Course:WMST307 KeyWord Index:Eirian Vining
Reflection Hypothesis
The reflection hypothesis asserts that what we see in media is merely a reflection of daily life or, at the very most, what the general audience wants to see. Media, therefore, has very little influence over the real world. By this way of thinking, media is rendered passive as opposed to an active manipulator [1]
The reflection hypothesis is often used to argue against the idea that media, especially media aimed at younger audiences, influences them into violence, sex, and drug abuse. Though what is being presented is often highly idealized or extreme in its execution (such as violent video games and highly sexualized films), the reflection hypothesis may still be deployed. The key argument lies in the fact that nothing media presents operates outside of pre-existing behaviours, relationships, and beliefs. [2]
This goes directly against what is called the “Manipulation Hypothesis,” which sees media as being highly influential, near brainwashing, to its viewers. Unlike the reflection hyphothesis, this theory stipulates that it is media impacting every day reality as opposed to the other way around. Media is actually rife with messages and the beliefs of those that make it. If we are saturated in media, we are then being influenced constantly by these viewpoints.
Historically, the two theories have often overlapped:
Ironically, the more extreme forms of the manipulative hypothesis have been supported by both left and right wings of the political spectrum. During the 1950s, for example, with worries of foreign subversion running high, conservative ideologues warned that communists had come to rely "more on radio and TV than on the press and motion pictures as 'belts' to transmit pro-Sovietism to the American public." On the other hand, liberal intellectuals charged that mass culture, at its worst, threatened "not merely to cretinize our taste, but to brutalize our senses by paving the way to totalitarianism." [3]
These two ideas may be deployed at different times in order to justify or demonize certain things. A media producer may use the reflection hypothesis to justify the content they put out, while also using the manipulation hypothesis to argue against opposing content. It is hard to determine whether one theory is more right than the other. Rather, a mixture of the two should be considered, along with the context of the work (such as who is producing it and for what reason). References: