Audience Theories

TASK 2 – EXAMPLE “GTA5”

Hypodermic Needle

 What is a hypodermic needle?

 A hypodermic needle I a theory suggesting that mass media has an influence on the way the
audience perceives reality. It is said that media injects thoughts, values and beliefs into their
audiences without them even knowing, resulting in the influence to change there opinions.

 Example:
 Grand Theft Auto five can be used as a prime example of this theory, from the day of release
there has been constant debates to which this game is suitable for children under 18 years.
This can then be supported by the article titled “boy, 8 , kills his gran after playing video
game”, the game in question being GTA5. This suggests two things, one that the child was not
mature enough to play this game with its graphic content and furthermore playing the game
the child was led to believe that shooting people is the right thing to do. As child psychologist
Kristopher Kaliebe said “When you have a video game that is shooting at a human being: that
is practicing shooting a human being”
Two-Step Flow

 What is it?

 Two-step flow is a theory that suggests that the mass media can be passed through highly
influential figures within the media, whether it be political or social. This influences opinions
on certain things very easily.

 Example:
 This theory can also be linked back the article mentioned in the previous slide, in the case
of that article the two step flow theory can be shown by the statement said by the Sheriff.
“Sheriff and deputies have not revealed a motive but they pointed out the child was playing
the video game before the fatal shooting.”, this statement suggests it was the video game
which made the boy murder his gran and this statement is believed to be true as it is said
by the “authorities” who have an can have an influence on are decisions. This theory can be
further supported when we that in the article they ask a “child psychologist” who the again
has an influence on the audience of the article.
Uses and Gratifications

 What is it?

 The uses and gratifications model looks at the audience as an active audience. This is how the
audience reacts to the mass media and that they choose they type of media they watch for different
reasons. These reasons consist of being educated, informed, entertained, personal identity,
integration and social interaction and escapism.

 Example:
 This can be shown in the article as for one they have adapted the story to the audience by making it
an article as the general audience will have a dislike towards video games as they prefer to read and
article instead of wasting there time on video games. This means that the audience are more likely
to engage with the story as they share a dislike towards video games and therefore are reading an
article with a story they feel passionate about.
Preferred readings

 What is it?

 This is a factor of the reception theory in which suggests the audience of the media decode
the text in one of three ways; negotiated, dominant and oppositional. All producers will have
a preferred reading in mind when they create the text, this is how they hope the audience will
interpret and accept it.

 Example:
 This can be demonstrated in the article in by which the producer takes a heavily one sided
approach to the story in which sides with the game being bad. The producer creates the
article like this in hope that the preferred reading is dominant and that the audience agree
fully in what has been said throughout the article.
Passive/Active

 What does it mean?

 This refers to in which way the audience receives the information with passive being
unknowingly like the hypodermic needle theory and active being knowingly which can be
shown in parts of the uses and gratifications mode in which people uses media as a form to
be educated.

 Example:
 This can be demonstrated in the article by firstly by the article being so one sided that
without you knowing you passively take in some information resulting the opinion GTA is
bad. It can also be demonstrated by the fact the audience may be reading the article to
further educate themselves on the effect of video games and can then help them determine
there opinion.