MIGRAIN: Audience theory 2 - the effects debate

 Theory questions and your opinion

1) Social learning theory argues that audiences may imitate behaviour they see in the media, particularly when violence is rewarded or shown without consequences. However, this theory is often criticised for oversimplifying the causes of violence by placing too much responsibility on media texts and not enough on social, economic, and psychological factors. While the media may influence attitudes towards violence, it is unlikely to be the sole cause of anti-social behaviour. Many people consume violent media without behaving violently, suggesting that audiences are active rather than passive. Factors such as upbringing, peer groups, mental health, and social inequality play a much greater role. Therefore, the media should be seen as a contributing influence rather than a direct cause of violence.

2) Social learning theory is arguably more relevant in the digital age because young people are exposed to a constant stream of content through social media, influencers, and online communities. Platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube allow behaviours to be modelled repeatedly and rewarded through likes, views, and followers, reinforcing imitation. For example, viral “challenge” trends can encourage risky behaviour, while influencer culture may normalise extreme beauty standards, consumerism, or misogynistic attitudes. Online figures such as controversial influencers can act as role models, especially for young audiences seeking identity and validation. However, unlike traditional media, digital audiences can interact, comment, and challenge content, showing that learning is not automatic and that audiences still actively negotiate meaning.

3) One example of moral panic is violent video games, particularly after events such as school shootings. Media coverage often blamed games like Call of Duty or GTA for youth violence, despite limited evidence of a direct causal link. This panic led to age ratings and content warnings, which improved regulation, although the original fears were arguably exaggerated.

A second example is rap and rock music, such as the panic around artists like Marilyn Manson in the 1990s. The media framed these musicians as dangerous influences on young people, linking them to violence and moral decline. While some lyrics were provocative, the concern was largely unjustified and ignored wider social issues, showing how the media can scapegoat subcultures.

A third example is social media and smartphone use, where the media has raised fears about addiction, mental health, and youth behaviour. Unlike earlier moral panics, some concerns here are more justified, as studies show links between excessive social media use and anxiety. As a result, changes such as screen-time controls, online safety laws, and greater awareness of digital wellbeing have been introduced.

4) It explains that new media and technologies, particularly those used by young people, often cause intense public and political concern known as moral panics or technopanics. Specific examples include fears surrounding the Internet, especially in relation to online child safety, digital privacy, and cybersecurity. The paper suggests that these technologies are often presented as uniquely dangerous, despite similar fears having existed around earlier technologies. Thierer argues that such technopanics frequently lead to calls for regulation or censorship, even though there is little evidence that digital technologies are causing greater harm than previous media forms. He suggests that fear-based responses exaggerate threats and that education and social adaptation are more effective than restrictive regulation.

5) The internet should be regulated to some extent to protect users, especially children, from harmful or illegal content. However, the government should not fully control what people can access online, as this risks censorship and limits freedom of expression. Moral panics often exaggerate the dangers of new media, leading to unnecessary restrictions. Audiences are active and capable of critically interpreting online content rather than passively accepting it. A balanced approach that focuses on education and media literacy is more effective than strict government control.

6) Constant exposure to news about crime, online abuse, terrorism, and misinformation on social media may cultivate a sense that the world is more dangerous than it actually is, creating a more fearful population. At the same time, repeated encounters with trolling, hate speech, and online threats can lead to desensitisation, where such behaviour becomes normalised and less shocking. Heavy internet use may therefore influence attitudes by making hostility and risk seem routine, particularly for younger users. However, audiences are not passive, and media literacy and regulation can reduce these negative effects, suggesting the internet cultivates attitudes but does not determine them.

The effects debate: Media Factsheet

1) playing violent video games or watching violent films does not automatically make someone violent in real life, suggesting that audiences are not passive and that media texts do not have a simple cause-and-effect relationship with behaviour.

2) direct effect theories, diffusion theories, indirect effect theories, and the pluralist approach.

3) Examples used for the hypodermic needle theory include Child’s Play being blamed for the murder of Jamie Bulger, Marilyn Manson being blamed for the Columbine High School shootings, and Natural Born Killers being blamed for copycat crimes, showing how media texts are often scapegoated.

4) The 1999 Columbine massacre was a school shooting in the USA in which two students killed pupils and teachers, and it became a key case study in debates about media violence and moral panics.

5) Columbine massacre resulted from a complex combination of factors, including the ease of access to firearms, teenage alienation, economic disadvantage, and desensitisation caused by repeated exposure to violent media.

6) Gerbner’s cultivation theory argues that long-term, repeated exposure to media representations gradually shapes audience attitudes and values, normalising certain behaviours such as violence rather than directly causing them.

7)  action films reinforce dominant ideologies by presenting violence as justified when used by heroes for moral reasons, while condemning similar violence when carried out by villains.

8)  Direct effect theories are criticised for being reductionist and elitist, as they assume audiences are passive and easily manipulated while ignoring individual differences and wider social contexts.

9)  Love Thy Neighbour is controversial today because it relies on racist stereotypes that were once socially acceptable, demonstrating reception theory’s view that meanings change over time as audience values and cultural contexts evolve.

10) Hall’s theory is illustrated through examples such as different newspapers encoding the same facts differently, and through the idea that audiences may adopt a dominant reading, negotiate the meaning, or take an oppositional reading based on their own ideology and experiences.