Audience Theories

Nicole SherryAudience Theories

The Effects ModelThe consumption of media texts has as effect or influence upon the audience.Its 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.

Hypodermic modelThe messages in media texts are injected into the audience by the powerful, syringe like mediaAudience is powerless to resistThe media works as if it is a drug and the audience is drugged/addicted.

Frankfurt School theorised in the 1920s and 30s that the mass media acted to restrict and control audiences to the benefit of corporate capitalism and governmentsThe Bobo Doll experiment This is a very controversial piece of research that apparently proved that children copy violent behaviour.

Bobo Doll ExperimentConducted in 1961 by Albert BanduraIn the experiment the children watched a clip of an adult violently attack a clown toy called a Bobo doll.The children were then taken into a room with attractive toys that they were not permitted to touch. Then they were lead into a room with Bobo Dolls88% of the children imitated the violent behaviour that they had earlier viewed.8 months later 40% of the children reproduced the same violent behaviour.

Bobo DollThe conclusion reached was that the children will imitate violent media contentThere are many problems with the experiment.The effects model backed up by the bobo doll experiment is still the dominant theory used by politicians, some parts of the media and some religious organisations in attributing violence to the consumption of media texts.

Examples of films which are causing or being contributory factors are: Childs Play 3 murder of James Bulger in 1993Manhunt murder of Stefan Pakeerah in 2004 by his friend Warren LeBlancThe film A Clockwork Orange (1971) in a number of rapes and violent attacksThe film Severance (2006) in the murder of Simon Everitt.In some countries these films were banned due to their explicit content.

Effects ModelContributes to Moral Panics whereby:The media produce inactivity, make us into students who wont pass their exams or couch potatoes who make no effort to get a jobThe media produces violent copycat behaviour or mindless shopping in response to advertisements.

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

Here power lies with the audience and not with the producersThis 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.

Audiences use media texts to gratify needs for:DiversionEscapismInformationPleasureComparing relationships and lifestyles with ones ownSexual Stimulation

Reception theory Stuart HallThe media can help people with issues such as:LearningEmotional satisfactionRelaxationHelp with issues or personal identityHelp with issues of social identityHelp with issues of aggression and violence

Controversially the theory suggests that the exposure of violence can help rather than hinderThe theory suggest they act out their violent impulses through the consumption of media violenceThe audiences inclination towards violence is therefore sublimated, and they are less likely to commit violent acts

Reception TheoryThis suggests that texts are encoded with meaning by producers and then decoded by the audience.The theory suggests:When a producer constructs a text it is encoded with a meaning or messsge that the producer wishes to convey to the audienceIn some instances audience will correctly decode the message and understand what the producer was trying to sayIn some instances the audience will either reject or fail to correctly understand the message.

Three types of audience readings:DominantNegotiatedOppositional

DominantWhere the audience decodes the message as the producer wants them to do and broadly agrees with it.

NegotiatedWhere the audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text in light of previously held views.

OppositionalWhere the dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for cultural, political or ideological reasons.