Theory Research

MORAL PANICS

A moral panic is a feeling of fear that is spread among a large number of people, where some evil threatens the well-being of society.
Theorist Stanley Cohen suggested this is a book Folk Devils and Moral Panics in 1972.
The moral panic by society represented in the media can help to create further socially unacceptable behaviour.
It can send society to mass hysteria over a particular issue or event that occurs.
It is the belief that if an event is reported, people believe that is is occurring everywhere.



HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY

It implies that mass media has a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences.
In the 1940's and 1950's the media were perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour change.
Several factors contributed to this theory, including; the fast rise and popularisation of radio and TV; advertising and propaganda; impact of the motion pictures on children (The Payne Fund Studies 1930s);Hitler's monopolization of the mass media during WW2 to unify the German public.
It expresses the view that media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message they want you to see.
Eventually, people end up thinking what they are told because there is no source of other information.


MEDIA EFFECT THEORY

This theory was first proposed by the Frankfurt School of social researchers in th e 1920's.
The way in which see how media can affect society, but also how society can affect the media.
If there is an audience that tends to see the audience as passive and can identify how exposure to particular aspects of media content can influence the behaviour of the reader or viewer.
This theory can help explain Moral Panic and ideas of deviant behaviour and effects on the youth.
The model used evokes imagery that media is like a drug that is addictive.
It can affect how we view ourselves, as self-gratifying stereotypes can be viewed negatively, resulting in us viewing ourselves and act upon it.