Learning Outcome Three: Audience responses and behaviour
The media is an extremely powerful tool that can have massive effects on the public such as making
them see matters in different ways. Music videos express meaningful messages to their audience
through lyrics which people can relate too. Adverts send out messages through their adverts which
make the advert stand out and stick inside the audience’s brain. Documentaries can be informative
to their audiences by informing them of matters they may have not known about (known about well
enough) or change their opinions on matters.
An example of this that has appeared recently in the news media empire is how news media makes
us care or know about certain things going on in the world. They spoke about how News media all
over the world headlined “The Boston Bombings” where (which was a tragedy) and millions of
people took a massive interest in it, they compared this to the fact that thousands of youths are
killed in the United States due to gun and knife crime and how the media barely covers this because
it’s so common. This shows how the news media controls our knowledge of some matters and the
way we understand them.
Another great example of how the media can control the responses and behaviour of its audiences
would be North Korea. North Korea block out the rest of the world’s media (most internet websites
such as YouTube and TV and new media). They then create their own TV and news (allot made up) to
mould their audience (North Koreas) population into supporting North Korea’s propaganda which is
constantly aired. In a way they are being brain washed by North Korea’s media. This example shows
how media can be used as a dangerous tool.
Documentaries main priority is to inform and get a response (audience making their own conclusion
on the matter) from the audience. Documentaries main functions are too inform, or give the
audiences an understanding of a matter. Documentaries usually are nearly always informative
informing their audiences of matters (usually negative impact matters, to generate more popularity
and a bigger audience) going on in the world or teaching facts to an audience (for example, Planet
Earth which teaches people about Earth).
Unlike news media, documentaries usually stick the strong facts when they are discussing matters
and don’t exaggerate about things which is what a lot of news media’s do. You do occasionally get a
documentary that (usually having a debate about a matter, for or against) is biased more, or
completely towards one side of the argument which is an unfair thing to do and is often criticised by
the audience. In general though most documentaries stick to truth, facts aren’t exaggerated and
aren’t biased. This is why the audience enjoys them, because it’s teaching you and also giving you
the facts without exaggeration or lies. It makes the audience feel more comfortable to know they
aren’t being messed around with; with the information they are being told.
There are three key theories which explain how an audience use and interpret the media industry. I
will discuss each one below in detail.

Uses and Gratification:
Uses and gratifications theory attempts to explain the uses and functions of the media for
individuals, groups, and society in general. There are three objectives in developing uses and
gratifications theory: 1) to explain how individuals use mass communication to gratify their needs.
“What do people do with the media”. 2) To discover underlying motives for individuals’ media use.
3) to identify the positive and the negative consequences of individual media use. At the core of uses
and gratifications theory lies the assumption that audience members actively seek out the mass
media to satisfy individual needs.
We can also use it to
1:Cognitive needs, including acquiring information, knowledge and understanding;(the key
reason for and audience to watch a documentary)
2:Affective needs, including emotion, pleasure, feelings;
3:Personal integrative needs, including credibility, stability, status;
4:Social integrative needs, including interacting with family and friends; and
5:Tension release needs, including escape and diversion.
Hypodermic Needle:
The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly
and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a
desired response.
Both images used to express this theory (a bullet and a needle) suggest a powerful and direct
flow of information from the sender to the receiver. The bullet theory graphically suggests that
the message is a bullet, fired from the "media gun" into the viewer's "head". With similarly
emotive imagery the hypodermic needle model suggests that media messages are injected
straight into a passive audience which is immediately influenced by the message. They express
the view that the media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or
audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message. There is no escape from the effect of
the message in these models. The population is seen as a sitting duck. People are seen as passive
and are seen as having a lot media material "shot" at them. People end up thinking what they
are told because there is no other source of information.
Passive and Active Audience Consumption:
An active audience is one that actively engages with the text. They do not simply accept
every media message. They question what they see and develop their own interpretation of

a media product based on their life experiences, education, family and cultural influences.
‘Bottom up’ theories generally assume an active audience. Theories such as “Uses &
Gratification” and “Postmodernist theory” assume that audiences are active.
A passive audience does not actively engage with a media text. A passive audience is one
that does not question the message that the media is sending and simply accepts the
message in the way the media outlet intended.‘Top down’ theories of media influence tend
to assume that audiences are passive. Theories such as “Bullet/Hypodermic” and “Agenda
Setting Function” assume audiences are passive.
The uses and gratification theory applies to almost every documentary. Nearly every
documentary’s aim is to educate and inform its audience of a matter. Cognitive needs
(Acquiring knowledge, information and understanding) are within the “uses and
gratification” theory relates best to documentaries. For example, BBC’s Blue planet would
fall into this theory because it aims to show and inform (teach) the audience.
A great example for the Hypodermic needle would be North Korea. North Korea who
separates themselves from most of the world has to keep their population under control, to
stop a rebellion. To do this they block out any kind of media contact with outside of North
Korea (TV, Newspapers, internet radio ect…). North Korea then has control over their own
media so they can constantly air propaganda and control what is aired and what is not. This
is a massive example of the Hypodermic needle theory because North Korea are pumping a
single message (North Korea are the “good guys” and the rest of the world are “bad”) at a
constant rate into the viewer’s brain. In a way they are being brain washed.