MIGRAIN: January assessment learner response

1) Type up your feedback in full (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential).

WWW: Very promising Q2 but needs developing a bit more, well-structured answer to question 3
EBI: Specific details/ Terminology right!

2) Read the mark scheme for this assessment carefully. Identify at least one potential point that you missed out on for each question in the assessment.

Q1: I had forgotten to write about conglomerate ownership.

Q2: Younger audiences simply don’t watch live TV in the same way as older generations. Streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime will dominate TV market eventually – public service broadcasting needs to update to find a place in that digital market.

Q3: Technopanics – the online version of moral panic. Links to the idea the internet is dangerous and unregulated. Suggests media perhaps can have a damaging effect on audiences.

3) On a scale of 1-10 (1 = low, 10 = high), how much revision and preparation did you do for this assessment?
7/10


4) Look at your answer to Question 1. Did you manage to write about three different strategies and three different benefits? It's vital you read the question and follow it exactly.
While I had managed to write about three viable solutions with benefits, I mixed the names of one of the strategies 

5) Look at your answer to Question 2. Did you follow the question guidance and write about both the BBC and commercial broadcasters? What could you have added to this answer to reach a higher mark?

I wrote about both broadcasters to a good degree, I believe that I lost marks due to the fact that I forgot to mention one or two points about either both broadcasters.

6) Now look over your mark, teacher comments and the mark scheme for Question 3 - the 20 mark essay question on media effects theory. Write a new paragraph for this question based on the suggested theories/answers in the mark scheme. Make sure it is an extensive, detailed paragraph focused on the question and offering examples from the wider media. 

I believe that the media can have negative effects on the public, this is evident with cultivation theory developed by Gerbner, what this theory states is that after time audiences become more susceptible to media texts and can have significant long-term effects on their attitude and or beliefs. Having an audience exposed to violent media for long periods could result in the said audience being affected negatively; OFCOM has however regulated public broadcasting to make sure that the content shown is appropriate for younger audiences. Gerbner has also mentioned that heavy tv viewing audiences tend to develop "mean world" syndrome, this is a belief that the world is a far more dangerous and or worse place than it actually is. Gerbner and Gross later developed the theory that audiences that are heavy T.V consumers become both fearful and even worse homogenous. What this means is that audiences begin to believe in the same as each other, the audiences begin to collectively agree with the idea or belief given to them. This could prove to be especially dangerous as this could be used as a method to gain political power and or national agreeance on a topic or idea giving a government the additional power and support to tackle problems for their own gains. This theory is related quite heavily with another theory known as the hypodermic needle theory, this theory states that the media injects information into the minds of the audience, as if the media was a hypodermic needle. While this theory was rejected back in the 1940's, the theory has resurfaced due to modern day events and situations, the main and most prominent is the "fake news" scandal revolved around the American president; president Trump created a belief through which he injected into the minds of his followers through the use of media, President Trump managed to create a blind and dangerous following using the media. Another influential social experiment by Bandura proved through the use of a bobo doll, that audiences (especially children) can be almost immediately adversely affected with action oriented media, showing the possible danger of media.

On the other hand, stating that the media can be dangerous to audiences can only be valid with the belief that people are mindless vessels. People have the ability to perceive and interpret the media with their own subjective beliefs. The two step flow model and reception theory support this idea; the two step flow model states that audiences obtain their perception of a media text through opinion leaders (figures that mediate teh reaction of an audience through their own perception of the text) rather than directly through the media text itself, Reception theory states that every person who watches a media text can have a different perception of the text in the form of either having a dominant, negotiated or Oppositional reading. The dominant readings are the preferred readings the creator is trying to show through their media text, negotiated being a somewhat midway point and oppositional reading being a reading that goes against what the creator of the media text was trying to show. What this means is that the audience can subjectivity interpret the meaning of text given to them, instead of directly believing what is being shown to them, while this may not be the case for younger viewers, this is the case for older viewers. Another theory developed by blumer and katz, called gratification theory states that audiences selectively chose what media texts that want to watch, this suggests that media texts can have a less damaging effect on the audience.

In conclusion while media texts can have a damaging effect on audiences, audiences have more choice of what they want than believed, along with this reception theory suggests that audiences perceive the media texts they watch meaning that the information is not just injected into them as if it was a hypodermic needle. Another theory that supports this is the two step flow model that contains opinion leaders to help mediate audiences