This document discusses several audience theories that can be used to understand how audiences interact with media. It describes uses and gratifications theory, which suggests that audiences actively use media to fulfill needs like diversion, social interaction, identity, and surveillance. Reception theory holds that encoded meanings in media can be given dominant, negotiated, or oppositional readings by audiences based on their social and cultural backgrounds. Finally, the effects and hypodermic models are mentioned, which propose that media have powerful influences over passive audiences, though uses and gratifications theory argues audiences are active.

1. Audience Theories
To look into the audience theories and how they can be used
in the creation of your magazine

2. Genre Conventions and
Audience Theories
There are a few ways that you can describe an audience for
example:
• Age
• Gender
• Culture
• Education
• Class
• Region

3. Uses and Gratifications Theory
This was a term created by Blumler and Katz in the 1970’s. It suggests
that the audience uses the media to fulfil needs and motivations:
• Diversion which is entertainment, relaxation, something to do.
• Personal relationships and social lives of people presented in media
texts through interviews and gossip, audiences can observe a range of
relationships with others and understand the dynamics involved and
audiences can learn empathy
• Personal identity means audiences can identify with characters
represented in the media and they can make comparisons between
characters and their own behaviour.
• Surveillance is that the media provides information and education,
helping the audience to stay informed and know what’s happening in
the world.
• The uses and gratifications model is the opposite of the effects model
talked about in a few slides as the audience is active and they use the
text instead of being used by it. The audience uses the media texts for
its own gratification or pleasure.
• The power therefore lies with the audience and not the producers and
far from being duped by the media, the audience is free to reject , use
or play with the media meanings as they fit.

4. Audience Control
The audience is in control and consumption of the media and
this helps people overcome issues such as:
• Learning
• Emotional satisfaction
• Relaxation
• Help with issues of personal identity
• Help with issues of social identity
• Help with issues of aggression and violence

5. Reception Theory
Encoding and decoding was first introduced by Stuart Hall in the
1970’s.
• Texts are encoded with meaning (semiotics)
• Different audiences respond (decode) in different ways
• Both encoded and decoded meaning will be understood in the
context of the social and cultural background of the producer
and audience
When a producer constructs a text it is encoded with a meaning
or message that the producer wishes to convey to the audience.
In some instances audiences will correctly decode the message
or meaning and understand what the producer was trying to say,
in some instances the audience will either reject or fail to
correctly understand the message.

6. Readings
• Dominant reading is where the audience uncritically accepts
the intended meaning of the text.
• Negotiated reading is where the message is partly accepted
and partly rejected – meaning they agree and accept to a
certain extent. People may believe the story if they have read
it elsewhere in a trusted magazine, or they may be
uninterested in the story and find the source unreliable.
• Oppositional reading is where the audience rejects the
message, this could be because the story is seen as gossip, the
source isn’t trusted or the audience does not value the
celebrity and their viewpoints.

7. The Effects Model and The
Hypodermic Model
• The consumption of media texts has influence upon the
audience and it is normally considered that this effect is
negative.
• Audiences are passive and powerless to prevent the influence,
so therefore producers have to think about the message they
are trying to put across
• The power lies with the message of the text and is very
important that it is worded correctly so that it will not be seen
as offensive.
• The hypodermic model is when messages in media texts are
injected into the audience by the powerful syringe-like media.
• The audience is powerless to resist the messages they are
given and therefore the media works and almost captures the
audience.