This document discusses key concepts relating to audiences for media products. It defines audiences based on demographics like age and income, as well as psychographics like values and behaviors. It also summarizes several theories of how audiences interpret and interact with media texts, including Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model, uses and gratifications theory, and the hypodermic syringe model which suggests passive acceptance of messages by audiences. The document explores how these theories can be applied to understand audiences of the horror genre.

1. Audience Investigation

2. What is an audience?
• An audience refers to the people who consume a media
product, and the people that the media product is aimed
at (Target Audience)
• An audience is defined with the use of two categories,
Demographics and Psychographics.
• Demographics: Characteristics such age, income,
education, status, type of occupation, region of country
• Psychographics: People's lifestyles and behaviors such
as moral values, how they behave etc.
• Both demographics and psychographics help media
institutions tailor their text to the catered audience that
their trying to target.

3. Audience Theorists
Stuart Hall – This a theory of reception theory. Hall Introduced the
encoding/decoding model of the relationship between text and
audience. The text is encoded by the producer, and decoded by the
reader, and there may be major differences between two different
readings of the same code.
• Preffered Reading – This is when audiences respond to the
product the way media producers want/expect them to.
• Negotiated Reading – This is when a member of the audience
partly agrees with part of the product .e.g Film, documentary, TV
programme.
• Oppositional Reading – This is when the audience are in complete
disagreement with the product’s message or setting.
Readings of texts are dependent on who the audience is, and what
their social position is, because this influences their interpretation of
the denotative codes.

4. Uses and Gratifications Theory
Blulmer and Katz theory states that individuals might choose to
use and use a text for the following purposes (Uses and
gratifications):
• Diversion – Escapism from the real world.
• Personal Relationships – Using the media for emotional and
other interaction.
• Personal Identity – Finding yourself through reflection in
texts.
• Surveillance – For Information.
This can be applied to the horror genre, as the viewer watches a
horror for entertainment, and escapism for the real world as
they hope to be consumed in watching the film.

5. The Hypodermic Syringe Model
• The Hypodermic syringe model is a model
of communications suggesting that an intended message is directly
received and wholly accepted by the receiver.
• This theory suggests that an audience passively accepts a message
portrayed by a media text.
• This theory also suggests that there is correlation between violent
behaviour shown in media texts and the violent behaviour shown in
reality. For example, video games such as GTA have caused
conflict in the media due to the assumption that the violent
behaviour and representations used in the game have influenced
individuals.
This can be associated with the horror genre as in some cases it’s
been argued that the violent behaviour/messages in horror media
texts can influence the viewer. Such assumptions have led to the
banning of some horror films, like The Exorcist.