Approaches to Media: Audience and Effects:
Some of these questions are listed for CLOUDDEAKIN group discussion under their respective topics. This means you will have a chance to work with others before you prepare some parts of your assignment. However, please note that your assignment has to be your own work, written independently and in your own words. It should also contain some discussion of the assigned readings, which should be correctly cited in the body of the assignment and the reference list.
Question:
Think of a real-life situation such as attending a sporting event, local amateur theatre or other artistic performance, travelling to a foreign destination, attending a concert, playing a board game, etc. Critically examine how your experience of that event or situation may be affected by your expectations of it, in comparison to expectations you would have of experiencing it in a mediated form, such as watching the sporting event on live TV, watching the theatrical production as a TV/film drama, instead of travelling, watching a TV travel show, watching a rock concert on TV, playing a video game, etc. Analyse both types of experience of the event or situation in terms of TWO of the following:
• tolerance for boredom or inactivity
• expectations of perfection and high levels of performance
• possible misconceptions of physical and social events
• possibly limited contact with and a superficial views of one's own environment.
(See Funkhauser & Shaw, 1990: Reading 1.2.)
Where possible, refer to the following concepts in your discussion, and consider the strong/weak/mixed effects paradigms:
• Mainstreaming
• Cultivation Theory
• Cultural Norms Theory
• Media Consonance
• Agenda Setting
• Priming
• Gatekeeping
• Framing
• British Cultural Studies
• Uses and Gratifications
• The Catalytic Hypothesis and
• The Construction of Social Reality.
Notice the term ‘critically examine', which means you will need to look at all sides of the arguments made by Funkhauser and Shaw (1990) as well as other authors of assigned readings or articles of your choice used in your discussion. Feel free to disagree with them and propose alternative explanations or arguments, supported by relevant examples from real life or your own experiences.