The Hypodermic Needle Model
Otherwise known as Hypodermic Syringe Model or Magic Bullet Theory. It is one of the oldest media studies dating around 1920s, when the media were 'young'. The hypodermic needle states that audience is passive and fully accepts every piece of information 'injected into them'.
"Media has a direct, complete and immediate effect on the audience [and] users have no control over [it]." http://mymediaproject.wikispaces.com/Hypodermic+Needle+Theory
People entirely and automatically believed in whatever was presented to them, which resulted in media censoring important information and other seemed as unacceptable for those days (eg. some books, newspapers joking or criticising the government, or war in another neightbouring country).
"Governments had just discovered the power of advertising to communicate a message, and produced propaganda to try and sway populaces to their way of thinking." http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=audience
Nowadays hypodermic needle is not perceived as a good method of selecting the audience; also the people today wouldn't be so easily persuaded anyway. This model was changed into Two-Step Flow.
The Inoculation Model
"Inoculation theory is a theory in social psychology that explains how and why people reinforce their beliefs and attitudes to maintain them in the long term. This concept was developed in the 1950s by William J. McGuire, a social psychologist." http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-inoculation-theory.htm
Inoculation theory claims that anyone who's presented to a specific media on a day-to-day basis, such as violence, become immune to it after time. It means that whoever sees violent (or other) acts stops reacting to them when they happen in real life.
"Much like vaccination, inoculation theory works by exposing subjects to a mild version of a threat. When an actual threat presents itself, the body or mind is already prepared to confront it." http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-inoculation-theory.htm
Nowadays we realise that this method isn't exactly working. People can watch films or play various types of games, be exposed, and not affected by it at all. When the similar thing would happen in a real life, they would react to it in a normal way.
The Two-Step Flow Model
This model is dated around 1940s. It was created as a replacement for Hypodermic Needle, "as the mass media became an essential part of life in societies around the world and did NOT reduce populations to a mass of unthinking drones." http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=audience
Two-step flow states that all the media information is filtered through so called Opinion Leaders (who could be anyone, even the family member) and then passed to group of people following them. These shared their opinions and followers agreed to them instead to the exact information from media.
"This diminished the power of the media in the eyes of researchers, and caused them to conclude that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpreted texts." http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=audience
This theory also was replaced later on by Uses and Gratifications Theory, since the audience started to have their own opinions.
The Uses & Gratifications Theory
It started around 1960s, when it became clear that audiences have preferences and make choices while consuming specific media."Lasswell suggested that media texts had the following functions for individuals and society:
- surveillance - to keep an eye on whats happening around
- correlation - media connects and correlates different elements of our society
- entertainment - media as a form of recreation and relaxation
- cultural transmission - media as a vehicle to transmit cultural practices and values across generations" http://mymediaproject.wikispaces.com/Uses+and+Gratification+Theory
- "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, holiday bargains" http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=audience
The Reception Theory
The most recent theory that began in 1980-90s in which "a lot of work was done on the way individuals received and interpreted a text, and how their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affected their reading." http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=audience
The producer of a media product encodes the message and presents to the audience, and depending on their individual tastes, they read/decode it differently.This act is called preffered reading and has 3 types: dominant, negotiated and oppositional.
"Dominant is about what the audience wants to hear from people and agreeing, but with limited knowledge on the subject. Negotiated is when the audience agrees, disagrees or questions [certain media text]. Oppositional is when the audience recognises the Dominant message but rejects it." https://mediafort.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/reception-theory/
Nowadays, the audience has more say on what they want to see in media, and many companies respond to them.