HNT and U>

In today's lesson we discussed the Hypodermic Needle Theory and the Uses and Gratifications Theory. Beforehand we had to research these theories for a homework task, and here's what I found out -

The Hypodermic Needle Theory - mass media is seen to have an immediate an influential effect on people and their behaviour. This is done by 'injecting' them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response. This theory is also known as the Magic Bullet Theory, in the sense that the message is directly 'fired' into the persons mind. My knowledge on this theory was furthered in today's lesson, as we learnt that this theory assumes the audience to be passive receivers of the messages who accept or do not challenge the messages. There is a quote from SpiderMan that says 'with great power comes great responsibility', this was applied to the mass media as they are so powerful they can 'inject' whatever messages they want to into their audience. A really good example of just how effective this theory is, is Margaret Thatcher's victory over Neil Kinnock in the elections in the early 1980's. Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Sun, hated print unions for pulling a print of Arthur Scargill (President of the National Union of Miners) and so wanted Margaret Thatcher to win the general elections because she also wanted to crush the Unions. Rupert Murdoch continually used the Sun to help, and promote Thatcher, so that ultimately he could print what he wanted and not have to listen to Unions. Thatcher won, and the Sun accounted for a lot of the reason for it.  

The Uses and Gratifications Theory - This theory focuses on why people use particular media rather than the contents. It is more concerned with what people do with media. The gratification of social or psychological needs of the individual. Gratifications can be obtained from a medium's content, e.g. watching a specific programme, and from the social context it used, e.g. watching TV with the family. Studies suggest that peoples needs and moods influence how they use and respond to a medium, for example, feeling bored encourages exciting content and feeling stressed encourages relaxing content. The same TV programme may gratify different needs for different individuals. Individual personalities, stages of maturation, backgrounds and social needs = individual needs. The Uses and Gratifications Theory assumes that the audience are actually active receivers; they use the media text to gratify certain needs, e.g. a need for diversion, information, advice, etc.