This document summarizes three audience theories: the hypodermic model, encoding/decoding model, and uses and gratifications theory. It then provides a detailed analysis of audience reception of the film Fight Club using these theories. Key findings include: - 75% of survey respondents had a "preferred reading" of Fight Club aligned with its intended message. - 87% had heard of the film prior, influencing their expectations and judgments. - Responses were split on whether the film provided "diversion," with some immersed and others not captivated. - 100% said they would recommend the film, showing their enjoyment and how word-of-mouth spread awareness. The analysis uses survey results to understand how

1. 3 Audience Theories
 The Hypodermic model
This suggests that the audience respond to a media text in the same way. This is
somewhat “injected” into the audience’s minds. It can change people’s
understanding and views for a certain subject. For
example, the the modern day technology industry or the
mainstream media. The media are known to create drama
over this theory as things such as this on the left. This
gives blame to video games for making people violent and
things much worse such as murderers.
 Encoding and Decoding model (Receptiontheory)
The producer encodes text or meaning into a film, for example a horror film will
include scary sounds, dark lighting etc. This is then decoded by the audience based on
their individual cultural background.
Age, Gender, Social background, Cultural background, Political views and
circumstances of exhibition. Preferred, Negotiated, Oppositional
Preferred reading of School of Rock, as it was my favourite filmas a child.
Negotiated reading of Bronson, as it was fairly violent
Oppositional reading of
 Uses and Gratifications theory
Diversions – escape from everyday problems.
Personal Relationships – Using the media for emotional and other interaction.
Personal Identity – Finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values
from texts
Surveillance – Information which could be useful for living
Fight Club
Fight Club was directed by David Fincher the film is
a drama and stars Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. It
involves an “everyday” man who seeks excitement
away from his boring white collar job, so he forms a
fight club. This leads to a radical terrorist
organization with a plan to bring down capitalism.
Produced in 1999 a film with a sole objective of
destroying and crumbling large cities or corporate
companies may not be seen the same way since
the tragedies of 9/11. It was distributed by 20th
century fox and was given an 18 certificate due to

2. the pure brutality of the film. The film had to be cut many times before they would
allow it to be released.
BBFC Case study
In the review wrote by Alexander Walker he states that Fight Club “resurrects the
Führer Principle”. This basically says that people who watch the film are going to be
subjected to violence and extreme terrorism. This is due to the hypodermic model
essentially “injecting” this information into
the audience's brains and making them think
that fighting is a good and cool idea. There
were cuts made to stop glamorizing
organized brutal fist fights. However even
with these cuts taking place and the film
finally being allowed to be aired, there was
still a minority of people that followed
through and created underground fight clubs
throughout America. Even though this is a
very small majority Alexander Walker was correct as to thinking it would affect
people and it proves the existence of the Hypodermic model.
“Adults should be free to choose their own entertainment” Blumlers and Katz’s
Gratification theory has 4 key principles; Diversion, Personal Relationships, Personal
Identity and Surveillance. The BBFC new guidelines correspond to the Gratifications
theory due to it allowing people to have their own choice’s. This could be through
people wanting to watch the film for the diversion side of it and they just want to
become immersed in the film and forget about everyday worries. This meaning that
due to there not being anything within the film then it is up to the audience on
whether or not they want to watch the film. With all the cuts Fight Club undertook for
it to finally get a certificate, the BBFC went under new guidelines where they agreed
adults should be able to choose their own entertainment just like they choose their
own gratification theories. Just like they choose to watch soaps for an emotional
interaction they may also want to watch this film for a similar experience.
Due to there not being anything against the UK
law the film was granted a certificate and adults
were able to watch the film, they could use the
film for surveillance and look into the songs or
fashion that was used within the film and
purchase CD’s or clothing.
In my own opinion I really enjoyed the film, I thought it was different, fresh and had a
great story. It was indeed very violent but I think it was just enough and not to brutal
to go over the top, it fit the film. It gave me a real sense of diversion as the
characters played by Brad Pitt and Edward Norton really made me feel immersed in
the film. As well as being diverted and taken away for the duration of the film I also
feel as though I used the film for surveillance. After the film I did research into the
songs used for the soundtrack and I really enjoyed the band that was used. Other
than the music I wasn’t really interested in anything else such as the fashion.

3. Survey Results
I conducted a survey to find out a range of opinions on how people found the film, I
asked males and females, different cultures and ages. I hope to find a variety of
answers and hop to gain an understanding for people’s personal opinions on the
film.
Even though I tried to ask an equal amount
of males to females there was still a male
majority. With the audience only being 25%
female. This could affect my overall results
as male and female’s opinions may vary.
However, this could also reflect the targeted
audience of the film and reflect how the film
was aimed towards a male audience rather
than a female/multi gender one.
I asked whether or not people had a
Preferred, negotiated or
oppositional reading of the film and
a very large 75% of the audience
had a preferred reading.
I also asked why they
thought they had this
reading and here are a
couple of reasons why
people answered with a “preferred reading”. As you can see the
film either incorporates something within the plot that the viewer
enjoyed or the film was a specific genre that the viewer favours. As
mentioned before
I asked the audience if they felt as though they were diverted by the film in anyway. I got an
equal response as to those who did and those who didn’t. People that said no gave reasons
similar to below –

4. This shows that the people who said no didn’t feel fully immersed into the film, as though it
wasn’t captivating enough. On the other hand those who said yes gave answers similar to
this -
This telling me that those who were diverted by the film, the main reasoning behind it was
due to the actor’s performances and style of the filmas a whole. This means that they really
felt grasped by the filmand for the duration of so paid full attention and didn’t have
anything else to worry about.
A huge 87% of the people who watched the
film had already heard about it before
class. This means that those people who
had heard about it were going to watch it
with pre conceived ideas. This means that
that large majority are going to have
different ideas of what the film is going to
be about and their judgements on the film
may be reflected by this. Fight Club is a
very popular filmand has good reviews so
if someone goes into it thinking it’s going to
be the best thing they have ever watched
they may either be end up getting very
disappointed/let down.
Are there any elements of the film that you might use for
surveillance? e.g Fashion/Music?
This question aims to find out whether or not people watched the film and then went out to
look for the band who provided the music or the fashion used within the film. I got a variety
of results but the majority of the audience didn’t. However, an answer stood out to me as
the respondent did use elements of the film and there answer is below.
From this answer we can tell that this person enjoyed the music that was used in the film
and following through to find who the composer was. They also read ad watched other
work by the author of the screenplay as their work would have been similar to fight club.
This is interesting to know as films do influence people in certain ways from a straight up no
to surveillance to a person who went out of their way to find work related to the film.

5. The last question I asked was whether or not
they would recommend the filmto a
friend/family member. !00% of the audience
said that they would recommend it. This
clearly shows that everyone who watched
the film enjoyed it enough to think that
others would like it too. What’s interesting
about this is this would be letting people
know about the film by word of mouth.
Another question that was in my survey
asked the audience how they heard about
the film.
As you can see Word of Mouth was the key
element in how people had heard about the film.
These two questions correspond with each other
because we found out that 100% of people
would recommend it to a friend and the way in
which people heard about the filmwas either
from a friend or a family member.
In conclusion I can use all of these survey results to get an understanding for why people
enjoyed/didn’t enjoy the film. Things such as gender can come into effect for other
questions. For example, with an audience of 75% male the reason that there was a
preferred reading of 75% also could be because of this. The gender difference could also be
the reason that 87% of the audience knew about the film beforehand and this is because
males are stereotypically more likely to talk about a film which involves fighting than
women. However, there are things that don’t go injunction with one another as cleanly as
these and that is the diverted question where it was an even split of those who felt diverted
and those who didn’t.