How do we define an audience? A particular grouping of people Reflects reality of mass society Agglomerations – many & various Media one of the primary methods for reaching, constructing, and influencing audiences

How has communication theory looked at the audience? Stimulus-response Functionalism Media effects Gerbner’s Media Cultivation Agenda Setting Uses & Gratifications Empirical Approaches - measurement

Stimulus-Response Theory Audience is fragile, vulnerable, subject to influence Media must be strictly controlled Pavlovian response

Harold Lasswell Studied propaganda Concerned with attitude change Hypodermic model” “Why says what in which channel to whom with what effect?”

Drawbacks of Lasswell’s Model Audience members passive message receivers Social factors that make up audiences not considered – where’s the context? Results typically skewed & inconsistent

Functionalism Sees audience as autonomous How do audiences use media content to meet their psychological & social needs? Psychological approach: what impact do the media have on the behavior of those that use them?

Functionalist Analysis Applied to Mass Communication Identifies or stipulated terms to be subject of analysis Considers functions of particular way of organizing mass communication & mass media Asks what are regular practices within mass communication process?

Paul Lazarsfeld Effects of mass media Uses & Gratifications approach Methods of research “Two-step flow model”

Criticisms of Functionalist Models Does everybody have ability to ‘personally influence’ the mass media? Buying (consumerism) and politics cannot be easily measured Preoccupation with opinion leaders distracts from looking at media as a complex environment Administrative viewpoint

Media Effects Post WWII, effects studies become more sophisticated Concentrates on wider social context Two—step model> focus switched from individual to the individual as a member of one or more social groups Klapper’s phenomenistic approach

Gerbner’s Theory of Media Cultivation Part of cultural indicators theory G’s thesis is that because we live in such a media-saturated world, the media dominates our symbolic environment Years looking at television viewing, particularly effects of media violence

Cultivation research…. Tests assumptions about consistency & distortion of television message system Tests (survey analysis) public beliefs about social reality Investigates institutional processes underlying production of media content Images in media content Relationships between TV message + audience beliefs and behaviors

Agenda-Setting McCombs and Shaw (1972) Used in context of studying election campaigns Advocacy & public opinion

Agenda-Setting Hypothesis Public debate represented by salient issues Agenda derives from public opinion + political choice Mass media news reflect content & order of priority of issues But…what are the different agendas of the media, the public, and policy?

Uses & Gratifications Theory How do audiences choose their media content? How does the media satisfy their everyday needs? Concerned with choice, reception and manner of response of media audience Assumes that audiences make conscious choices…

Empirical Approaches Market share rules! Print media measured by circulation figures Broadcast by viewership Internet by click-streams? People Meter Ethics of new Portable People Meter