This document summarizes four theories of audience: 1) The Frankfurt School viewed audiences as passive recipients of media messages. 2) Katz and Lazarsfield's Two Step Flow Theory proposed that opinion leaders influence others through interpersonal communication. 3) Katz and Blumler's Uses and Gratifications Theory found that audiences actively consume media to fulfill specific needs and desires. 4) David Morley's Nationwide Audience Theory described different ways audiences can interpret media messages based on their social position.

1. Audience Theory
What is audience?
- All products have an audience (niche/mass)
- The producer’s texts need to know the importance of their audience when making
products
Theory 1: The Frankfurt school (1920s & 1930s)
- Message had an effect on the audience
- Hypodermic syringe/needle theory- purely passive audience and believe what they
are told without question
- Linear communication
- No individual difference
Theory 2: The two step flow (1940s & 1950s) Katz & Lazarsfield
- First- opinion leaders get information from a media source
- Second- opinion leaders then pass the information along with their interpretation, to
others (friends; family; acquaintances)
- Lazarsfield- book called ‘The people’s choice’- More likely to be influenced by
individuals than the mass media
- Katz- book called ‘Personal influence’
- Audience is no longer passive
- 2012 twitter found it finds ways of passing information through multiple opinion
leaders-influences people’s opinions
- More likely to buy a product if it’s been recommended by a friend/family member
- Strengths: Audiences are active and seen as part of a society
- Limitations: More than two steps in the flow of communication?
-
Theory 3: Uses and Gratifications (1960s) Katz and Blumler
- The first generations to grow up with TV became grown-ups- audiences made
choices about what they did when consuming texts.
- Far from being a passive mass, audiences were made up of individuals who actively
consumed texts for different reasons and in different ways.

2. - 4 reasons why we watch/use texts:
- Diversions-Escape from everyday problems and routine
- Personal relationships- Using the media for emotional and other interaction e.g.
substituting family soap operas for family life.
- Personal identity- Finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values
from texts.
- Surveillance- Information which could be useful for living e.g. weather reports,
holiday bargains
- Uses of gratification in messaging/online gaming:
- Instant messaging- Relaxations/entertainment/inclusion (social
group)/sociability/fashion/escape/affection
- Heavy users-motivated by affection/sociability
- Light users-motivated by fashion
- Female- Chat longer/sociability
- Male-chat less/entertainment/relaxing
- Online gaming- Enjoyment/social interactions/accomplishment/success
- If you are good at it you are more likely to go back to it
Theory 4: The nationwide audience (1980s) David Morley
- Dominant reading (Hegemonic) - the reader shares the programme’s ‘codes’
(meaning) and fully accepts the programme’s ‘preferred reading’
- Negotiated reading- The reader partly shares the programme code and broadly
accepts the preferred reading, but modifies it in a way which reflects their position
and interests
- Oppositional reading (Counter-hegemonic) - The reader doesn’t share the
programme’s codes and rejects the preferred reading, bringing to bear an alternative
frame of interpretation.