Managing in the Media

Chapter 6

Media and its cultural implications

6.1 Summary

This chapter extends and elaborates on the content of Chapter 5. It opens with an explanation of the various attempts to investigate and analyse the effects of films upon an audience. This takes the form of a review of the major experiments that have been used in the attempts to understand the effect of the mass media upon the audience. The areas covered are the behaviourist, pluralist and gratification theories.

This is followed with a description of the development of the Hollywood system of production in terms of its industrial, social and political influences. The section on realism investigates the suitability or desirability of the use of film to demonstrate a realistic perspective ...