Keerthi Swetha

Audience Theory
Hypodermic needle theory / Passive audience consumption:
Hypodermic needle, mass media is infusion all the information to the audience directly, it can
be any form of media very powerful and control it can be negative or positive the passive
audience. In advert they show the product, what it does and how it work, aspiration and
association from the consumers. The advert will create a huge impact in audience side. It’s
always increase the sale for product, consumers buying the product is buying the lifestyle.
Every advert spend so much money to their product. Mass media is always is powerful with
children because they want what they see in advert, especially any toys, chocolate, movie
and etc.
The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people
directly and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them with appropriate messages designed to
trigger a desired response. They express the view that the media is a dangerous means of
communicating an idea because the receiver or audience is powerless to resist the impact of
the message. People are seen as passive and are seen as having a lot media material
"shot" at them. People end up thinking what they are told because there is no other source
of information.
Example:
1. lamer face moisturiser cream kate hudson, shanina shaik and kim kardashian these
celebrity promoted that product and so many people bought that cream. Even though it cost
(120£) all of money the consumers are buying.
2. Fenty beauty by rihanna, only because she of rihanna so many people brought that
product and she launched with the 40 shades of foundation and many Youtuber reviewed
her produced in 2017 that fenty beauty was the most sold product in foundation.
These type of product consumers brought and it was directly information the audience, and
they did celebrity endorsement and models, these type of product it usually target to their
audience. And celebrity endorsement is the best way to promote the product. The fenty
beauty product was big because of rihanna and she has all ethnicity of fans, when she
dropped 40 shades of foundation perhaps fans got excited.

Uses and Gratification / Active audience consumption:

This theory suggest that media has no power over audience. Instead audience are highly
active in their media usage, seeking out media that will fulfil a certain need and creating their
own individual meaning
Information: BBC news, channel 4 news, Itv news. This information will give the audience
what they want what they do want.
Education: discovery, planet, documentary and movie.
Basic mode: It is suggested that the uses and gratifications theory has to fulfil one the
following when we choose a form of media:Identify- being able to recognise the product or
person in front of you, role models that reflect similar values to yours, aspiration to be
someone else. Educate - being able to acquire information, knowledge and understanding.
Entertain – What you are consuming should give you enjoyment and also some form of
‘escapism’ enabling us to forget our worries temporarily. Social Interaction – the ability for
media products to produce a topic of conversation between other people, sparks debates
Keerthi Swetha

(etc who is left on the x-factor) Uses and gratification theory can be seen in cases such as
personal music selection. We select music not only to fit a particular mood but also in
attempts to show empowerment or other socially conscious motives. There are many
different types of music and we choose from them to fulfil a particular need. Applied to the
Internet. Over the past 10 years the internet has played a large part in the way the uses and
gratifications theory is perceived. Internet allows us to identify more products and people,
due to search engines like Google we can search for anything, enables the audience to
come closer to their role models. Music has benefited because of websites like YouTube
enabling us to watch any music video we choose. Wikipedia and other factual websites
enables us to learn whenever we like, it may be argued that the internet has developed our
education massively in the last 10 years. YouTube, ITunes, 4od etc are just a few of the
numerous websites that give us an opportunity to be entertained whenever we please.
Facebook, blogs and other social websites enable us to socialise while online . Internet
enables us to have freedom and escape all our worries at a click of a button. Having access
to websites that can give us happiness and a release from the daily grind.

Reception study:
The theory states that media texts are encoded by the producer meaning that whoever
produces the text fills the product with values and messages. The text is then decoded by
the audience. Different spectators will decode the text in different ways, not always in the
way the producer intended. A text can be received in one of three ways.
Reception theory is a version of reader response literary theory that emphasizes each
particular reader's reception or interpretation in making meaning from a literary text.
Reception theory is generally referred to as audience reception in the analysis of
communications models.
● Dominant or Preferred Reading
● Negotiated Reading
● Oppositional Reading

People are not passive This approach to textual analysis focuses on the scope for a book,
movie, or other creative work is not simply passively accepted by the audience, but that the
reader / viewer interprets the meanings of the text based on their individual cultural
background and life experiences. In essence, the meaning of a text is not inherent within the
text itself, but is created within the relationship between the text and the reader. Shared
experience. The basis for this hypothesis, that it is the sharing of subjective experience that
is the fundamental element that underlies attachment drive and behaviour, requires an
examination of the very basis and context of our living experience. It requires us to delve
perhaps in a rather philosophical view, but one that appears to on quite solid ground.