UNIT 1

1. Different Audience Theories in Media
Text
Jarad Tansley
Hypodermic Needle
The hypodermic needle theory treats audiences as being passive, and it
states that the film precisely delivers their content – injecting it to the
audience and giving them the intended effect.
The message of media texts is ‘injected’ into the audience, making them
react to what is going on. It creates a predictable effect, similar to the
predictable side effects of certain drugs. It is said to “brainwash” audience,
and that audiences go to watch a film to be “drugged”, to react the way the
director intended them to.
An example of the hypodermic needle being used in The Descent would be
the car crash scene: the moment the car crashes and Sarah’s husband and
daughter is impaled, as well as the quick shot change to the husband being
impaled, creates a predictable reaction of shock.
Another example in the same movie would be the suspense of Sarah being
close to a crawler that “looks” at the camera (shown by the camera shots
switching to the night vision camera’s built-in screen), with Sarah heavily
breathing in fear that she may be killed.
Everyone in the crew of the film, particularly the director, wanted the
audience to give the intended reactions, thus injecting them with the drug of
the movie content.
Two-Step Flow
This theory says that there are people in a society who have good
understanding of certain media products, or types of media products, who
lead the public opinion or the opinion of a small group.
The Two-Step Flow theory suggests that there are opinion leaders, like well-
known critics, reviewers on media information and review websites like
Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB, TV presenters or well-known fans of movies, that
form their own opinion on a text that the rest of the audience will follow. This
treats the audience of the opinion leaders as passive, however the opinion
leaders themselves will be treated as an active audience. Audiences can be
influenced by opinion leaders, not only from the opinion leaders themselves,
but can be influenced by their opinions from other media, particularly in print.

2. If a horror fan was to consider The Descent as a movie to watch, they may
want to be influenced by critics and reviewers, particularly those that have a
reputation or are famous for reviewing horror movies. They may find such
reviewers on movie-centric sites or blogs from genre-centric reviewers. If
they see that the movie has been praised for certain elements, that may
influence the horror fan to watch The Descent.
Uses and Gratifications
This theory suggests that the audience makes choices about media texts
guided by what they want from them.
It suggests that the audience makes choices on what they want in the movie,
and what they want to get out from them, treating them as active and letting
them make their own choices and letting them choose what media texts the
enjoy and what they can get out from them.
The Descent revolves around the genre of horror in movies. Horror fans want
to get a reaction from the movie; they want to be scared, shocked or fearing
for someone’s life. This theory suggests, through The Descent, that people
are going to watch the film in order to feel scared, to feel claustrophobic, to
feel shock. It suggests that people watching this movie probably find
pleasure in horrible things happening in a movie, or more plausibly, the
feeling of reaction to such horrible things.
In simple terms: “you bring your desires, intentions and needs when
watching the movie as a fan of a certain text or genre, and you choose how
you react.”