HA2 Task 3 - Audience Responses to Media Products

The Hypodermic Needle Model

The hypodermic needle theory implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behavior change. Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication, including the fast rise and popularization of radio and television and the emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda. The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response. The effects of the campaign were not all-powerful to where they persuaded helpless audiences uniformly and directly, which is the very definition of what the hypodermic theory does. As focus group testing, questionnaires, and other methods of marketing effectiveness testing came into widespread use; and as more interactive forms of media (e.g. internet, radio call-in shows, etc.) became available, the hypodermic theory was replaced by a variety of other, more instrumental models.

http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Mass%20Media/Hypodermic_Needle_Theory.doc/
http://knbsmedia.blogspot.com/2011/05/audience-theory-effects-modelhypodermic.html

The Inoculation Model

Inoculation theory states that inoculation is used to describe the attribution of greater resistance to individuals.  Or, the process of supplying information to receivers before the communication process takes place in hopes that the information would make the receiver more resistant. Basicially the more someone is exposed to something such as violence in media, the more immune they become to it in the future. Such as if they were shocked the first time they saw or listened to something, the more they watch or listen to it the less shocked they will become overtime. This theory has predictive power, and has relative simplicity.  Inoculation theory is testable and can therefore be proved false, and is internally consistent.  This theory generates new hypotheses, and organizes existing knowledge.

http://www.uky.edu/~drlane/capstone/persuasion/ino.htm
http://coleshillmediasite.weebly.com/uploads/4/6/0/1/4601434/7337254.jpg?473


The Two-Step Flow Model
This theory asserts that information from the media moves in two distinct stages. First, individuals (opinion leaders) who pay close attention to the mass media and its messages receive the information. Opinion leaders pass on their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content. The term ‘personal influence’ was coined to refer to the process intervening between the media’s direct message and the audience’s ultimate reaction to that message. Opinion leaders are quite influential in getting people to change their attitudes and behaviors and are quite similar to those they influence. The theory refined the ability to predict the influence of media messages on audience behavior, and it helped explain why certain media campaigns may have failed to alter audience attitudes an behavior. For example a child is being fed their own interpretation of information heard in the news by their parents and believe what they say to be true due to the trust and connection between parent and child.

http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Levels%20of%20theories/macro/Two-Step%20Flow%20Theory.doc/

The Uses & Gratifications Theory
The gratification theory suggests that media users play an active role in choosing and using the media.  Users take an active part in the communication process and are goal oriented in their media use.  It says that a media user seeks out a media source that best fulfills the needs of the user.  Uses and gratifications assume that the user has alternate choices to satisfy their need. It believes that there is not merely one way that the populace uses media.  Instead, it suggests that there are as many reasons for using the media, as there are media users.  According to the theory, media consumers have a free will to decide how they will use the media and how it will effect them. The theory takes out the possibility that the media can have an unconscience influence over our lives and how we view the world.  The idea that we simply use the media to satisfy a given need does not seem to fully recognize the power of the media in today’s society.

http://www.uky.edu/~drlane/capstone/mass/uses.htm

The Reception Theory
Reception theory was developed by theorists such as Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser. Compare uses and gratifications theory, which focuses not on the effects of mass media on people, but on the way people use the media and the gratifications they get from the media. Reception theorists focus on the roles that audiences (readers of texts, decoders of texts) play in the scheme of things, and not on texts themselves. the analysis of the images broadcast by television (representation) and of the time spent watching television (behavior) should be complemented by a study of what the cultural consumer "makes" or "does" during this time and with these images. The same goes for the use of urban space, the products purchased in the supermarket, the stories and legends distributed by the newspapers, and so on.

http://www.savoyhill.co.uk/technique/reception.html