Audience Theory Research

Audience Theory

The Effects Model also known

as the Hypodermic Model

The effects model is one of the seven theories that help us to get a better understanding about the relationship between texts and the audience. The basis of this theory explores the connection between people's consumption of the mass media and their subsequent behaviour. This theory suggests that we are inferior to the media and what they show us is what we will believe. The effects from this theory has been argued that it would influence peoples behaviour and perception on things based on what they have seen. The key evidence for explaining the effects model is an experiment called 'The Bobo Doll Experiment' which was conducted in 1961 by Albert Bandura. In the experiment, children where made to watch a video where an adult violently attacked a Bobo doll. The children where then taken into a room with objects in the room with the Bobo doll. From the findings 88% of the children copied the violent behaviour that thety had watched the adult carry out. The conclusion reached was that the children would copy the violent nature that they had watched. However this experiment is very controversial and there has proved to be many problems with this experiment such as not being able to discover whether a single exposure to the violence can have long-term effects. This theory has been described as a linear communication method which means media conventions can directly express their messages to the audiences minds and the audience are passive and powerless to doing anything about it.