theories

1. Audience
Theories

2. Cultivation Theory
This is the break down of the long-term effects of television. “The
primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time
people spend ‘living’ in the television world, the more likely they
are to believe social reality portrayed on television.
Introduced by
Professor George
Gerbner (1960’s)
Cultivation theory is based
around the idea that watching
excessive TV changes the
viewers attitudes to certain
issues. Over time, exposure to
the viewer will alter their
perceptions of reality.
The two order effects:
1). General beliefs about the world today.
2). Specific attitudes and judgements.
Viewers are divided into to categories; light viewers
(less than 4 hours of TV a day) and heavy viewers
(more than 4 hours of TV a day). Heavy viewers are
likely to shape their concept of reality from TV.
The long-term effects
of television…

3. Hypodermic Model
The hypodermic model is also knows as ‘the needle theory’ or ‘the magic bullet theory.’
The theory implies that media has a direct and powerful effect onto audiences. It
suggests that the mass media could influence large amounts of people by di9rectly
‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them with messages which are designed to trigger direct
responses , the theory was developed during the 1930’s-40’s.
This diagram displays how mass media
affects the public. It suggests that a flow
of information is given straight to
passive/isolated individuals who are then
immediately effected by the message.
There is no escape from the message and
people usually end up believing and
thinking what they are told as there is no
other source of information telling them
otherwise.
Factors which contributed to the strong effects of the theory:
• There was a rapid rise of media outlets, radios and television were
becoming more accessible to the public, resulting in more individuals
being exposed to media messages.
• Advertising and persuasion industries started to emerge and increase.
• A study conducted within 1930 by Payne Fund, discussed the effects of
films on children.
This theory can be supported
through the murder case of
three year old Jamie Bulger
(1993). The two ten year old
killers who had kidnapped Jamie
were said to have watched the
movie ‘child's play 3’ which
inspired the brutal murder.

4. Uses and gratifications Theory
What is it? The uses and gratifications theory was created by Elihu Katz, Jay G. Blumer
and Michael Gurevitch. This theory is based on psychological needs and includes the
idea that all media is constructed in a way that will fulfil these needs. It also aims to
explain why an audience may consume a certain type of media.
The needs:
Surveillance – This revolves around the idea of the viewer feeling safer and more secure
through knowledge. This knowledge comes from the text and what they while watching
it. Application to horror; if there is a killer in the film they gain comfort from the idea
that they would know what to do if they were in the position of the victim and would be
able to deal with the situation better than them. They also gain security from knowing
that they are not in the film.
Personal identity – This is the need for the audience to be able to relate to a character
and even develop themselves through adopting some of the characteristics. By adopting
some of the characters most desirable attributes the consumer believes that they will
become a better person. Application to horror; The hero of the film may show bravery
when faced with a difficult situation. The viewer may then replicate this behaviour in
real life to better themselves.
Personal relationships – Viewers are able to consume media as part of social activity.
This gives them something to bond with peers over as they have shared the same
experience. Application to horror; teens throwing sleepovers to watch horror films and
then conversing over the death of a character in it.
Escapism – This allows the audience to escape their day to day lives through text
consumption. Through viewing the media, the consumer is able to ignore and escape
the real life issues they face by focusing on the lives of those in the fictional world.
Application to horror; those watching a horror film may experience this by fantasising
that they are in the position of the killer or victim.
Criticisms:
• It completely ignores unconscious
control and implies free will. It also
suggests media therefore ignoring the
manipulative nature of some types of
media e.g. The news.
• Does not recognise the power of
media in current society.
• It assumes that media watchers take
an active role in watching a text and
aspire to be like the characters.

5. Desensitisation
Strengths Weaknesses
• Pays attention to how much violence
is being shown
• Can be unreliable as there may be
other variables involved
•Raises questions as to how much
exposure of violence and aggressive
images/scenes should be shown to the
audiences
• Everyone is affected by different
factors as some people are more
influenced than others (depends on
how much violence they’ve been
exposed to)
This theory suggests that as we become
more exposed to violence within media, on
a regular basis, there’s no strong
emotional impact on the audience which
makes them insensitive towards violence in
everyday life.
• Films have less effect over
audiences over time, due to
repeated viewings
• Viewers tolerance becomes higher
– they need more shocking images
to get an emotional response.
• Films get more violent – this links
to the increase of social problems
• Films like ‘nightmare on Elm street,’
‘Friday the 13th’ and ‘SAW’ are some
examples.
Real life example:
The Jamie Bulger case. Some UK tabloid
newspapers claimed that the attack on the toddler
was inspired by the film, ‘Child’s play 3.’ After
watching this film, the two 10 year olds may have
become desensitised to the action happening on
screen, hence why the murder happened.

6. Reception Theory
Hall included three different types of audience decoding of texts-
•Dominant/preferred reading-This is how the creator wants the
audience to view the media. The audience agree with the message
being conveyed.
•Negotiated- A compromise between the dominant and oppositional
reading, So the audience understand and agree with the text but
they may disagree on certain aspects of it.
•Oppositional- This is when the audience rejects the encoded
meaning and then continue to create their own interpretation as
they fully disagree on the message being submitted.
Reception theory is a version of reader
response, the theory sees that the audience
actively engages in interpretations of media. So
overall is it the idea of individuals interpreting
texts in different ways, demonstrating that even
if one message if being sent out, people may
have different understandings of it. The
reception theory is usually refereed to as
audience reception. Stuart Hall coined this
theory during 1980, he claims that media texts
go through staged of encoding and decoding.
Media texts are usually encoded by its creator.
This meaning that only the creators ideologies
are embed within it. Decoding is when an
audience views the text and interprets it their
own way.

7. Copycat/Modelling Theory
The definition of the modelling theory is very simple; imitating what you see and it is
also known as the copycat effect (you do what you see). Most behaviour is learnt from
observation hence why it is later modelled. This theory usually relates to something
publicised in the media, creating a lot of attention. This provokes others to do the
same to gain attention of the same type.
What are the stages of the modelling theory?
• Seeing an action portrayed in the media
• Individual identifies with the actor
• Individual then starts to imitate the actor
• If the individual is rewarded, the behaviour is reinforced due to
motivation
Example: The famous Bobo doll experiment studied in psychology (carried
out by Albert Bandura), proved that children imitate the observed violent
behaviour that was carried out by the Bobo doll. This shows that this can
be both a positive and negative process. He believes that people adopt
behaviour by observing others.
More examples:
• The case of Jamie Bulger in 1993 was said to be influenced by the movie
‘Child’s play 3.’
• December 1993; four girls tortured a 16 year old girl called Suzanne
Caper. The press mentioned the same movie was an influence on the kids.
This theory has a huge emphasis on
the importance of observation and
imitation. Imitation is more likely to
happen if the individual holds an
admired status of any sort for
example, observing a celebrity as you
admire their status.