1. Audience TheoryHypodermic Needle, Cultivation Theory,Two Step Flow Theory, 2. Hypodermic Needle Theory Media is powerful and able to inject ideas into apassive audience. (Fear of mass media). Eg. Propaganda in Nazi Germany. Suggests that there can be only one messageand reading. Does not accept a variety ofbehavior or an active audience. In 1957 Vance Packard (working in advertising)wrote The Hidden Persuaders. It suggestedadvertisers had power over their audience tomake them buy products. Modern Audiences are too aware now and this ideais therefore unreliable. 3. Cultivation Theory The idea that repeated exposure to somethingwill change the audiences views and ideologies. Suggests that frequent exposure will lead todesensitization. (eg. More violence on screen less shock moreviolent behavior.) Criticized because it equated on screen violenceto the same as real life violence. (No evidence oflink). Also suggests audience is passive which isoutdated. 4. Two Step Flow Theory Katz and Lazarfeld assumed that the audiencewas more active and that the medias messagesmove in two different ways: 1 - individuals who are opinion leaders, receivemessages from the media and pass on their owninterpretations in addition to the actual mediacontent. 2 - the audience then mediate the informationdirectly from the media with the ideas and thoughtsexpressed by the opinion leaders, thus beinginfluenced not by a direct process, but by a two stepflow. Some researchers concluded that social factorswere also important in the way in whichaudiences interpret texts. 5. Uses and Gratifications Model The audience is a complex group of individualswho select the media texts that best suit theirneeds and social and cultural settings. Blumier and Katz (1974) Media usage can beexplained in that it provides gratifications(meaning it satisfies needs) related to thesatisfaction of social and psychological needs Soaps and sitcoms (gratification) vs. news(needs). 6. Uses and Gratification Model Blumier and Katz identified 4 main uses: Surveillance need to know whats going on in theworld. Link to Maslows need for security. Personal Relationships need to interact withothers form virtual relationships with others. Personal Identity need to define our identity andsense of self through making judgments. What welike can be an expression of our identity. Valuereinforcement is when we choose products thatagree with our own beliefs. Diversion the need for escape, entertainment andrelaxation. 7. Reception Analysis Suggests that social and daily experiencescan affect the way an audience reads a mediatext and reacts to it. This theory was put forward by ProfessorStuart Hall in The television discourse encoding/decoding in 1974 with laterresearch by David Morley in 1980 andCharlotte Brunsden. 8. Reception Analysis There are considered 4 different types of reading: Preferred Reading a way of understanding a textthat is consistent with the ideas of the creators. Maylead to acceptance of the dominant values of thetext. Negotiated Reading The viewer can choose toaccept the preferred reading or not. May read thetext through the filter of their own personal agenda.An individual may argue with some aspects of aproduct. Oppositional Reading an individual maycompletely oppose the preferred reading and thevalues it produces. Aberrant Reading when an entirely differentmeaning than that which was intended is taken.This could be when individual members of the