The document discusses three theories of audience reception: 1) The hypodermic needle model views audiences as passive receivers of media messages. It is now largely disproven. 2) Uses and gratifications theory sees audiences as active in interpreting media based on their needs and interests. 3) Reception theory examines how audiences decode and make meaning from media messages based on their own experiences and perspectives, which can include accepting, negotiating, or opposing the encoded message.

1. Audience Theory.
Hypodermic Needle Model.
The hypodermic needle model is a theory about audiences with the idea is that
messages are received directly and instantly accepted by the audience.
This model implies that the media industry had a powerful effect on its mass
audiences.
The theory suggests that audiences are passive and will do as they are told
without thinking about it, not applying their own thoughts to their actions.
This caused a great deal of concern when television and radio became more and
more available to the masses.
The theory has been largely disproved and since been replaced by updated and
more complex theories that consider the audiences ability to make their own
rational decisions.
Uses and Gratifications Theory.
This theory was started by Herzog in the 1940’s and tries to explain the
reasoning behind a person’s choice to consume a certain type of media and what
they get out of it.
It studies how an audience will spend their time and energy finding media that
will meet their needs and fulfill their interests.
Unlike the hypodermic needle model which assumes audiences are passive, Uses
and Gratifications assumes that the audience play an active role in interpreting
and using media in their own lives.
Reception Theory.
Reception theory looks at how an audience receives and interprets the media
they are exposed to. Stuart Hall developed it for media and communication
studies.
The theory consists of two parts, the first being encoding and decoding. Encoding
is where the media producer fills a product with a meaning that they want to get
out to people. One example of this are newspapers, images are anchored with
text to encode specific ideas into the paper.
Decoding is where the media consumer decodes the message from the media
producer. When looking at the newspaper image, the audience can get the
message that has been put out by the publisher.
The second part of the theory concentrates on how somebody understands the
media product. Hall’s idea was that the consumer could interpret a producer’s
message in a number of ways:
Preferred- is when the reader understands and agrees with the message.
Negotiated- is where the reader generally accepts the preferred reading but
sometimes modifies it so that it suits their experiences and interests.

2. Oppositional- is where the reader understands the preferred reading but rejects
this notion and has an alternative, opposing view.
The way the audience reads into an idea depends on their own values,
experiences and background. People will apply their own ideas to the message in
the media product, so people with similar thoughts to the people who made the
product are likely to have a similar reading, these like-minded people can be
seen as the target audience.
People with opposing ideas are very different and are more likely to disagree
with the messages.
Real World Application.
Hypodermic Needle Model.
An advert for Tesco tells viewers to go out immediately and buy coca cola while
it is on offer. If the Hypodermic Needle Model were correct this would mean that
the audience would obey the advertisement and immediately go to Tesco and
buy the drink.
Uses and Gratifications Theory.
An advert for Tesco tells viewers to go out immediately and buy coca cola while
it is still on offer. If the uses and gratifications model is correct the audience
member would draw on past experiences and other factors for example; do they
like coca cola, do they have the money to go to the shop, isn’t their anything they
would rather do. Having considered these factors the viewer would make a
conscious and active decision.
Reception Theory.
A newspaper story features an image showing a protester being arrested with
the caption “peaceful protest at the house of commons turned into a riot by the
London police service”. Here the media producer has encoded a message into the
story trying to state that protesters were unfairly and harshly treated. The
consumer decodes the message; if a preferred reading is achieved then the
audience will understand the encoded opinion and agree with it. If a negotiated
reading is achieved the consumer will understand and partly agree with the
media producers opinion, but may also add their own opinions and thoughts
such as “the police may have been forced to act in this way” etc. If the reader
comes to an oppositional reading then they will disagree with the encoded
opinion and believe that the decision to use force by the police was correct and
the protesters were in the wrong.