what is happening in each of the other three- the government, legal system and the church.

The media fufil this role by reporting political events in newspapers or broadcast television by providing documenatry programmes to report on key events.

Why i am a pluralist?

I am a pluralist becasue i agree with the fact that the audience are active and can make their own choices about different texts. I also agree with the fact that the meida is the fourth estate keeping the public informed about what is happening in the world and how the church, government and the legal system have power in the sociey we live in.

What do you think of my blog?:D

Boots gets racy for Christmas...

http://media.guardian.co.uk/advertising/story/0,,1935283,00.html

Boots has created a risqué Christmas TV campaign directed by David LaChapelle - the man behind Christina Aguilera's 'Dirty' video and the promos for Desperate Housewives.
The ad features glamorous women doing Christmas tasks, such as stuffing the turkey and peeling brussels spouts while suggestively treating themselves with Boots' beauty products.

The campaign will initially only air after the 9pm watershed and will debut at 9.30pm on Wednesday night.

Family-friendly Boots has confirmed that the ad already has an "ex-kids" rating, which means that it cannot be shown during children's programming.

Boots is running the ad after the watershed to gauge viewer reaction before it is launched on general release television.

"Women are extraordinary during the Christmas period, working hard to ensure everybody around them is happy," said Andy Brent, the marketing director at Boots.

"We want to bring some glamour into their lives this Christmas and remind them to take some time out for themselves to look and feel special too."

The commercial has been created by ad agency Mother.

My View:

I think that this advert will encourage women to buy boots products becasue the advert feature galmorous women who are enjoying and pampering themselves whilst doing chritmas activities at the same time.

As women will be working hard during the xmas period the main message of the advert is basically promoting the idea that you should enjoy yourself and feel special at the same time. Boots will aslo be making alot of profit by this advert as it is launching near the xmas period when people are most likely to buy products.