The document discusses different theories around media effects and audiences: - The hegemony vs pluralism debate around whether media has dominance over audiences or society has dispersed power. - The hypodermic syringe theory viewed audiences as passive receivers directly influenced by media messages. - Active audience theory sees audiences as playing an active role in interpreting media texts rather than passively receiving messages. - Prosumer theory from Tapscott and Williams describes future consumers who will participate in product design and manufacturing rather than passively receiving goods.

1. THE MEDIA EFFECTS DEBATE
HEGEMONY VS. PLURALISM
• Hegemony is dominance or authority (leadership) over others. It can be
political or cultural. In this circumstance it is the media and whether they
have dominance over us as an audience.
• Pluralism is a theory which argues that society is made up of many
different groups in which power is fairly dispersed(religion, ethnic, racial
and political). Believes that some interest groups have greater access to
social powers than others.
• The media effects debate:
The media effects debate is an argument about the possible effects that the
media has on us as an audience and if it is in a positive or negative way.
Some feel that there is similarities in the ‘repeated messages’ or
‘reinforcement’ of television and their effects on audiences and how it might
change someone’s behaviour. It is also said that violent media content is also
a problem as it can have an effect on children and they do similar behaviour
to what they have seen.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pluralism
http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/hegemony

2. THE HYPODERMIC SYRINGE THEORY
AND PASSIVE AUDIENCES
• The hypodermic model or ‘theory’ is the notion that media messages are
injected into audiences, with direct effects upon the groups which receive
the ‘message’ to trigger a desired response. The mass media have a
direct, immediate and powerful effects on its audience. Eldridge claim that
they promoted the hypodermic model of media effects whereby media
messages were directly absorbed into the hearts and minds of the people.
The theory suggest a powerful and direct flow of information from the
sender to the receiver. The hypodermic model suggests that media
messages are injected straight into a passive audience which is
immediately influenced by the message and because the people are seen
as passive it means that we end up thinking what they are told because
there is no other source of information.
https://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/theory%20clusters/mass%20media/hypodermic_needle_theory/
“the complete A-Z media & communication handbook” by Stuart Price

3. ACTIVE AUDIENCE THEORY AND
POSTMODERNISM & PLURALISM
• This is the idea that the audience have an active role to play in the
understanding and creation of a media text. An active audience is when
they think about the media text that they are watching and might be
asking questions about it. They would interpret a message differently to a
passive audience member who wouldn’t think about it they would just take
what the message is telling them. The pluralist model argues that there is
diversity in society and that everyone is different, i.e. the audience can
choose what they want to believe and not to believe. Tomlinson did a
study and found that ‘audiences are more active and critical, their
responses more complex and reflective, and their cultural values more
resistant to manipulation and invasion than many critical media theorists
have assumed’.
‘Active audience: a new materialistic interpretation of a key concept of cultural studies by Huimin Jin
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PkG2BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA96&lpg=PA96&dq=active+audience+theory+and+postmodernism&source=bl&ots=7-
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4. PROSUMERS – TAPSCOTT AND
WILLIAMS
• A prosumer has two meanings – it is a blend of producer and consumer.
He used it to describe a possible future type of consumer who would
become involved in the design and manufacture of products, so they
could be made to individual specification. He argued that we would then
no longer be a passive market upon which industry dumped consumer
goods but a part of the creative process.
• Don Tapscott is ‘one of the worlds leading authorities on innovation, media
and the economic and social impact of technology and advises business
and government leaders around the world.
Tapscott & Williams made a book together called wikinomics. The prosumers
takes you through an increasingly dynamic world of customer innovation,
where a new generation of producer consumers considers the right to hack its
birthright.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/turnsofphrase/tp-pro4.htm