Skye Nel Pr2 – Audience Theory and Debates

Hypodermic needle model - The hypodermic needle models where the theory maintains the

audience of any given media text passively consume the messages in the text and act upon them.

For the movie Fight Club, the producers wanted the movie to be classified as a 18, they had to send

their movie off to the BBFS to see if there movie would be allowed there rating.

This is a few reasons why the BBFC might not have allowed it straight away and why they needed to

make movie cuts.

There were acts of terrorism shows in the movie, and the way they did it made it look

glamourous. They also show how to create homemade bombs from soap. This basically

would give a person a step by step guide to destruction

They also use excessive violence.

Sex scenes

Bare knuckle fighting

Making suicide look glamourous

They also show that self-harm could be a way of forgetting and letting go of any problems you may

have in your life. And that when you learn to control the physical pain, the problems from your life

will just go away.

Out of all these there are many reasons that may or may not contribute to the movie being classified

as an 18. On the official BBFC report it talks about nearly everything we did, but it refers to the

hypodermic needle model. This basically means that when watching a movie that shows excessive

violence, bare knuckle fighting and acts or terrorism would cause an individual to follow in the

movies footsteps.

Uses and gratifications (Blumer, 1972)

This is another theory that means:

Diversion – Escape from everyday problems and routines

Personal Relationship – using the media for emotional and other interactions (e.g. sop

operas)

Personal Identity – finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviours

Surveillance – information that could be useful for living, finding information on: news

reports, weather, fashion, products and other media.

Skye Nel Pr2 – Audience Theory and Debates

The movie ‘Fight Club` contact6ed an organisation called the BBFC and asked for their movie to be

classified as a 15. But they were denied this request. This was because the movie had majorly dark

themes and contained very strong violence.

The many things that we spotted in the movie were:

Strong Language

Explosives

Terrorism

Excessive Violence

Sex scenes

The fact that the movie was about a fight club might have influenced people

Promotion on anarchy

The movie also shows self-harm

All of these were negative reason why the BBFC not only didn’t give the movie a 15, but wouldn’t

allow the producers to release the movie as an 18. They then had to go back and re edit and reshoot

a few things causing it to be allowed an 18 rating.

Diversion: The reason why this is a major impact in this movie is because the viewer could almost

escape from his or her everyday problems, This creates the movie to be more liked and more

popular. Also it allows the viewer to step into the life of Brad Pit. This entices more people to watch

the movie.

Personal relationship: This allows a viewer with not much emotional stability to gain a lot of

emotional support from this movie. This causes the movie again to be more liked and more popular.

Personal Identity: This was a major factor in the creating of this movie, but also a major reason why

the BBFC didn’t give the movie a 15. This was mainly because of the excessive violence and the

extreme acts of terrorism. The movie is nearly a step by step guide to creating bombs.

Not only all these reasons but the movie also portrays self -harm as glorious and an attempted

suicide being okay, and normal. This could have been one of the major reasons why this movie was

not given a 15 or an 18. Because the uncut version might have had a lot more sinister sides to it. This

might have created a extreme negative impact on the viewer. Especially a viewer who might have

been depressed or had already contemplated self-harm.

And Last but not least, the movies about a literal fight club. A bare knuckle fighting, underground,

secret fight club. This could promote anarchy and show to the viewers that fighting is normal and

enjoyable and can solve all problems.

Surveillance: The only point I could see is at the beginning of the movie, where he is looking around

his room, and he’s talking about his flat. And the camera pans out across the whole of the flat and

you can see the prices up above everything he owns. And it’s almost as if you are looking thought

catalogue. This shows that even if you have everything you want in life (material wise) you’re not

always happy.

Skye Nel Pr2 – Audience Theory and Debates

Reception Theory (Stuart Hall)

In the movie ‘Juno` the producers wanted there movie to be a PG, this is because it would be the

correct age group for their Movie, or so they thought. They sent there movie off to the BBFC

asking it to be granted a PG rating. They got a replying allowing there movie to be cast as a 12A.

This was because:

Strong language

Teen Pregnancy

Abortion

Scenes from an 18 rated horror movie.

Underage Sex

Of all the reasons above, the main reason is that the movie contained strong language and had teen

pregnancy/abortion. These were deemed not appropriate for people under the age of 12. And even

12 year old will have to be accompanied by an adult.

Moving into further details about the themes of the movie. Even though the use of strong language

was very small (only twice) the word ‘f*ck` still appears within the movie, the meant it was not

suitable for a PG. The reason they got away with a PG is because the use of Strong language was

deemed Infrequent. This meant the times that the actors swore were not close together. This causes

them to be deemed as Infrequent. The sex scenes within the movie don’t help their case either, this

is because there are a lot of sexual references, but they are neighed strong nor are they strong in

tone. This means they refer to them as ‘boners`, ‘condoms that make ball s smell like pie`, a ‘vag` and

getting ‘snach`. These are all

The whole teen pregnancy thing was taken By the BBFC as a ‘treatment of an important theme that

was ‘suitable for young people and its effects on her relationships realistically rather than through

rose-tinted glasses`.

There are many different reasons to how people may react to this movie. Their opinion might differ,

this is because of their age, gender, ethnicity and social class. People may also find themselves giving

the movie different views because of their life experience. All these are reasons why a movie has to

be carefully thought about before creating. The Reception Theory is all about how the contextual

factors help shape the individual viewing experience for each audience member.

These contextual factors are:

Elements of the viewer’s identity,

Circumstances of exhibition

The spectators preconceived notions concerning the film or television program genre and

production.

Social, Historical and political issues.

In short, the reception theory places the viewer in context, taking into account all of the

various factors that might influence how she or he will read and create meaning from the

text.

Skye Nel Pr2 – Audience Theory and Debates

I personally am negotiated between the themes and representations in the movie. This means I

agree with sum but disagree with sum. This is because they are both good and bad points to do with

the movies themes and representations. Also the factors really played into effect on my enjoyment

of the movie and my personal representation. One of them was the viewing circumstances. This was

because I was uncomfortable in the chairs at college and the lighting of the movie was poor (due to

sun light coming through the windows). And the screen didn’t have very good quality colours. This

kind of altered my original perception of the movie and I instantly didn’t like it from the start. Even

though I hadn’t actually seen any of it yet.

Some of the good points is that it portrays Teen pregnancy as a life changing experience, and one

not to be taken lightly. It also shows how happy people can be. The way that the Juno and her

‘Lover’ react to one another is done very well. This is because of the way that they show the female

pregnant and the male trying to avoid any obligation or any consequence. This movie also shows

how a mother going through pregnancy might react and how they change their views on specific

things though out there pregnancy, it also shows how a mother and fathers point of view can be

changes (The father and the mother or the person pregnant).

In this movie there is several different bonds that get shown. The bond between the Juno and the

adoption mother, and how it contrasts to the relationship of the adoptive father and Juno. It shows

how a relationship can differ depending on the interests and likes. A perfect example is in the scene

where the adoptive parents first meet Juno and her father. And Juno comes out the toilet, walks

though the hall and notices a room full of guitars. Then the adoptive father walks into the room and

they instantly begin a bond. They found out they have a lot in common they get talking.

I personally believe that age, gender, preconceptions of the movie, viewing circumstances and

political factors all come into play when deciding the enjoyment of a movie. If you like a movie and

your parent didn’t, that’s because of the age factor. If you liked it but your sister didn’t, that would

be the gender factor. These all personally fit together to determine if the viewer like and enjoy the

movie.