Hypodermic Syringe Model

The mass media are able to 'inject' content , ideas and images into the audience. The syringe is full of the media content and injects this directly into the audience. Idea that the audience are unthinking, passive, receivers of these images and messages.

the camera ‘inspecting’ women in a sexual way in films and TV.

An interpretation of a media text that modifies the intended (preferred) reading so that it fits with the audience member’s own views.

An interpretation of a media text that rejects its intended (preferred) reading.

the intended messages contained within the text.

The idea that traditional gender roles are inevitable and natural.

the view that people use the media for their own purposes.

Encoding is the process by which a text is constructed by its producers.

Decoding is the process by which the audience reads, understands and interprets a text.

Passive consumption takes place when a person doesn't really pay attention to the text that they are consuming and is thus passive.

Reception theory focuses on the role of the audience in the interpretation of a text, instead of on the text itself. In other words, the theory suggests that audiences play an active role in reading texts, that each person has the ability to interpret the same text differently, and that a text by itself – i.e. without a reader – has no specific meaning.

Long term exposure to media messages makes the audience immune to them.

For example prolonged exposure to media violence would desenitise the audience to say they are no longer shocked by it.