Audience Theories

1. Audiences
Reception
Uses and gratification
hypodermic
Active and passive

2. Audience
 One key concept in media industries is audience because all media texts
are produced with an audience in mind.
An audience is a group of people who participate in either reading, watching,
or listening to a piece of media text.
 Newspapers and magazines are examples of print media
 Films are an example of a moving image
 The radio is an audio type of media

3. Types of Audience
Any individual or group of people who receive and consume any form
of media text (written in magazines or showed in films and social
media part of a selected audience.
1. Mass audience – group consuming commercial TV programmes.
2. Niche audience – people with unique interest.
3. Individual audience.

4. Active vs Passive Theories
 Passives theories suggest that an audience is easily
persuaded by the media and they accept and believe
the message within it. They interpret the message in
the way the corporation intended them to; they’re more
likely to be “brainwashed”.
 Active theories focus on what the audience does with
the media and message rather than looking at what the
audience does to the people. Within these types of
theories, audiences question the message, and may
disagree with it.

5. Active vs Passive audience
 A passive audience accepts and believes all messages in any
media text. These audiences are easily influenced, they do not
often question the message of the media text and will not oppose
to it.
 A active audience uses media text for their own purpose. This
believes that audiences are fully capable of making our own
decisions about whether or not we want to accept and believe the
message that the media text is telling us.
 Over the years active audiences have increased, as people have
developed individual and unique opinions and beliefs.

6. Audience Theories
Conform with the audiences level of passivity or activity
we can discuss different audience theories correlated with
their reception towards media and the effect media
creates.

7. The Hypodermic Needle
Theory
 The hypodermic needle theory is related to passive
audience.
 It has a direct, immediate and powerful effect, the
information and message is purely ‘injected’ through
advertising and propaganda with the purpose to trigger and
expected response.
 The audience never question or challenge the data they are
receiving. The intelligence and opinions of an individual are
completely irrelevant.
 This theory can be dangerous for an audience as it can
have a negative impact. E.g. violence within game
production among teenagers and children.

8. Cultivation Theory
 Cultivation Theory is like the Hypodermic Needle
Theory, in that they both consist of passive audience.
 It suggests that a repeated message can influence
people and their values in better or for worse. E.g. an
advert that demotes fats and sugars, therefore having a
positive impact on our health. On the other hand too
much violence in media can then lead to aggressive
and violent behavior from individuals within an
audience.

9. Two Step Flow Theory
 This theory is partly active.
 A ‘leaders’ opinions are an intermediate to promote a
message, a product or campaign. The large groups can
take some of the medias power away from them. E.g. if
a film critic gives a film a bad review, it could then act
as a deterrent to some of the audience to not go watch
it, on the other hand it could provoke them to watch the
film BECAUSE of the bad review.

10. Reception Theory
 Reception analysis is an active audience theory and is
focusing on the audience reaction to a particular
encoded media text. Interpreting the meaning and
reaching a conclusion after a puzzle effect, the
audience can object or share the message. Depending
on age, nationality or culture the media content can be
read it (decoding the content) in different ways.

11. Uses and Gratification Theory
 The uses and gratification model suggests that media
audience is active and while consuming media they
have a set of needs, social and psychological. The
audience is using the media which doesn’t have the
power to manipulate.
 Gratification meaning is satisfied needs. When we
select a movie is reflecting our personality and
sometimes our needs but also we get involved in social
interaction, or we use social media to promote
ourselves.

12. Audience Research
 Audience research is a major element for any media
producer because media companies need to know
peoples ‘watching tastes’.
 For example these research companies use
questionnaire to find out about their life-style and
automatically what they will like to buy. For example
sometimes the end of the movie is changed if the ‘trail
audience’ doesn’t like the ending.