This theory proposes that audiences are active and make motivated choices in their media consumption to fulfill social and psychological needs. Blumler and Katz identified four main needs that drive media use: surveillance to stay informed, personal identity through relating to media personalities and messages, personal relationships by discussing media with others, and diversion or escapism from problems through entertaining media. The theory represents a shift toward viewing audiences as active rather than passive recipients of media effects.

1. AAUUDDIIEENNCCEE

2. USES AND GRATIFICATIONS: BLUMLER AND KATZ
This theory represents a change in thinking, as researchers began to describe the effects of the media from the point of view
of audiences. It looks at the motives of the consumers of media, questioning why we choose to watch the things we do. Thus
the audience is made active as it recognises their choice to consume what they want.
The theory argues that the audience have social and psychological needs which generate certain expectations about they are
exposed to. Again this is reinforcing the idea of an active audience who making motivated choices, essentially controlling the
media instead of the other way round.
Blumler and Katz broke the model down into four needs:
1. Surveillance
2. Personal Identity
3. Personal Relationships
4. Diversion
Surveillance
This need claims people feel better when they believe they know what is happening in the world around them. As an
audience, we feel more secure when our need for knowledge is fulfilled, which is why we watch the news, look at websites,
read newspapers etc.
Personal Identity
Being a subject of the media allows an individual to confirm their identity and position within society. Often messages, values
or even certain people within the media are relatable for an audience and therefore help them define themselves. Songs and
music videos, such as Christina Aguilera’s Beautiful sometimes specifically target this need.
Personal Relationships
Audience members can form a relationship with the media itself and use it to form relationships with others. Many people use
TV as companionship, forming relationships with characters to the extent where they ‘grieve’ if the character dies. This can
cause the formation of false identities, wherein the audience dislikes an actor because they portray a bad character within the
media. The media can also be used as a springboard to form relationships with others – families use TV as a stimulus for
conversation and having TV shows that you like in common can form friendships.
Diversion
This refers to escapism, using the media as a way to stop thinking about your life and problems. Audiences watch music
videos, films, TV etc. to forget about their own lives and distract themselves from it.

3. RECEPTION THEORY: STUART HALL
Hall’s theory claims that media texts are encoded by the producer, meaning that whoever produces the product
fills it with messages and values. The text is then decoded by spectators in different ways, and possibly not in
the way the encoder intended.
Spectators can have one of three readings of a text:
1. Dominant or preferred
2. Negotiated
3. Oppositional
Dominant Reading
• The audience view the text in the way the producer intended it to be viewed
• They agree with the ideology in the text
• E.g. A woman sees a handbag advert that implies she will be glamorous and successful if she buys the
handbag. She agrees with this message and goes and buys the handbag
Negotiated Reading
• This is a compromise between agreeing and disagreeing
• The audience agrees with some aspects of the text but may see others differently
• Often the audience see the text at face value, recognising how it’s trying to influence them and therefore not
letting it do so fully
• E.g. A woman sees a handbag advert that implies she will be glamorous and successful if she buys the
handbag. Although she agrees that the handbag will make her feel that way, she doesn’t buy it – perhaps
because of the price or the material it’s made out of. She is questioning the ideology behind the text
Oppositional Reading
• The audience completely rejects the intended reading and creates their own instead
• They disagree with the messages the producer has put into the text and do not read the advert in the
preferred way
• E.g. A woman sees a handbag advert that implies she will be glamorous and successful if she buys the
handbag. She sees it as a stereotypical, degrading representation of women and so does not buy the
handbag because she disagrees with the ideology

4. HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY
This theory, developed in the 1920s and 30s, states that the media injects messages and
information into its audience. It is a linear communication theory, seeing the media as having a
direct, immediate and powerful influence on a passive audience. When the theory was
developing, the increasing popularization of TV and radio along with the emersion of persuasion
industries such as propaganda contributed to the ‘strong effects’ that it had.
The theory works on the simple model that the sender (in this case the media), injects messages
in the receiver – whether it’s an individual or a large group audience. It assumes the receiver will
then instantly accept the injected message, thus portraying the media as a dangerous form of
communication that makes an audience powerless to form their own opinion.
An example of this theory is the 1930s broadcast of ‘War of the Worlds’. To make the story more
realistic, they broadcast it in the style of a real news report. This meant people tuning in halfway
through actually believed the Earth was being invaded by Mars, showing how the theory can
result in mass hysteria.
This theory is widely considered irrelevant today due to its outdated beginning and the following
flaws:
• It assumes the receiver will agree with the intended message yet more recent theories like
Stuart Hall’s demonstrate that different people read media in different ways
• The Two-step Flow theory similarly disputes this, describing a middle man between the sender
and receiver which affects the way the audience understand the text
• The theory doesn’t consider the wide variety of means of communication that modern media
has, or consequently the different ideologies behind these media sources
• It was created for a less media-saturated society, and so is outdated now
• Audiences are not simply passive as this theory claims, we know from theories like Uses and
Gratifications that audiences can be considered to control the media by choosing what to
consume