AUDIENCE THEORYPrecious

HYPODERMIC THEORYHypodermic needle theory states that audience passively receive the information transmitted via media without challenging the data. So the audience are being manipulated and the media affects their thoughts and behaviours. However, the theory was developed in the 1930’s which means it was a child of it’s time. The model believes that there is a direct correlation between the violent behaviour shown on computer games and anti- social criminal behaviour in real life.

JAMIE BULGER

• An example to back this theory would be the murder of James Bulger.

• He was murdered by two 10 year olds

• Who were sentenced to imprisonment in a young offenders institution

• The boys had watched the movie “Child’s Play 3” before they murdered Jamie Bulger

• As the death was similar to a death in the film

• Later newspapers began to debate if such violence should be accepted in the media

BANDURA’S BOBO DOLL EXPERIMENT

• Another example will be Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment which was conducted in 1961 by Albert Bandura

• He showed a clip of a woman hitting a bobo doll to small children

• 88% of the children copied the same thing they watched in the clip and hit a bobo doll with objects in the room

• The experiment showed that children changed their behaviour in response to what they watched on Television

• Bandura concluded that violent media could lead to imitation or copycat violence

USES AND GRATIFICATIONS MODEL

However, Blulmer and Katz’s (1974) Uses and Gratifications model contradicts the Hypodermic Model because the model focuses more on how the media can be used by the population and not the other way round. The audience is active, they use the text and are not used by it. The theory emphasises what the audience does with the media text.

An example is watching TV soaps e.g. EastEnders, the audience forges about their own lives for a while and think about someone else’s or they help put their own problem’s into perspective.

THERE ARE 4 DIFFERENT NEEDS THAT NEED TO BE MET

• Diversion – escape from everyday problems and routine

• Personal relationships – using the media for emotional and other interaction e.g. substituting soap operas for family life

• Personal identity – finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts

• Surveillance – information which could be useful for living e.g. weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains

RECEPTION THEORY

This approach was developed by Stuart Hall in the 1970’s. this theory suggests that producers construct a text encoded with a hidden message and then he text is decoded by the audience.

Hall identified 3 types of audiences reading messages

• Dominant – what the audience wants to hear from people and agreeing e.g. political speeches where they say they will improve NHS, the public will agree with it

• Negotiated – the audience agrees, disagrees or refines elements of the text in light of previously held views e.g. neither agreeing or disagreeing with political speech

• Oppositional – the audience understands the dominant message but rejects it due to political or cultural reasons