A2 Media Theory Hypodermic Needle, Cultivation, Two-Step Flow, Uses and Gratification, Reception Analysis.

1. Audience Theory
Hypodermic Needle, Cultivation Theory,
Two Step Flow Theory,

2. Hypodermic Needle Theory
 Media is powerful and able to inject ideas into a
passive audience. (Fear of mass media).
 Eg. Propaganda in Nazi Germany.
 Suggests that there can be only one message
and reading. Does not accept a variety of
behavior or an active audience.
 In 1957 Vance Packard (working in advertising)
wrote The Hidden Persuaders. It suggested
advertisers had power over their audience to
make them buy products.
 Modern Audiences are too aware now and this idea
is therefore unreliable.

3. Cultivation Theory
 The idea that repeated exposure to something
will change the audiences’ views and ideologies.
 Suggests that frequent exposure will lead to
desensitization.
 (eg. More violence on screen  less shock  more
violent behavior.)
 Criticized because it equated on screen violence
to the same as real life violence. (No evidence of
link).
 Also suggests audience is passive which is
outdated.

4. Two Step Flow Theory
 Katz and Lazarfeld assumed that the audience
was more active and that the media’s messages
move in two different ways:
 1 - individuals who are opinion leaders, receive
messages from the media and pass on their own
interpretations in addition to the actual media
content.
 2 - the audience then mediate the information
directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts
expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being
influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step
flow.
 Some researchers concluded that social factors
were also important in the way in which
audiences interpret texts.

5. Uses and Gratifications Model
 The audience is a complex group of individuals
who select the media texts that best suit their
needs and social and cultural settings.
 Blumier and Katz (1974) – “Media usage can be
explained in that it provides gratifications
(meaning it satisfies needs) related to the
satisfaction 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 what’s going on in the
world. Link to Maslow’s need for security.
 Personal Relationships – need to interact with
others – form virtual relationships with others.
 Personal Identity – need to define our identity and
sense of self through making judgments. What we
like can be an expression of our identity. Value
reinforcement is when we choose products that
agree with our own beliefs.
 Diversion – the need for escape, entertainment and
relaxation.

7. Reception Analysis
 Suggests that social and daily experiences
can affect the way an audience reads a media
text and reacts to it.
 This theory was put forward by Professor
Stuart Hall in ‘The television discourse –
encoding/decoding’ in 1974 with later
research by David Morley in 1980 and
Charlotte Brunsden.

8. Reception Analysis
 There are considered 4 different types of reading:
 Preferred Reading – a way of understanding a text
that is consistent with the ideas of the creators. May
lead to acceptance of the dominant values of the
text.
 Negotiated Reading – The viewer can choose to
accept the preferred reading or not. May read the
text through the filter of their own personal agenda.
An individual may argue with some aspects of a
product.
 Oppositional Reading – an individual may
completely oppose the preferred reading and the
values it produces.
 Aberrant Reading – when an entirely different
meaning than that which was intended is taken.
This could be when individual members of the