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Hypodermic needle theory

The hypodermic needle theory refers to the idea that media is being injected into the
minds of the audience. It is the idea that when the audience watches something on T.V.
or reads a newspaper article, they believe what they are being told and might follow
what they see; this is known as Passive Audiences.
The magic bullet theory was not discovered by one specific scientist from research but on
assumptions of the time about human nature instead. However, Paul
Lazarsfeld and Herta Herzog, helped to develop this theory.
During our history, this theory has been used to spread controversial messages through
propaganda. For example, the Nazis used it to spread their extreme beliefs in the
1930/40s about the purity of the Aryan race and the danger of communists and Jews.
Many people believed this at the time which was the epidemic needle theory as children
were fed this information from a young age at school through their textbooks, posters
and films. This is how the spread of Nazism occurred. In this case, the theory is bad
because it means that people would believe anything, even if it was an offensive idea or
wasnt true. Another example is that someone who fits into this theory might play video
games such as Call of Duty that include violent shootings and want to go out and commit
these crimes in real life because they believe the idea that if they shoot people they earn
rewards and dont question anything they see. In this case it can be really dangerous
because it causes people to be misinformed with untrue information and believe it all,
committing crimes because of it.
In 1995, the theorist Berger said that the "Magic Bullet" theory suggests that messages
are fired from the "media gun", shooting messages in the media into the viewer's "head".
In 1997, theorists; Croteau and Hoynes observed that the "Hypodermic Needle Model"
uses the same idea of the "shooting" paradigm, suggesting that the media injects its
messages straight into the passive audience who are immediately affected by it so that
they cannot escape from the medias influence. Croteau and Hoynes compared the
publics reactions alike a sitting duck.
Pros and cons
The pros of this theory is that the results can be measured accurately to create precise
statistics on trends of the theory. Furthermore, they can ask a large amount of people to
get a varied response over a long period of time so that the results are more reliable
because there is a wider range of answers.
The cons of this theory are that it has little place in contemporary analysis of audience
reception, although it is possible that audiences revert to such thinking from time to
time, these types of instances are rare, and dont carry a great deal of momentum, if
anything audiences today tend to be a lot more sophisticated and aware of how media
messages are constructed. Too simplistic, changes to attitudes and beliefs are not always
observable or easily measured in the way physics; changes are. Audiences interpret
media differently
David Gauntlett criticized the theory because he said it only criticizes the issue of
violence in movies rather than the violence shown in the news which was said to
influence people to act violently, e.g. committing murders. Gauntlett discredited because
human beings didnt always copy each other, but what may seem violent to one person
may not seem violent to another.
This is an example of passive audiences because the audience dont particularly react or
engage with the media being injected into their minds, they just accept what they are
being told without particularly realising it. Passive audiences dont know they are being
forced ideas upon them; an example of it is that the audience might read a textbook in
school about a maths question that hints at subtle themes, like Nazism so they dont
know it is happening to them because you wouldnt expect to find this within a maths
question.
Uses and gratifications theory

Uses and gratifications theory is where the audience arent injected information and can
determine their own opinions about the media. For example, a woman could see an
advert for washing detergent showing a woman doing the cleaning and cooking and
instead of following and accepting what she sees like the hypodermic needle theory
suggests, she questions why there is a woman there and doesnt follow the old fashioned
view of women being restricted to doing these household chores and has a proper job of
their own.
The Uses and gratifications theory was first discovered by Herta Herzog in 1944, and
then developed in later years by Abraham Maslow, Wilbur Schramm, Jay Blumler and
Denis Mcquail.
An example of this is the many people that play violent video games, such as Call of Duty
and interpret it in their own way; as a fictional game, created for entertainment with no
intention to get confused with reality and commit similar crimes in real life. These people
are most young males who are the main demographic that play violent video games.
Pros
The pros of the uses and gratifications theory are that the audience is in control and
consumption of the media helps people learn, relax, and helps them achieve emotional
satisfaction, helps with issues of personal identity, social identity and aggression/
violence.
The theorist Herta Herzog in 1944 looked at uses and gratifications with her work to
identify why people chose specific types of media where she interviewed soap opera
fans. She identified that people listened to soap operas because they were emotional,
wishful thinking, and learning.
Cons
Many people disagree that there are people that have control over what the media forces
them to believe and maybe just dont know they have no control.
Some theorists think the theory is unreliable because some people might think they fall
under the uses and gratifications theory but are actually being injected with other
information without realising it and this having an unconscious influence over their lives.
This is an example of active audience consumption because the audience are actually
listening to what they are being informed on and reacting to it.
U & G theorists disagree because they believe that people's needs influence how they
use and respond to a medium. Zillmann has proved that mood influences a persons
choice in media, for example boredom would make someone more likely to choose
something more exciting and stress makes someone want to watch relaxing content.
Active Consumption is when the audience engages and questions what they see in the
media. It is opposite to passive consumption because these types of people dont just
accept what they are being told, they actually think about it.
Reception Study
The reception theory was discovered in the late 1960s by Robert Jauss and then
developed by Stuart Hall.
The idea of the reception study theory is that there is a hidden meaning or code in the
media that is given out my advertisers and content producers and is uncovered and
understood by the audience that read about it. Sometimes the audience understand the
message the producer aimed to convey but other times it can be misunderstood or they
can reject it, failing to interpret it.
An example of the reception study is a case where a gang of teenagers; Allan Bentley,
Mark Mc-Keefrey, and Graham Neary committed the murder of Michael Moss that was
said to have been a re-creation of the scene in Reservoir Dogs . This demonstrates the
reception study because it shows a piece of media (Reservoir Dogs) being misinterpreted
by the youth who believe that because they have seen it in a film, they can do what they
have seen to someone. This wasnt the intention of the film but it shows that some fail to
interpret it as a fictional film, getting it confused with reality.
Hall is a theorist that came up with the idea that there are three ways the audience can
react to the media; dominant, oppositional or negotiated. Dominant is where understand
the message and they completely agree with it, negotiated is where they accept parts of
it and disagree with other parts, purifying it to believe sections of it they want and
oppositional is where they understand it but completely oppose the message.
The reception theory is an example of an active response because the audience really
consider and question the message to make their own mind up about what they are
being told.
Pros
The reception theory is good because it helps to study how different groups respond the
messages given to them in the media. It also analyses how different groups react to
media differently so producers know how to target different demographic groups, it
inspires creativity in media production. This theory also gives the consumers more
power, rather just being injected with ideas and leads to believe them, it gives people a
voice.
Stuart Hall agrees since he believes that the reception theory is a form of textual analysis
where the audience will either respond with "negotiation" or "opposition. So a book or
film will either be interpreted based on that persons beliefs or rejected.
Cons
Some people argue that being tested and researched might affect peoples views and
how they respond to it which they think makes it unreliable and some think that
controlling variables can be difficult so it is hard to be exact in their research.
Charles Pierce believes that there isnt a difference between someones consciousness
self and how conscious something is outside themselves, like a text, advertisement or
film, therefore he thinks the reception theory is untrue as there isnt a difference
between a persons subjective reading or media and their interpretation of media.

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Hypodermic needle theory

Uses and gratifications theory

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