1. How Do Media
Audiences Respond
to Media Products?
Task 3 – Abygail Jones

2. Hypodermic Needle Model
• This is the idea that, subtle/not so subtle messages are put in to
media products to get a desired reaction from the audience.
• This message is received, understood and accepted by the audience.
• This theory suggests a passive audience.
• As televisions and radio‟s became increasingly popular throughout
the 1940‟s and 1950‟s – it influenced behaviour changes in the
viewers.
• The theory is largely disproved – such things have been published
to prove this theory wrong: “The People‟s Choice” written by
Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet.
• http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20Clust
ers/Mass%20Media/Hypodermic_Needle_Theory/

3. Uses and Gratifications Theory
• This focuses on why the audience uses specific media
sources by looking at things such as:
• The idea that people consume different types of media
– what do they get from it?
• How audiences spend their time/energy finding the
required media source?
• This theory suggests an active audience.

4. Uses and Gratification Theory
• The theory began in 1944 with Herta Herzog – she
interviewed soap opera fans and identified three types
of gratifications: Emotional, wishful thinking and
learning.
• 1970 Abraham Maslow – Argued people looked to
satisfy their needs based on hierarchy, hence the
pyramid hierarchy theory. From bottom to
top, Biological/physical, security/Safety, social/Belon
ging, Ego/Self-respect and Self-actualisation.
• 1969 – Jay Blumler and Denis McQuail – Studied
why people watched political programmes, 1972 4
groups
were
created:
Diversion,
personal
relationships, personal identity and surveillance.

5. Uses and Gratification Theory
The theorists each came up with their own categories gratifications:
Harold Lasswell
• Surveillance
• Correlation
• Entertainment
• Cultural Transmission
Bulmer and Katz
• Diversion
• Personal Relationships
• Personal Identity
• Surveillance
Denis McQuail
• Information
• Personal Identity
• Integration and Social
Interaction

6. Denis McQuail (1987) Why
People use Media?
• His gratifications explained:
• Information:
• Relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the world – e.g. the
news.
• Seeking advice on practical matters, opinions and decision choices – e.g. Looking up the
symptoms of an illness.
• Satisfying curiosity and general interest – e.g. Googling something
• Learning: Self-educating – e.g. learning a foreign language
• Personal Identity
• Finding reinforcement for personal values – e.g. personally specific media need – a gossip
magazine (OK!).
• Finding models of behaviour – e.g. changing your personality – being more
aggressive/confident online etc.
• Identifying with valued other - e.g. having the same interest as someone else, adopting
their interest etc.

7. Denis McQuail Why People
Use Media?
• Integration and Social Interaction:
• Gaining insight into circumstances of others: social empathy e.g. putting yourself in other
people‟s shoes and seeing the benefit/disadvantages of your life.
• Identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging – e.g. having the same interests as
a large group of people, feel safe, like you belong etc.
• Finding a basis for conversation and social interaction – e.g. Finding something in
common with someone else i.e. liking Doctor Who.
• Having a substitute for real-life companionship – e.g. having a friend online/games/social
networks etc.
• Entertainment
• Escaping, or being diverted from problems – e.g. Using media to distract yourself –
reading a magazine during a panic attack/ watching TV when you‟re ill etc.
• Relaxing – e.g. Playing games, reading, scrolling through Facebook, tumblr etc.
• Getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment – e.g. from a particular country/culture
e.g. Navaho, finding something to relate to.

8. Why I Personally Interact with
Media
• I use a range of media, from television to magazines:
• Information
• I use tumblr religiously. I go on it to find out the latest news, information and spoilers
for upcoming TV series/films that I enjoy.
• I also give advice and receive advice from other users who are having the same issues as
me.
• I can‟t usually control what I see, but if I‟m curious about something, it‟s easy to find
relevant information/pictures.
• I learn a lot from tumblr. Whether it‟s about something I‟m interested in – or
something I‟ve never even heard of before e.g. The Devil‟s Tramping Ground.
• Personal Identity
• I am a regular consumer of Kerrang! Magazine. I buy it because it‟s a magazine that
applies to my personal needs – I want to find out what‟s happening in the rock music
world and this magazine enables me to do that.
• Online, media such as Facebook, I am a lot more confident than usual, I‟ll talk to
people I don‟t really know and I‟ll express my opinions freely.

9. Why I Personally Interact with
Media
• Integration and Social Interaction
• Facebook and Tumblr are key media sources I use that make me use social
empathy, whether that‟s putting myself in the shoes of less/more fortunate people –
people who can‟t afford expensive, items such as iPhone‟s etc. and people who can.
• On Tumblr there are a range of groups that have similar interests to me, this enables
me to carry out conversations with them and feel like I belong to a certain group.
• I substitute real-life companions a lot, the majority of my „friends‟ are online and
spread out across the country and in other countries as my social life is practically
lifeless.
• Entertainment
• I use YouTube, tumblr, Facebook, Kerrang! And other books to distract myself from a
lot of problems such as: interacting socially, family arguments etc.

10. Reception Theory
• This is looking at how audiences receive and interpret media.
• The theory was developed by Stuart Hall, there are two parts:
Encoding and Decoding:
Encoding: A media products producer fills it with a particular message.
Celebrity gossip magazines are very good at this, they produce false accusations
aiming it at celebrities wanting a desired reaction from their audience, usually
shock or anger.
Decoding: This is where the audience receive the producers message and
interprets the message: for example in the celebrity gossip magazine, if the
anchoring captions are bad, the audience will unravel a truth and will learn that
the problem is being emphasized by the publisher.

11. Hall’s Idea
• The second part of the theory
concentrates on how the audience
understands a media product:
• Hall‟s idea is that the audience can
interpret media text in different ways:
• Preferred: The reader receives,
understands and agrees with the
message in the product.
• Negotiated: The reader understands,
somewhat accepts and then applies the
products message to their own life.
• Oppositional: The reader understands
the products message but rejects it,
finding an alternative view.
• How they read and apply their
ideas
depends
on
their
values,
experiences
and
backgrounds – everyone is
different and everyone has
different ideas about the
messages they receive.

12. Passive or Active Consumption
• There are two different ways of interpreting a type of audience/consumer and they are
Passive or Active.
• Passive – They don‟t apply their own ideas, they follow whatever the message tells them –
the Hypodermic theory suggests passive audience.
• For example, when the original War of the World‟s came out on the radio on October 30th
1938 – the audience heard that Martian‟s had begun an invasion on Earth in a place called
Grover‟s Mill, New Jersey.
• The audience took this literally as an alien attack and fled from New Jersey, finding „safety‟
in more rural areas, riots broke free and people raided stores.
• Active – They apply their own ideas, they hear what the message tells them and then they
apply their own ideas to it. The Gratification and Reception theory suggests an active
audience.
• For example: Kerrang magazine captions suggest something else is going on in the
picture, they usually use humour to do this – making it out that what‟s happening in the
picture is funny, almost mocking the rock stars.
• Fans take this in to their own hands to interpret just what‟s happening in the picture, if it‟s
a gig picture it‟s pretty self explanatory etc.