Audience theories

Hypodermic needle theory

The Hypodermic Needle Theory was one of the earliest ways of thinking about how the mass media influences audiences.

It was developed in the 1920s and 1930s after researchers observed the effect of propaganda during World War I. The Hypodermic Needle Theory is a linear communication theory which suggests that media messages are injected directly into the brains of a passive audience. It suggests that we’re all the same and we all respond to media messages in the same way.

This technique was used more and more since the war as it is such an effective way to try and sway people into thinking in particular ways.

The Effects Theory


Similar to the Hypodermic needle effect, the Effects theory was developed in the 1920’s, and looks at how media texts influence those who consume them, particularly (in recent decades) how negative messages, e.g. sexual and violent content, can affect the most vulnerable of audience groups.

Two step flow theory

The theory suggests that the information given through media texts doesn't flow directly from the text into minds of it's audience which is unmediated. Information is filtered through opinion leaders and then it is communicated towards us through the media from the opinion leaders. The theory suggests that in 1940 Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berclson and Hazel Gaudat conducted first full scale investigations of mass communications.

 The two step flow suggests that information doesn't flow from the media text straight to he audience but, within that cycle, other people tend to have point of views that affect the audience. Certain people have a large influence on how people gain opinions about specific media texts like films, instead of the actual film giving them a related opinion once they have gathered one from what they've been told. 

 The uses and gratifications theory

During the 1960s, as the first generation to grow up with television became grown ups, it became increasingly apparent to media theorists that audiences made choices about what they did when consuming texts.

Audiences were made up of individuals who actively consumed texts for different reasons and in different ways. In 1948 Lasswell suggested that media texts had the following functions for individuals and society:

·  surveillance
·  correlation
·  entertainment
·  cultural transmission
Researches Blumler and Katz developed there own theory in 1974, saying that individuals might choose and use text for the following purposes:

 ·  Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine

·  Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction, eg) 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 like weather reports and financial news