Theories

Hypodermic Needle Model 

In the daily mail article it explains how violent video games such as Condemned 2, Call of Duty & The Club (which were tested on students) affects our behavior by becoming more aggressive. There was one group who play violent video games and the other group played non-violent video games. Tests were conducted on each group to see how the games affect the subject's behavior in the real world. The study concluded that individuals whom play violent video games over a long period of time tend to be affected due to the fact that they are exposed to violence from a long period of time (20 minutes each day). This links with the Hypodermic Needle Model as it suggest that the media inject us with, in this case violent messages to the viewer. This shows us how much of an effect the media can have on us in any sort of platform whether that is on social media, news or games. The violent games may affect certain individual's behavior. For instance, in 2011 August England faced a head to head conflict with the youth where many riots took place. Including robberies and other incidents. The media suggested that violent games such as Grand Theft Auto was to blame. The Game GTA is a popular game series in which a character you play as breaks down law and order. Many argue against this point however, attacks during the riots were apparently similar to some parts of the GTA game series.

Two Step Flow

In the BBC article it explains the life of Jamal Edwards. Jamal Edwards is a self made multimillionaire. Jamal had brought him self a camera in which he recorded some of his friends rapping, singing etc. Few years down the line the teenager who lives on a West-London council estate finds himself becoming popular and then becoming a multimillionaire. Jamal Edwards is worth £8 million at the age of 23. He is the creator of SBTV. SBTV is a music broadcasting company that showcases many talented individuals. This links with the Two Step Flow. The Two Step Flow suggests audiences are influenced by opinion leaders (in this case people Jamal Edwards looked up too). The fact that Jamal now classes Sir Richard Branson as a friend suggests he looks up to him as a successful business man and owner of 'Virgin'. As the theory suggest 'audiences' e.g. Jamal Edwards was influenced by opinion leaders such as people he may look up too or the surroundings around him e.g. his friends that rapped and had 'rep' in his area. This enabled him to bring out his creativity capacity and create a well known music broadcasting platform.

Uses and Gratification - Blumer and Katz  

The Blumer and Katz theory was discovered in 1974. It suggests that their are four main gratifactions in the media -

Diversion - Escape from everyday life problem and enforces entertainment - In this case video games offer escape for many young adults from school life, work and other problems they may have.

Personal Relationships - To use the media for emotional and other interaction (developing affection for character's in TV program)  - In this case the media used would be a TV series 'Easterners'. In this specif episode one character breaks up with another. Therefore, the viewer may develop affection for the character who is going to suffer the most from the break up.- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR8jbQU8ZeM

Personal Identity - Finding our self reflected into texts or learning behavior and values from the TV or documentary - In this case documentaries such as Educating Yorkshire. From this documentary the the viewer is able to have an understanding of behavior and values of other students from different backgrounds, cultures and the hardships some students may go through in their high school years. Therefore, enforcing a more positive image students and those who may have learning problems too. -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM1IxV7vyEA

Surveillance - Information useful for living (e.g. weather, traffic, holiday bargains etc.) - In this case the news BBC informs all views of what situations happen around the world such as breaking news, showbiz, weather updates and economic updates of the stock exchange etc.

Dependency Theory

1.) I primarily use the media for my coursework, entertainment e.g YouTube comedy videos/game plays and to be informed about news around the world regarding situations that may affect me or situations I take interest in e.g. conspiracy theories, music etc.

2.) I believe we're extremely dependent on the media. Whether we like it or not we are surrounded by the media one way or another. We all use the media to benefit us. In addition, by many users using the media it allows us to gain more knowledge about situations.

3.) Over the last 10 year from what I've witness there has been a massive change in the media. For instance, when I was 7 years old I didn't use technology too much compared to 7 year olds now, that use ipads, laptops and game console in order to fill their spare time. Furthermore, as technology has advanced we have many ways of using the media to our advantage e.g our phones and tablets. It is said by 2016 90% of Britons will own smartphones such as Samsung and Apple Iphones. The figure suggests how much we are becoming dependent in way to access the media. Furthermore, the new technology out now allows us to view the media in a more quicker way compared to a physical copy of a magazine or newspaper.