1. Learning Objective 3
The public are affected by the media every day without realising the influence it has on them. People
come across advertisements constantly throughout the day without realising; this plugs the idea or
product into their mind which encourages them to purchase this product.
Looking at music videos, company’s pay the music video producers to have their products in their
videos, AvrilLavigne’s video ‘What the Hell’ is a great example of this. After watching the video
viewers may be interested in the product is or what it’s like meaning the company has more sales.
A large number of people watch music videos a day and take in what’s being said and shown in
different ways. An example of how this works is hypodermic needle.
Hypodermic Needle theory
Hypodermic needle is a largely considered behaviourism. It implies that the mass media has a direct,
immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. According to Lowery& De Fleur (1995, p. 400)
people were assumed to be "uniformly controlled by their biologically based 'instincts' and that they
react more or less uniformly to whatever 'stimuli' came along". The hypodermic needle theory
implies that the public are immediately affected by the messages and they cannot escape from the
media’s influence.
Uses and gratification theory
The uses and gratifications theory is the understanding of why and how people seek out specific
media to satisfy specific needs and is used to research the content of the media. They say that a
media user seeks out a media source that best fulfils the needs of the user.
The user has four basic needs:
Diversion
Personal Relationships
Personal Identity
Surveillance

2. Diversion need:
Diversion is the need to escape from everyday life and to relax. This can be done by reading,
television and internet where the media will influence the viewers or readers thoughts.
Personal Relationships need:
People use the media to fulfil their need for companionship, and to form relationships with others
for example this can be done through the media, like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram.
Personal Identity need:
We tend to use the media to find out about ourselves and change ourselves due to influence from
celebrities and photos.
Surveillance need:
People use the media to find out what is going on around us, for example people read the
newspapers and magazines all the time which tells us what has been going on in celebrities lives and
around the world.
Passive and active consumption theory
The passive and active consumption theory states that as little as you watch, listen or see the media
you still believe it’s right.
What is an Active audience?
An active audience is one that actively engages with the text. The reader doesn’t necessarily
immediately accept the media message, they question what they read and develop their own
interpretation of the media product based on the background of their life. Theories such as the uses
and gratification and the postmodernist theory usually assume the audience are active.
What is a passive audience?
A passive audience does not actively engage with a media text. A passive audience is one that does
not question the message that the media is sending and simply accepts the message in the way the
media outlet intended it to be accepted. Theories such as ‘hypodermic’ and ‘agenda setting function’
assume audiences are passive.
Lucy Rose’s music video ‘Shiver’ can be
viewed by one person to

3. Alex G’s music video for ‘nineteen’ can be viewed by one person as boring due to nothing other than
herself in this video as they are used to fast moving music videos that take over music channels such
as MTV and VIVO in the top 40 music videos, this is due to narrative music videos being more
popular than music videos shot in the same way Alex G. This music video would attract an active
audience due to the audience having their own interpretation of the music video and taking their
own emotions away with them. This music video would also fulfil the viewer’s diversion need by
distracting them from their surroundings although this could be used in any music video due to the
viewer getting lost in the artist’s emotions and feelings.
The theories I’ve presented are a great representation of how the media has such a high influence
on the public’s thoughts, opinions and actions. The media has a way over the public to make them
think what the media says is right therefore causing them to believe it.