Audience

Lesson objective:
~ develop knowledge of audience theories
~ understand how to apply these to our media
productions.
Starter:
Think about the work you’ve done in Media
Studies over the last two years.
Discuss in pairs:
> Are you ‘audience’ or ‘producer’?
Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production
You must answer both 1(a) and 1(b).
In this section you need to write about your work for the
Foundation Portfolio and Advanced Portfolio units. You
must answer both 1(a) and 1(b).

1 (a) “Digital technology turns media consumers into media

producers”. In your own experience, how has your creativity
developed through using digital technology to complete your
coursework productions? [25]

(b) “Media texts rely on cultural experiences in order for

audiences to easily make sense of narratives”. Explain how
you used conventional and / or experimental narrative
approaches in one of your production pieces. [25]

Section A Total [50]

 1. (b)
Select one production and evaluate it in
relation to one of the following media
concepts:
• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media Language
 Audience - problems
In 2007, David Gauntlett published online
the article “Media Studies 2.0”
• The article argues that the ‘media
landscape’ has changed
• The categories of 'audiences' and
'producers' have blurred together
Andy Ruddock has written that Gauntlett's
ideas include "much to value“

However…
• he argues that audiences still exist, and
experience mass media specifically as
audience

• it would be premature to dispose of the

notion of 'audience' altogether
Audience Theories
 Hypodermic needle theory

~ as an audience, we are
manipulated by the creators of media
texts
~ our behaviour and thinking might be
easily changed by producers
 Hypodermic model
• The hypodermic needle theory suggests that
mass media has a direct, immediate and
powerful effect on their audiences.
• The phrasing "hypodermic needle" is meant to
give a mental image of the direct, strategic, and
planned infusion of a message into an individual.
• But as research methodology became more
highly developed, it became apparent that the
media had selective influences on people.
 2. Two step flow theory

~ information does not flow directly

from the text into the minds of its
audience
~ it is filtered through "opinion leaders"
who then communicate it to others
 3. Uses and gratifications

~ far from being passive, audiences

actively consume texts
~ individuals might choose and use a text
for a variety of purposes
3. Uses and gratifications
 Uses and Gratifications Model
• focus on the consumer, or audience,
rather than the actual message itself

• you ask “what people do with media”

rather than “what media does to people”
(Katz, 1959)
Uses and Gratifications
• When an audience actively seeks out media,
they are typically seeking it in order to gratify
a need.
• For example, in social situations, people may
feel more confident and knowledgeable when
they have specific facts and stories from
media to add to conversation.
• By seeking out media, a person fulfils a need
to be informed.
 Task
Think about the film that you are creating (as
represented by a magazine front cover, a
teaser trailer and a film poster).

> How might it be read in terms of the

hypodermic syringe theory?
> How about in terms of the uses and
gratifications theory?
> hypodermic syringe theory
Reading … using the hypodermic syringe
theory, people might worry that it will
convince audience members to kill.

> uses and gratifications theory

Reading … using the uses and gratifications
theory, people would expect that an
audience would use our film for the
purposes of escape, enjoyment and
pleasure.
 4. Encoding / Decoding
• the text is encoded by the producer
• it is decoded by the reader / viewer
• there may be major differences between two
different readings of the same code (here we
mean a film)
 4. Encoding / Decoding
Example

Producer’s reading – the Roman army are very

courageous to be fighting so dangerous an enemy so
far from home.
Mr Kay’s reading – that the Germanic people are
presented as ‘deserving’ to be conquered and
‘civilised’ because they are ‘savages’.
Compare with US imperialism.
Producers…
• … use recognised codes and conventions
• … draw upon audience expectations of (for
example) genre and use of stars.
This means
• the producers can position the audience and
thus create a certain amount of agreement on
what the code means.

• This is known as
the preferred or
dominant reading.
 4. Encoding / Decoding
• Dominant / Preferred Reading
- how the director/creator wants the audience to
view the media text;
• Opposition Reading
- when the audience rejects the preferred
reading, and creates their own meaning of the
text;
• Negotiated Reading
- a compromise between the dominant and
opposition readings, where the audience accepts
parts of the director's views, but has their own
views on parts as well.
 5. Reception Theory
• focuses on the scope for negotiation and
opposition on the part of the audience.
This means that a "text“ [for us, a film]
~ is not simply passively accepted by the
audience
~ the viewer interprets the meanings of the
text
> they do this based on their individual
cultural background and life experiences.

ie. their experience

iein life including
books gender, that
and magazines class,
they’ve read, films
ethnicity, age, where
andthey live,they’ve
TV that etc. seen, music they’ve heard,
etc.
• basically, the meaning of a text is not
inherent within the text itself,
• it is created within the relationship
between the text and the reader.

So…the meaning of a film is created by your

relationship with it.
 Genre: Intertextuality
• A representation of a car chase only makes
sense in relation to all the others we have
seen.
 Narrative Theory: Constructing Narrative
Look at this picture:

The story invites

construction.
Do we assume
they are gay?

Context: Just before the First World War two fishermen walk
into a photography studio in Aberdeen and ask to have their
photograph taken.
 Representation: Signs and Signifiers
• The combination
of the signifier and
signified perpetuates
the myth of imperial
devotion, success
and thus; a property
of 'significance' for
the picture.
Task: analysing your AS opening sequence
You will need to use your imaginations here.

1. 3. 4.
2.

5.
 Audience Feedback
Now you need to apply all this to your audience
feedback.
• What kind of things have people said about
your opening sequence, trailer, poster and
magazine front cover?
Discuss this in terms of reception theory.
• To do this you will need to think about the
cultural background and life experience of
the people who have given you feedback.
Uses and Gratifications
• When an audience actively seeks out media,
they are typically seeking it in order to gratify
a need.
• For example, in social situations, people may
feel more confident and knowledgeable when
they have specific facts and stories from
media to add to conversation.
• By seeking out media, a person fulfils a need
to be informed.