David Morley conducted a study in 1980 where he had different socioeconomic groups watch an episode of the BBC program Nationwide. He argued that individuals from different social positions would have different interpretations of the program based on their shared cultural experiences and discourses. Specifically, he outlined three potential readings: dominant, negotiated, and oppositional. Christian Metz also analyzed audiences and argued that film satisfies three Freudian desires - the desire for the ego, the desire to desire, and the desire for an object or fetishism. Understanding how social position influences interpretation is important for properly constructing and targeting audiences for films.

1. AUDIENCE
Qainaat Aftab

2. Audience Theory
• An audience to a film is the crucial component that
makes a film successful. Without an audience there is
no film.
• When targeting your audience for your film it is
important to look at these factors:
-
The construction of audience
The way audiences view text
The audience motivation
The effect on the audience

3. How do we construct audience?
Audience can be constructed by:
• Age
• Gender
• Sexuality
• Social Class
• Income
• Ethnicity
• Educational Background
• Rural/Urban
• Cultural/Religious Background
When categorising an audience it is always important to consider
these factors.

4. David Morley’s Nationwide study
• David Morley is a sociologist who specialises
in the sociology of TV audiences. In 1980 he
arranged for differing socio/economic groups
to watch an episode of Nationwide.
• What is Nationwide?
Nationwide was a popular magazine programme
which discussed current media affairs. This
programme was aired on BBC1.

5. • David Morley’s research involving Nationwide has become an
important study when concerning audiences.
• What was the study?
Morley outlined three hypothetical position which the reader might
occupy:
- Dominant (or ‘hegemonic’) reading: This is where the reader shares
the programmes ‘code’ (Its meaning system of
values, attitudes, beliefs and assumptions) and fully accepts the
programmes ‘preferred reading’
- Negotiated reading: This is where the reader partially shares the
programmes code and its preferred reading, however they modify it
which reflects their position and interest.
- Oppositional (‘Counter-hegemonic’) reading: This is where the
reader does not share the programme’s code and completely rejects
the preferred reading, which brings an alternative frame of
interpretation.

6. • Sociologist David Morley argues that ‘members of a given subculture will tend to share a cultural orientation towards decoding
messages in particular ways. Their individual “readings” of messages
will be framed by shared cultural formations and practices’.
• In conclusion Morley claims that an individuals ‘decoding’ of TV
programmes are not reduced to a direct consequence of social class
position.
- ‘ It is always a question of how social position, as it articulated
through particular discourses, produces specific kind of readings or
decoding. These readings can be seen to be patterned by the way in
which the structure of access to different discourses is determined by
social position’
• Therefore, the meaning of text will be constructed differently
according to the discourses brought by the reader.
• Individuals that are in different social positions that are defined
according to sex, race etc will be likely to inhabit disposable different
codes and subcultures.

7. EXTRA READING
http://users.aber.ac.uk/dgc/Documents/short/m
orleynw.html

8. Christian Metz
• Christian Metz is a film theorist in France, he looked at
semiology as a tool for understanding relationships between
ideology and aesthetic expression.
• The Imaginary Signifier –
Was Metz’s first incorporation of the psychoanalytical
approach to cinema studies.
This book is broken down into 4 parts:
-The Imaginary Signifier
-Story/Disclose
-The Fiction and its Spectator: A metapsychological study
-Metaphor/Metonymy

9. The Imaginary Signifier
• In this section Christian Metz’s begins to deconstruct
the cinematic image. He starts this study by why an
audience goes to watch a certain film.
• According to the French theorist, the cinema satisfies
three Freudian desires - These ‘desires’, combined set
up specific feature that distinguishes the cinema from
other arts (i.e. Literature or Music)
• He argues that the cinema satisfies the desire for the
ego. The visions from a cinema screen can be read by
more sense, in contrast to other arts.

10. • He continues to state that the cinema is a
completely new and unique form of art. This is
because the film being played in a cinema is
viewed in a different time period to when it
was being made, at different places.
• The Imaginary Signifier explores the concept
of variety in cinema. The cinema can stimulate
both the sound and visionary senses.

11. The Second Desire
• The second desire fulfilled by the cinema is the
desire to desire.
• Metz claims “the main socially acceptable arts
are based on the senses at a distance…”
• The cinema is set up exactly in the stage
boundaries of theatre or musical
performances. Consequently, because the
audience was not present or involved in the
objects in the film they are automatically
removed from them.

12. The Third Desire
• Metz also argues that cinema fulfils Freudians
third desire which is the desire for an object. This
is fetishism, which is based on child
development.
• Fetishism in relation to film denies knowledge of
the lack of absence in the film image. Thus,
creating a binary with the audience.
• In other words, the audience is aware that the
images on screen are not reality but in order to
appreciate or enjoy the film the must be viewed
as real.

13. • To conclude, Christian Metz believes that the cinema
is fulfilled by these three desires.
• When doing my research I came across this website
which I found extremely helpful:
http://cinemamoviesandflicks.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/
understanding-approach-to-film-theory.html

14. Audience Composition
An type of audience is separated into different
categories.
•
•
•
•
•
•
A - higher managerial and professional
B - middle managerial and professional
C1 - supervisory, junior management and professional
C2 - skilled manual worker
D - semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers
E - pensioners, lower grade workers and the
unemployed

15. Audience in Our Short Film
• The target audience for our short film falls into
the category AB social demographic, in contrast
to those in category C1, C2, D and E. This is
because we believe that the people in A and B
will be more appreciative of the style in which are
film is being made and will go to film festivals
where our film will be exhibited. The type of
people in this category would consist of aspiring
film directors, middle-upper class citizens who
would go to these events and have a real passion
and enthusiasm for short films.

16. KEY TERMS - Audience
•
POLYSEMIC - (polysemy) the ambiguity of an individual word or phrase that can be
used (in different contexts) to express two or more different meanings.
•
QUANTATIVE - relating to, measuring, or measured by the quantity of something
rather than its quality.
•
QUALITATIVE - relating to, measuring, or measured by the quality of something rather
than its quantity.
•
DEDUCTIVE - characterized by or based on the inference of particular instances from a
general law.
•
REACTIVE - showing a response to a stimulus.
•
PASSIVE AUDIENCE - people who listen in order to accomplish other goals.
•
ACTIVE AUDIENCE - audience members who already are interested in an
organization, issue, or cause. Instead of waiting to receive information on it, they seek
it out from many sources and when doing so, they speak as well as listen.