1. Audience Theories
1. Effects/Hypodermic Model
- The theory that a media product has an effect or influence upon an audience
- The effect that the media product has is generally negative
- The audience is seen as passive and powerless to prevent the influence of the media
- The message of the media product is ‘injected’ into the audience, who then mindlessly
absorb and accept it, hence the name ‘hypodermic model’
- The media works as a drug to the audience who are drugged, duped and addicted to the
messages the media feeds them
- Frankfurt school created this theory- the capitalist government creates and sells this kind
of media for mass audiences
- Psychologist Albert Bandura created the “Bobo Doll” experiment to prove his ‘Social
Learning Theory’ stating that children learn by observation (in this case, copying violent
behaviours)
- In the experiment, children watched a video of an adult model violently attacking a clown
(or “Bobo”) doll
- The children were then led to another room and provoked by being shown desirable toys
they were not allowed to touch, then led to a third room containing a Bobo doll.
- 88% of children imitated the violent behaviour that they had observed from the adult
model
- This supports the view that observing violence can lead to violent actions
- Films like Childs Play (1988) and A Clockwork Orange (1971) reportedly influenced
aggressive behaviour and several violent attacks
- However it can be argued that those who committed the violent attacks had issues prior
to watching the films that caused their violent behaviour and not everyone who viewed
the films went on to commit violent acts- those who committed violent acts after viewing
the films were a minority
- This also cannot explain all issues in society and there is no direct link to the media
being responsible for the majority of societal issues relating to violence
2. Uses and Gratifications Model
- Consists of five reasons why people consume media texts
• Information
• Personal Identity
• Diversion/Escapism
• Entertainment/Pleasure
• Integration/Social Interaction
- The uses and gratifications model is the opposite of the effects model
- It states that the audience is active whilst consuming media and that the audience uses
the media to their own benefit, gaining something from this consumption
- The power lies within the audience consuming the content, not the producers of the
content
- The theory emphasises what the audience does with media- how and why they
consume it and how they can reject as well as accept elements of a media text.
2. 3. ReceptionTheory
- This theory, created by Stuart Hall in the 1970’s, considers how producers encode
meaning in media texts and audiences decode (understand) this meaning
- 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, the audience will correctly decode the message or meaning and
understand what the producer was trying to convey however in other instances, the
audience will either reject or fail to correctly understand the message
- Stuart Hall identified three types of audience readings/decodings of the text;
Dominant/Preferred: Where the audience decodes the message as the producer wants
them to and broadly agrees with it
Negotiated: Where the audience accepts or rejects elements of the text in light of
previously held news
Oppositional: Where the dominant meaning is recognized but rejected for cultural,
political or idealogical reasons
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943)
- This theory suggests that the audience is in control, and consumptionof
media helps people with their issues
- It also suggests that people actively seek out media to help with their issues
3. Applying Audience Theories to my Trailer
Effects/Hypodermic Model
If I was to apply this theory to my trailer, the violent acts shown or hinted at in the trailer
would probably be recognized and criticized as it could encourage the audience watching
to take similar actions to those that they observed in my trailer.
Uses and Gratifications
If I was to apply this theory to my trailer, I would say that the audience may want to watch
it for entertainment/pleasure as they might find the plot of the film enjoyable, people may
also watch it as a form of escapism as the genre of the film (Film Noir/Gangster) does not
contain events that people would experience in everyday life and it may allow them to see
“how the other half live”. The audience may also watch for social interaction so they have a
common interest with other people and have something to discuss with others
