Media Theories

We have covered several different media theories within our media lessons, the most common and dominant being the Uses and Gratifications theory. This theory suggests that media influences people depending on the way they personally react to it rather than its influences being forced upon them. The audience supposedly take an "active role" is what they are perceiving, unlike the passive audience associated with the Hypodermic Needle theory (where the audience believe and follow everything the media says).
There are thought to be four main headings which can be grouped within the Uses and Gratifications theory:

• Information - media helps to increase/gain knowledge of specific subjects
• Personal Identity - media allows/helps one to find oneself
• Integration and Social Interaction - perhaps liking a certain aspect within the media text to fit in or connect with others.
• Entertainment - media could perhaps allow the audience to relax, release emotions or have fun.

There are several other perhaps less common theories which we have also studied:

Cultivation/Drip Drip Drip Effect - the audience becomes affected by the repetition of a certain message within a media text.

Two-step flow - the media introduces us to certain ideas and prospects and then we go on to discuss these with others and form our own opinions.

Limited effect - the idea that nothing in the media affects us because we are so used to everything that it has already thrown at us.

Media dependancy - the theory that suggests we as humans need media to thrive and to live.

How do these theories apply to music magazines?

The two most applicable theories are the Uses and Gratifications theory and the two-step flow theory, as they apply to the majority of people. For example, most people make up their own minds and form their own opinions about exactly what they see or read in music magazines, rather than being 'spoon-fed' everything. If everybody mindlessly followed and gave in to believing exactly everything that the media said, then we would have a very narrow minded and powerless society. The Hypodermic Needle theory is probably the least applicable theory because it is a discredited and outdated view of media which is overly simplistic, and it really doesn't apply to music magazines. The Limited Effect theory and the Media Dependancy theory can apply to music magazines, but not very regularly, and usually only to a small percentage of people. For example, the Limited Effect theory applies to people who are seriously devoted to music, because the magazines are more likely to have effect and sway the opinions of them. The Media Dependancy theory perhaps applies more to people who are always buying or subscribing to magazines and a huge part of their life revolves around music and celebrities.