2. HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
In 1943, a man called Abraham Maslow wrote a
paper called the ‘Hierarchy of Needs.’ He studied
different people to work out the different stages of
motivations of people. Albert Einstein, Frederick
Douglass and Eleanor Roosevelt are examples of
people he studied.
The theories Maslow came up with can be applied
to social media marketing. For example, what
motivates consumers and brands on social media
platforms.
Maslow used the pyramid scheme to present his
findings. He placed the most fundamental biggest
needs at the bottom of the pyramid and the then
focusing on our secondary needs – so and so forth.
Simple actions like breathing are at the bottom oft
the pyramid; physiological needs. On the top of
the pyramid are self-actualisations such as lack of
prejudice and acceptance of facts.
3. PASSIVE AUDIENCES
The earliest ideas about film was that audiences were passive and inactive.
This theory originally derived from Harrold Lasswell. The audience were
treated like couch-potatoes and were said to have absolutely no say in
what they watched on screen.
The hypodermic model – The media is able to inject its ideas into the audience who appear to be
passive and weak. The media can therefore insert propaganda into its audience. An example of this is
during the Weimar republic where the audience were told that the problems caused from the republic
where all outsiders faults and they had no access to any other form of media or proof that this was
false. The idea was that people would believe anything they were told.
4. ACTIVE AUDIENCES
Audiences are subconsciously and consciously interpreting texts
themselves – both cognitively and emotionally. This involvement with the
text has several dimensions:
• Interpretation
• Evaluation
• Comprehension
• Perception
• Response
5. THEORY PROPOSED BY PROF. GEORGE GERBNER AND
LARRY GROSS – UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 1970S
• This theory suggests that the media
spoon feed audiences the same
message
• These messages are present heavily in
advertising – often the same/similar
products are advertised on repeat
• We can become inured to violence on
television because we are so used to
watching it – desensitisation, this can
distort our view on reality and the real
world outside of a TV screen
THEORY CRITICISM – VIOLENCE ON SCREEN IS
DIFFERENT TO REAL LIFE VIOLENCE; CAN’T BE COMPARED. THERE
IS ALSO NO HARD EVIDENCE TO BACK UP THE THEORY
CULTIVATION THEORY
6. TWO-STEP FLOW THEORY
This theory suggests that media is presented
to us through two stages. At first the media
will reach ‘influencers’ who will promote the
media type and hopefully give it good
publicity. An example of this is the Coke
Friends campaign. Secondly, the media type
will reach the masses; the general public.
Information about media is interpreted
through the influencers and then passed on
to us. It is therefore difficult to create an
opinion when the information received is so
filtered.
Weaknesses of the theory are
communication. It is very difficult for the
audience to form a homologous relationship
with a media form. The opinionated leaders;
the influencers interfere with the
communication process and the media’s
direct message audience. The influencers
seem to have the greatest impact on people
they are most similar to, in societal status,
7. THE DOMINANT READING
• This is the same as the media content
that creators make
• This is when the views presented in
the media are opposed
THE OPPOSITIONAL READING
RECEPTION ANALYSIS
THE NEGOTIATED READING
• This is when people interpret
media to fit with their own life
Reception analysis models state that there are 3 different types of ways
media is presented. These are the ways audiences ‘read’ the media
content
8. RECEPTION THEORY
• Reception theory was developed by Stuart Hall
• A theory of encoding and decoding - a producer encodes a piece of media and the audience are left to
decode it
• Different audience members will decode the piece of media in different ways
• Stuart Hall state that the audience member must adopt one of the following 3 positions when the text is
decoded:
Dominant or preferred reading- how the producers want us as an
audience to view the text, the messages are clear if the audience is the
same age and experiences the same culture
Oppositional reading- when the audience rejects the reading of the text
and interprets it to fit their own meaning
Negotiated reading – a combination of the options above – for
example if the audience understand some of the messages but the
meaning of the text is complex. Different factors can effect this such as
age, gender and mood at the time of watching
9. USES AND GRATIFICATION MODEL
This model has the same layout as the Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs. This model suggests that we as
an audience make active decisions when viewing
something and we look for media texts that will
fulfil our needs. For example, a recipe when we are
trying to cook or a comedy movie when we need
cheering up.
- Developed in the 1960s by Blumler and Katz
The main uses of the ‘Uses and Gratification and Model”
1. Personal relationships – virtual relations with characters e.g
to hinder feelings of loneliness
2. Diversion – need to escape e.g. unsatisfaction with reality
3. Personal Identity – value reinforcement e.g. TV shows
sharing similar beliefs to us
4. Surveillance – the need to know what’s going on in world
(similar to Marslow’s need for security) e.g reading the news
