Theories of the Media

There are several theories concerning the Media and its audience:

The Hypodermic Syringe theory

Dating from  the 1920s, its based on the idea that the Media is like a syringe, it injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs onto the audience and as a powerless mass, the audience has no choice but to be influenced by it.

The Culmination Theory

After the audience has watched the same thing repeatedly they become de-sensitised to it. For instance, if the audience is constantly watching violence, eventually they will feel less sensitive to the subject.

The Two-step flow Theory

The theory that states that the audience won't actually affected by the media text itself, but only by the discussions that the audience has on it

The Encoding/Decoding theory

This theory come in two parts:

Encoding is the process where the producers construct the text

Decoding is the process where the audience reads, understands and interprets the text.

This theory also states that different media text will be interpreted differently depending on the viewers' identity, culture and opinions.