Audience Theory - Direct Media Effects

This model focuses on the role the media has. It has a strong and direct influence on audiences but it is usually negative.

Basic Communication Model - Shannon and Weaver 1949

1. Sender has a thought
2. Sender encodes thought into a message
3. Message is transmitted through a channel
4. Receiver decodes message 
5. Receiver internalizes message.

The Hypodermic Syringe

This suggests that media texts transmit messages that are then picked up by audiences. Media messages could be said to be a bit like drugs injected into the body that the audience is not equipped to defend itself against. This also suggests that information from a text passes into the mass consciousness of the audience unmediated and therefore as an audience we are manipulated by creators of media texts. However The Hypodermic Syringe assumes that the audience are passive and that they all react the same way.

Inoculation Theory

This theory suggests that eventually we become desensitised and are less likely to be moved.
For example with horror movies the producers have to continuously provide new content to keep audiences engaged.