Task 1 - Response Theories

The hypodermic needle model:

This model is where an audience are fed a positive or negative media text and is stimulated for a response in order to gather data.

"The phrasing "hypodermic needle" is meant to give a mental image of the direct, strategic, and planned infusion of a message into an individual. But as research methodology became more highly developed, it became apparent that the media had selective influences on people." – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypodermic_needle_model

The inoculation model:

This model follows the principle that when someone sees enough of a certain media message they become desensitised to it. For example, if someone views enough violence in the media, they are more likely to commit an illegal act as it is no longer seen as extreme.

"Inoculation Theory was developed by social psychologist William J. McGuire in 1961 to explain more about how attitudes and beliefs change, and more importantly, how to keep original attitudes and beliefs consistent in the face of persuasion attempts. Inoculation Theory continues to be studied today by communication, social psychology, and social science researchers. The theory has been assessed in varied context, including politics (Pfau et al., 1990), health campaigns (Pfau & VanBockern, 1994), and marketing (Compton & Pfau, 2004), among others."

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inoculation_theory

The two step flow model:

"The two-step flow of communication or Multistep Flow Model says that most people form their opinions under the influence of opinion leaders, who in turn are influenced by the mass media. So according to this model, ideas flow from mass media to opinion leaders, and from them to a wider population." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-step_flow_of_communication

This model shows that opinion leaders have influence over people, who themselves are influenced by the mass media.

For example, during the 1940 presidential election, they found 50% of the voters had already made up their minds six months before the actual election and stuck with their decision despite seeing media debates and coverage.

The uses and gratifications theory:

This theory tries to explain how people use media to satisfy specific needs, such as a need for information, entertainment, personal identity and integration and social interaction.
Relating to games, on the information front, certain educational games are made for the benefit of teaching people on certain subjects such as maths, science etc... As for entertainment, that is the main reason for games, to provide entertainment. People can relate to games depending on what they are and depending on the person who is playing; one person can enjoy dark, brooding games that are more like movies than games, whilst others may enjoying exciting, interactive games that get them jumping around their room. For social interaction, many games involve multiplayer which allows players to play together and meet new friends.

“Diverging from other media effect theories that question "what does media do to people?", UGT focuses on "what do people do with media?"  - 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uses_and_gratifications_theory

Reception theory:

“Reception theory provides a means of understanding media texts by understanding how these texts are read by audiences. Theorists who analyse media through reception studies are concerned with the experience of cinema and television viewing for spectators, and how meaning is created through that experience. An important concept of reception theory is that the media text—the individual movie or television program—has no inherent meaning in and of itself. Instead, meaning is created in the interaction between spectator and text; in other words, meaning is created as the viewer watches and processes the film.”  –

http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Reception-Theory.html

This theory realises that meaning in the text is made by the audience and not the producer. Meaning is encoded in the text but it’s up to the viewer to take something away from it.

There are usually three readings that can be gathered from audiences, the preferred reading, which is where the audience understands and accepts the ideology, The negotiated reading where the audience understands the ideology offered, accepts some aspects of it but rejects other aspects and the oppositional reading in which the audience interprets the ideology offered in the opposite way than it is intended.