A2 Media Studies

AUDIENCE THEORY

Audience Theory

Three questions:

1) Why do audiences choose to consume certain texts? 2) How do they consume texts? 3) What happens when they consume texts?

Audience Theory
There are three theories of audience that we

can apply to help us come to a better understanding about the relationship between texts and audience. 1. The Effects Model or the Hypodermic Model 2. The Uses and Gratifications Model 3. Reception Theory

The Effects Model

The Effects Model

The consumption of media texts has an

effect or influence upon the audience It is normally considered that this effect is negative Audiences are passive and powerless to prevent the influence The power lies with the message of the text

The Effects Model

This model is also called:

The Hypodermic Model

Here, the messages in media texts are injected

into the audience by the powerful, syringe-like, media The audience is powerless to resist Therefore, the media works like a drug and the audience is drugged, addicted, doped or duped.

The Effects Model

Key evidence for the Effects Model

1.

The Frankfurt School theorised in the 1920s and 30s that the mass media acted to restrict and control audiences to the benefit of corporate capitalism and governments

2. The Bobo Doll experiment This is a very controversial piece of research that apparently proved that children copy violent behaviour

The Effects Model

The Bobo Doll Experiment

This was conducted in 1961 by Albert Bandura

The Effects Model

In the experiment:

Children watched a video where an adult violently

attacked a clown toy called a Bobo Doll The children were then taken to a room with attractive toys that they were not permitted to touch The children were then led to another room with Bobo Dolls 88% of the children imitated the violent behaviour that they had earlier viewed. 8 months later 40% of the children reproduced the same violent behaviour

The Effects Model

The conclusion reached was that

children will imitate violent media content There are many problems with the experiment. What do you think are the flaws with the methodology? Does it indeed prove that children imitate violent media content?

The Effects Model

The Effects Model (backed up by the

Bobo Doll experiment) is still the dominant theory used by politicians, some parts of the media and some religious organisations in attributing violence to the consumption of media texts.

The Effects Model

Key examples sited as causing or being contributory

factors are: The film Childs Play 3 in the murder of James Bulger in 1993 The game Manhunt in the murder of Stefan Pakeerah in 2004 by his friend Warren LeBlanc The film A Clockwork Orange (1971) in a number of rapes and violent attacks The film Severance (2006) in the murder of Simon Everitt

The Effects Model

In each case there was a media and political outcry

for the texts to be banned In some cases laws were changed, films banned, and newspapers demanded the burning of films
Subsequently, in each case it was found that no

case could be proven to demonstrate a link between the text and the violent acts

The Effects Model

The Effects Model contributes to Moral

Panics whereby: The media produce inactivity, make us into students who wont pass their exams or couch potatoes who make no effort to get a job The media produces violent copycat behaviour or mindless shopping in response to advertisements

The Uses and Gratifications Model

It is still unclear that there is any link between the

consumption of violent media texts and violent imitative behaviour It is also clear the theory is flawed in that many people do watch violent texts and appear not to be influenced Therefore a new theory is necessary This is called the:

Uses and Gratifications

Model

The Uses and Gratifications Model

The Uses and Gratifications Model is

the opposite of the Effects Model The audience is active The audience uses the text & is NOT used by it The audience uses the text for its own gratification or pleasure

The Uses and Gratifications Model

Here, power lies with the audience NOT the

producers
This theory emphasises what audiences do with

media texts how and why they use them

Far from being duped by the media , the audience

is free to reject, use or play with media meanings as they see fit

The Uses and Gratifications Model

Audiences therefore use media texts to gratify needs

for: Diversion Escapism Information Pleasure Comparing relationships and lifestyles with ones own Sexual stimulation

The Uses and Gratifications Model

The audience is in control and consumption of the

media helps people with issues such as: Learning Emotional satisfaction Relaxation Help with issues of personal identity Help with issues of social identity Help with issues of aggression and violence

The Uses and Gratifications Model

Controversially the theory suggests the

consumption of violent images can be helpful rather than harmful The theory suggests that audiences act out their violent impulses through the consumption of media violence The audiences inclination towards violence is therefore sublimated, and they are less likely to commit violent acts

Reception Theory
Given that the Effects model and the Uses and

Gratifications have their problems and limitations a different approach to audiences was developed by the academic Stuart Hall at Birmingham University in the 1970s
This considered how texts were encoded with

meaning by producers and then decoded (understood) by audiences

Reception Theory
The theory suggests that:

When a producer constructs a text it is encoded

with a meaning or message that the producer wishes to convey to the audience In some instances audiences will correctly decode the message or meaning and understand what the producer was trying to say In some instances the audience will either reject or fail to correctly understand the message

Reception Theory
Stuart Hall identified three types of audience

readings (or decoding) of the text:

1. Dominant or preferred

2. Negotiated
3. Oppositional

Reception Theory

1. Dominant
Where the audience decodes the

message as the producer wants them to do and broadly agrees with it E.g. Watching a political speech and agreeing with it

Reception Theory

2. Negotiated
Where the audience accepts, rejects or

refines elements of the text in light of previously held views E.g. Neither agreeing or disagreeing with the political speech or being disinterested

Reception Theory

3. Oppositional
Where the dominant meaning is

recognised but rejected for cultural, political or ideological reasons E.g. Total rejection of the political speech and active opposition

Reception Theory
Audience Decodes Meaning/Message

Dominant or preferred
Producer
Encodes Meaning

Negotiated

Oppositional