Audience theory powerpoint Presentation Transcript

1. Audience TheoryA2 Media Studies 2. Audience TheoryThree questions:1) Why do audiences choose to consume certain texts?2) How do they consume texts?3) What happens when they consume texts? 3. Audience TheoryThere are three theories of audience that we can apply to help us come to a better understanding about the relationship between texts and audience.The Effects Model or the Hypodermic ModelThe Uses and Gratifications ModelReception Theory 4. The Effects ModelThe Effects ModelThe consumption of media texts has an effect or influence upon the audienceIt is normally considered that this effect is negativeAudiences are passive and powerless to prevent the influenceThe power lies with the message of the text 5. The Effects ModelThis 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 resistTherefore, the media works like a drug and the audience is drugged, addicted, doped or duped. 6. The Effects ModelKey evidence for the Effects ModelThe 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 governmentsThe Bobo Doll experiment This is a very controversial piece of research that apparently proved that children copy violent behaviour 7. The Effects ModelThe Bobo Doll ExperimentThis was conducted in 1961 by Albert Bandura 8. The Effects ModelIn the experiment:Children watched a video where an adult violently attacked a clown toy called a Bobo DollThe children were then taken to a room with attractive toys that they were not permitted to touchThe children were then led to another room with Bobo Dolls88% of the children imitated the violent behaviour that they had earlier viewed. 8 months later 40% of the children reproduced the same violent behaviour 9. The Effects ModelThe conclusion reached was that children will imitate violent media contentThere 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? 10. The Effects ModelThe 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. 11. The Effects ModelKey examples sited as causing or being contributory factors are:The film Childs Play 3 in the murder of James Bulger in 1993The game Manhunt in the murder of Stefan Pakeerah in 2004 by his friend Warren LeBlancThe film A Clockwork Orange (1971) in a number of rapes and violent attacksThe film Severance (2006) in the murder of Simon Everitt 12. The Effects ModelIn each case there was a media and political outcry for the texts to be bannedIn some cases laws were changed, films banned, and newspapers demanded the burning of filmsSubsequently, in each case it was found that no case could be proven to demonstrate a link between the text and the violent acts

13. The Effects ModelThe 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 jobThe media produces violent copycat behaviour or mindless shopping in response to advertisements 14. The Uses and Gratifications ModelIt is still unclear that there is any link between the consumption of violent media texts and violent imitative behaviourIt is also clear the theory is flawed in that many people do watch violent texts and appear not to be influencedTherefore a new theory is necessaryThis is called the:Uses and Gratifications Model 15. The Uses and Gratifications ModelThe Uses and Gratifications Model is the opposite of the Effects ModelThe audience is activeThe audience uses the text & is NOT used by itThe audience uses the text for its own gratification or pleasure 16. The Uses and Gratifications ModelHere, power lies with the audience NOT the producersThis theory emphasises what audiences do with media texts how and why they use themFar from being duped by the media , the audience is free to reject, use or play with media meanings as they see fit 17. The Uses and Gratifications ModelAudiences therefore use media texts to gratify needs for:DiversionEscapismInformationPleasureComparing relationships and lifestyles with ones ownSexual stimulation 18. The Uses and Gratifications ModelThe audience is in control and consumption of the media helps people with issues such as:LearningEmotional satisfactionRelaxationHelp with issues of personal identity Help with issues of social identityHelp with issues of aggression and violence 19. The Uses and Gratifications ModelControversially the theory suggests the consumption of violent images can be helpful rather than harmfulThe theory suggests that audiences act out their violent impulses through the consumption of media violenceThe audiences inclination towards violence is therefore sublimated, and they are less likely to commit violent acts 20. Reception TheoryGiven 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 1970sThis considered how texts were encoded with meaning by producers and then decoded (understood) by audiences 21. Reception TheoryThe 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 audienceIn some instances audiences will correctly decode the message or meaning and understand what the producer was trying to sayIn some instances the audience will either reject or fail to correctly understand the message 22. Reception TheoryStuart Hall identified three types of audience readings (or decoding) of the text: Dominant or preferred Negotiated Oppositional 23. Reception TheoryDominantWhere the audience decodes the message as the producer wants them to do and broadly agrees with itE.g. Watching a political speech and agreeing with it 24. Reception TheoryNegotiatedWhere the audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text in light of previously held viewsE.g. Neither agreeing or disagreeing with the political speech or being disinterested

25. Reception TheoryOppositionalWhere the dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for cultural, political or ideological reasonsE.g. Total rejection of the political speech and active opposition 26. Reception TheoryAudience Decodes Meaning/MessageDominant or preferredProducerEncodes NegotiatedMeaningOppositional