Audience Theories

As an active audience we can choose what media we want to listen to or watch depending on what mood we are feeling and what we what. We control the media because we tell the producers what we want to watch due to popularity in certain things we consume. If we don't watch a certain program, producers wont produce it any more. Depending on what we feel will depend on what media we want to consume.

 

'Users & Gratifications' Theory

 

This theory represented a change in thinking, as researchers began to describe the effects of the media from the point of view of the audience. It looks at the motives of the people who use the media, why we watch the program, why we read newspapers, why we find ourselves compelled to keep up to date with favourite soaps or consume films.

 

This makes the audience active as they choose what to consume, not forced in to consumption for example you only watch the films that you want as you are in control. Media simply creates the product. The theory argued that audience needs have social and psychological needs which generate certain expectations about mass media and what they are exposed to. As the audience is an active participant it allows them to make choices in relation to what they consume. This does assume an active audience making motivated choices making the audience in control of their own consumerism.

 

The 4 Needs

 

Underlying idea behind the model is that people are motivated by the desire to fulfil, or gratify certain needs. Rather than asking how the media uses us, the model asks how we use the media.

 

4 Areas

• Surveillance
• Personal Identify
• Personal Relationship
• Diversion
   

Surveillance

 

Is the idea that people feel better having the feeling that they know whats going on in the world. News channels provide a reliable source for information however what ever is published, is specially selected by a team that will choose stories that they think is best for the audience. All about the awareness of what's going on in the world.

 

Personal Identity

 

Is how being a subject of the media allows up to confirm the identity and positioning of ourselves within society. The use of media can be used to create your own personal identity. Pop stars often become role models inspiring young children. Hence why theres such an outcry when the star dies something wrong.

 

Personal Relationship

 

Relationship with the media

 

People often what soaps to get to know the character in the program and use this as a form of companionship. T.V can be quite an intimate experience. By watching the same people on a regular basis, we can often become attached to them as though we know them personally. This is why when a character dies, we feel sad because it is though we personally know them. As well as if there is an antagonistic character in a show or film, depending on what the character has done, we then hate the actor that plays the character.

 

Using the media within relationships

 

Some audiences use the media as a springboard to from and build upon relationships with other people. When watching a TV program, often conversation can be brought on by what has been seen with the people that have either seen the show or watching it there and then.

 

Gogglebox trailer for 2013

 

 

 

Gogglebox is a TV show that's based on showing the audience the views of real people watching the popular shows that have been on TV within the last 7 days. The show features a number of recurring families, couples and friends as they watch the same shows and captures there responces. As you can see from the advert there is a variety of different responces and opinions from each group which shows that life experiances and the society people grow up in, can determin how we interpretate the media texts.

 

 

Stuart Hall (Reception Theory)

 

Stuart Hall's theory states that the media texts are encoded by the producers meaning that whoever produces the text fills the product with values and messages. This is then decoded by the spectators. The different spectators will decode the text in different ways, not usually how the producers intended.

 

Dominant

 

The audience view the media text in the way the producer wants the audience to. This means that the audience agree with the ideology and message that is produced by the media text.

it handbag looks appealing encouraging you to what to buy it
Oppositional

The audience rejects the preferred reading and creates their own reading of the text. They do not agree with the message that the producer has created.

 

Negotiated

 

A compromise between the dominant and oppositional readings. The audience accepts the views of the producer but also has their own input and understanding in relation to the text.

 

 

How may a audience have a dominant understanding of your product?

 

The audience will have a dominant understanding of my product because the message will be clear to the audience of what I want my music video to be about. The audience consuming my product will be the same age to who my product is aimed at. The product will be easy to understand from a narrative aspect and can relate to the narrative in the same way. The product will also relate to the society we live in. The audience is choosing to consume the product so must have a reason to like it in the first place.

 

How may a audience have a negotiated understanding of your product?

 

The audience consuming the product may not have the same life experiences as what the product is entailing. They also may not understand the narrative in relation so therefore cannot relate to it in the intended way. The age may vary the reading and understanding of the product and therefore the message is unclear to what the dominant is reading.

 

How may a audience have a oppositional understanding of your product?

 

The product has controversial themes and the audience disagrees with the messages in the video. The audience may also disagree with the genre which immediately the consumer rejects the product. The consumer may not understand or relate to the narrative structure as it may be unclear or they may of not experienced what is shown. Different cultures may have a different understanding of the product and it may not reflect the society.

 

 

 

 

This clip taken from the popular TV show Gogglebox, shows the different emotional responces of real people to the TV shows shown to the British public. The views and opinions of what are shown in the video clip are all emotional to the achievement of Musharaf speech. All groups watching the show are domminent as the producers want the audience to feel moved and emotional towards the story of Musharaf.

 

 

Hypodermic Needle Theory

 

This theory implies that mass media has a direct, immediate and powerful effect on it's audiences. In 1940s-1950s, the mass media were perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour change. Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication, including:

• The fast rise and popularisation of radio and television.
• The emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda.

The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by 'shooting' or 'injecting' them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desire response. It suggests (a needle) a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver, the passive audience which is influenced by the message. It expresses the view that the media is a dangerous means of communication as the audience is powerless to resit the impact of the message.

 

People are seen as passive and are seen as having a lot of media material 'thrown' at them. People end up thinking what they are told because there is no other source of information. The theory is based on the assumption that the audience is brainwashed into believing the media messages.

 

Some implications for this theory is that the theory is self is out of date an invalid due to changes the audiences changed perception of the media. Also not all people consume media in the same way any more due to the technology advances in phones and devices. More up to date theories have provan that audiences are not simply passive.



An example of the Hyperdermic Needle Theory is the 'War of the Worlds' radio broadcast. The broadcast was infact a play of which most listeners had not been paying close attention to. The play cut to a panic broadcast of which what the audience heard was that Martians had begun an invasion of Earth. This created a mass panic to around one million Americans of whom thought that the Earth was underattack. However this was not the case. This is an example of the theory because the media injected a thought into the audience that the Earth was under attack which casued a mass panic in America. This is exactly how the theory worked, by injecting the message directly into the "bloodstream" of the public, attempting to create a uniform thinking. The effects of the broadcast suggested that the media could manipulate a passive and gullible public, leading theorists to believe this was one of the primary ways media authors shaped audience perception.