Audience Theory

Hypodermic Needle Model

The hypodermic needle theory implies that the
mass media has a direct, immediate and powerful
effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s
and 1950s was perceived as a powerful influence on
behaviour change. Several factors contributed
to this "strong effects" theory of
communication, including: - The fast rise and
popularisation of radio and television - The
emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda -
The Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which focused on the impact of films on children -
Hitlers monopolization of the mass media during World War II to unify the German public
behind the Nazi party. The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very
large group of people directly and uniformly by injecting them with appropriate messages
designed to trigger a desired response. The model suggests a powerful and direct flow of
information from the sender to the receiver. It suggests that media messages are injected
straight into a passive audience which is immediately influenced by the message. This
theory is not appropriate as the game has not been forced on the media and the people.

Uses and Gratifications Theory

 This theory gives the audience more
power. This theory makes sure it is not
putting the game to the consumer fully, its
more about the consumer coming to the
product. Here people are not helpless
consumers of mass media, rather they are
able to use the media in a way that they
gain certain gratifications, such as
laughter, interaction, or information. In
the game I designed this applies to the end of each level when it says Level Complete, this
will make the user want to play more. Also the game rewards the user with new weapons or
armour.

Reception Study
This theory suggests that every media
text has a meaning which is not
obvious or transparent but hidden in
the text itself. In order to understand
the meaning of a text, an audience
must actively extract the media from
it. Reception theory is a version of
reader response literary theory that
emphasizes each particular reader's
reception or interpretation in making
meaning from a literary text. Reception theory is generally referred to as audience
reception in the analysis of communications models. This theory does not apply to my game.