Media notes

The media works with two kinds of people, producers and consumers. The producers, also known as the transmitters, make the media. The consumers on the other hand, also known as the receivers, read the media. Media is known as media text even though it doesn't necessarily need text in it, media text is simply media products. Media text can range from posters, films, programs to adverts and much more.

There is a specific way in which media is transmitted and received. A transmitter (which can be printed, visual, audio,etc) creates a message that is encoded and then expresses that message. The receiver then receives the message and decodes it. However if it is in a different format you cannot decode it, also the receiver may decode it differently to how it was encoded. This theory was produced by Stuart Hall and is known as the basic communication model and is called the reception theory.

There are various different readings of messages which have been transmitted by the transmitter. These reading include:

• Preferred reading- The receiver has read (decoded) the message the way it was meant to be read (decoded)
• Oppositional reading- When the receiver deliberately has a different reading of a message. (e.g. believing the robbers are the good people in a police programme)
• Negotiated reading- When the receiver understands the message but because because the message doesn't relate to them they are not bothered for what the message is and don't bother decoding it. 
• Aberrant reading- When the receiver misreads the message, this could be due to the receiver being outside of the selected target audience.

There are 3 major models on how people consume media. The 3 models are:

• Hypodermic needle- Consumers are believed to be passive and are thought to believe every part of the media. The best fit for the hypodermic needle is advertising. (Take in everything just like a needle as we are injected with it). We are believed to not question or filter the media, we simply just accept it. In this theory the audience are thought to be manipulated by the creators of media text in the retrospect that media can change our behaviour and thoughts easily. This theory can create moral panics as we are believed to copy what we see. 
• 2 step flow- This model believes there are opinion leaders such as critics who have seen the media text prior to us and have created their own opinion on the media text on whether they believe it is is good or bad, as consumers we then choose which opinion leader to trust to base on whether we shall bother with a certain media text. In this theory the audience is thought to be active in choosing what opinion leader to follow, but then passive because we trust in what they say. This theory is believed to limit the power of the media which is also referred to as the limited effect paradigm. 
• Uses and gratifications- Believes we are active decision making consumers and we survey the media and make our own selection. We choose to consume only what we want to. This theory also believes people watch the media based on 4 different uses which was brought about by theorists Blulmer and Katz.Diversion- It allows people to relax and escape from their own life and they can get lost in whatever they watch on TV.Personal relationship- You can discuss with peers and family what you have watched and debate with each other if you have differing opinions or you can agree on what you both like, it can bring people together. Personal identity- You could compare your existence with what you see on TV and notice similarities or heavy differences between you and a person perhaps in your age group. This effect is believed to be quite dangerous, especially for influential people. Surveillance- You can see what it going on in the World e.g. the news. However, theorist Laswell believes the 4 functions of the media are surveillance, correlation, entertainment and cultural transmission. Blulmer and Katz theory is often the one used for the uses and gratifications theory though. 

We are only allowed to seen certain things due to age restrictions, or possibly something is too rude for content, the person who chooses what we are allowed to see is called a Gatekeeper. 

Semiology is the study of science and symbols. Two media terms which are associated with semiology are denotation and connotation. Denotation is an noticing the use of something and connotation is making an assumption about something due the use of the other thing. For example if there were scattered bottles in a house everywhere and there were two people having a class of win, by noticing this it would be a denotation. The connotation would then be assuming that they have drunk them all and are drunk themselves, however this could be incorrect as someone else could of drunk them before them, however we jump to this assumption. This theory was created by Roland Bartes.

Stuart Hall also created the theory of mode of address,which is the way that the media talks to us. This could range from formal to informal. For example, the news is a formal media text which has no room for negotiation and is thought to be authoritative because the news anchor always speaks straight to the camera.