AudienceFateh Khaled

Introduction

• They way we interpret things from the media can cause a significant change to our future.

• The mass media is changing the way we live and everything can be done so easily via the power of digital media.

• The audience are subconsciously taking in information from the media whether it’s music consumption, TV consumption or even news consumption; it has an effect on us all.

The Hypodermic Needle Model

• This theory was proposed during the 1920’s (where mass media was still considered new) and it was to explain how the audience would react to the mass media.

• It suggests that audience passively receive the information transmitted via a media text, without any attempt on their part to process or challenge the data.

• The model also suggests that the information from the text passes into the mass consciousness of the audience is unmediated, for example; the experience, opinion and intelligence.

• Therefore, we as an audience are manipulated by the creators of media texts and that our behaviour can be easily changed.

Criticsms

• One major issue of the Hypodermic Needle Model is that it quickly proved that it was too clumsy for media researchers seeking to more precise explanation for the relationship between the audience and the media text.

• Some would say that this theory is also out-dated, this theory derives from the 1920’s and since then mass media has developed a lot more since then so there is a debate whether some of the rules of this theory can still be applied today

Two Step Flow

• Due to the criticisms of the Hypodermic Needle Model, a more sophisticated explanation was proposed.

• During the 1940 presidential election campaign Paul Lazarsfield, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet and published their results in ‘The People’s Choice’.

• Their findings show that information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of the audience unmediated but it is filtered through ‘opinion leaders’, this is then passed onto less active associates that they have influence over.

• The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influence by a non-direct process but a two step flow.

Uses and gratifications

• 1960’s was revolutionary for the world of technology, this is because it was the first generation to grow up with television.

• Far from being a passive mass, audiences were made of up individuals who actively consumed texts for different reasons and in different ways.

• Laswell (1948) suggested that texts from the media had particular functions for the individuals within society, these are listed below:

• Entertainment • Cultural Transmission• Surveillance and Correlation

Continued

• Audience therefore use media texts to gratify needs for:• Escapism – To escape from everyday problems• Information – Gain extra knowledge from different

sources.• Pleasure – For example coming back from work; turning

the TV on and relaxing• Comparing relationships and lifestyles• Diversion• Sexual Stimulation

Reception theory

• The reception theory was proposed by Stuart Hall at Birmingham University during the 1970’s.

• This theory considered how texts were encoded with meaning by producers which is then decoded by the reader.

• By using recognised codes and conventions and audience expectations (relating to aspects of genre) the producers can actually position the audience, this therefore means that it creates a certain amount of agreement on what the code means – this is referred to as preferred reading.

Types of audience encoding

• Stuart Hall proposed three types of audience decoding:

1. Dominant - This is where the audience decodes the message as how the producer want them to, for example watching a speech on a particular topic and agreeing with it.

2. Negotiated – This is where the audience rejects, accepts or even refines elements of the text according to views held previously, for example neither agreeing or disagreeing with a speech on a particular topic.

3. Oppositional – This is where the dominant view intended by the producer is recognised but the viewer rejects it, this can be due to political, cultural or ideological reasons. For example total rejection of a speech on a particular topic