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researching into advertising

Beginning our research into adverting, project 6, we first looked at the hypodermic needle theory along with the gratification model, reception theory and cultivation theory in relation to advertising.

  • The hypodermic needle theory is the idea that the media can 'inject' a message into the audience in such a way that its viewers believe it in a 'the media said it, therefore it is true' sort of way. The mass media during the 1940s and 50s were perceived as a powerful influence on this. There are usually two types of audience in this, the passive and the active.

  • The uses and gratifications theory proposes that the media has four main uses for its audiences. Most audience theory focuses much on the negative impact of the media on its audiences- such as manipulation and enticement. On the contrary, the uses and gratification theory is much more positive in its research, emphasising on how the audience uses media in a good way. 

  • Reception theory states that media texts are encoded by the producer meaning that whoever produces the text fills it with messages and values. When the text is decoded by the audience, they usually perceive it in one of three ways, not always the way intended by the media. Dominant or preferred reading, negotiated reading and oppositional reading. 

  • First propositioned by Professor George Gerbner and Larry Gross in the 1970s, the Cultivation theory is the study that examines the long-term effects of television. The theory suggests that heavier viewers of television (more than 4 hours), saw the world as more of a danger, than light viewers did.

Individual audiences

When people think about creating pieces for the media, such as movies or adverts, they usually have to think about the category of audience they want to bring in and appeal to. These can be known as the individual audience and fall under categories of mass, niche or individual.

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Mass audience examples could be something like block buster films, movies that are made for a specific purpose- meant to appeal to all.

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Niche audiences fit into a smaller category, so maybe fans of the horror genre or fantasy genre specifically. They generally bring in lots of profit, however are more specific in the audience they want to appease.

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Individual audiences could be a much smaller range of people, such as school children or teenagers. Educational movies or adverts for children toys could fall under this audience category.

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