Audiences: Passive or Active?

One of the main theories that stood out to me from the lecture was the Hypodermic needle model. This theory believes that audiences are greatly affected, personally and mentally by the media which they consume. For example, crimes committed by young offenders are often blamed on the violent video games that they may have played.

However, Empiricist research into the effects of the mass media seems to prove otherwise. Paul Lazarsfeld conducted research into the voting behaviours of American citizens in the 1940’s. His research led him to create the two-step flow model which talks about how the mass media talks directly to the professionals in a certain subject, who Lazarsfeld referred to as opinion leaders. These opinion leaders then pass the knowledge on to the rest of the population. For example someone who is known to have a broad knowledge of films will give advice to the recreational film watcher on which films are the best. This theory goes completely against the idea of the Hypodermic needle model as well as the Frankfurt school’s theories, as this study shows that it is not the mass media that influences audiences the most, but instead is the trusted friends and family of each individual who hold most power.

Studies like Lazarsfeld’s prompted a change in the way in which audiences are perceived. Rather than the audience being seen as passive, as the Frankfurt school thought, they were seen as active. The uses and gratifications theory explains this point saying that audiences are not merely dummies that sit in their living room being bombarded with endless messages not knowing the effect that these messages would have on them; instead they can understand what the media can provide for them and consume media products according to what they wish to get out of it.

Nowadays, the idea of an active audience has been taken one step further as audiences are now interactive. Through the use of YouTube, audiences can now be their own producers and make their own media products. Inevitably this means that the audiences are now controlling the media rather than the media controlling the audience.