A substantial portion of our course this year is understanding and being able to relate to media theories on regulation and audience behaviour. These theories have been made to attempt to understand audience members and more specifically why they choose to view the various shows and movies, and also what they will get from viewing it.
These theories cover all kinds of effects, ranging from education to psychotic behaviour. The theories are as follows:
The hypodermic model sugests that the media injects messages and information directly into the minds of the viewers, like a hypodermic needle injects the body, and that this can be considered to be as addictive as heroin.
Strengths: The approach draws attention to the power that media producers have and that media products can be powerful and range from importance relating to each audience member.
Weaknesses: The approach, however insinuates that the audience can be percieved as a group of passive powerless individuals, helplessly taking in false information. The theory is also used focusing on the effects on women and/or children, and finally, the majority of the ways in which people use media are still unnacounted for, rendering the theory incomplete and thus innacurate.
Notable example(s): The James Bulger murder case blamed on the children having viewed child's play three. The theory is that the film injected false information to the suggestable minds of the killers and so made them commit the heinous act.
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