Introduction
Since the media are a main source of information, education and entertainment in our everyday lives, people are incessantly exposed to a number of messages from various media sources. It will became clear that discussion of the media was usually expressed in terms of whether and how the media could influence media audiences or have specific effects on publics. Same issues and concerns of media effects recur as each new media arrives. Although some communication researches have found and theorized this phenomenon, there is no consensus of view about the nature and the size of media effects. (McQuail, 1994)
Mainstream media researchers tend to assume that powerful media messages act directly on media audience, which is passive and powerless- the so called “hypodermic” model of effects. This approach has often been challenged, most recently by the theory of the “active” audience, which arguing that audiences use media messages to satisfy various individual needs and produce meaning according to their own already established beliefs. (more…)
