Media Theories

Meaning of 'media theory'

Media theories are used within sociology to explore how the media affects society. They are important to learn about as new technologies are constantly changing the way mass media operates and affects people's thoughts, beliefs, and behaviours.

Types of media theory

Media audience theories relate to how people choose, consume, and are affected by media. They explore the specific relationship between the audience and media. As more media is being consumed every day, sociologists find it important to explore this dynamic.

Let's study some of the primary sociological perspectives on the effects of media on audiences.

Uses and gratification theory

Jay G. Blumler and Elihu Katz devised the 'Uses and Gratification' theory in 1974. This approach states that we as consumers consciously choose what we want to see in media, depending on our needs and preferences. There are four given reasons for our choices:

• Information and education: the viewer chooses something to watch when they want information. This is usually the news or a documentary.

• Entertainment and escapism: arguably the most common reason for consuming media. The viewer wishes to be entertained. Escapism refers to them wanting to escape their reality through the form of entertainment. Some examples of this are playing video games, or watching fictional films and TV shows.

• Personal identity: this is when the viewer chooses to consume a piece of media based on the fact that they can relate to one or more of the characters. It helps them form their identity and feel a sense of comfort.

• Integration and social interaction: this is when we consume media for the sole purpose of being able to relate to others about it. For example, if everybody at school is watching a new TV show, you are likely to go and watch it just to be able to speak to everyone about it.

Fig. 1 - There are many reasons for our use of media, the most common being entertainment.

Audience reception theory

Stuart Hall created the 'Audience reception' theory in 1973, focusing on the idea that each piece of media has intended messages from its creator. These messages can be interpreted in three hypothetical ways by the receiving audience:

• Preferred reading: when the consumer fully understands the intended message.

• Negotiated reading: when the consumer understands the message but adapts it to suit their values.

• Oppositional reading: when the consumer disagrees with the intended meaning.

Active audiences

Hall's theory also explores the idea of active and passive audiences.

Hall's reception theory suggests that audiences are active rather than passive, as they must think about the media they are consuming to form one of the above readings.

End of audience theory

Clay Shirky's 'End of audience' theory addresses the idea that modern audiences are turning into creators. It's a new theory that explores the sociological side of social media.

Shirky argues that audiences are no longer passive due to the way social media operates. Technology has changed our behaviour; instead of just consuming media passively, we also contribute to it.

In his argument, no audience is passive.

Fig. 2 - Bandura found that children tend to replicate representations of violence in the media.

Cultivation theory in media

George Gerbner's cultivation theory, developed in the 1960s, explores the audience's perception of reality. He studied the amount of TV people consumed and the way they answered questions about crime in society.

The responses he received from the 'heavy' TV consumers were often a huge overestimation or underestimation of the actual rates of crimes.

Gerbner termed this vast difference between 'TV reality' compared with actual reality the 'cultivation differential'.

According to him, media consumption cultivates specific assumptions, expectations, and conceptions of social reality. The topics and representations on TV also reinforce mainstream ideologies.

Put simply, Gerber argued that the more we see certain representations in the media, the more we believe them, often leading us to accept the ideologies presented to us.

Media dependency theory

Media dependency theory further expands on Blumler and Katz's 'uses and gratifications' theory.

Created in 1976 by Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur, media dependency theory is the idea that the more dependent someone is on a certain type of media, the more important that media will be in their lives. So, the more frequently we use certain media, the more likely we are to become dependent on them.

In addition to this, media dependency theory aims to show that when there is a change in the world, particularly socially or economically, our dependence shifts to different sources.

For instance, consider the recent COVID-19 pandemic. This completely changed the way that we use technology. In particular, we can look at how this affected our use of online technology to complete our daily tasks: work, school, and university all adapted to being online.

As we used these technologies so often, we became dependent on them. This started to affect the way we use them even after the worst of the pandemic was over.