Media and Collective identity Notes

'Identity is comlicated. Everyone thinks they're got one' - Gauntlett 2007
...Magazines and talk show hosts urge is to explore our 'identity'. Religions and national identities are at the heart of our major international conflicts. Artists play with the idea of 'identity' in modern society. Blockbuster movie superheros have emotional conflicts about their 'true' identity. And the average teenager can create three online 'identities' before breakfast...Thinking about self identity and individuality can cause some anxiety - at least in cultures where individuals are encouraged to value heir personal uniqueness. Each of us would like to think - to some extent - that we have special, personal qualitites, which make us distinctive and valuable to other people in our lives (or potential future). But does this mean anything? is individuality just an illusion? Maybe we all are incredibly similar, but programmed to value miniuscule bits of differentation.

'A focus on identity requires us to pay close attention to the diverse ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life, and the consequences both for individuals and for social groups' - Buckingham 2008

Behaviourism and Media Effects
- audience models

Effects Model
- audience duped and doped
- Hypnotised

Gratifications Model
- texts used to gratify needs and interests
- read, adjust, subvert other texts
- read in a way not intended by interpretting

Effects studies objectives
Social, Moral and Political objective
- To measure the power of media technologies to affect how individuals think, feel and act
Commercial objective
- To measure the effectiveness of advertising and publicity campaigns

Cumberbatch & Howitt - 1989
'The history of mass communications research is conspicuously lacking in any clear evidence on the precise influence of the mass media'

• Effects debate issue received in the 1990s (Barker and Petley, 2001)
• This relates to Human Traffic as individuals were influenced to take Heroin from watching the film, 'Train Spotting'

Laswell's chain of Communication - Harold Laswell, 1971

- Communication can be dissected into 5 processes:

Who - Control analysis
Says what - Content analyisis
In which channel - Media analysis
To whom - Audience analysis
To what effect - Effect analysis

Total conductance
- At every stage, information can be misunderstood or altered. This is like Chinese whispers, and is called 'Modified conductance' or 'No conductance'

Propaganda 
Propaganda is only effective if it can tap into the meanest as well as the keenest of intelligence. This must tap into latent public opinion within the society it aims to influence

Violent media - Wertham, 1955
'The quantity of violence in the media is stupendous'

• analysed crime comics and television
• children shown images and asked to interpret them
• children also asked to finish stories

Tests where deemed crude and artificial (Gauntlett, 2005)

1. Passivity - comics and TV makes children passive

2. Misconceptions - TV teaches children unhealthy values

3. Imitation - children copy what they see on TV

4. Identification - children see themselves as the strong character, even if this is the villain

5. Desensitisation - the high volume of violence desensitises children 

Warshaw - 1957

'To blame comic books...is simple minded'