Planning & Research - Audience Theory

Audience Theory

1) The Effects/Hypodermic Model

• This model suggests the power of the mass media over the general population by the media they consume. Such as propaganda, as this was the thinking behind much of the Nazi's propaganda.
• This was shown with some of their films such as Triumph of the Will.
• Injecting' audience with their ideals and meanings. 
• Totalitarian states and dictatorships are similar to this model in having complete control over the media and the population with the media. 

Mary Whitehouse

• She believed that some parts of television was becoming too 'corrupted' and that it was too sexual, explicit or offensive.
• She was part of the National Viewers and Listeners Association, which suggested that the main cause of bad behaviour, especially amongst younger people, was to do with the media they consumed.
• The association was set up in response to violent television.

2) Inoculation or Culmination Model

• This theory suggested that the more people are exposed to violence within media texts, the more they become immune to it. 
• That the footage would 'desensitize' a person and they would become more likely to commit a crime themselves.
• This would occur with 'prolonged exposure' to the media.
• Also, the idea that other media texts such as video games influence and can 'desensitize' people. 
• Also, the idea that video games can bring down literacy skills and increase violence in a individual becuase of the violent natures of the games.

Criticism of this model

• Many criticisms have been made of this model, because of the nature of human behaviour.
• The fact that human behaviour is not predictable to suggest that everyone would eventually be more likely to commit a crime.
• Several studies have been made and the evidence did not point one way or the other when it came to whether it increased the chance or did not.
• There is also quite a bit of difficulty in linking how we react with media texts with how we perceive them because of events in the audience's lives that may change whether crimes are committed or not.
• Also, that it is down to choice of the individual whether they go and commit crimes.

3) The Two Step Flow

• This is the theory that through socialization, people will influence other people.
• There are opinion leaders that influence other people to consume different types of media.
• We will also be more likely to consume that media if we respect that person and their opinion.
• Because of this, we will also be more likely to discuss it with others.
• 
  

4) Uses and Gratifications

• This model suggests a more active audience rather than a passive one. 
• It suggests that the audience makes use of the variety of media texts given to them.
• That they find which one best suits their needs and consume them to fulfill that need.
• This is called the hierarchy of needs.

a) The need for information (news reports and weather reports) which tells the audience about their geographical and social world.

b) The need for identity (films and celebrities) by using characters, their personalities as well as stars to define us.

c) The need for social interaction (soaps and sitcoms) by experiencing the lives of others.

d) The need for diversion (quizzes and game-shows) by consuming media for entertainment.

Criticism

The model assumes that the audience is always active, and that they are not turning off a programme because they simply cannot be bothered. The model does not take this into account.

Or perhaps, they consume a poster, because there is no other around to 
choose from.

5) Reception Analysis

• This song can be seen as an extension of the previous model, the Uses and Gratification Model. 
• This concentrates on the audience themselves and how they view a text and how they come across it themselves. 
• It also focuses on areas such as age, gender and class.

6) The Active Audience

• This model focuses on the culture of different groups of consumers. 
• The model suggests that it has a semiological (the study of signs) approach to it.
• Such as visual signs that shape the media.

Dominant: when the individual understands the meaning that is referred and strongly agrees with it.

Negotiated: where the individual either rejects, accepts or refines the meaning that is being suggested within the media text, because of previously held views.

Oppositional: the dominant meaning within the text is recognized but it is rejected out of cultural, ideological or political reasons.

7) Ethnographic Model

• Within this model, researched enter a culture group and they try to understand media from their perspective. 
• They use questions and interviews to find out the answers they want.

What emerges is:

a) The focus on the domestic context of reception of media texts.

b) The element of cultural competence.

c) Technologies.