Issues/debates& theories linked to critical investigation

-Representations and stereotypes(Issues&debates)
Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions , often influences the representations of individuals in the media.
Relevant reading:
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/
http://www.suite101.com/content/media-portrayal-of-women-a189870

-Media effects(Issues&debates)
Refers to the theories about the ways in which mass media affect how their audiences think and behave.
Relevant reading:
http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Mass%20Media/Hypodermic_Needle_Theory.doc/

-Audience theories(theories)
Refers to the gains the audience recieve from text eg. Entertainment gratifications , emotional erousal.
Relevant reading:
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/usegrat.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uses_and_gratifications_theory

“what media does to people” (Katz, 1959)
'This theory would then imply that the media compete against other information sources for viewers' gratification. '(Katz, E., Blumler, J. G., & Gurevitch, M. 1974)

-Genre theories(theories)
An explanation of the roels played by genre in different media texts.
Relevnat reading:
http://www.main-vision.com/richard/genre.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre_studies

-Moral panics(Issues&debates)
An intensity of feeling expressed in a society about an issue that appears to threaten the social order.
Relevant reading:
http://www.mediaknowall.com/violence/moralpanicnotes.html

"Moral panics then, are those processes whereby members of a society and culture become 'morally sensitized' to the challenges and menaces posed to 'their' accepted values and ways of life, by the activities of groups defined as deviant. The process underscores the importance of the mass media in providing, maintaining and 'policing' the available frameworks and definitions of deviance, which structure both public awareness of, and attitudes towards, social problems."