1. PLANNING: AUDIENCE THEORY
A media text in itself has no meaning until it is read or
decoded by an audience.
There are many theories that explain how an audience
receives, reads and responds to a text
2. HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
• American psychologist Abraham Maslow developed the Hierarchy of
Needs in 1943. The theory is one of psychological health which
suggests there are 5 stages people go through in life. Represented
in a 5 layer pyramid, needs lower down in the hierarchy must be
fulfilled before an individual can begin work on the next stage.
• The theory suggests that at each stage we have different motivations
that drive us. We can use different media, for example, to meet
different needs:
• Safety- Linkedin, where you are able to find jobs and networks that
could open doors for your career path.
Love/Belonging- Facebook, Google +, where you are able to
reconnect and gain relationships, whether it is in the form of
acquaintances, friends, lovers or family.
Self-Esteem- Twitter, where you are able to share your experiences,
achievements that will help you boost your confidence and gain
respect from others.
Self-Realization- Tumblr, Blogspot, Wikipedia, where you are
allowed to share your knowledge, interests, inner thoughts and your
creativity." (Source https://socialmediaandtheself.wordpress.com/)
3. HYPODERMIC MODEL
• This theory was the first attempt, originating in the 1920s (when mass media was fairly new), to explain
how mass audiences might react to mass media. It is now outdated.
• It suggests that audiences passively receive the information, attitudes and beliefs injected via a media
text, without processing or challenging the data. It conveys the view that any previous experience,
intelligence or opinion of an individual have no relevance to the reception of the media and therefore
depicts the idea that audiences are manipulated by the creators of media texts and that behavior and
thinking can by easily manipulated by media producers.
• When it was developed, governments had just discovered the power of advertising to communicate a
message, and produced propaganda to try manipulate the population to their way of thinking. This
was particularly common during WW1 and its aftermath.
• Similarly, the model can be used in advertising, to convince the audience that they will reach the
standards of the model shown if they buy into the product.
4. PASSIVE AUDIENCES
• The Hypodermic Needle Theory assumes a passive audience.
• The media is seen as a powerful, imposing source that has the
potential to influence an audience with ideas, values and
attitudes.
• Audience members are considered powerless against dangerous
media propaganda and are depicted as inactive figures that
simply observe the media texts while accepting any messages
put across. Passive audiences do not require active use of their
brains to respond to what there are consuming.
5. CULTIVATION THEORY
• The cultivation theory, developed by George Gerbner in
the 1960s, also positions the audience as passive.
• The theory suggests that repeated exposure to a media
text, conveying the same message, will result in a long-
term impact on the audiences attitudes and values.
• The theory also backs the idea that if an individual faces
long term exposure to a violent media text, such as a film
or videogame, violence will become normalised. This
therefore influences their perception, attitudes and
eventually behaviour, perhaps influencing them to behave
more violently.
6. TWO-STEP FLOW THEORY
• The two-step flow of communication model hypothesizes that ideas flow from
mass media to opinion leaders, and from them to a wider population, as most people form
their personal opinions under influence of these leaders. The model was first introduced by
sociologist Paul Lazarsfeld in 1944 and elaborated by Elihu Katz and Lazarsfeld in 1955.
• Katz and Lazarsfeld assume a slightly more active audience.
• They suggest messages from the media move in two distinct ways:
1) Individuals who are opinion leaders, receive messages from the media and pass on their
own interpretations in addition to the actual media content. Therefore, the information
does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience, but is filtered through
the opinion leaders who then express it to a more passive audience – this is a two-step
flow.
2)
The audience then receive the influence indirectly from the media with the ideas and
thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders. This theory reduces the appearance of power
from the media. Due to this diminishment, it is easy to conclude that social factors also are
important in influencing the way in which audiences interpret media.
7. E.G. NEEDS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
• Developed in the 1960s, the uses and gratifications model suggests
that media audiences make active choices about what they consume in
relation to their social and cultural setting, as well as to fulfill their
personal needs – linking back to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
• The theory positions the audience as active, as they seek out specific
media to satisfy their own specific needs.
• Researchers Blulmer and Katz expanded this theory and published their
own in 1974, stating that individuals might choose and use a text for
the following purposes: (the 4 gratifications)
• Diversion – to escape from everyday problems and routine.
• Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other
interaction
• Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behavior
and values from texts
• Surveillance - Information which could be useful for personal life
USES AND GRATIFICATIONS MODEL
8. ACTIVE AUDIENCES
• Active audiences are those who actively interact and engage with the information they
receive from creative texts, rather than just passively accepting it.
• The interpret and decode meanings of texts based on their own values and attitudes,
often influenced by their personal and social contexts, for example their individual
cultural background and life experiences.
• The active audience model is considered a more realistic method of considering
audiences and is more modern than passive audience theory.
9. RECEPTION THEORY
• Reception analysis is theory based on audiences consuming media
texts actively. It develops the concept of how audiences interact
with texts in relation to their personal lives and individual
circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity).
• Developed by Stuart Hall in 1974, the theory asserts that media
texts are encoded by the producer with messages and values, which
are then decoded by the receiver. The theory also advocates the
idea that social and life experiences and individual cultural
background also impact the process of decoding text and therefore
how an individual reacts to it. This shows there can be clear
contrasts in the way that two receivers consume the same media
text, as not all readers are the same. For example, different age
groups will interpret things differently as they will have had
different life experiences.
10. RECEPTION THEORY,
POSITIONS OF READING
• Stuart Hall states that audience members adopt one of three positions when
decoding media:
• Dominant, or Preferred Reading - how the producer wants the audience to view
the media text. Audience members will adopt take this position and accept the
intended meaning.
• Oppositional Reading - when the audience understands but rejects the preferred
reading, and creates their own meaning for the text. This can happen if the media
contains controversial themes that the audience member disagrees with.
• Negotiated Reading - a compromise between the dominant and oppositional
readings, where the audience understands and accepts parts of the producer's
views, but has their own views on parts as well. This might lead them to adjust the
meaning to relate to their own experiences.
Many factors influence which position an audience member takes, such as:
• Age
• Beliefs
• Culture
• Gender
• Life experience
• Mood at the time of viewing
11. INTERACTIVE AUDIENCES
• Interactive audiences refers to the way in which media and audiences
interact and influence each other.
• Prosumers are those who consume as well as produce media. For
example, distribution systems such as YouTube, Instagram (social media)
and blogs allow users to absorb media and simultaneously create media
and generating their own audiences.
