Media Theories 2
Sociology: AQA A Level, topic 9.3.2
Uses and Gratifications Theory
Blumler and McQuail suggest that people use the media in order to satisfy particular social needs that they have.
Active audiences
- Blumler and McQuail see media audiences as active.
- Their uses and gratifications model suggests that people use the media in order to satisfy particular social needs that they have.
- Blumler and McQuail identify four basic needs which people use the media to satisfy.
Diversion
- Diversion:
- People may immerse themselves in particular types of media to make up for the lack of satisfaction at work or in their daily lives.
- E.g. women may compensate for the lack of romance in their marriages by reading romantic novels.
Personal relationships
- Personal relationships:
- Media products such as soap operas may compensate for the decline of community in our lives.
- E.g. socially isolated elderly people may see soap opera characters as companions they can identify with and worry about in the absence of interaction with family members.
Personal identity
- Personal identity:
- People may use the media to ‘make over’ or to modify their identity.
- Social networking websites, such as Facebook, allow people to use the media to present their particular identities to the wider world in a way that they can control.
Surveillance
- Surveillance:
- People use the media to obtain information and news in order to help them make up their minds on particular issues.
The Cultural Effects Model
The Marxist cultural effects model sees the media as a very powerful ideological influence that is mainly concerned with transmitting capitalist values and norms.
Transmission of norms and values
- The Marxist cultural effects model sees the media as a very powerful ideological influence that is mainly concerned with transmitting capitalist values and norms.
- Marxists argue that media content contains strong ideological messages that reflect the values of those who own, control and produce the media.
Values
- They argue that the long term effect of such media content is that the values of the rich and powerful come to be unconsciously shared by most people in society.
- For example, people come to believe in values such as ‘happiness is about possessions and money’, ‘being a celebrity is really important’, etc.
Dumbing down
- Marxists believe that television content, in particular, has been deliberately dumbed down and this has resulted in a decline in serious programmes such as news, documentaries and drama that might make audiences think critically about the state of the world.
- Consequently, there is little serious debate about the organisation of capitalism and the social inequalities and problems that it generates.
Test yourself on Media Theories 2
Who came up with the uses and gratifications model?
"People use the media to obtain information and news in order to help them make up their minds on particular issues."
Which uses and gratifications need is this?Whose values does the cultural effects model believe are transmitted through the media?