Theory Work: Audience Theory- The Effects Model

- The first of the theories we looked at that will help us to understand the relationship between text and audience is The Effects Theory, also known as the Hypodermic Syringe Model.
- The theory is that the consumption of media texts has an effect and an influence upon the audience.
- This is normally considered to be a negative effect.
- Audiences passively consume texts, and are powerless to prevent the influence texts have.
- The power lies with the message of the text.
- The model is also known as The Hypodermic Model because the audience are sitting passively, powerless to having a hypodermic syringe pumping and infecting us with information, and the intended message.
- We are drugged by and addicted to the powerful syringe-like media.


Examples
In the 1992 british general election, and the weeks leading up to the result, the labour party was dominating. Throughout, The Sun newspaper were against Labour, and on the  day of the result, they published the below front page headline.

The Conservative Party won my just a few seats, and below is The Sun's headline on the following day;

It was believed that the papers headline on results day influenced enough people to change their vote, providing the conservatives with the  victory.

Another example is television advertising. Certain adverts, such as Barry Scott for Cilit Bang, and Alexander the Meercat for Compare the Market are rememberable and a lasting effect on the audience, influencing them to purchase the product or use the service, as it is the one that springs to mind.