1. There are three main models of audience that I am currently studying. In reflection to what I
have learned I am going to note the pros and cons of each model, allowing me to see how
each model fits into the media and which models fit with certain types of media texts.
Definitions:
Hypodermic Needle Model: This model suggests that a message is passed directly from
the producer to the consumer with no question. Information is passed straight on and the
receiver passively accepts what they are exposed to.
Uses and Gratifications: This theory suggests that the audience are in the minds of the
producers as the text is created, meaning that the audience are free to use a text as they
please, for their own satisfaction. There are four main uses that an audience has for a media
text. Firstly, diversion; allowing us to use a text for entertainment. Secondly there is ‘personal
identity’ which means we may be able to identify with the characters or situations in the text
that we are consuming. Thirdly; surveillance, which means we learn things about the world
through the text we are engaged in. And lastly, personal relationships, suggesting that we
can use the media as a way of forming a sort of companionship with characters as though
they are real.
Encoding and Decoding: This theory suggests that there is a preferred reading that the
producers of texts want us to have. Once a text is produced, the consumers take in this text
and develop their own readings. These readings are categorised into ‘dominant’ which is the
reading that producers want us to have, ‘negotiated’ which is a reading which means that the
audience both accepted and rejected elements of the text, and finally, ‘oppositional’ which
means the audience completely rejected the meaning that the producers attempted to
encode.
Pros Cons
Hypodermic ● This theory has positively affected
society in a way as it can be used
to explain why people are
influenced so easily by the media.
The theory may be the answer to
why many bad things happen
within society, for example, the
theory helps to explain the murder
of James Bulger as many actions
carried out on him were replicas of
what the murderers had seen in
horror films, suggesting that media
texts are dominant within society,
teaching its audience what is right
and wrong.
● This theory can lead to a certain
belief being imposed on a mass
group of people, possibly leading to
people being wrongly influenced.
An example of this is Nazi
propaganda during WWII. Media
was wrongly used to brainwash
German citizens. Information was
forced upon them through the use
of media and advertising, leading
them to believe Hitler’s beliefs were
right.
● This theory could also be classed
as ‘outdated’ as in modern society,
media is something that anybody
can be a part of. The consumers
are now ‘prosumers’ as they can
both produce and consume media
2. texts at their own will. We can use
the media however we wish
meaning that we are not completely
dominated by it anymore as we
have some control over what we
see and what we produce
ourselves.
Uses and
Gratifications
● A positive of this theory is that we
can use it to reflect on how we as
individuals use certain media texts.
We can use it to understand how
producers wish for us to use their
media text ensure that we are
using it for our own enjoyment.
● The theory is targeted at ‘us’
specifically and our primary use of
the media rather than a mass
audience, making it a much more
personal theory.
● It does seem to highlight why
modern forms of media such as
‘facebook’ or ‘youtube’ are of so
much importance to us - we turn
to them as a form of diversion.
● One negative side to this theory is
that it doesn’t really look at mass
audiences but instead focuses on
individuals and how each individual
may use a specific media text. This
is a downside as it does not explain
how wider audiences may use a
media text or how producers are
able to influence a mass audience.
● The theory does not explain how
we may be influenced by the media,
but rather how we use the media.
● Also, it refuses to explain how we
actively use media texts and
instead makes us as consumers
appear ‘lazy’ and as though we
have no real use for media texts
that are produced.
Encoding -
Decoding
● This theory highlights how in the
modern day, producers don’t have
as much control, allowing us to
have our own beliefs of what we
see and hear in the media.
● It suggests to us that we are given
a choice as to what we make of
media texts and that we don’t have
to be completely influenced by
what we are exposed to.
● The theory does not give an
explanation as to why or how we
are sometimes influenced by what
we are exposed to as it suggests
that we do not have to view a media
text in a specific way as in theory,
the producers do not have complete
control over the way we decode
texts.
