The Hypodermic Needle Model

The Hypodermic Needle Model says that information within a text is subconsciously passed onto the viewing audience. The audience is influenced by the values and ideologies incorporated within specific text such as upper class ideology and beliefs of the ruling classes. This may not be relevant to the text itself but may have a big influence on the way an audience perceives a text. This theory suggests that, as an audience, we are manipulated by the creators of media texts, and that our behaviour and thinking might be easily changed by media-makers. It assumes that the audience are passive.

People are seen as passive and are seen as having a lot media material "shot" at them. People end up thinking what they are told because there is no other source of information.

The 'Magic Bullet theory' is also useful to mention as the hypodermic needle is seen as a bullet shooting these ideologies into people and giving the audience no chance to think or see anything else as they have no other sources of information to reject what the texts are saying. Both images used to express this theory (a bullet and a needle) suggest a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver. Including this in our debate would be good because it can outline the impact of the hypodermic needle theory.


Reception Theory

We could talk about 'preffered reading', which is when the audience agrees with what the text it showing and enjoy it. Also, 'negotiated reading' which is when the audience listens to the ideologies passed over from the text but they construct it to reflect their own interests.

OR

We could talk about the 'oppositional reading' that some viewers feel when consuming a text. It's when the audience don't agree with what is being said or proposed by the text and therefore they reject it.

David Morley - Politics in the living room

Some people within the family may enjoy a text while others may hate it due to their own personal beliefs.

This can also be used to talk about the population as a whole. For example, in the Celebrity big brother 'race row' (2007) when Shilpa Shetty was abused by fellow housemates. Many people complained to Ofcom about it and the majority of those people were Asians as they were the ethnic group being exploited in the text. The Asians stood up against this and rejected the treatment of Shilpa Shetty. However, channel 4 were criticized by various people and companies for not stopping the race row sooner and were then accused of keeping the culprits in the house for better ratings. The higher ratings may suggest how more and more people were rejecting the portrayal and treatment of Asians and were tuning in to see how something as horrific as this could be allowed to be shown.

- Big Brother would be a useful text to mention because it incoporates a variety of people and issues.

Farah