An Introduction to Media Influence

In 2011, following the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan by members of the Metropolitan Police Service, riots spread across England. Commentators were quick to blame social networking for the spread of rioting. Others pointed the finger at violent video games. Despite these sensationalist claims, it’s important to keep such moral panics about media influence in perspective. Since the advent of the printing press, people have been anxious about the effect of the mass media.

The Hypodermic Needle Theory

The Hypodermic Needle Theory suggests that the media has a direct and powerful influence on audiences. It was developed in the 1920s and 1930s after researchers observed the effect of propaganda during World War I and incidents such as Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast. It became the dominant way of thinking about media influence during the subsequent decades. The Hypodermic Needle theory is a linear communication theory which suggests that a media message is injected directly into the brain of a passive, homogenous audience. This theory suggests that media texts are closed and audiences are influenced in the same way. The Hypodermic Needle Theory is no longer accepted by media theorists as a valid explanation of communication and media influence. Indeed, some dispute whether early media theorists gave the idea serious attention. In their book An Integrated Approach to Communication Theory and Research, Michael Salwen and Don Stacks write: “The hypodermic-needle model dominated until the 1940s. As discussed earlier, although there is some question whether such a model influenced scholarly research, anyone reading pre-World War II popular literature will see that it underlay much popular thinking about the mass media and their consequences.” Although the Hypodermic Needle Theory has been abandoned by most media theorists, it continues to influence mainstream discourse about the influence of the mass media. People believe that the mass media can have a powerful effect on people and parents continue to worry about the effect of television and violent video games.

Lasswell’s ‘Propaganda Technique in the World War’

Harold Lasswell’s book Propaganda Technique in the World War was one of the principal source for what would later become known as the Hypodermic Needle Theory. Writing about the effect of Allied propaganda, Lasswell wrote: “From a propaganda point of view it was a matchless performance, for Wilson brewed the subtle poison, which industrious men injected into the veins of a staggering people, until the smashing powers of the Allied armies knocked them into submission.”

The Payne Fund Studies

The Payne Fund Studies were a series of studies into the effect of movies on children. Although the studies have been criticised for a lack of scientific rigor but were the first, most comprehensive study of media influence. These studies confirmed the belief that the media has a powerful and direct influence on audiences. When writing about the influence of motion pictures, WW Charters – the chairman of the project – wrote: “We see that as an instrument of education it has unusual power to impart information, to influence specific attitudes towards objects of social value, to affect emotions in either gross or microscopic proportions, to affect health in a minor degree through sleep disturbance, and to affect profoundly the patterns of conduct of children.”

Although some of the data gathered from the Payne Fund Studies seemed to prove the hypodermic needle theory, it is important to recognise that these studies also proved significant flaws in this communication theory. As noted in ‘Children and the movies: media influence and the Payne Fund controversy’: “It is also important to realize that the best researchers of the late 1920s were not all naive adherents of what has been caricatured as the “hypodermic” or “magic bullet” theory of mass communication in which media messages were assumed to have a direct and immediate effect on the viewer’s consciousness as if they were injected like a drug into the bloodstream. There are traces of that idea in the PFS, but to some degree it was tested and gone beyond.”

 The War of the Worlds Broadcast

On October 30, 1938 the Mercury Theatre broadcast a dramatization of HG Wells’ War of the Worlds. Directed by Orson Welles, the program was presented in the format of a news bulletin. Some viewers who tuned in late became convinced that Earth was actually being invaded by martians. As noted on the front page of The New York Times: “A wave of mass hysteria seized thousands of radio listeners between 8:15 and 9:30 o’clock last night when a broadcast of a dramatization of H. G. Wells’s fantasy, “The War of the Worlds,” led thousands to believe that an interplanetary conflict had started with invading Martians spreading wide death and destruction in New Jersey and New York. The broadcast, which disrupted households, interrupted religious services, created traffic jams and clogged communications systems, was made by Orson Welles, who as the radio character, “The Shadow,” used to give “the creeps” to countless child listeners. This time at least a score of adults required medical treatment for shock and hysteria. In Newark, in a single block at Heddon Terrace and Hawthorne Avenue, more than twenty families rushed out of their houses with wet handkerchiefs and towels over their faces to flee from what they believed was to be a gas raid. Some began moving household furniture. Throughout New York families left their homes, some to flee to near-by parks. Thousands of persons called the police, newspapers and radio stations here and in other cities of the United States and Canada seeking advice on protective measures against the raids. The program was produced by Mr. Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air over station WABC and the Columbia Broadcasting System’s coast-to-coast network, from 8 to 9 o’clock.” Social psychologist Hadley Cantril conducted research on the Orson Wells broadcast of ‘The War of the Worlds’. He published his work in a book titled ‘The Invasion From Mars – A Study In The Psychology Of Panic’. The research involved interviews with one hundred and thirty people who listened to the broadcast. One hundred of those interviewed were selected for the study because they were frightened by the program. The only authoritative research on this event was conducted by a social psychologist examining the psychology of mass panic, not the influence of the mass media. In his book, Cantril notes that thousands of people became “panic-stricken”. It is estimated that close to six million people listened to the broadcast.

Links

University of Twente: Hypodermic Needle Theory
Wikipedia: The Hypodermic Needle Model
Audience Theory: An Introduction

The Two Step Flow Theory

In 1948, Paul F Lazarsfeld wrote ‘The People’s Choice’ which summarised his research into the November 1940 presidential election. In the course of his research, Lazarsfeld discovered that people were more likely to be influenced by their peers than the mass media.

Lazarsfeld called these people ‘opinion leaders’. The Two Step Flow Theory suggests that opinion leaders pay close attention to the mass media and pass on their interpretation of media messages to others. The Two Step Flow Theory maintains that audiences are active participants in the communication process.

As Joseph Klapper noted in The Effects of Mass Communication: “Research has been focused on the process by which people come to decisions regarding public issues, change their food purchasing habits and habits of dress, and select the movies they attend. Specialist studies have inquired into how farmers come to adopt new farming practices and how physicians come to adopt new drugs. In all of these matters, and presumably in others, many people appear to be more crucially influenced by specific other individuals than by pertinent mass communications.”

Links

University of Twente: Two Step Flow Theory
Wikipedia: Two Step Flow Theory

The Agenda Setting Function Theory

The Agenda Setting Function Theory was developed by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw as a result of their 1968 study of North Carolina voters during a presidential election campaign. They found a correlation between issues that voters believed were important and issues that the media gave prominence to. They argued that the media can’t tell audiences what to think but they can tell them what to think about, that the media has the power to set agendas. As McCombs noted: “The power of the news media to set a nation’s agenda, to focus public attention on a few key public issues, is an immense and well-documented influence. Not only do people acquire factual information about public affairs from the news media, readers and viewers also learn how much importance to attach to a topic on the basis of the emphasis placed on it in the news. Newspapers provide a host of cues about the salience of the topics in the daily news – lead story on page one, other front page display, large headlines, etc. Television news also offers numerous cues about salience – the opening story on the newscast, length of time devoted to the story, etc. These cues repeated day after day effectively communicate the importance of each topic. In other words, the news media can set the agenda for the public’s attention to that small group of issues around which public opinion forms.”

The Kylie Effect

Recent research that would appear to support the Agenda Setting Function Theory includes a recent report in The Medical Journal of Australia by Simon Chapman, Kim McLeod, Melanie Wakefield and Simon Holding. In their report, the researchers identified a phenomenon dubbed ‘The Kylie Effect’ which found a correlation between media reports of Kylie Minogue’s breast cancer scare and an increase in the number of bookings for breast cancer screening tests. As noted at the beginning of the report, this is not a well recorded phenomenon: News stories about health and medicine can precipitate dramatic changes in consumer behaviour. For example, news of health problems related to hormone replacement therapy saw an immediate 58% reduction, and a prolonged 40% reduction, in use of hormone replacement therapy in New Zealand. In 2000, a live, on-air colonoscopy undertaken on a prominent US TV show host saw a sustained 9-month increase in the number of colonoscopies performed by a panel of 400 endoscopists. A TV “soap opera” in England featuring a story about the importance of cervical screening was associated with a 21% increase in women having Pap smear tests.” The research found that a twenty fold increase in the number of breast cancer related articles led to a forty per cent increase in the number of breast cancer screenings during the two weeks of intense media coverage.

Live Exports

In May, 2011 the ABC’s Four Corners broadcast an episode on the cruel treatment of live Australian cattle exports in Indonesian abattoirs. The episode featured graphic footage of cattle being abused. “Animals smash their heads repeatedly on concrete as they struggle against ropes, take minutes to die in agony after repeated often clumsy cuts to the throat,” notes the Four Corners website. “In some cases there is abject and horrifying cruelty – kicking, hitting, eye-gouging and tail-breaking – as workers try to force the cattle to go into the slaughter boxes installed by the Australian industry, with Australian Government support.” In the weeks following the episode, the Australian Meat Industry Council reported a 10 to 15 percent drop in meat sales. This incident would appear to support the Agenda Setting Function Theory. People weren’t told what to think but they were told what to think about and this awareness of animal cruelty influenced consumer behaviour.

Links

Wikipedia: The Agenda Setting Function Theory
University of Twente: Agenda Setting Function Theory
The Medical Journal of Australia: The Kylie Effect
The Age: ‘Kylie effect’ helped raise breast screening

Uses and Gratification Theory

Early thinking about communication theories focused on what the media does to people. The Uses and Gratification Theory, which was proposed by Elihu Katz in 1959, concerns itself with what people do with the media. This theory proposes that audiences are active participants in the communication process. They choose media texts to gratify their own needs – such as the need for information, personal identity, integration, social interaction or entertainment. Uses and Gratification researchers maintain that the best way to find out about media use is by asking the audience because they are “sufficiently self-aware” to explain their reasons for using media texts. According to this theory, texts are open and audiences are active. In fact, the Uses and Gratification theory suggests that audiences actually have power over the mass media. For example, if they choose not to watch a particular program it won’t rate and will be taken off the air.

Links

Why do people watch television?
Uses and Gratification Theory

Reinforcement Theory

In 1960, theorist Joseph Klapper published ‘The Effects of Mass Communication’ in which he proposed the Reinforcement Theory. As Klapper noted: “Whatever it is to be called, it is in essence a shift away from from the tendency to regard mass communication as a necessary and sufficient cause of audience effects, towards a view of the media as influences, working amid other influences, in a total situation.” Klapper argued that the mass media does not have the ability to influence audiences. “Regardless of whether the effect in question be social or individual,” he wrote,”the media are more likely to reinforce than to change.” Klapper argued that people’s attitudes, beliefs and behaviour was more likely to be influenced by their family, schools, communities and religious institutions. He argued that the only time the media could influence people was when the media introduced a new idea or concept. Klapper also pointed out that there are particular attitudes and beliefs that the mass media is particularly unlikely to change, such as racial and religious tolerance because attitudes on such topics are “crucial to their self-images and central to clusters of related attitudes, they have occasionally been called “ego-involved,” attitudes and it has become somehting of a dictum that ego-involved attitudes are peculiarly resistant to conversion by mass communication – or, for that matter, by other agencies.”

When writing about whether media violence encourages people to be more aggressive, Klapper wrote: “Communications research strongly indicates that media depictions of crime and violence are not prime moves towards such conduct. The content seems rather to reinforce or implement existing and otherwise induced behavioral tendencies. For the well adjusted, it appears to be innocuous or even to be selectively perceived as socially useful. For the maladjusted, particularly the aggressively inclined and the frustrated, it appears to serve, at the very least, as a stimulant to escapist and possibly aggressive fantasy, and probably to serve other functions as yet unidentified.”

Studies supporting the Reinforcement Theory

In ‘The Effects of Mass Communication’, Klapper cites a number of studies that support his theory, including a 1948 study by Larzarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet which revealed that voters were predisposed to opinions and beliefs held by their families. As Klapper notes: “For persons such as the young man who reported his intention to “vote Democratic because my Grandfather will skin me if I don’t” – or for his opposite number who explained that “I will vote Republican because my family are all Republicans so therefore I would have to vote that way” – exposure to months of campaign propaganda was found particularly likely to be reinforcing, and particularly unlikely to effect conversion.”

Media Violence: The Columbine School Shooting

On Tuesday, April 20, 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed twelve students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Denver, Colorado. In the aftermath of the tragedy, commentators were quick to blame the mass media for the shooting, including television programs like South Park, violent video games and the lyrics of Marilyn Manson.

Harris and Klebold were both fans of the video games Doom and Wolfenstein 3D. “Doom is such a big part of my life and no one I know can recreate environments in DOOM as good as me,” Harris once wrote for a school assignment. “I know almost anything there is to know about the game, so I believe that seperates me from the rest of the world.”

Like all moral panics, there is little evidence to suggest that violent media texts can be blamed for this tragedy. “If video game violence was an immediate catalyst, we would have difficulty explaining why none of the shootings involving teens have occurred in movie theaters or video arcades where the direct stimulus of game playing would be most acute,” wrote Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California Henry Jenkins in his article ‘Lessons from Littleton’. “Instead, these murders have tended to occur in schools and we need to look at real-world factors to discover what triggers such violence. A more careful analysis would read video games as one cultural influence among many, as having different degrees of impact on different children, and as not sufficient in and of themselves to provoke an otherwise healthy and well-adjusted child to engage in acts of violence. Some children, especially those who are antisocial and emotionally unbalanced, should be protected from exposure to the most extreme forms of media violence, but most children are not at risk from the media they consume.”

Links

Lessons from Littleton
Professor Jenkins Goes to Washington
Congressional Testimony on Media Violence

Media violence: Evidence and arguments about media influence

Over the last seventy years, there have been many studies attempting to determine whether there is a link between violence in the media and aggressive behaviour. At one end of the spectrum there are researchers like Craig Anderson who argue that violent video games make children more violent and aggressive. Anderson told ABC’s Background Briefing that the effects of video game violence is greater than the effect of passive smoking on lung cancer. “The effect of media violence on aggression in general is bigger than the effect of passive smoking on lung cancer,” Anderson said, “it’s bigger than the effect of exposure to lead and IQ scores in children; it’s bigger than the effect of calcium intake on bone mass; it’s bigger than the effect of homework on academic achievement. These are all effects that people generally understand to be true, real effects that are large enough to be important and large enough to worry about.” At the other end, academics like Henry Jenkins maintain that we should be examining what children do with the media, rather than what it does to them. “The key issue isn’t what the media are doing to our children but rather what our children are doing with the media,” he wrote in his article ‘Professor Jenkins goes to Washington’. “The vocabulary of ‘media effects,’ which has long dominated such hearings, has been challenged by numerous American and international scholars as an inadequate and simplistic representation of media consumption and popular culture. Media effects research most often empties media images of their meanings, strips them of their contexts, and denies their consumers any agency over their use.” Understanding the effect of media violence requires an appreciation of these often conflicting studies. Here are five different studies and reports on media violence you should be familiar with.

The Public Health Risks of Media Violence (2008)

Christopher J Ferguson and John Kilburn

In 2008, Christopher J Ferguson and John Kilburn conducted a meta-analysis of studies into media violence. After correcting these studies for publication bias, they found “little support for the hypothesis that media violence is associated with higher aggression.”

Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy and pro-social behaviour in eastern and western countries: A Meta-Analytic Review (2010)

Craig A. Anderson, et al.

In a 2010 meta-analysis, Craig Anderson and a range of other researchers reached the conclusion that there is a significant relationship between violent media and aggressive behaviour. “Potential harmful effects of media violence have been scrutinized for over six decades, and considerable consensus has been reached on several of the most important issues,” they wrote. “As stated by a recent panel of experts assembled by the U.S. Surgeon General, ‘Research on violent television and films, video games, and music reveals unequivocal evidence that media violence increases the likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior in both immediate and long-term contexts.’”

Literature review on the impact of playing violent video games on aggression (2010)

Australian Attorney General’s Department

In 2010, the Attorney General’s Department conducted a review of research into the effect of violent video games. The report looked at a range of studies, including experimental research, correlation studies, longitudinal research and meta-analysis. “Significant harmful effects from violent video games have not been persuasively proven or disproven,” the report concluded. “There is some consensus that violent video games may be harmful to certain populations, such as people with aggressive and psychotic personality traits. Overall, most studies have consistently shown a small statistical effect of violent video game exposure on aggressive behaviour, but there are problems with these findings that reduce their policy relevance. Overall, as illustrated in this review, research into the effects of violent video games on aggression is contested and inconclusive.”

The portrayal of violence in the media: impacts and implications for policy (1996)

Melanie Brown

In 1996, the Australian Institute of Criminology published a report examining research into the effects of violent media. The report acknowledges that violence is a complex issue which has many causes. “Most studies have shown that there is some sort of relationship or association. Most of these studies have focused on television violence and have concluded that there are some negative effects related to watching violent or aggressive behaviour on TV,” the report found. “They do not necessarily indicate a direct cause-and-effect relationship. Rather, they suggest that exposure to media depictions of violence enhances the risk that the viewer will engage in subsequent aggressive behaviour. The effects of exposure to violence in the media are by no means inevitable and may be amplified or reduced by a variety of other factors ”

10 Things wrong with the media ‘effects’ model

David Gauntlett

In this article, media theorist David Gauntlett puts forward ten reasons why the media ‘effects’ approach is flawed. “The effects model, we have seen, has remarkably little going for it as an explanation of human behaviour, or of the media in society,” he writes. “Whilst any challenging or apparently illogical theory or model reserves the right to demonstrate its validity through empirical data, the effects model has failed also in that respect. Its continued survival is indefensible and unfortunate.”

Links

Research on the Effects of Media Violence
The Public Health Risks of Media Violence: A Meta-Analytic Review
Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked
The Portrayal of Violence in the Media
Studies and Research on Media Effects

Evaluating evidence

When forming an understanding about the nature and extent of media influence, it is important to evaluate the credibility of different studies. Research can be divided into a number of different types, all of which have their own strengths and weaknesses.

• Case studies. Often described as ‘moral panics’, case studies include events like the Columbine High School massacre or the murder of James Bulger. When tragic events like these occur, people are keen to find something to blame. In these cases, commentators were quick to blame violent media texts when it was quite evident that the violent behaviour was the product of a number of factors. Case studies are not considered credible evidence of media influence.
• Laboratory research. Conducted in a laboratory setting, this form of research means experiments can be replicated again and again and variables measured precisely. The controlled setting of laboratory research ignores the fact that media consumption occurs in the real world. Examples of laboratory research include Albert Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment.
• Longitudinal research.  Longitudinal research occurs over a long period of time. Researchers return to the same subjects and look at the long term effect of media.
• Correlation studies. Any research that finds a correlation between two sets of data. Just because there is a correlation between two sets of data, it does not necessarily mean that one thing caused the other. As noted in The Economist: “There is a correlation in Germany between the decline of the stork population and the falling human birth rate. That does not prove that storks bring babies.”
• Qualitative research. Qualitative research involves asking people about their media use. It involves long questionnaires and detailed responses about media use. Regarded as an extremely credible way of measuring media influence.
• Quantitative research. Includes the results of surveys and statistics, any research that can easily be reduced to numbers. Although raw data like this can be useful, it does not necessarily take into account the complex relationship between audiences and texts.

Media regulation

There are a number of reasons why we believe it is necessary to regulate the media.

• One of the reasons that we regulate the media is the possibility of copycat behaviour. Both the FreeTV Australia and the Advertising Standards Bureau have guidelines for the advertising of food and beverages to children which state that they should not promote an ‘inactive lifestyle’ or ‘unhealthy eating or drink habits’. FreeTV Australia and Commercial Radio Australia have guidelines relating to the portrayal of suicide. Commercial television and commercial radio codes of practice have guidelines pertaining to the portrayal of women, indigenous people and cultural diversity because it is believed the media should not promote prejudice and intolerance.
• To protect children from potentially harmful or damaging media images.
• To protect adults from seeing unsolicited material that is likely to offend.
• In Australia, there are minimum requirements for the amount of Australian content on television and radio, a reflection of the belief that overseas content may erode our cultural identity. The Australian Content Standard (2005) mandates a 55% quota of Australian content on television between 6 am and midnight. Similarly, commercial radio stations must broadcast minimum quotas of Australian music.
• In Australia, there are regulations on media cross media ownership because, as a nation, we believe that diversity of the media is important and that no one should have a monopoly on this industry. According to cross media ownership laws, there should be no fewer than five independent media groups in metropolitan markets.
• There are limits on foreign ownership in the media because the media is considered a ‘sensitive sector’ and it is important that the media is distinctively Australian.

National Classification Scheme

The classification of films, video games and publications in Australia is the responsibility of the Attorney General’s Department. A Classification Board and Classification Review Board make decisions about the classification of films, video games and publications which are available for sale and hire in Australia.

Under the Commonwealth Classifications Act, the following matters are taken into account when classifying films, video games and publications:

• the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults;
• the literary, artistic or educational merit (if any) of the publication, film or computer game;
• the general character of the publication, film or computer game, including whether it is of a medical, legal or scientific character;
• the persons or class of persons to or amongst whom it is published or is intended or likely to be published.

Classification decisions are made according to the following principles:

• adults should be able to read, hear and see what they want;
• minors should be protected from material likely to harm or disturb them;
• everyone should be protected from exposure to unsolicited material that they find offensive;
• the need to take account of community concerns about: depictions that condone or incite violence, particularly sexual violence; and the portrayal of persons in a demeaning manner.

In Australia, there are a number of classification categories, including: G, PG, M15+, MA15+, R and X. If a film, computer game or publication is deemed inappropriate by the Classification Board, it is refused classification and prohibited from sale in Australia.

Classification controversies

The classification of films and video games often attracts controversy. In 2003, movie critic and anti-censorship campaigner Margaret Pomeranz was detained and questioned by police for attempting to screen the film Ken Park, which was refused classification. “Where does it stop?” she asked the audience before police stormed the stage. “I hate what is happening as far as censorship in this country is concerned. We are not allowed to see a film that millions of people around the world have seen.” The tension between classification and freedom of speech means that there will always be disagreements over how media texts are classified.

In Australia, the classification of video games has been a source of considerable controversy. Until 2011, when the Attorney Generals agreed to introduce an R18+ category for video games, games that exceeded the MA15+ classification were deemed unsuitable for an Australian audience. Games like Left 4 Dead 2  andManhunt were refused classification by the Classification Board. In 2010, the Attorney General’s Department conducted a public consultation on the proposed introduction of an R18+ classification. The results were overwhelmingly in favour of its introduction. “More than 58,400 people responded to the call for submissions on the proposed new adult only category,” said Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O’Connor. “That’s an enormous response and I thank everyone who gave their views. Of those who responded, 98.4% voiced support for an R18+ computer game classification.”

Links

Attorney General’s Department Discussion Paper on an R18+ category for video games

Results of Attorney General’s Public Consultation

The Australian Communication and Media Authority

The ACMA is a government body responsible for regulating broadcasting and online content in Australia. Its responsibilities include:

• promoting self-regulation and competition in the communications industry, while protecting consumers and other users
• fostering an environment in which electronic media respect community standards and respond to audience and user needs
• managing access to the radiofrequency spectrum
• representing Australia ‘s communications interests internationally.

The ACMA has developed codes of practice for television and radio in conjunction with the industry FreeTV Australia and Commercial Radio Australia. These codes govern the content of television and radio in Australia.

The ACMA also regulates the ownership of commercial media organisations in Australia. Under current media ownership laws in Australia:

• cross  media ownership is allowed providing that there are no fewer than five independent media groups in metropolitan markets and four in regional markets;
• foreign investment in the Australia media is permitted but the mass media is considered a ‘sensitive sector’ and any foreign investment, regardless of its size must be approved by the Treasurer;
• a person may only control one commercial television licence or two commercial radio licenses in a license area;
• a person may not control a commercial television license reaching an audience of more than 75% of the Australian population.

Links

Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice
Commercial Radio Australia Code of Practice
Pro-euthanasia TV ad ban ‘a violation of free speech’

The Advertising Standards Board

The ASB oversees a national system of advertising self-regulation. The Advertising Standards Board is a free service to handle consumer complaints about advertising. According to the ASB website, these issues might include “the use of language, the discriminatory portrayal of people, concern for children, portrayals of violence, sex, sexuality and nudity, health and safety, and marketing of food and beverages to children.” The ASB has a number of codes which govern the content of advertisements. The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) Code of Practice aims to ensure that “advertisements are legal, decent, honest and truthful and that they have been prepared with a sense of obligation to the consumer and society and fair sense of responsibility to competitors.”

 Complaints

A list of complaints can be found at the ASB website. Each report includes a description of the advertisement, excerpts of complaints made by consumers, the advertiser’s response to the allegations and the ASB’s determination on the matter.

Links

Advertising Standards Bureau

Codes Administered by the ASB

Preparing for the SAC

When revising for the Media Influence SAC and the VCE Media exam, consider answering the following questions as part of your revision:

• What is an active audience?
• What is a passive audience?
• Explain two negative examples of media influence.
• Explain two positive examples of media influence.
• In your own words, explain the above communication theories, particularly noting what they suggest about texts, audiences and the flow of communication.
• What is semiotic constructivism and what does it suggest about audiences?
• Explain what is meant by an open text and a closed text.
• Identify, describe and evaluate a range of studies on the nature and extent of media influence.
• What do these studies tend to suggest about media influence?
• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the following types of research: anecdotal, case studies, laboratory studies, correlation studies and longitudinal field studies.
• What type of media regulation exists in Australia?
• Why do we regulate the media?

Sample assessment tasks

When preparing for the SAC, have a look at the EDSC Sample Media Influence SAC and Sample Media Influence Answers.