This document discusses audience investigation and theories related to how audiences interact with and interpret media texts. It defines audience and common ways of categorizing or grouping audiences. It then outlines several theories of audience including the hypodermic needle model, two-step flow theory, uses and gratifications theory, and reception theory. It concludes by explaining how some of these theories link specifically to understanding audiences of the horror genre.

1. AUDIENCE INVESTIGATION
Charlotte Joyce

2. WHAT IS AUDIENCE?
• Audience are the people media texts is aimed at and the people who
consume texts.
• They can be grouped into demographics and psychographics;
Psychographics Demographics
• age • hobbies/tastes
• gender • interests
• race • spending power
• national Identity • education/ability
• socioeconomic group

3. AUDIENCE THEORIES
Hypodermic Needle Model Theory
• This theory suggests that audience passively accepts the message “injected” into them
by the mass media. This model suggests that there is a direct link between the violent
behaviour shown in media texts and anti-sociable and violent behaviour in real life.
Two-Step Flow
• This theory suggests that the information does not flow directly from the text into the
minds of its audience unmediated but is filtered through „opinion leaders‟ who then
communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence. The
audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas
and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct
process, but by a two step flow. This diminishes the power of the media in the eyes of
researchers, and caused them to conclude that social factors were also important in the
way in which audiences interpreted texts.

4. AUDIENCE THEORIES
The Uses and Gratifications Theory
• BULMER and KATZ came up with the theory that audience use
media texts for different purposes;
1. PERSONAL IDENTITY – finding yourself reflected in texts.
2. DIVERSION – escape from everyday life
3. EDUCATION – to gain useful knowledge and to understanding or
information from a text
4. SURVAILLANCE – to gain information which can be useful to
everyday life.
5. ENTERTAINMENT – to enjoy the media text
6. SOCIAL INTERACTION – the idea that a media text forms some kind
of conversation or debate between people.

5. AUDIENCE THEORIES
Reception Theory
• This is an approach to textual analysis focused on the scope for
"negotiation" and "opposition" on the part of the audience. This means
that a "text"—be it a book, movie, or other creative work—is not simply
passively accepted by the audience, but that the reader / viewer interprets
the meanings of the text based on their individual cultural background and
life experiences. In essence, the meaning of a text is not inherent within
the text itself, but is created within the relationship between the text and
the reader.

6. WHAT THEORIES LINK TO THE
HORROR GENRE?
• The Hypodermic Needle Model Theory links to the horror genre because
some horror movies because when audiences watch horror films they can
immediately accept the message given and sometimes even be influenced by
the ideas seen in the film.
• The Two-Step flow also links to the horror genre because if a horror movie
has been reviewed badly, but is actually a very good film. It could put
audiences off watching it because they may trust the review and perceive the
view as bad and not worth watching.
• The Uses and Gratification Theory also links with the horror genre because
different audiences watch horror films for different purposes eg.
Entertainment and diversion.
• The Reception Theory also links to the horror genre as some film companies
may create a film and believe its of the horror genre where as others may
watch it and believe it‟s a different genre like a thriller it depends on how the
audience interpret the codes and conventions.