Lecture notes

Notes:
 In media, there are three models on which people consume information through mass media. These three models are the 'hypodermic needle model', the '2-step flow model' and the 'uses and gratification theory model'.

Hypodermic needle model:
This theory suggests that the mass media can directly influence a number of people. These people that become influenced by what they're reading are passive. This means that they do not react in any way to what they're being told but instead just receive whatever the media gives them. They do NOT filter or change anything that is fed to them. They just accept the information given. This theory suggests that, as an audience, we are manipulated by the producers and creators of the media text and therefore our behaviour may easily be changed by what we see from the media.


 2-step flow model:
This theory suggests that 'opinion leaders' (such as reviewers or commentators) pay close attention to the mass media and interpret what they read. This interpreted information is then passed on through the media content to 'less active associates' (people who follow these 'opinion leaders'). The 'less active associates' are influenced by whoever they decide they're going to listen to - they're influenced by a two step flow rather than getting their information straight from the mass media (directly). These 'less active associates' then become passive to whatever that 'opinion leader' says to them.


Uses and gratification model:
This theory suggests that people watch the mass media for a use. People watch it for many reasons. These individuals are not passive like they would be in the hypodermic needle model theory or 2-step flow model. They tend to be made up of individuals who actively consume texts for different purposes. These individuals won't consume everything that is thrown at them and will only take in media and information that they are interested.


Researchers 'Blulmer' and 'Katz' then expanded this theory to indicate why individuals might watch/use a media text. They can up with four uses and gratifications. These were:

• Diversion - An escape or emotional release from pressure found in problems or everyday routine.

• Personal relationships - Using the media for interaction and virtual companionship and sociability of discussing TV with others.

• Person identity - Comparing your existence and finding yourself reflected in what you see i.e. learning behaviour and values from text.

• Surveillance - Finding out information that is going on in the world that may be a help/useful to you i.e. weather, reports, holiday bargains etc.

 Reception Theory :

The producer is someone who creates the media text and they use media to portray a certain message that they want the audience to consume. They do this by encoding the information they're giving into the media.

The consumer is someone who reads the media text.The consumer will view this media provided by the producers and decode/interpret the message into what they actually think the producers are trying to say.

Stuart Hall proposed the theory of encoding and decoding. He said there were three different readings found in media. These were 'oppositional reading','negotiated reading' and 'aberrant reading'.

Oppositional reading:

- When someone makes a conscious rejection or subversion of the preferred meaning that the producers are trying to make.

Negotiated reading:
-Someone understands the meaning of the media but doesn't relate to the intention so doesn't show any interest.

Aberrant readings:
-Someone misreads/misunderstands the message that the producers are trying to portray.


Mode of address:
- The way in which the text 'speaks' to the audience.
-Construction of codes from all elements of texts.

Semiology:
Roland Barthes can up with the semiology theory that uses:
- The study of signs are symbols.
-Denotation and connotation.

Denotation - What an image actually shows and is immediately apparent, as opposed to the assumptions an individual reader may make about it e.g a red lorry, blue flashing lights, men in uniform.

Connotation - How the audience interprets the meaning of the media text e.g the audience interprets the lorry as a fire engine.

Keywords:

Gatekeeper - These individuals choose what goes into the media/news.

Media text - Media product (audiences "read" media text).

Encoding - Producers create texts with a preferred meaning - they want the audience to take from it then decode it.

Decoding - When the audience interprets the message given - it may be the same or the audience may change the meaning of the media text.