Audience Theory

Hypodermic Needle Theory- This implies that in the early days mass media had a very direct and powerful effect on the audience. The audience was seen as one mass consuming the same product, and there was a constsant stream of unchallenged media. There are several factors that have contributed to this- the fast popularization of radio and television and the emergence of persuasion industries, for example advertising and propaganda.


Two Step Flow- This is the theory that ideas go from media producer to opinion leaders, and then from them to more passive individuals in a given society, similar to a filtration process. It is similar to a cascade/pyramid model, for example Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.


Uses and Gratifications Theory- This theory is about how people will proactivley search for media that will do more than just meet a need but also enhance knowledge amongst other things. They do this for a number of reasons- a diversion to get away from everyday pressures, to compare their life to those portrayed in the media, and for surveilance to check up on whats happening in the World.


Audience Reception Theory- This is about how in the 1980's and 1990's alot of research was done into the way individuals recieve and interpret a text, and how their individual circumstances affect the way they percieve it. There are believed to be serveral steps to this- first the media is encoded by producers, then that product is decoded by the audience. Depending on the individual there can be multiple readings of the same text, and producers can use codes and conventions to connote a preferred reading to the audience.