The Hypodermic Theory.

1. Hypodermic Needle
Model
Shania Carter

2. Hypodermic Theory
This theory is all about audiences, suggesting
that the audience does what it is told, without
thinking about it first.
For this particular theory, the audience is
passive, meaning that the audience has no
thought when it comes to a magazine –
particularly a newspaper, trying to produce a
message to its readers.
This theory has been proved false by many
media users and since then there has been more
complex ideas developed.

3. Uses and Gratifications
theory
This theory tries to explain different how different
audiences find the time to look at media and social
media that fits their needs.
Unlike the Hypodermic theory, this theory suggests
that the audience are more active in integrating
media into their lives, apart from the hypodermic
theory that suggests audiences are more passive.
This sort of theory came around in the 40’s by
Herzog. More theories like the Uses and
Gratifications theory came about at this time by four
other people; Laswell, Katz, Blumler and Mcquail.

4. The Uses and Gratification
theory
Each of the four theorists had their own ideas.
Laswell’s ideas were:
Surveillance, Correlation, Entertainment and Cultural Transmission.
Katz and Bulmler’s ideas were:
Diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance.
Finally, Mcquail’s ideas were:
Information, personal identity, integration and social interaction and
entertainment.
All these ideas, were to help find out how audiences find the time to
use media.

5. Uses and Gratification
Theory
This type of theory is more diverse, as its
questions ask ‘what do people do with media?’
rather than ‘what does media do to people’. This
theory also delves into knowledge of why
audiences find their needs through media and
social networking sites. UGT revolves around
assumptions, as its audiences are active and
goal oriented, this theory can be classed as
unique because it contradicts the hypodermic
theory, that suggests every media user is be used to
Maslow’s pyramid can
describe the uses and gratification
passive.
theory, as it suggests having a
sense of belonging and being
social, with people on and off the
web.

6. Denis Mcquail
Mcquail had several different approaches to thinking why people use media, Mcquail thought about
these ideas in 1987.
Information- Finding out about relevant information and society in sudden surroundings. Looking
for advice on opinions, facts and practical matters. Being satisfied with general interest and self
education/learning.
This section is all about looking in actual real life, for example, the news in papers and the local
information.
Personal Identity- increase in personal values, models of behaviour, and identifying other medias.
This section is all about being yourself, your personal needs and the way you behave in front of
people over the web and in person.
Integration and Social Interaction- gaining a social empathy, gaining a sense of belonging e.g.
forums/focus group, having a basis of social interaction and conversation and also having a
substitute for a real-life companion.
This section talks about, putting your personal views aside and how you can cope putting yourself
in someone else's shoes. It is also about making sure that you feel safe and belonged.
Entertainment- Being relaxed, escaping from real life problems and belonging naturally, to
entertainment or a certain type of culture.
This section talks about escaping from the real world and feeling relaxed on social media or having

7. My personal view
Looking at the four categories, I will now begin to explain how and why I use
social media and media.
The main social networking site I use is twitter, I find out lots of information
about my area (York) also because I am a football fan a lot of people on twitter
share the same interests as me so, I sometimes learn about different facts and
opinions and can share my opinions with a lot of people. Because none of my
friends are as passionate as me about football, I have self-learnt about
different tactics in the game via social media.
I think that I don’t have a particular model behaviour when I am on twitter but
sometimes I do think my behaviour changes because when I talk about
something close or passionate to me, I do tend to think that my opinion is right
and nobody should mock it e.g. Hillsborough disaster.
I have gained a sense of belonging on twitter because I have ‘friends’ on there
that I can talk to and have good discussions with about football which I can’t do
in real-life, I also participate in writing blogs for a football website, its where I
can relax and forget about other problems by focusing on my writing and
thinking up new ideas.
However, I use social media more than actual media i.e. newspapers because
it is easier for me to access social media rather than go out and buy a
newspaper every day. I don’t think that I am very socially integrated because I

8. The Reception Theory
This type of theory looks into how consumers interpret the media that
they buy/read. This theory, targets mainly newspapers and
magazines because you can gather more information from
newspapers readers as tabloid newspapers are controversial.
This theory has two parts to it; Encoding and Decoding.
Encoding, is about the media producer filling their product with a
certain message, this can be done by using emotive headlines and
anchorage pictures. Newspapers are good at this because they can
anchorage images to get a message across for example The Sun,
anchored the image of the Hillsborough disaster because they made
it look like the Liverpool fans were to blame.
Decoding, is where the consumer decodes the message from the
media product. Such as if there was a bad anchorage, the consumer
would read it and unravel the truth. When looking at a newspaper the
audience gets the message that is being emphasised by the
publisher.

9. Reception Theory- 2
The second part of the reception theory focuses on how someone
understands and views a media product. There are three different
types, that Stuart Hall (the theorist behind the reception theory) says
that you can interpret media.
Preferred- this is where the reader agrees with and understands
totally, what the publisher is saying, these sorts of people can be
classified with broadsheet newspapers because broadsheet
newspapers stick with the true facts that mostly everyone agrees
with.
Negotiated- this is where the reader partly agrees with the publisher,
but would prefer to input their own opinion, reflecting on their social
position, experiences, and interests.
Opposition- the reader in this circumstance, accepts what the
publisher has to say but rejects the publisher’s opinion and has an
opposite view which they stand by.
Examples: A preferred type of person could read The Times newspapers or a
negotiated person could read broadsheet and tabloid newspapers such as The Mirror,
but still want to input their own opinion and the opposition people, wouldn’t want to
read tabloid or broadsheet, they might flick through these sorts of papers but still
disagree heavily with the publishers. The people of Liverpool and Liverpool fans are an
opposition because they will never buy the Sun newspaper because the publisher’s
opinion was wrong and that has now been discovered.

10. Reception Theory
The way an audience views a media product
depends on their own personal background and
interests. Audiences will tend to apply their own ideas
to certain products i.e. being critical of newspapers.
People with similar ideas and interests could be
classed as a target audience because it would be
easier to display the product at them.
People’s who’s views and understandings are
different to those of the publisher and the consumer
are classed as opposition and therefore are more
likely to have an oppositional reading.

11. Passive and Active
Consumption
Another way of viewing audiences is considering
whether they are passive or active.
The hypodermic theory suggests that all
audiences are passive and do not apply their
own experiences or opinions to media and when
consuming it.
Active audiences are the opposite, as thoughts,
ideas and experiences are considered when
consuming media. The uses and gratification
theory suggests that assume that the majority of
audiences are active.