2. Audience
• We need to be aware of a broad shift from a perception
of mass audience to one which recognises that, whatever
the size of audience, it is made up of individuals. Along
with this altered view is a shift in emphasis from what
the media do to the audience to an acceptance that
audiences bring many different approaches to the media
with which they engage.
3. The effects model - dominant
• The original model for audience was the effects/
(hypodermic model) which stressed the effects of the
mass media on their audiences. This model owes much to
the supposed power of the mass media - in particular
film - to inject their audiences with ideas and meanings.
• What possible problems do you see with this model?
• What does it suggest about the audiences experiencing
media?
4. War of the Worlds
• In 1938 Orson Welles broadcasted a radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’
‘War of the Worlds’. The format of the script was so, that except for the
introduction, the radio play would read like news flashes interrupting
the regualr programme.
• Unfortunately some people tuned in after the introduction, the radio
play was broadcasted as part of a regular series ‘The mercury theatre
on air’, carried by CBS, America’s biggest network.
• Out of 6 Million listeners to tbe programme, 1 million of them believed
it to be a real alien invasion, and mass hysteria broke out.
• Without hearing the introductory announcement, the minority
believed it to be real.
5. Uses and Gratifications
• A more recent model of audience is that of uses and
gratifications, which suggests that there is a highly active
audience making use of the media for a range of
purposes designed to satisfy needs such as
entertainment, information and identification. In this
model the individual has the power and they select the
media texts that best suit their needs and their attempts
to satisfy those needs.
6. • The main areas that are identified in this model are:
• a) the need for information about our geographical and
social world (news and drama)
• b) the need for identity, by using characters and
personalities to define our sense of self and social
behaviour (film and celebrities)
• c) the need for social interaction through experiencing
the relationships and interaction of others (soap lives and
sitcom)
• d) the need for diversion by using the media for purposes
of play and entertainment (game shows and quizzes).
7. • In this model, at its simplest level, the audience accept
or agree with the encoded meanings, they accept and
refine parts of the text's meanings or they are aware of
the dominant meaning of the text but reject it for
cultural, political or ideological reasons.
The Active Audience
8. Mode Of Address• Still in line with the active audience idea is the concept of mode of
address.
• This refers to the way that a text speaks to us in a style that
encourages us to identify with the text because it is 'our' kind of
text.
• For example Friends is intended for a young audience because of
the way it uses music and the opening credits to develop a sense
of fun, energy and enthusiasm that the perceived audience can
identify with. This does not mean that other groups are excluded,
merely that the dominant mode of address is targeted at the
young.
• Mode of address can even be applied to entire outputs, as in the
case of Channel Four which works hard to form a style of address
9. Ethnographic model
• The latest research into audience has resulted in an
ethnographic model, which means that the researcher
enters into the culture of the group and uses questions
and interviews to try to understand media engagement
from the perspective of the group. What seems to be
emerging from this work is
• a) the focus on the domestic context of reception of
media texts
• b) the element of cultural competence (gender appeal),
and finally
• c) technologies. (Boys Toys)
10. Summary
• Overall the shift in the models for audience has gone
from mass audience to individual viewer with stress on
the active audience rather than the passive model. The
level of activity in the implied audience is related to the
uses, pleasures, cultural competence, situation and
available technology for the particular audience.
12. How do we use the media
• Education
• Escapism, or stress release
• Information
• A means of self identification
• A way to belong to a group or society
• Sexual Stimulation!
13. • Is the actual audience the same as the
intended audience
14. Audiences
• Niche audience
• Special interest audience
• Fan fiction
• Interactive
• Can you be the media and the
audience?
15. Task
• Identify a passive audience, give an
example.
• Identify an active audience, give an
example.
• How important is it to be an active
audience?
• How has audience changed?
