Unit 6 Task 3: Audience Responses to Media Products

The Hypodermic Needle Model

This particular model dates back to the 1920's when the mass media was just beginning to develop. It tried to predict how mass audience would react to media. The hypodermic needle model suggested that it passed through the audience's mind unmediated meaning that the audiences personality, intelligence, opinions etc. did not affect the reception of the text. This suggests that the audience could be manipulated by the media-makers. This suggests that as an audience we are passive (we take in information without conciously thinking about it) and maleable (We conform to what the media wants us to think). A prime example of this was when H. G Wells originally broadcast War of the Worlds as a news broadcast on the radio, this sent people into a panic who thought all the events were real. However since this theory was speculated around a time when the idea of mass media was alien and the technology and system used to publish media itself amazed and bewildered the masses which could already influence them to believe everything the media says as a higher power.

The Inoculation Model

The Inoculation Model continues the idea of people being passively influenced by mass media. It suggests that continued exposure to specific tv messages could make the audience become de-sensitised and can lead them to believe what they see as alright and are no longer shocked by it. For example if the audience became sensitised to violence they may become more likely to commit a violent act in reality as they see it as no extrodinary action.

The Two Step Flow Model

This theory was conducted in 1940 when three people Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet did a study during the presedential election. They found that 50% of the voters had already made up their mind who they were going to vote for and were not influenced by the mass media coverage. This theory asserts that the media moves in two distinct directions. First the opinion leaders who scrutinise every piece of media they may see and watch and then pass on that information in a different interpretation mixing their opinion with the actual media content. This influences individuals towards a certain opinion leaders views or to an opinion leader they look up to or hold with high regard.

The Uses and Gratification Model

In the 1960's, as the first generation to grow up with television became older, it became apparent to media theorists that the audience chose what they did when consuming media texts. The theory Uses and Gratifications concentrates more on what people do with the media text, this allowed many varieties of responses and interpretations. Far from the passive mass that the Hypodermic and Inoculation theory suggested, this theory suggests that the mass audience is made up entirely of individuals who actively consume media text. It suggests that audiences may consume media for these following purposes;
information, personal indentity, Integration and Social Interaction and entertainment.

Information

• finding out about relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the world
• seeking advice on practical matters or opinion and decision choices
• satisfying curiosity and general interest
• learning; self-education
• gaining a sense of security through knowledge

Personal Identity

• finding reinforcement for personal values
• finding models of behaviour
• identifying with valued other (in the media) 
• gaining insight into one's self

Integration and Social Interaction

• gaining insight into circumstances of others; social empathy
• identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging
• finding a basis for conversation and social interaction
• having a substitute for real-life companionship
• helping to carry out social roles
• enabling one to connect with family, friends and society

Entertainment

• escaping, or being diverted, from problems
• relaxing
• getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment
• filling time
• emotional release
• sexual arousal

Reception Theory

This is the most recent theory of audience responses to media texts. It poibts out that the meaing of any text is created by the audience and not the media-maker. Meaning is encoded into the media but it depends how the audience decode the text from the signs they see. They usually interpret it in three ways;

1. The Preferred Reading - Audience understands and accepts the ideology offered.

2. The Negotiated Reading - Audience understands the ideology offered, accepts some aspects of it but rejects other aspects.

3. The Opositional Reading - Audience interprets the ideology offered in the opposite way than it is intended.

 

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