Category: Media Ecology

Learning Intention:

1. Identify the basic theories of media effects.
2. Explain the uses of various media effects theories.

Initial Discussion:

• What are the core assumptions of the ‘passive audience’ effects theories?
• Are these fundamentally assumptions essentially patronising?

An alternative set of assumptions is that the audience are more cognizant and discerning. Furthermore, we need to consider a whole range of factors working on the individual which might shape their response to media texts.

The active vs passive audience

“An active audience engages, interprets and responds to a media text in different ways and is capable of challenging the ideas encoded in it. A passive audience is more likely to accept the messages encoded in a media text without challenge and are therefore more likely to be directly affected by the messages.” BBC Bitesize

Theories of The Active Audience

Uses and Gratification

Blumler and Katz, suggest that audiences are more active in seeking out function and pleasure from media texts and that we should think about what they are seeking from any given text and how they use the media in other aspects of their lives:

• Social Relationships
• Personal Identity
• Entertainment
• Information

Reception Theory

Stuart Hall, says, the relationship between the messages and connotation of a text and ideology of the audience are essential in understanding the ways in which an audience might respond to a text. He suggests that this can be described as:

• A preferred reading
• A negotiated reading
• An oppositional reading

Identity Theory

David Gauntlett argued our heavy exposure to the media could, “hardly fail to affect our own way of conducting ourselves and our expectations of other people’s behaviour.”

So, in many ways Gauntlett is suggesting that the effect of Media is even more profound than changing our behaviour or attitudes. That the media in many ways has a huge impact on our out sense of who we are and how we operate in the world (our identity).

He, like Jenkins, suggests that audiences now have the digital tools to, ‘express and connect and create in ways we didn’t have before and which can help people shape creative identities.’ Moreover, that, ‘social media is part of conversation which can help us, ‘think about ourselves and how we are in the world…that’s what identity is‘

“… identity is this thing you construct for yourself but at the same time there’s all of these ‘representations’ [sic] coming at you. There’s all the stuff that you can create and make and share as well. So identity has opportunities to be very creative and connecting.”

Learning Intention: Understand the nature of Fandom as a phenomena in the Media Ecology and the ways in which audiences have been empowered by media convergence and democratisation.

Questions:

1. What is the sociological function of myth?
   • Myths = stories that societies hold dear because they say something important about the way society and individuals should behave.
2. Who ‘owns’ the myths in modern Western societies? Here is a clue as to what Henry Jenkins thinks…

Debate: Do we think it is right for multinational media conglomerates to own the copyright to important myths that, “Give clear structure to the community by reinforcing moral order and validating the community’s standards as true and correct?” Joseph Campbell.

Henry Jenkins thinks not! He suggests that fans groups are an important balance to institutional ownership and commodification of culturally important stories.

He says that fan fiction is an attempt to redress the balance and bring the ownership of myths back to the people and society at large. Furthermore, through technological convergence and democratisation fans have been given the tools to produce and distribute their versions of these myths. He says…:

“Fanfiction is a way of the culture repairing the damage done in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of owned by folk.”
― Henry Jenkins

Henry Jenkins on the History and Impact of Fandom

Two Case Studies:

Case Study 1 & Textual Poaching

This is how Henry Jenkins describes how fans borrow features of their beloved media texts and repurpose them to fulfil their own needs. Here is an example of wholesale textual poaching from fans who want to insert themselves into modern day myths, such as The Avengers. They also mock the narrative quite a bit, a critque?

Official Avengers (2012) trailer:

The Fan Version of the Trailer:

Case Study 2: The Harry Potter Alliance.

A group of fans bought together by their mutual love of The Harry Potter books to make real change in the real world.

Who describe themselves as: “An innovative cultural campaign that mobilized the huge Harry Potter fan-base to fight for justice, human rights, and democracy in our world, just like Harry did in his world.”

“In the books, Harry starts a student activist group called Dumbledore’s Army that wakes the media and government to Voldemort’s return. I wanted to create a Dumbledore’s Army in our own world that could wake our media and governments to stop global warming and end genocide in Darfur.” See full article here.

Research Task

Find some more examples of fan groups who are poaching from existing texts and have a real impact in the real world. See the blog page on Jenkins for some ideas.

Alternatively, think of some crowd funded / sourced campaigns which are driven by their sense of injustice in the world to create content and share their ideas with the rest of the world…think…

Jenkins would suggest that’s this is an example of a participatory audience of fans, using their cognitive surplus and converged technology, to challenge the dominant hegemonic ideology!

Learning Intention:

To think about the media as an ecology, a synergistic and symbiotic cultural environment.

From the Specification

“Media ecology refers to the complex environments within which media texts, producers, distributors, technologies and audiences exist. It is a way of conceiving the structure of these environments, their content, and impact on people.”

A question for class discussion:

How can the media be thought of as an, ‘Environment?’

An Analogy

“An ecologist studies the relationship between living things and their habitats.”

So, in the example above, an ecologist would study the lifecycles and symbiotic relationships between living thing in this pond, like water quality, diversity of species, the food cycle, climate, pollutants…

A Media Ecology

So, to continue with the analogy

Task:

Write down the ten most important elements that make up a Media ecology (think…key concepts).

Make a list in your notebooks  computers and be prepared to add to it.

Continue reading “03 Introduction to Ecology”

From the specification:

“The AS & A Level Media Studies course is developed around the four key concepts of Language, Representation, Industry and Audience. Candidates should be prepared to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of these across all components.”

Media exams are about the degree to which you understand these key concepts and can discuss, debate, explain, illustrate, analyse…a case study.

So, on case studies:

This is important! You should understand that many of our case studies overlap across exams! Furthermore, your wider experience of the media is useful and should be bought into class discussion or included in essays you will be submitting.

On Note making:

You must keep handwritten or typed notes during all lessons!

It is important that you keep a log, a diary, a journal…a blog… of your learning. Just make a new blog in the dashboard and off you go.

DO NOT USE YOUR COURSEWORK BLOG!

Come to drop in for help with this.

Independent Study Due Wednesday January 4rd

Check and review your current understanding of the four key concepts:

1. Representation
2. Media Language
3. Industry
4. Audience

Also…FINISH YOUR BLOG!

Well done, if you have already.

Including the Critical Reflection Post + Images?

Well done you!

Did we win the bet?