Media ‘Effects’ Debates:

Introduction

Why do we have media regulation?

Classification? Censorship?

Because it has been argued that the

media has the potential to influence an

audience, to ‘effect’ them in negative

ways, and that there is a need to

‘protect’ people from material which

might cause harm of one kind or

another.

‘who’ is protecting ‘whom’ from ‘what’?

There tends to be three voices in

this debate:

Those who articulate their concerns about the effects of

the media without any actual evidence (politicians, the

media itself, campaigning groups etc);

Those who have conducted research into media effects,

whether the outcomes are positive of negative

(academics in various fields)

And those who are the subject of the debate, usually

children or teenagers consuming new forms of media

which the ‘adult culture’ are worrying about (slasher

movies or videogames etc)

Can you think of other examples of

media that has been part of this

debate?

Important to understand the

distinction between

Regulation

Classification

Censorship

Regulation The monitoring of and intervention in media

production and consumption. The media industries are subject to regulators of various types.

Some are government-appointed (state regulation or statutory regulation). This means that the media can be controlled by laws set out in parliament. In film, one of the most important pieces of statutory regulation was the Video Recording Act 1984.

There is also self-regulation, voluntary controls over a sector of the media industries, usually adopted out of fear that statutory control would be more severe. The PEGI age ratings on most video games are a good example.

Classification

Restricting access to media material

on the grounds of age.

The BBFC is the body responsible for

the classification of all films released

in the cinema or in other formats,

including DVD, as well as some video

games.

Censorship

The use of power by authority figures

to control what individuals, groups or

society can or cannot see, hear or

read in media products.

It would be useful firstly to distinguish between

psychological and sociological approaches to

effects and secondly, to bring them together for

our purposes.

Broadly speaking, psychological theories relate to

what is going on in the mind of the individual human

being when immersed in the video game or watching

the film.

Whilst sociological theories look at the broader impact

of games/films on groups of people or society in

general.

In practice the two come together because a

psychological effect on a human being that leads to a

change in behaviour will lead to consequences for

others, and if this effect is shared by a number of

people, then the wider society may change

John Stuart Mill (1806 – 73)

was a political philosopher

whose ideas we can apply to

make this point more clearly.

In trying to work out how to judge

human behaviours (which ones should

be allowed in a society based on

liberty and freedom), Mill distinguished

between self-regarding and other-

regarding behaviours or practices.

Mill said that human beings in a free

society should be allowed to do

anything they like as long as it does

not affect others in a negative way.

But judging this is not as easy as it first seems.

Consider the debate over the legislation (which has become statuary regulation) to ban smoking in public places.

This law is based on the idea that smoking is other-regarding, as research has proven that passive smoking can contribute to cancer and heart disease. But many smokers argue that they are only harming themselves, so that it is self-regarding.

Driving while under the influence of

alcohol, on the other hand, is clearly

other-regarding.

What about:

‘There is nothing wrong with a

drunken prostitute, smoking a

cigarette, whist riding a motorbike

without a helmet in the privacy of

his/her own home’

What this extreme example illustrates isthat it is never very easy to work outwhether individual behaviour is limited toeffects on the individual.

Where does the individual end andsociety begin?

For this reason, we can say thatpsychological approaches togaming/films will always be connected tosociological ideas.

‘Classic’ effect theories

Hyperdermic syringe model

Cultivation theory

Desensitisation

Copycat theory

Criticisms?

More complex audience theories:

Uses & gratifications

What people do with the media to satisfy various individual & social

needs that we have

Reception theory

Showing how we make different polysemic meanings from the same

media