Passive audiences

• What is a passive audience ?

  When the media has a direct and powerful control on the audience and the audience is seen as unthinking passive receivers of media texts who are unable to resist the messages of the dominant ideology
• How did the Frankfurt School view the “culture industry” ?

  • Simarlarities between “propaganda industry” in Nazi Germany
  • Pop culture in USA produce standardised content used to manipulate a passive mass audience
• What is the Hypodermic Syringe Model ?

  The hypodermic syringe model suggests that media messages are directly injected into passive audiences, influencing their thoughts and behavior without resistance.

  It assumes people accept media content uncritically, leading to immediate and powerful effects.
• Evidence supporting the hypodermic syringe model

  Susie Orbach & Naomi Wolfe

  “beauty myth“ has encouraged an increase in eating disorders, especially among young women
• Criticisms of the Hypodermic Syringe Model

  • Model assumes the entire audience is passive and homogeneous and that we will all react in the same way
  • Assumes the media overrides all other agencies of socialisation and experiences