Media influence on audiences

Hypodermic syringe model: media injects ideas directly into passive audiences, influencing behaviour.
- Over-simplistic, ignores selective exposure.
Two-step flow: (👥 Katz and Lazarsfeld, 1955) opinion leaders mediate media effects, influencing their social networks.
- Underestimates direct influence of mass media in digital age.
Uses and gratifications: (👥 Blumler and Katz, 1974) audiences use media for personal needs: information, entertainment, personal identity, integration.
- Focuses too much on individual choice, ignores structural factors.
Cultural effects: (👤 Hall, 1973) long-term exposure to media gradually shapes values and beliefs.
- Difficult to measure gradual effects empirically.
Moral panics: (👤 Cohen, 1972) media exaggerates events, creating folk devils and public concern.
- Moral panics less common in fragmented digital media

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