Audience Theory (Unfinished)

The Hypodermic Needle theory was thought up in the 1920s to 30s in Frankfurt, Germany.  It was in response to  Hitler Propaganda posters which were heavily influencing the public.  The theory said that the media is powerful and controlling and the audience is basically passive and allows ideas and beliefs to be injected into them. The theory can be linked to moral panics as it suggests that the audience will immediately believe that what they are seeing / hearing is true and that the answers to societies problems lie within the text or film. When applied to my film, it would suggest that audiences of our production would believe that violence is the answer to people who oppose your world view.  Our antagonist is Russian and audiences could therefore believe that all Russians are evil.

A second theory is the Two Step Theory created by Lazarsfeld and Katz in 1944. The two step theory is based on having a middleman between the mass media and the mass audience. The middle man or the Opinion Leaders dissect the news from the media and present it to the mass audience in a way that is humorous or easier to understand. When applied to my film, it would suggest that if an influential leader or blogger such as Mark Kermode (Film expert) said that our film was good and worth watching, then the audience will be inclined to go because they look up to that person and believe that what he's saying is the truth. 

George Gerbner (1980) came up with a theory based on the massive influence of television on the public. He argued that it was gradual long term effects rather that immediate effects (like in the hypodermic needle theory). He also argued that television reinforced ideas rather than changed peoples perceptions. When relating this to my film, I can understand the importance of promoting the film to the right group of people.

STUART HALL

Narrative Theory (Un-finished)

Attack the Block:

In the opening sequence of Attack the Block we see the the main protagonist mugging a woman at gun point with a group of other youths. The stereotype of anti-social teenagers are explored and used for comical effect. Although we know that in the end of the film the teenagers change their ways and save the day, until then the viewer has this negative perception of the characters.
The possible implications of this opening on the viewer are a biased and un-fair perception of all teenagers because
THEN THOERY THAT EXPLAINS THIS EFFECT...

What was the historical depiction of young people and teenagers by the mainstream media? (Un-finished)

Looking back at historical texts we can see that teenagers haven't been represented in a positive or fair way through the media for many years. In the mid 60’s when the mods and the Rockers were clashing on the south coast, mainstream media outlets such as the Daily Mirror heavily attacked the young people involved. The extensive and heavily emotive articles created mass hysteria within the papers reader bases (typically made up of only adults) which would of had an impact on relationships between the generations, broadening the generation gap. 

In an article published by the Daily Mirror on March 30th 1964, teenagers that took part in the riots were labeled as ‘Wild ones’, ‘…gangs’ and were described as being ‘…thirsty for creating disturbances and fighting.’. Emotive words such as thirsty make the story sound much worse than it actually is, by using this sort of language the writers were able to promote a negative perception of the parties involved. The use of such thought provoking words was un-ethical as it was used to sway the audiences views to suit the views of the writers when the paper should be presenting factual un-biased coverage of the events. It was even admitted afterwards by officials that the coverage was hysterical and had create a moral panic around the situation.

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Negative representations of youth from the past wasn't just found within newspaper articles, it was also found in movies such as Quadrophenia. In this movie we get to see the other side of the Mods and Rockers story from the point of the youths.