2. The Hypodermic needle model
This theory states that the media control the
public and convey their point in such a manner
that it has a huge impact on the audiences
actions against/for what the text is about and
can could them to do something. This is done by
‘injecting’ the audience with specific messages in
hopes to trigger a response from them. With the
information that has been fired at them, there is
a strong chance the audience will end up thinking
what they have been told is fully true. In the
1940s and 50s, the mass media were perceived
as having a powerful influence of public opinions
and behaviours.
A good example of this being successful was the
radio representation of the novel ‘War of the
worlds’ was performed as though it were a
proper radio broadcast. This cause people to
believe that Earth was actually under attack.
3. Inoculation Model
The inoculation theory is seen as a passive audience theory
which means that audiences that are exposed to extreme
media messages will soon become resistant to it and
therefor will not take any future exposures as seriously, or
desensitise, due to already knowing about the media and
knowing what to expect. It can also be perceived as
resistance to persuasion, which means that the audience
will be stuck to their opinion and most likely not change. An
example would be gamers. Gamers who play lots of violent
games would probably react differently to any blood or gore
they see in real life as opposed to if they had never played
any games.
4. The two-step flow model
In 1944,Paul Lazarsfield, Bernard Berelson
and Hazel Gaudet introduced the two-step
flow model. They focused on the upcoming
presidential election campaign and how the
people made their decisions. They discovered
that there are special ‘opinion leaders’ , which
are people that the public look up to such as
parents, celebrities or leaders. These people
take information from various media texts and
create their own opinion on the matter. They
would then tell others in social contact with
the opinion leader their own views and these
individuals would most likely form an opinion
based on the opinion leaders.
An example would be in the Scottish vote for
independence. It has been estimated that
roughly 50% of people would be influenced by
opinion leaders, whilst others would make
their own decisions that could not be
influenced or changed and these decisions
would have been made quite some time
before the voting day.
5. Uses and Gratifications Theory
This theory focuses on what the audience would actually do with the
media instead of the actual message itself. The audience aren’t viewed
as passive, but they would take the media on-board and try to
integrate it into their own lives. Basic models include:
• Identify – Being able to recognise and know what the media is.
• Educate – being able to understand the information that the
individual has obtained.
• Entertain – Whether what the media portrays creates enjoyment
and fun for the audience or not.
• Social interaction – The ability to create a conversation between a
group about the media or spark a debate.
An example would be a game called Super Smash Bros 4. This would
create social interaction between players as well as entertainment. It
could educate the players as it tells them how to play as well as
special moves or techniques they could use to win. Further education
for the game can also be found online on sites such as YouTube, or
even through social interaction.
6. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-reception-
Reception Theory
This theory recognises the audience as being
an essential component to understand the
medias larger or deeper meaning.
“It teaches that overarching purpose or
meaning is a process of interaction and
reaction between the reader and the text,
and can change based on who is interpreting
the words.”
A good example of this would be how
different people would interpret gaming
magazines. Gamers and teenagers would
most likely see them as cool and awesome,
but older people who don’t play games or
haven’t seen video games before would read
it and think that, for example, shooter
games would be extremely violent, terrifying
and disgusting.
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