Audience theory

1. Audience Theory
What is audience?
- All products have an audience (niche/mass)
- The producer’s texts need to know the importance of their audience when making
products
Theory 1: The Frankfurt school (1920s & 1930s)
- Message had an effect on the audience
- Hypodermic syringe/needle theory- purely passive audience and believe what they
are told without question
- Linear communication
- No individual difference
Theory 2: The two step flow (1940s & 1950s) Katz & Lazarsfield
- First- opinion leaders get information from a media source
- Second- opinion leaders then pass the information along with their interpretation, to
others (friends; family; acquaintances)
- Lazarsfield- book called ‘The people’s choice’- More likely to be influenced by
individuals than the mass media
- Katz- book called ‘Personal influence’
- Audience is no longer passive
- 2012 twitter found it finds ways of passing information through multiple opinion
leaders-influences people’s opinions
- More likely to buy a product if it’s been recommended by a friend/family member
- Strengths: Audiences are active and seen as part of a society
- Limitations: More than two steps in the flow of communication?
-
Theory 3: Uses and Gratifications (1960s) Katz and Blumler
- The first generations to grow up with TV became grown-ups- audiences made
choices about what they did when consuming texts.
- Far from being a passive mass, audiences were made up of individuals who actively
consumed texts for different reasons and in different ways.

2. - 4 reasons why we watch/use texts:
- Diversions-Escape from everyday problems and routine
- Personal relationships- Using the media for emotional and other interaction e.g.
substituting family soap operas for family life.
- Personal identity- Finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values
from texts.
- Surveillance- Information which could be useful for living e.g. weather reports,
holiday bargains
- Uses of gratification in messaging/online gaming:
- Instant messaging- Relaxations/entertainment/inclusion (social
group)/sociability/fashion/escape/affection
- Heavy users-motivated by affection/sociability
- Light users-motivated by fashion
- Female- Chat longer/sociability
- Male-chat less/entertainment/relaxing
- Online gaming- Enjoyment/social interactions/accomplishment/success
- If you are good at it you are more likely to go back to it
Theory 4: The nationwide audience (1980s) David Morley
- Dominant reading (Hegemonic) - the reader shares the programme’s ‘codes’
(meaning) and fully accepts the programme’s ‘preferred reading’
- Negotiated reading- The reader partly shares the programme code and broadly
accepts the preferred reading, but modifies it in a way which reflects their position
and interests
- Oppositional reading (Counter-hegemonic) - The reader doesn’t share the
programme’s codes and rejects the preferred reading, bringing to bear an alternative
frame of interpretation.