AS Media Studies Audience Theory

‘Epic Night Out’ for ‘Call of Duty: Ghosts’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNxh7umVOZ0

1) Why do audiences choose to consume certain texts? Audience Theory Three questions: 1) Why do audiences choose to consume certain texts? 2) How do they consume texts? 3) What happens when they consume texts?

Audience Theory There 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 Model The Uses and Gratifications Model Reception Theory

Most audience theory focuses on two questions.. How powerful are the media in influencing the ideas and behaviour of the audience? And… How does the media shape an audience’s perception of the world? Audience theories suggest that representations are open to different interpretations and that their meanings are not fixed.

Consumption of media There are different ways of consuming media texts… Primary media (texts demand close and concentrated attention from audience, eg. Films in cinemas) Secondary media (texts provide a background for an audience who are often doing something else at the same time and are distracted, eg. Radio and some TV programmes) Tertiary media (texts that are consumed by audiences who are almost unaware of their own engagement with the media, eg. Advertising or radio stations broadcasting in shops)

Political-Economy Perspective Market-Liberalism Perspective Stresses power of AUDIENCE over media producers Stresses the power of PRODUCERS over media audiences Political-Economy Perspective Market-Liberalism Perspective Audience research and pre-testing Media is produced to appeal to advertisers Audience preference decides what media texts are produced The power of media organisations are open to abuse - promoting political parties etc

HYPODERMIC NEEDLE MODEL USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY Information is unmediated HYPODERMIC NEEDLE MODEL Also called the ‘limited effects paradigm’ TWO STEP FLOW MODEL Dating from 1920s Passive audience Social effects are important in the way audiences consume texts Blumler and Katz 1974 Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding model USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY RECEPTION THEORY Texts have preferred meaning Audiences consume texts for different reasons and in different ways

Passive audiences Effects Theory Some commentators see the media as a sinister and insidious force. The Frankfurt School (Adorno and Horkheimer) – a group of Marxist intellectuals developed a critique of the mass media after expressing horror at the success of Nazi Germany propaganda. They argued the media had considerable power over the behaviour and beliefs of the audience. The passive audience soak up the empty promises of mass entertainment, becoming willing victims who both produce and consume the products of consumer capitalism. The audience are powerless to resist the effects of media messages.

The two step flow model Katz and Lazarsfeld Reception in which media messages are mediated by others – ‘opinion leaders’. US presidential campaign 1940 Our opinion can form or develop based on what others have to say. Importance of word of mouth

The Direct Effects Model The Effects Model The consumption of media texts has an effect or influence upon the audience It is normally considered that this effect is negative Audiences are passive and powerless to prevent the influence The power lies with the message of the text

The Direct Effects Model This 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 resist Therefore, the media works like a drug and the audience is drugged, addicted, doped or duped.

The Effects Model Key examples sited as causing or being contributory factors are: The film Child’s Play 3 in the murder of James Bulger in 1993 The game Manhunt in the murder of Stefan Pakeerah in 2004 by his friend Warren LeBlanc The film A Clockwork Orange (1971) in a number of rapes and violent attacks The film Severance (2006) in the murder of Simon Everitt

The Direct Effects Model In each case there was a media and political outcry for the texts to be banned In some cases laws were changed, films banned, and newspapers demanded the burning of films Subsequently, in each case it was found that no case could be proven to demonstrate a link between the text and the violent acts

The Direct Effects Model The Effects Model contributes to Moral Panics whereby: The media produce inactivity, make us into students who won’t pass their exams or ‘couch potatoes’ who make no effort to get a job The media produces violent ‘copycat’ behaviour or mindless shopping in response to advertisements

The Uses and Gratifications Model It is still unclear that there is any link between the consumption of violent media texts and violent imitative behaviour It is also clear the theory is flawed in that many people do watch violent texts and appear not to be influenced Therefore a new theory is necessary This is called the: Uses and Gratifications Model

The Uses and Gratifications Model The Uses and Gratifications Model is the opposite of the Effects Model The audience is active The audience uses the text & is NOT used by it The audience uses the text for its own gratification or pleasure

The Uses and Gratifications Model Here, power lies with the audience NOT the producers This theory emphasises what audiences do with media texts – how and why they use them Far from being duped by the media , the audience is free to reject, use or play with media meanings as they see fit

The Uses and Gratifications Model Audiences therefore use media texts to gratify needs for: Diversion Escapism Information Pleasure Comparing relationships and lifestyles with one’s own Sexual stimulation

The Uses and Gratifications Model The audience is in control and consumption of the media helps people with issues such as: Learning Emotional satisfaction Relaxation Help with issues of personal identity Help with issues of social identity Help with issues of aggression and violence

The Uses and Gratifications Model Controversially the theory suggests the consumption of violent images can be helpful rather than harmful The theory suggests that audiences act out their violent impulses through the consumption of media violence The audience’s inclination towards violence is therefore sublimated, and they are less likely to commit violent acts

Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’

Reception Theory Given 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 1970s This considered how texts were encoded with meaning by producers and then decoded (understood) by audiences

Reception Theory The 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 audience In some instances audiences will correctly decode the message or meaning and understand what the producer was trying to say In some instances the audience will either reject or fail to correctly understand the message

Dominant or preferred Negotiated Oppositional Reception Theory Stuart Hall identified three types of audience readings (or decoding) of the text: Dominant or preferred Negotiated Oppositional

Reception Theory Dominant Where the audience decodes the message as the producer wants them to do and broadly agrees with it E.g. Watching a political speech and agreeing with it

Reception Theory Negotiated Where the audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text in light of previously held views E.g. Neither agreeing or disagreeing with the political speech or being disinterested

Reception Theory Oppositional Where the dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for cultural, political or ideological reasons E.g. Total rejection of the political speech and active opposition

Reception Theory Dominant or preferred Producer Encodes Negotiated Audience Decodes Meaning/Message Dominant or preferred Producer Encodes Negotiated Meaning Oppositional

Stuart Hall Preferred, Negotiated and Oppositional readings of media texts For example…

McDonalds want you to think....

You may agree Or..... You may disagree

Or..... You may think that big macs do taste good, but I’ll only have them every now and again

So here we have three separate readings of that one advert

In 1980 David Morley did a study of audience responses when watching the BBC TV show Spotlight. As a result of his research, he decided that audiences tend to fall into three groups based on their interpretation of the text..... Preferred Reading Negotiated Reading Oppositional Reading

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

receiving their own alternative message. Audience members from outside the target audience may reject the preferred reading, receiving their own alternative message.

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

What is the PREFERRED reading? The NEGOCIATED reading? The OPPOSITIONAL reading?

New media – the internet utopian dystopian The internet user is savvy, well informed and creative Distinctions between production and reception are blurred Online communities allow audiences to interact with each other and producers Active Studies of internet users have shown an unequal distribution in terms of gender, age, ethnicity and social class. There are increasing levels of corporate domination – big companies exploit the potential for making money from users. Levels of control and surveillance inhibit the autonomy and creativity once associated with the internet.

Media Audiences How does the trailer attempt to appeal to a male audience? ‘Epic Night Out’ for ‘Call of Duty: Ghosts’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNxh7umVOZ0 Media Audiences How are viewers encouraged by the trailer to see disability? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fob1BBJS5hA