Understanding Media Effect:

Communication Theories
Mass Media
Hypodermic Needle Theory( 1920s-40s)

 This theory suggests that the media has a direct and

powerful influence on audiences, like being injected with a
hypodermic needle.

 Audiences passively receive the information transmitted via

a media text, without any attempt on their part to process or
challenge the data

 We accept dominant ideologies as the norm

1. What emotions does the
poster appeal to?

2. What methods are used

by this poster to
encourage recruitment?

3. How can we apply the

Hypodermic Needle
Model to analyzing this
Hypodermic Needle Theory( 1920s-40s)

How mass audiences might react to mass media

Media are seen as

STRONG/ACTIVE

Audience are seen as

WEAK/PASSIVE
 Strengths/Weakness

 Although many people still talk about the media in this way,
this theory is disregarded as an outdated way of thinking
about media influence.

Audiences are more active than this theory suggests.

 Agenda Setting Function Theory( 1972)

 Developed by Maxwell McCombs & Donald Shaw

 This theory suggests that the media can’t tell you what to
think but it can tell you what to think about.

 If a news item is covered frequently and prominently, the

audience will regard the issue as more important.

Through a process of selection, omission and framing, the

media focuses public discussion on particular issues.
 Agenda Setting….Framing

A Media Frame is the central organizing

idea for news content that supplies a
context and suggests what the issue is
through a use of selection, emphasis,
exclusion and elaboration.
 Agenda Setting Function Theory( 1970s)

 Two levels of agenda setting

 The first level refers to the media using objects or issues to

influence the people what people should think about

The second level decides what parts of the subject are

important.
Media consider it is
important for us to know
 Strengths/Weakness

 The way people receive media is changing, instead of

mainstream media like newspapers and television, people now get
information from the internet.

Does this affect the media’s ability to set agendas?

 Cultivation Theory( 19970s-80s)

 Developed by George Gerbner

 The media, particularly television, contributes to the

audience’s perception of social reality.

Because it is so pervasive, it dominates our view of reality,

cultivating attitudes which were once acquired elsewhere.
 Cultivation Theory( 19970s-80s)…..
Cultivation Theory is often applied to people’s

perceptions of reality.

For Example: A person who watches a lot of

crime shows on television will eventually believe

that there is a lot of violent crime in the city he

resides in.
 Cultivation Theory( 1970s-80s)…..
Viewers Who Watch More Television Will Be More Influenced
Than Those Who Watch Less.

 Heavy viewers (watch TV more than 4 hours)

 Light viewers (watch TV less than 4 hours)

 Strengths/Weakness

 Cultivation analysis considers the total exposure to television

over time. It considers the contribution that television makes to
our culture and social reality.

Critics say that people are also likely to be influenced by other

factors.
 Propaganda Model( 1989)

 Developed by Noam Chomsky & Edward S Herman

 The mass media is owned and controlled by powerful

organizations which serve their own commercial interests.

News is shaped by five ‘filters’: ownership, advertising,

sourcing, flak, anti-Communism and fear

Media institutions encourage a preferred reading of media

texts which is shaped by commercial, right wing interests.
 Propaganda….The Five Filters

 Filter 1 - Newspapers need a filter of money – limited to wealthy.

Also linked to moneyed business (banks/gangs) “limitation on
ownership of media with any substantial outreach”.
 Filter 2 - Advertising provided revenue for newspaper creation and
distribution. Therefore advertisers had power. Alternative viewpoints
are likely to receive little funding.
 Filter 3 - The media needs a constant supply of news. It has to cover
main events and so a hierarchy of subject matter exists. Large
beurocracies subsidize to gain special access – tax payers can end
up funding their own propaganda.
 Propaganda….The Five Filters

 Filter 4 - The Flak/negative feedback. The powerful can

feedback to the producers through shareholders. The power of
the financial backers of institutions is of political concern –
Rupert Murdoch is a case in point. “The government is a major
producer of flak, regularly assailing, threatening and ‘correcting’
the media, trying to contain any deviations from the established
line.”

 Filter 5 - The ideology of anticommunism. The Soviet, Chinese

and Cuban revolutions were a threat to the Western elite.
 Two-Step Flow Theory ( 1948)

 Developed by Paul F Lazarsfeld

 A diffusion model of influence, suggesting that people are

more likely to be influenced by ‘opinion leaders’ - people who are
more connected to the media than their peers and pass on
media messages

It is about how key people effect other peoples opinion.

 Strengths/Weakness

 This theory acknowledges that audiences are part of a society

which affects the flow of information.

One weakness is that there may, in fact, be more than two

steps in the flow of communication.
 Usages and Gratification Theory ( 1974)

 Developed by Jay Blumler & Elihu Katz

 The Uses and Gratification Theory looks at how people use

the media to gratify a range of needs – including the need for
information, personal identity, integration, social interaction and
entertainment.
UG Theorists examine what people do with the media and
maintain that the best way to find out is by asking audiences
Usages and Gratification Theory ( 1974)

Individuals might choose and use a text for

the following purposes:
 Diversion - escape from everyday
problems and routine.
 Personal Relationships - using the media
for emotional and other interaction, eg)
substituting soap operas for family life
 Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected
in texts, learning behaviour and values
from texts
 Surveillance - Information which could be
useful for living eg) weather reports,
financial news
 Strengths/Weakness

Uses and Gratification is an approach to studying the

media, rather than a theory of influence.

 It has been criticized for its vague definition of important

concepts.
 Encoding/Decoding ( 1980)

 Developed by Stuart Hall

 Hall’s Encoding/Decoding Theory suggests that audience

derive their own meaning from media texts. These meanings can
be dominant, negotiated or oppositional.

It is a way of thinking about the communication process which

prioritizes audience and culture.

 This theory shifts our attention to the reception of media texts

 Encoding/Decoding ( 1980)

 Audiences are active in decoding media messages.

They can accept or reject parts of the text based on their

personal beliefs or attitudes.
Preferred
Producer encoding Audience
text decoding meaning Negotiated

Oppositional
 Preferred Reading

 The audience accepts the worldview of the

text

 They consume the text as the producer

intended them to
 Negotiated Reading

 The audience understands the ideology that is contained

within the text but mostly rejects it

 Instead the audiences choses elements of the text to

enjoy
 Oppositional Reading

 The audience entirely rejects the ideology that

is contained within the text

 Not
because they dislike it, but because they
oppose it
THANK YOU