This document discusses audience investigation and several theories related to understanding audiences. It defines what an audience is and explains that audiences are defined by demographics like age and income, as well as psychographics like interests and beliefs. It then summarizes Sigmund Freud's theory of the uncanny, which proposes that cognitive dissonance occurs when something is both familiar and unfamiliar. Next, it discusses Laura Mulvey's feminist theory of sadistic voyeurism as it relates to the horror genre. Finally, it provides an overview of Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model of how audiences receive and interpret media texts based on their social positions and preferred, negotiated, or oppositional readings.

1. Audience Investigation
Emma Matthew

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 as ages, income,
education, status, type of occupation, region of country
• Psychographics: Someone’s hobbies/interests, their beliefs
and behaviour.
• Both demographics and psychographics help media
institutions tailor their text to the catered audience that their
trying to target

3. Psychological Theory – THE UNCANNY
• This was developed by Sigmund Freud, founder of
Psychodynamic theory (unconscious drives, internal conflicts
from childhood etc.)
• His theory of the Uncanny can help explain why some people
are so attracted to the horror genre.
• The theory states that cognitive dissonance occurs when
something is familiar and foreign at the same time.
• For example, people are attracted to paranormal films
because Ghosts are similar to the human form, yet look
frightening. This would be perceived as being uncomfortably
unfamiliar.

4. Feminist Theory – Sadistic Voyeurism
• This was developed by feminist film theorist Laura
Mulvey (the male gaze etc.)
• Her theory of sadistic voyeurism can also explain
why some people are attracted to the horror genre.
• This is when a weaker female character is
performing a daily, personal or intimate task (e.g
getting changed or having sex) where a strong male
character abuses her privacy in a sadistic way (think
the shower scene in the film, Psycho)

5. Stuart Hall – 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 the media producers want/expect them to.
- Negotiated Reading – This is when a member of the audience
partly afrees with part of the product e.g Film, documentary, TV
programme.
- Oppositional Reading – This is when the audience are in complete
disagreement with the products message or setting.
Reading of texts are dependent on who the audience is, and what
their social position is, because this influences their interpretation
of the denotative codes.