Audience theory - The Effect Model

This is the idea that the consumption of media texts has an influence or effect on the audience, and it is normally considered that this effect is negative. It exaplined how audience memebers are powerless and passive has they understand that they have no influence over the influence they receive - the power lies within the message of the text.

The model is also sometimes called the Hypodermic model - here the messeages from the media text are 'injected' into the audience by the 'syringe' (the media). This means the audience are numd to what they are consuming but still take it in as they are addicted.

There have been a couple of 'experiements' and tests over the years which support this theory, the most known being the 'Bobo doll' experiment:

"In the experiment Children watched a video where an adult violently attacked a clown toy called a Bobo DollThe children were then taken to a room with attractive toys that they were not permitted to touchThe children were then led to another room with Bobo Doll 88% of the children imitated the violent behaviour that they had earlier viewed. 8 months later 40% of the children reproduced the same violent behaviour"

Some problems with theory include: 

1. The effects model is often based on artificial studies They may then be observed in simulations of real life presented to them as a game, or as they respond to questionnaires, all of which are unlike interpersonal interaction, cannot be equated with it, and are likely to be associated with the previous viewing experience in the mind of the subject, rendering the study invalid. 
2. The effects model is selective in its criticisms of media depictions of violence
3.  The effects model makes no attempt to understand meanings of the media 6. The effects model is not grounded in theory

Link to audience survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6QC9ZP6

Antonio Gramsci

Gramsci was the one to come up the the idea behind hegemony. msci wasconcerned to eradicate economic determinism from Marxism and to develop its explanatory power with respect to superstructural institutions.

• Class struggle must always involve ideas and ideologies, ideas that would make the revolution and also that would prevent it.


• He stressed the role performed by human agency in historical change: economic crises by themselves would not subvert capitalism.


• Gramsci was more "dialectic" than "deterministic": he tried to build a theory which recognised the autonomy, independence and importance of culture and ideology.

Shot List

Shot List

1. Low Angle shot facing door of cafe, MARTY walks in
2. Long, establishing shot of cafe
3. Copy of shot 1
4. Pov shot from Martys perspective, tracking along moving forward
5. Over shoulder shot, byt Marty is sitting down facing forwards
6. Medium side angle shot, showing him sitting down
7. Pov from Marty while he is sitting down, tracks as the waiter walks away
8. Copy of shot 5, but he is turned around
9.  Close up of Marty holding something in his pocket
10.  Marty on phone, copy of 5
11.   Marty tying shoe up, copy of 5
12.  Copy of 9
13.  Over the shoulder shot from waiter overlooking Marty sitting down
14. Over the shoulder from Marty standing up
15.  Low angle Marty turns, 
16.  Medium shot as Marty turns, zooms in on face, focus on gun in hand
17.  Long shot of Marty in middle of cafe
18.  Low angle of shot of dropped gun
19.  Close up of Marty's face
20.  Copy of 13
21.  Copy of 8
22.  Copy of 9
23.  Copy of 6

Genre of my AS film

Genre

My AS media short film would be part of the zombie genre, as this can be identified easily throughout. Over time the zombie genre has moved on from just horror and has blended with a survival type films to create its own genre. My film stays with this - it's a very modern zombie film, you will see more comaprisons with World War Z than Night of the Living dead.

The zombie genre is one that can be easily identifed, with the typical conventions such as the zombies themsleves that are only used for that particular. 

Active Audience Theory > Encoding-Decoding (Stuart Hall, 1980)

Stuart Hall suggests that the audience does not simply passively accept a text. There are, in his views, three ways in which audiences can read or decode and understand a text:



Stuart Hall suggests that the audience does not simply passively accept a text. There are, in his views, three ways in which audiences can read or decode and understand a text:

1.  Preferred Reading/Dominant Hegemonic - when an audience inerprets the message as it was meant to be understood, they are operating in the dominant code. The producers and the audience are in harmony 
2. Negotiated Reading - Not all audiences may understand what media producers take for granted. There may be some acknowledgement of differences in understanding. Audiences will understand the over-riding dominant ideologies within the text but they may not agree with all the views/ideas; audiences will make their own ground rules to get to the agreed dominant ideology (they will take a different path). 
3. Oppositional Reading/'counter-hegemonic' – when an audience understands the context of the media text but they will decode the text in a completely different way; opposing the encoded text

Hegemony related to my AS film

Hegemony

Hegemony is how one group influences another group, and in this case via the media. Whether people notice it or not, their ideolgies are reflected in their work - ithey show their own personal views to a group. 

Certain studios may only be targeting a certain type of film - for example my AS film is a zombie production - and would likley be picked up by a studio like AMC , who aim for that sort of show (The walking Dead for example). The zombie genre is at its peak in popularity, which can be seen in the number of films, tv shows and video games that have been around for the past few years. The studios know what is popular- the current trends- a will keep on that trend, pushing it on until the audience finds something new. A big studio like AMC is more likley to take on a show from a popular genre (zombies, superhero,etc) rather than take a risk with a show that has a worn out or forgotten genre (western, etc). 

Signifiers and Signified

What the audience see at first is the connotations and in this grab, we can the basic connotation as being a man cutting up an owl for food. The denotation of this is that it shows his desperation – an owl is animal that is not normally eaten but here the hero has to settle for it and there is nothing else available to eat, it’s also an extremely small animal and it shows that he is struggling to survive. The bow and arrow being right next to him shows how he always needs to be ready and that danger is always around and you have to be prepared for anything. 

This scene shows the anger of main character, he is stabbing a zombie more than he has to – he is angry at not just the zombie but the world and what it has become.

Films Similar to mine - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Although my film is not an out right comedy, it still has some similar themes to the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" tells the story of the aging Walter Mitty on a trip into town with his overbearing wife, Mrs. Mitty. Walter is inept at many things; he is an absent-minded driver, he can't handle simple mechanical tasks, and he forgets things easily. What makes Walter exceptional is his imagination.

This is where the comparisons lie - my film has a similar scene the main character, Marty daydreams something that may be imposible in real life, in this case shooting someone. In the life of Walter Mitty the daydream sequences are over the top and obviously fake, where as my film will make the daydream sequence seem 'real' and the audience will believe that what happens is actual.