The Hypodermic Needle
Dated from the 1920s, the hypodermic needle theory was the first attempt to explain how mass audiences might react to mass media texts.They said it was a crude summary however as it suggests that audiences passively receive the information transmitted via a media text, without any attempt on their part to process or challenge the data. But this was partly because the theory was created when mass media was still fairly new. Cinema and radio were less than 20 years old.
We look at the hypodermic needle theory these days as a way of saying how much we can't get enough of a media text, whether it be a particular TV programme or a radio show.. but how we still keep watching/listening for a certain reason, those reasons are usually due to wanting escapism, entertainment, correlation and surveillance
Two Step Flow
The Hypodermic model quickly proved too clumsy for media researchers seeking to more precisely explain the relationship between audience and text. 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, a more sophisticated explanation was sought.
Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet analysed the voters' decision-making processes during a 1940 presidential election campaign and published their results in a paper called The People's Choice. Their findings suggested that the information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience unmediated but is filtered through "opinion leaders" who then communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step flow. 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.
Uses and Gratifications
In the 1960s - when the 1st generation started to grow up with television, media theorists believed people made choices about what they did when they consumed a media text. They say that audiences were made up of individuals who actively consumed texts for different reasons and in different ways, for example escapism, entertainment, correlation and surveillance. Blulmer and Katz - who were researchers, expanded this theory and then published their own in 1974 but with more information and their own input stating that people individually might choose to use a media text for the following purposes (i.e. uses and gratifications):
·Diversion - escapism from everyday problems and routine
·Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional interaction
·Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts/learning behaviour and values from texts
·Surveillance - information which could be useful for living e.g weather reports and news
Using the results from my survey I analysed them further and put them into charts, with each question the 6 participants in the survey could answer more than one.
How do you access music?
Where do you watch music videos?
What is the main genre you currently listen to?
Do you often read music magazines?
Would the costume of a band/artist have an affect on whether you
would listen to them?
How do you listen to music?
If you read music magazines? Which one(s)?
How often do you go to gigs? If often, what type of place?
As I can tell from the charts, it is clear that I needed to ask more people what they were interested in, here most people listen to hip-hop and the genre of the band I am using are quite the opposite. The people that filled out my questionnaire have also contradicted themselves by saying they don't read music magazines, but when asked what 'If you read music magazines? Which one(s)?' 2 people said that they read NME, so to this didn't seem to work well through my own fault as to not getting enough people to take part in my questionnaire.
No comments:
Post a Comment