By Banita Sharma and Sophie Muspratt

AUDIENCE THEORY

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Audience Theory

Effects Models

Hypodermic Needle Theory

Uses and Gratification Theory

Two-Step Flow Theory

Reception Theory

MAIN LESSON

o It is virtually impossible these days to go through a day without encountering the media in some form. We are all therefore apart of the audience for these different kinds of media products.

o Over the course of the past century or so, media analysts have developed several “effects models”, which are explanations of how humans ingest the information transmitted by media texts and how this might influence (or not) their behaviour.

o Some people see media audiences as being easily manipulated masses of people There have also been fears that the contents of media texts can make their audiences behave in different ways. On the other hand there have been other critics who have seen the media as having much less influence and working in more subtle ways.

WHAT IS AN AUDIENCE THEORY?

o Dating from the 1920s and being one of the most simple theory's to understand the hypodermic needle theory was the first attempt to explain

how mass audiences might react to mass media. According to the theory the media is like a syringe which injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience who as a powerless mass have little choice but to be influenced

o But remember that this theory was developed in an age when the mass media were still fairly new - radio and cinema were less than two decades old. Governments had just discovered the power of advertising to communicate a message, and produced propaganda to try and sway people to their way of

thinking.

o So this theory suggests that, as an audience, we are manipulated by the creators of media texts, and that our behaviour and thinking might be easily

changed by media-makers. It assumes that the audience are passive and heterogenous. It is used to explain why certain groups in society should not be exposed to certain media texts for fear that they will watch or read sexual

or violent behaviour and will then act them out themselves.

THE HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY

o The Frankfurt School, a group of German Marxists, who in the 1930s witnessed first hand how Hitler used

propaganda to influence a nation.oThe Bobo Doll experiment This is a very controversial

piece of research that apparently proved that children copy violent behaviour.

ohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHHdovKHDNU

EVIDENCE FOR THE HYPODERMIC NEEDLE

THEORY

o According to uses and gratification theory, we all have different uses for the media and we make choices over what we want to watch.

oIn this model the individual has the power and they are able to select the media texts that best suits their needs and their attempts to satisfy those needs. The

psychological basis for this model is the Hierarchy of Needs identified by Maslow.

oThe theory suggests that we as an audience may use the media for the four following purposes:

oDiversion – Escaping from everyday problems and routine.oPersonal Relationships – Using the media for emotional

and other interaction (substituting soap operas for family

life.oPersonal Identity – Finding yourself reflected in

the media, learning behaviour and values.oSurveillance – Information which could

be useful for living (weather reports,

financial news, holiday bargains)

Self Actualization

Self Esteem

Social Needs

Safety Needs

Physical Needs

USES AND GRATIFICATION THEORY

What do you think would go under

each title of Maslow’s Hierarchy

of needs?

Morality, Creativity,

Problem Solving,Lack of Prejudice,

Acceptance of Facts.

Esteem, Confidence, Achievement, Respect of Others, Respect by

Others. Friendship, Family, Sexual Intimacy, Love,

Belonging.

Breathing, Food, Water, Sex, Sleep.

Safety of Self, Security of Employment, Security of Morality, Security of your Family, Security of your

Health, Security of your Property.

oThe two-step flow hypothesis was first introduced by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet in a paper called The People's Choice, a 1944 study focused on the process of decision-making during a Presidential election

campaign.

oThey were surprised to discover that informal, personal contacts were mentioned far more

frequently than exposure to radio or newspaper as sources of influence on voting behaviour.

oThis theory asserts that information from the media moves in two distinct stages. First,

individuals (opinion leaders) who pay close attention to the mass media and its messages receive the information. Opinion leaders then create their own interpretations of the media content from their reaction to the message.

Second, opinion leaders influence or change the attitudes and behaviours of individuals that they

have social contact with who take in their opinions and attitudes.

TWO-STEP FLOW THEORY

oThe reception theory was developed by the academic Stuart Hall at Birmingham University in the 1970s. This considered how texts were encoded with meaning by producers and then decoded by audiences.

oThe theory suggests that when a producer constructs a text it is encoded with a meaning or message that the producer wishes to convey to the

audience. In some instances audiences will correctly decode the message or meaning and understand what the producer was trying to say, in other

instances the audience will either reject or fail to correctly understand the message

oStuart Hall identified three types of audience readings of the media: Dominant, Negotiated and Oppositional.

oDominant - Where the audience decodes the message as the producer wants them to do and broadly agrees with it. E.g. Watching a political

speech and agreeing with itoNegotiated - Where the audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of

the text in light of previously held views. E.g. Neither agreeing or disagreeing with the political speech or being disinterested

oOppositional - Where the dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for cultural, political or ideological reasons. E.g. Total rejection of the

political speech and active opposition

RECEPTION THEORY

EXAMPLES OF ENCODED TEXTS/SUBLIMINAL

MESSAGES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI_dqSO30Mg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73fCLx-mFLg

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