Audience Theory…

G235: Critical Perspectives in Media

Q1b

The Exam

Question 1a - Discuss your production journey in relation to one or more of the headings

»25 marks»30 minutes

Question 1b – Analyse ONE piece of work in relation to ONE key concept specified in the exam.

»25 marks»30 minutes

1(b)

• In this question you will be asked to apply one of the following theoretical concepts to either your AS or A2 coursework:– Representation– Audience– Narrative– Genre– Media Language

For this question you choose ONE piece of AS or A2 coursework to discuss.

You need to consider (write) the following about your production

• How the audience is represented in your product

• How your product can be applied to audience theories

• How the audience for your product was constructed and researched

Aims/Objectives

• To consider the way audiences are grouped and targeted

• To reinforce basic audience theory• To have an understanding of how to

evaluate your coursework against a consideration of your target audience.

Is your text popular for a mass audience?

• mass-produced - made for the 'mass' of people. There is a downside to this, of course, in that it can also be interpreted as 'commercial' or 'trashy'.

• niche - a small target audience that is highly specific

• alternative – outside of the mainstream. Going against dominant ideology includes minority groups, perhaps with subversive values

Gaining Feedback from your Audience

• You attempted to gain feedback from your target audience in order to get their opinions.

• What else did you do? Blogs – images and ideas? Polls to tailor the product better for your audience?

Audience Theories

Message (institution)

Medium

Audience

Audience theory is concerned with how audiences interpret messages

•Audiences accept media messages

•Audiences easily influenced

•Do not make own use of texts or interpret in own way

•Audiences are involved in their interpretations of media texts

•Audiences create their own meanings

•Audiences question and respond to institutions

PASSIVE

ACTIVE

Passive or active audiences

Ien Ang (1991) detailed that media producers have an imaginary entity in mind before the construction of a media product.

What is she talking about?

Ang (1991) states that 'audiencehood is becoming an ever more multifaceted, fragmented and diversified repertoire of practices and experiences'.

You must detail the social demographic of your target audience (gender, age, ethnicity, social class).

THEORY #1

The Hypodermic Needle Model

• Dating from the 1920s

• One of the first attempts to explain how audiences react to mass media

• Suggests that audiences passively receive information transmitted via a media text

• Suggests that audiences do not try to process or challenge the information

• Developed when mass media was still fairly new

The Frankfurt School’s Hypodermic Theory (1930s)

This Marxist theory, which was championed by theorists such as Theodore Adorno, assumes a direct stimulus-response relationship between audience reactions and the consumption of media texts.

• The message is entirely accepted by the audience

• The audience has no role in interpreting the text

• Is considered mostly obsolete today• Still quoted during moral panics

(computer games, violent films etc)

Hint • This theory can relate directly

to music videos – debate at the moment concerned with rap/gangster videos, Marylin

Manson etc.

"These are bad people who did this. Kids out of control. When I was young it was all Pac-Man and board games. Now they're playing Grand Theft Auto and want to live it for themselves."

How much do you agree with this statement?

This was said about the 2011 London riots

“If Pac-Man had affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.” – Marcus Brigstocke

Criticisms Of Hypodermic Theory • Doesn’t allow for resistance or rejection of

media messages.

• Elitist.

• Simplistic.

THEORY #2

Look at these media texts

What do you think consumers get from these texts?

Do different texts offer different things to different people?

Uses & GratificationsUses and Gratifications Theory states that people use media texts in different ways, for different reasons. Blumler and Katz’s in ‘74 expanded on the 60s version

Unlike the Hypodermic needle model U and G theory argues that it’s:

“...not what does the media do to people, but what do people do with the media”

4 Areas Entertainment/DiversionThe media text is enjoyable; an escape from routine and

problems; an emotional release

Information/SurveillanceThe media text is a source of information; a form of

education

Social RelationshipsThe media text is part of social life or is a replacement for

a social life.

Personal IdentityThe media product reflects your own values, ideals and

hopes or “life”

TASKThink about which product you have made that Audience Theory could apply too and answer this:

Which of these needs are likely to be satisfied by your product?

7 Minutes – GO!

THEORY #3

Reception Theory

Reception Theory

• Encoding/decoding model of the relationship between text and audience - the text is encoded by the producer, and decoded by the reader

• There may be major differences between two different readings of the same code created by situated culture - social class, gender, ethnicity etc.

• Using recognised codes and conventions and drawing upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and use of stars, the producers can position the audience and thus create a certain amount of agreement on what the code means. This is known as a preferred reading

Stuart Hall, 1980

• You must think about the meanings behind your text and how you encoded them and they are decoded according to audience’s:

Situated Culture • So people from different social groups will

have knowledge of the codes of different types of media text

Hint

Stuart Hall (1980) analysed the readings within audiences as either:

• 1.Dominant or Preferred Reading: The meaning they want you to have is usually accepted.

• 2.Negotiated Reading: The dominant reading is only partially recognised or accepted and audiences might disagree with some of it or find their own meanings.

• 3.Oppositional Reading: The dominant reading is refused, rejected because the reader disagrees with it or is offended by it, especially for political, religious, feminist, reasons etc.

Reception Theory

How might different people feel about this advert?

Preferred Reading

The preferred reading is the reading media producers hope audiences will take from the text.

In this example, it’s that a Big Mac is delicious and fills you up

Oppositional reading

Audiences outside the intended target audience may have an oppositional reading.

This is where the audience reject the preferred reading and supply their own meaning, in this example, an awareness of advertising and how the real burger looks different to the adverts

Negotiated Reading

Negotiated reading is when audiences acknowledge the preferred reading, but modify it to suit their own values and opinions.

In this example, it’s that Big Mac’s aren’t healthy, but one every now and then is ok.

“I like Big Macs but I know they are unhealthy so I eat them rarely and as part of a balanced diet”

TASK – Answer these Q’s:

• What is your preferred reading? • How do you encode it through your use of

technical aspects (camerawork, editing, sound, mise en scene)?

• What different readings might the audience produce?

7 Minutes – GO!

Bear’s Survival Guide

• Stronger answers do 3 things well:– Outline the concept of Audience with reference to relevant x3

theorists– Apply these ideas to a range of specific elements from ONE PIECE

coursework– Emphasis is on examples from your product and how they

support or challenge a theory• Poor answers will lack reference to theory and specific

answers.• Choice of text is important.• Don’t forget your Target Audience – Surveys, socio-cultural

background

“People who watch things and read things are brainwashed by them and believe everything they say”

“Different people get different things out of media texts”

“People watch things and read things because they get certain things out of it, like for entertainment or education”

Theory

Terminology Checklist!

• Encoding• Decoding• Dominant• Negotiated• Oppositional• Socio-cultural context • Reception• Uses and Gratifications - surveillance, escapism, personal

identity & relationships• Hypodermic Needle • passive audience/active audience

Web 2.0• Allows audiences to be interactive

through customisation of texts and platforms to express their own opinions

• Specifically refers to social networking sites and sites which rely on user generated content (blogs, web forums, YouTube…) or sharing content (torrents…)

• Challenge traditional models of audience as they place the power to create and influence in the hands of the audience rather than institutions