Hiya lads. You asked for a summary of audience theory so I have this for you.
Read through, revise, create your own acronyms to remember them (MAB!)
Then do the tasks at the bottom of this page. See you soon. MrE.
Learning Objective:
Read through, revise, create your own acronyms to remember them (MAB!)
Then do the tasks at the bottom of this page. See you soon. MrE.
Learning Objective:
To revise Audience theory and apply it to the appropriate texts in preparation for the written A2 Media Studies exam.
Key Terms:
Key Terms:
Passive Audiences; Hypodermic,
Cultivation,
Two Step Flow.
Active Audiences; Uses and Gratifications, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Reception Analysis.
Researchers investigating the effect of media on audiences have considered the audience in two distinct ways.
The earliest idea was that a mass audience is passive and inactive.
The members of the audience are seen as couch potatoes just sitting there consuming media texts – particularly commercial television programmes.
It was thought that this did not require the active use of the brain.
The audience accepts and believes all messages in any media text that they receive.
This is the passive audience model.
It was thought that a mass audience could be influenced by the same message. This appeared to be the case in Nazi Germany in the 1930s leading up to WWII. Powerful German films such as Triumph of the Will seemed to use propaganda methods to ‘inject’ ideas promoting the Nazi cause into the German audience. That is why this theory is known as the Hypodermic model.
It suggests that a media text can ‘inject’ ideas, values and attitudes into a passive audience who might then act upon them. This theory also suggests that a media text has only one message which the audience must pick up.
Basically this theory stems from a fear of the mass media, and gives the media much more power than it can ever have in a democracy. Also it ignores the obvious fact that not everyone in an audience behaves in the same way.
How can an audience be passive? – Think of all the times you have disagreed with something on television or just not laughed at a new so called comedy, or thought a programme was awful. you weren't passive on these occassions.
This theory also treats the audience as passive.
It suggests that repeated exposure to the same message – such as an advertisement – will have an effect on the audience’s attitudes and values.
A similar idea is known as densensitisation which suggests that long term exposure to violent media makes the audience less likely to be shocked by violence.
Being less shocked by violence the audience may then be more likely to behave violently.
The criticism of this theory is that screen violence is not the same as real violence.
Many people have been exposed to screen murder and violence, but there is no evidence at all that this has lead audiences to be less shocked by real killings and violence.
Also this theory treats the audience as passive which is an outdated concept.
Gerbner & Gross argued that while religion or education had previously been greater influences on social trends, now "television is the source of the most broadly shared images and messages in history...Television cultivates from infancy the very predispositions and preferences that used to be acquired from other primary sources ... The repetitive pattern of television's mass-produced messages and images forms the mainstream of a common symbolic environment."Due to its accessibility and availability to the masses, television has become the "central cultural arm of our society."
Television shapes the way our society thinks and relates. Gerbner and Gross write that “the substance of the consciousness cultivated by TV is not so much specific attitudes and opinions as more basic assumptions about the facts of life and standards of judgment on which conclusions are based."
UNDERSTANDING MEDIA AUDIENCES
Researchers investigating the effect of media on audiences have considered the audience in two distinct ways.
Passive Audiences...
The earliest idea was that a mass audience is passive and inactive.
The members of the audience are seen as couch potatoes just sitting there consuming media texts – particularly commercial television programmes.
It was thought that this did not require the active use of the brain.
The audience accepts and believes all messages in any media text that they receive.
This is the passive audience model.
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The Hypodermic Model
In this model the media is seen as powerful and able to inject ideas into an audience who are seen as weak and passive.
This deals with the passive audience
It was thought that a mass audience could be influenced by the same message. This appeared to be the case in Nazi Germany in the 1930s leading up to WWII. Powerful German films such as Triumph of the Will seemed to use propaganda methods to ‘inject’ ideas promoting the Nazi cause into the German audience. That is why this theory is known as the Hypodermic model.
It suggests that a media text can ‘inject’ ideas, values and attitudes into a passive audience who might then act upon them. This theory also suggests that a media text has only one message which the audience must pick up.
Basically this theory stems from a fear of the mass media, and gives the media much more power than it can ever have in a democracy. Also it ignores the obvious fact that not everyone in an audience behaves in the same way.
How can an audience be passive? – Think of all the times you have disagreed with something on television or just not laughed at a new so called comedy, or thought a programme was awful. you weren't passive on these occassions.
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Cultivation Theory (George Gerbner 1968)
This theory also treats the audience as passive.
It suggests that repeated exposure to the same message – such as an advertisement – will have an effect on the audience’s attitudes and values.
A similar idea is known as densensitisation which suggests that long term exposure to violent media makes the audience less likely to be shocked by violence.
Being less shocked by violence the audience may then be more likely to behave violently.
The criticism of this theory is that screen violence is not the same as real violence.
Many people have been exposed to screen murder and violence, but there is no evidence at all that this has lead audiences to be less shocked by real killings and violence.
Also this theory treats the audience as passive which is an outdated concept.
Gerbner & Gross argued that while religion or education had previously been greater influences on social trends, now "television is the source of the most broadly shared images and messages in history...Television cultivates from infancy the very predispositions and preferences that used to be acquired from other primary sources ... The repetitive pattern of television's mass-produced messages and images forms the mainstream of a common symbolic environment."Due to its accessibility and availability to the masses, television has become the "central cultural arm of our society."
Television shapes the way our society thinks and relates. Gerbner and Gross write that “the substance of the consciousness cultivated by TV is not so much specific attitudes and opinions as more basic assumptions about the facts of life and standards of judgment on which conclusions are based."
Simply put, the realities created by television are not based on real facts but on speculations.
Gerbner observed that television reaches people, on average, more than seven hours a day.
While watching, television offers “a centralized system of story-telling”.
Gerbner asserts that television's major cultural function is to stabilize social patterns and to cultivate resistance to change.
We live in terms of the stories we tell and television tells these stories through news, drama, and advertising to almost everybody most of the time.
Katz and Lazarsfeld's theory assume a slightly more active audience.
It suggests messages from the media move in two distinct ways.
First, individuals who are opinion leaders, receive messages from the mass media and pass on their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content.
An interpretation can include the ideology of that particular publication, The Daily Mail, for example, conveys right wing, nationalistic, messages to its readers..
The information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience, but is filtered through the opinion leaders who then pass it on to a more passive audience. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step flow.
This theory appeared to reduce the power of the media, and some researchers concluded that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpret texts.
This led to the idea of active audiences.
This newer model sees the audience not as couch potatoes, but as individuals who are active and interact with the communication process and use media texts for their own purposes.
This model stems from the idea that audiences are a complex mixture of individuals who select media texts that best suits their needs – this also links to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. See the image below.
The Uses and Gratifications model suggests that media audiences are active and make active decisions about what they consume in relation to their social and cultural setting and their needs.
This was summed up by theorists Blumier and Katz in 1974;
‘Media usage can be explained in that it provides gratifications (meaning it satisfies needs) related to the satisfaction of social and psychological needs’.
Put simply this means that audiences choose to watch programmes that make them feel good (gratifications) e.g. soaps and sitcoms, or that give them information that they can use (uses) e.g. news or information about new products or the world about them.
This is audience appeal.
Blumier and Katz (1975) went into greater detail and identified four main uses:
Surveillance – our need to know what is going on in the world. This relates to Maslow’s need for security. By keeping up to date with news about local and international events we feel we have the knowledge to avoid or deal with dangers.
Social relationships – our need for to interact with other people. This is provided by forming virtual relationships with characters in soaps, films and all kinds of drama, and other programmes and other media texts.
Personal identity – our need to define our identity and sense of self. Part of our sense of self is informed by making judgments about all sorts of people and things. This is also true of judgments we make about TV and film characters, and celebrities. Our choice of music, the shows we watch, the stars we like can be an expression of our identities. One aspect of this type of gratification is known as value reinforcement. This is where we choose television programmes or newspapers that have similar beliefs to those we hold.
Diversion – the need for escape, entertainment and relaxation. All types of television programmes can be ‘used’ to wind down and offer diversion, as well as satisfying some of the other needs at the same time.
Reception analysis is an active audience theory that looks at how audiences interact with a media text taking into account their ‘situated culture’ – this is their daily life.
Gerbner asserts that television's major cultural function is to stabilize social patterns and to cultivate resistance to change.
We live in terms of the stories we tell and television tells these stories through news, drama, and advertising to almost everybody most of the time.
Two Step Flow Theory
Katz and Lazarsfeld's theory assume a slightly more active audience.
It suggests messages from the media move in two distinct ways.
First, individuals who are opinion leaders, receive messages from the mass media and pass on their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content.
An interpretation can include the ideology of that particular publication, The Daily Mail, for example, conveys right wing, nationalistic, messages to its readers..
The information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience, but is filtered through the opinion leaders who then pass it on to a more passive audience. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step flow.
This theory appeared to reduce the power of the media, and some researchers concluded that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpret texts.
This led to the idea of active audiences.
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Active Audiences
This newer model sees the audience not as couch potatoes, but as individuals who are active and interact with the communication process and use media texts for their own purposes.
We behave differently because we are different people from different backgrounds with many different attitudes, values, experiences and ideas.
This is the active audience model, and is now generally considered to be a better and more realistic way to talk about audiences.
This is the active audience model, and is now generally considered to be a better and more realistic way to talk about audiences.
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Uses and Gratifications Model
This model stems from the idea that audiences are a complex mixture of individuals who select media texts that best suits their needs – this also links to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. See the image below.
The Uses and Gratifications model suggests that media audiences are active and make active decisions about what they consume in relation to their social and cultural setting and their needs.
This was summed up by theorists Blumier and Katz in 1974;
‘Media usage can be explained in that it provides gratifications (meaning it satisfies needs) related to the satisfaction of social and psychological needs’.
Put simply this means that audiences choose to watch programmes that make them feel good (gratifications) e.g. soaps and sitcoms, or that give them information that they can use (uses) e.g. news or information about new products or the world about them.
This is audience appeal.
Blumier and Katz (1975) went into greater detail and identified four main uses:
Surveillance – our need to know what is going on in the world. This relates to Maslow’s need for security. By keeping up to date with news about local and international events we feel we have the knowledge to avoid or deal with dangers.
Social relationships – our need for to interact with other people. This is provided by forming virtual relationships with characters in soaps, films and all kinds of drama, and other programmes and other media texts.
Personal identity – our need to define our identity and sense of self. Part of our sense of self is informed by making judgments about all sorts of people and things. This is also true of judgments we make about TV and film characters, and celebrities. Our choice of music, the shows we watch, the stars we like can be an expression of our identities. One aspect of this type of gratification is known as value reinforcement. This is where we choose television programmes or newspapers that have similar beliefs to those we hold.
Diversion – the need for escape, entertainment and relaxation. All types of television programmes can be ‘used’ to wind down and offer diversion, as well as satisfying some of the other needs at the same time.
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Reception Analysis
Reception analysis is an active audience theory that looks at how audiences interact with a media text taking into account their ‘situated culture’ – this is their daily life.
The theory suggests that social and daily experiences can affect the way an audience reads a media text and reacts to it.
This theory about how audiences read a text was put forward by Professor Stuart Hall in ‘The television discourse – encoding/decoding’ in 1974 with later research by David Morley in 1980 and Charlotte Brunsden.
He suggests that an audience has a significant role in the process of reading a text, and this can be discussed in three different ways:
1 The dominant or preferred reading. The audience shares or understands the code of the text and fully accepts and understands its preferred meaning as intended by the producers (This can be seen as a hegemonic reading).
2 The negotiated reading. The audience partly shares the code of the text and broadly accepts the preferred meaning, but will change the meaning in some way according to their own experiences, culture and values EG These audience members might argue that some representations – ethnic minorities perhaps – appear to them to be inaccurate.
3 The oppositional reading. The audience understands the preferred meaning but does not share the text’s code and rejects this intended meaning and constructs an alternative meaning. EG This could be a radical reading by a Marxist or feminist who rejects the values and ideology of the preferred reading.
This theory about how audiences read a text was put forward by Professor Stuart Hall in ‘The television discourse – encoding/decoding’ in 1974 with later research by David Morley in 1980 and Charlotte Brunsden.
He suggests that an audience has a significant role in the process of reading a text, and this can be discussed in three different ways:
1 The dominant or preferred reading. The audience shares or understands the code of the text and fully accepts and understands its preferred meaning as intended by the producers (This can be seen as a hegemonic reading).
2 The negotiated reading. The audience partly shares the code of the text and broadly accepts the preferred meaning, but will change the meaning in some way according to their own experiences, culture and values EG These audience members might argue that some representations – ethnic minorities perhaps – appear to them to be inaccurate.
3 The oppositional reading. The audience understands the preferred meaning but does not share the text’s code and rejects this intended meaning and constructs an alternative meaning. EG This could be a radical reading by a Marxist or feminist who rejects the values and ideology of the preferred reading.
Remember to let the moderator know that you are aware of the audience's level of understanding of the text before they can respond.
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Andrew Goodwin stated that there were three different ways in which the music video can connect back to the song itself . These are:
Illustration - Amplification - Disjuncture
Illustration- Commonly used. Images illustrate the lyrics.
Illustration is the simplest and easiest concept to base a music video around as it is just a literal meaning to the song’s lyrics in visual form. Owl City have used illustrative ideas in their videos before, for example in Fireflies’ when the artist is singing and as he says ‘fireflies’ the word fireflies comes up on the screen to a little toy gadget.
Amplification-
Amplification is second. The conventions demonstrated by the music video creative director. They may use both performance and narrative, connotations of the meanings.
An example of this is Kanye Wests Homecoming where it does clearly show his home but the audience can work out that the song is homecoming and it is him walking around a city that he knows.
Disjuncture –
Intentionally ignores the content of the song and genre of the music and tries to create a whole new set of meanings. These music videos dont tend to make a lot of sense and can often use abstract imagery. In fat boy slims “praise you” there is no relation from the video to the lyrics.
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Task 1: Answer one of the following questions in relation to the music industry texts we have studied (40 minutes)
Q. 1: Explore the different ways your three main texts target their audiences. [30]
The points you cover may also include references to:
Further reading:
Most media texts target a wide range of audiences, how true is this of your chosen text?
My first studied text is the series five edition of 'Mad men', specifically the episode 'The Other Woman'. Matthew Weiner intended his award winning series to be targetted at people aged 25+ of a certain standard of education with specific relations or interests in things such as the business world, historical context or realistic plotlines.
'Most media texts target a wide range of audiences' is not true of this chosen text. The series is only aired on the subscription channels 'AMC' and 'Sky Atlantic' and so for viewers to tune in to watch it, they must be paying for that channel. This immediately defines 'Mad Men's' audience as niche.
Furthermore, the plotlines of each episode is not subject matter that would interest everyone, and does not gratify their audience through escapism, for example, it deals with issues of feminism in the 60's which aids historical content and so therefore limits the people that will feel gratified from this. Also, the slow pace scenes and minimal non-diegetic sound reinforce the sense of realism causing unintended audiences to lose interest, but simultaneously engaging their preferred group by giving them more ways to relate to it to their own life.
More on audiences
Q. 1: Explore the different ways your three main texts target their audiences. [30]
Consider discussing the following:
- Narrative
- Genre
- Characters
- Stars/celebrities
- Language and mode of address
- Visual, technical and audio codes
- Links to websites
The points you cover may also include references to:
- Trailers,
- Pseudo events (red carpet, chat shows, This is your life)
- Magazine features
- Social networking sites
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Q. 2: Explore the different ways audiences interact with your three main texts. [30]
Higher grade candidates (like you) should be dealing with the explore part of the question.
In general terms audiences interact with texts by using them and by taking advantage of other interactive opportunities. Audience responses could also be considered part of audience interaction
Consider discussing the following:
- Via social media
- Through fan sites
- Through magazines
- At live concerts
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This task should be completed handwritten in your orange books and completed during period six.
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Further reading:
Most media texts target a wide range of audiences, how true is this of your chosen text?
My first studied text is the series five edition of 'Mad men', specifically the episode 'The Other Woman'. Matthew Weiner intended his award winning series to be targetted at people aged 25+ of a certain standard of education with specific relations or interests in things such as the business world, historical context or realistic plotlines.
'Most media texts target a wide range of audiences' is not true of this chosen text. The series is only aired on the subscription channels 'AMC' and 'Sky Atlantic' and so for viewers to tune in to watch it, they must be paying for that channel. This immediately defines 'Mad Men's' audience as niche.
Furthermore, the plotlines of each episode is not subject matter that would interest everyone, and does not gratify their audience through escapism, for example, it deals with issues of feminism in the 60's which aids historical content and so therefore limits the people that will feel gratified from this. Also, the slow pace scenes and minimal non-diegetic sound reinforce the sense of realism causing unintended audiences to lose interest, but simultaneously engaging their preferred group by giving them more ways to relate to it to their own life.
More on audiences
