essay

“The media effects debate is an outdated concept”. Discuss the statement in relation to a media product you have studied. Use examples to support your answer"

The media effects debate is a concept that relies on the exposure of violent media on young people and the possible effects that It may have on them. The debate has lasted many years and has become more talked about due to the introduction of violent video games such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty.  A passive audience are people who passively watch the show without reaction towards any of the offensive or violent actions in it. This is due to desensitisation, as because they have been presented this stuff at a young age they become less emotional towards it. Overall I believe that the statement "the media effects debate is an outdated concept" is true as it relies too heavily on desensitisation and is constantly oversignified within conversations.

Many theories such as the "uses and gratification" theory prove this as they assert that people understand fantasy and reality and rather than acting out these thoughts they would have control over their media consumption, acting as active agents. An example of this would be the game GTA5, a game that lets you act out as a murderer, sex addict, bank robber and many more to help create an immersive story about three criminals and their affairs. A study by Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Germany's University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf research into the effects of playing GTA5 for two months straight daily. Which aster 52 behaviour tests found that there wee no significant changes in behaviour. This is because of escapism and the fact they may be living with friends or families, showing that people can choose to believe and fantasise about what they want to in media. Presenting to us that the the media effects debate is very outdated and has been proved wrong.

The encoding and decoding theory also proves that the statement is correct as it presents the idea that everybody takes information differently, and the process of encoding and decoding the information given to the audience is different throughout every person. factors such as their upbringing, culture or beliefs could effect how people believe or understand things told to them by the media, weather it b through body language or the way they speak. As told in Stewart Halls encoding/decoding response. Which explained the model and how ideas circulates throughout media. This explains that there are other theories that show who people take and receive information throughout the media. Proving that the debate about the medias effects on people is outdated in todays landscape.

Another theory that counters the media effects debate is the "active audience" theory which centres around fandoms and fan culture in todays media. Fans are not the average viewer and instead are a group of people who devote their whole lifestyle and social status around a popular media product, they are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings. Rather than just play a video game or watch a tv show they will develop relationships with that media product to the point that they add to the original product through fan fictions and fan drawings. An example of this would be the fandom for the popular anime "My hero academia"  who have been considered toxic and actively push the culture of the show onto classic spectators. However while this may be a bad example there are plenty of good fandoms that offer entertainment, fan art and friendships with people who operate within that circle. I feel Asif this example can both prove and disprove the statement as it really depends on the actual fandom and how they act.

A theory that definitely disproves the statement is the hypersonic needle theory which states that passive audience such as old people or vey deceptive people are seen as weak and easily influenced to believe specific ideas. The video by Brett Lamb explains this theory as similar to the film propaganda used by the Nazis in the early 30s and 40s promoting the Nazi party to the people and relating it towards the party political broadcasts on television during elections. Hence how they relentlessly promote that party and its beliefs into the audience until we see governments such as the American government. which demonstrated to us on the 6th of January that  a group of people can be so influenced by one person that they would commit an offence for him. Which shows how the debate of the medias effects on people is very serious and not outdated.

Another theory that supports this is the cultivation theory which presents the idea that television viewing can have longlisting effects on people. The theory suggests that television and media possess a small but significant influence on the attitudes and beliefs of society about society. Plus those who consume more media are more heavily influenced. Such as with how people form opinion that are similar to their favourite youtuber or popstar to seem more similar to them. Proving that media has an effect on people and that the media effects debate is not outdated.

The destination theory proposes that with continual exposure to a stimulus our responses to that stimulus are decreased. This is also known as desensitisation and is when people become less emotional to seeing violent or sex in media. This could incline more people to act out the violence they see in the product. Hence explaining why the media effects debate is not outdated.

In my conclusion, I believe to a certain extent that the media effects debate is an outdated concept as many of the theories supporting it aren't as serious as they are presumed to be such as with the "destination theory". However with the hypersonic theory we have seen how groups of people can become so influenced by something that are willing to do anything for that subject. Plus while things like fandoms do seem like fun groups of people who like the same things, they can be toxic and sometimes too entranced in the media product they like.