The document summarizes several theories related to media audiences: - Maslow's hierarchy of needs proposes that basic physiological needs must be met before higher-level needs. - Passive audience theory suggests audiences directly receive media messages and are influenced without response. - The hypodermic needle model views audiences as directly and powerfully impacted by media like advertisements. - Cultivation theory examines television's long-term influence on viewers' perspectives without their awareness. - The two-step flow theory proposes opinions spread from media to opinion leaders and then to others. - Active audience and reader response theories see audiences as interpreting media based on their own experiences. - Uses and gratifications model focuses on what audiences do with

1. Media Audiences

2. Hierarchy of Needs
• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is
a five-tier model of human
needs shown through a
diagram of a pyramid.
• The needs at the bottom of the
pyramid should be satisfied
before the needs higher up
can be.
• Maslow notes that the longer
deficiency of something for
someone goes on, the more
they’ll want it and will be
motivated to get it.

3. Passive Audiences
• It suggests that audiences
directly receive or are ‘injected’
and influenced by the information
transmitted via a media text.
• A passive audience is normally
effected by the message of the
media. The audience will more
likely just observe what is
happening rather than actively
responding to it.

4. The Hypodermic Needle
Model
• The Hypodermic Needle Model suggests that
media has a direct, immediate and powerful
impact on the audience. The Hypodermic
Needle Model reflects the power and influence
that advertising has on an audience.
• This idea is suggested from the increase of
radio of television, and the advertisement of
films i.e from trailers, and how much of an
impact this media has to make audiences go
and watch a film.
• The theory is thought to be a helpful tool to
use to ‘inject’ people with the information and
influence they want to have, to influence the
response they want to get from their target
audience.

5. Cultivation Theory
• Cultivation Theory examines the
long term effect that television
has on audiences, and how it
may change their perspective on
everyday life.
• The theory was originally
composed by G. Gerber and
later developed by Gerber &
Gross.
• It is believed to cultivate and
effect peoples views and actions
in their everyday lives, without
the audience even knowing that
they are being affected.

6. Two Step Flow Theory
This theory suggests that media moves in two
different ways
• Opinion Leaders get
their information from a
media source.
• Opinion Leaders pass on
their own interpretations to
other people i.e friends.
Opinion Leaders are important as they carry lots of
information that other people may not know. They pay
close attention to things like the message that the
source of media is trying to convey.

7. Active Audiences
This theory asses what people do with the media
that they have experienced. The theory suggests
that they may apply what they have experienced
within the media in their everyday lives.

8. Reader Response Theory
• It is a readers response to a
literary text.
• The theory is not passive,
the way that the reader
interprets it depends on the
individuals own background
and life experiences.
• The theory has been
developed by Stuart Hall
and he developed three
hypothetical interpretive
codes for the readers of the
text.

9. Reader Response Theory
1. Dominant reading is where the text is read in the way that the writer or
producer intended it to be read. Dominant reading is like a source of
advertising, as normally the audience will agree and follow along with the
message. Dominant reading has to consider the culture, age and society.
2. Negotiated reading is similar to dominant reading in the sense that the
audience should acknowledge the views and message that the producer is
portraying. However the audience is more likely to also add their own
interpretation, they make their own judgement. The audience may not fully
understand the reading and its messages, or may just not relate to the
message being portrayed.
3. Oppositional reading is where the audience rejects the producers intended
reading, and instead the audience creates their own interpretation and
reading, which contrasts with what the producer intended. Oppositional
reading is very negative for a producer. For example if a dress is being
advertised, it will make the audience not want to buy it at all for the ways it
has been advertised. For example they may have found the advert
intensive. This is obviously not what the producer intended. The audience
may not agree with the producers messages. Oppositional reading tends to
come around from a product or advertisement that may have controversial
themes, or if it has a message which is not understood properly.

10. Uses and Gratification Model
This theory focusses more on the consumer, audience, or
the message itself by asking the question “what do people
do with media” rather than “what media does to people”.
The theory notices the people make an active effort to
interpret media into their own lives. This theory therefore
suggests that media competes against other information
sources for viewers gratification.

11. Uses and Gratification Model
The Basic Model surges that the uses and gratification theory has to fulfil on of the
following when choosing a form of media:
- Identify: By allowing the audience to recognise the product or person presented.
- Educate: being able to digest information and understanding.
- Entertain: The audience should enjoy the method of advertisement used to sell
product to them, make them remember the product and make them want to go out
and buy it.
- Social Interaction: To make the media product to spark a conversation with
people, to keep the product relevant and up for discussion, therefore making it
more appealing.