Task 2 – Audience Response to Products

Hypodermic needle

The Hypodermic Needle model or the Magic Bullet Theory is used to suggest that social media can influence very large groups of people by “injecting/”shooting” people with a piece of information distributed using social media such as newspapers, magazines and the news on the radio or television.

For example

The radio broadcast of war of the worlds was so convincing to the listeners it influenced a nationwide panic making people think that there were actually aliens coming from mars.

But we all know the chances of that happening are a million to one.

 

The Inoculation Model

The inoculation theory is a passive audience theory which suggests that when an audience is exposed to extreme media messages the audience will then become “immune” to them once viewed. The long term exposure can result in the audience being completely desensitized to it.

For example if a character is gruesomely killed in a game the player will eventually get used to the shocking images and then become un-fazed/desensitized to it.

Game’s like resident evil 4 and last of us can support this theory as they include many shocking death scenes that tend not to effect the player the second time around.

The Two Step Flow Model

The Two Step Flow Method explaines that most people form there opinion under the influence of an opinion leader who is influenced by the media.
for example
a new game is released early to certain youtubers and they get paid to review the game and tell there viewer's how good it is the viewers then hold that reviewers opinion above all others and that then influences them to buy that game.

The reception theory

This theory examines how the audience receives the information being provided to them. This can be split into three basic definitions.

• The Preferred reading: This is where the audience receives and accepts the information being offered to them. If we were to take a game as an example, This would be the audience accepting the game exactly for what it is and enjoying it for that.
• The Negotiated reading: In this instance, the audience gives and takes with the information given. They take from it what they need whilst rejecting what they don't. A common thing with 3D video games is issues with the camera control, so a lot of reviewers will bring up the positives of an open world yet state that the experience gets brought down via a terrible camera.
• The Oppositional reading: This is where information is given, yet not received as intended. For example when the PS3 was in it's early days, many games made use of the limited motion control of the sixaxis controller, now while this was released as a means of adding further variety to games, many perceived it as a cheap gimmick which ultimately didn't receive the expected gratification.

http://u6cacmp.blogspot.co.uk/
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http://www.amazon.com/THE-WAR-WORLDS-non-illustrated-ebook/dp/B004DUMYOI
http://ptgdaemon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/last-of-us.html
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