This document discusses three main sociological approaches to how audiences interact with and are affected by mass media: 1) The hypodermic syringe theory postulates that media has a powerful direct effect on audiences' attitudes and behaviors by injecting them with messages like a drug. 2) Uses and gratifications theory focuses on how audiences use media to fulfill needs like information, identity, relationships, and entertainment. 3) The decoding approach proposes that media messages can be interpreted and understood differently by various audiences based on their social characteristics and the context.

1. How does the Mass Media effect its audience?

2. Starter….think about…..
If we have the mass media do we still
need teachers?

3. Aims
 To understand the 3 main sociological
approaches on how the audience uses
and is effected by the mass media.
 The Hypodermic Syringe
 Uses and gratifications
 Decoding

4. Hypodermic Syringe
 Media has a powerful
effect on the
audience
 The power to control
and persuade
 People receive daily
injections of
messages from the
media which act as a
drug
 Powerful effect on the
audiences attitudes
an behaviour
 Bandura (1963)

5. Watch this and….
 What conclusions may a supporter of
this theory come to after seeing this
media clip?
 Can we find any criticisms of this
theory?
 Page 201

6. Uses and gratifications
 Focus…how do we
use the media?
 McQuail (1987)
identified 4 needs
 Information
 Personal identity
 Personal
relationships
 Entertainment and
diversion

7. Decoding approach
 Abercrombie (1996)
 One programme can have many
meanings….more than one way of
decoding the message.
 It can depend on
age, gender, class, interests, ethnicity, st
atus…
 How we respond to a programme
depends on our own reading of it.

8. …an example….
 Imagine the local news has run a story
about a strike in a factory, it showed the
workers outside the factory throwing
stones at the windows.
 How might the workers decode the
message?
 How might the employers decode the
message?

9. Tasks
 Define the three key approaches by
creating your own learning materials
 You need to cover….hypodermic
syringe, decoding and uses and
gratification and any sociological evidence
you can use to support the approach
 Homework essay
 Discuss how far sociologists agree that the
mass media have a direct and immediate
effect on audiences. (12 marks)

10. Bandura Abercrombie McQuail
1961 1996 1987
Uses and
Decoding
gratifications
Hypodermic syringe