This document discusses various audience theories in media studies. It addresses two key questions around how influential media is and how it shapes audience perceptions of the world. It also discusses different types of media consumption and contrasts market-liberal and political economy perspectives on audience-producer relationships. Different audience theories are outlined, including hypodermic needle, two-step flow, uses and gratifications, and encoding/decoding models. The document also contrasts views of passive versus active audiences.

1. AUDIENCE
THEORY
A LEVEL MEDIA STUDIES

2. MOST AUDIENCE THEORY FOCUSES
ON TWO QUESTIONS..
• How powerful are the media in
influencing the ideas and behaviour of
the audience?
And…
• How does the media shape an
audience’s perception of the world?
Audience theories suggest that
representations are open to different
interpretations and that their meanings
are not fixed.

3. CONSUMPTION OF MEDIA
There are different ways of consuming media texts…
•Primary media
(texts demand close and concentrated attention from audience, eg.
Films in cinemas)
•Secondary media
(texts provide a background for an audience who are often doing
something else at the same time and are distracted, eg. Radio and
some TV programmes)
•Tertiary media
(texts that are consumed by audiences who are almost unaware of
their own engagement with the media, eg. Advertising or radio
stations broadcasting in shops)

4. Market-
Liberalism
Perspective
Political-
Economy
Perspective
Stresses power
of AUDIENCE
over media
producers
Audience
research
and pre-testing
Audience preference
decides what media
texts are produced
Stresses the power
of PRODUCERS
over media
audiences
Media is
produced
to appeal
to
advertisers
The power of media
organisations are open
to abuse - promoting
political parties etc

5. HYPODERMIC
NEEDLE MODEL
TWO STEP FLOW
MODEL
USES AND
GRATIFICATIONS
THEORY
Dating
from 1920s
Information is
unmediated
Passive audience
RECEPTION THEORY
Also
called the
‘limited
effects
paradigm’
Social effects are
important in the way
audiences consume
texts
Blumler and
Katz 1974
Audiences consume texts for different
reasons and in different ways
Stuart Hall’s
Encoding/Decoding
model
Texts have
preferred
meaning

6. PASSIVE AUDIENCES
Effects Theory
Some commentators see the media as a sinister and insidious
force.
The Frankfurt School (Adorno and Horkheimer) – a group of
Marxist intellectuals developed a critique of the mass media after
expressing horror at the success of Nazi Germany propaganda.
They argued the media had considerable power over the
behaviour and beliefs of the audience.
The passive audience soak up the empty promises of mass
entertainment, becoming willing victims who both produce and
consume the products of consumer capitalism.
The audience are powerless to resist the effects of media
messages.

7. THE TWO STEP FLOW MODEL
Katz and Lazarsfeld
Reception in which media messages are mediated by others
– ‘opinion leaders’.
US presidential campaign 1940
Our opinion can form or develop based on what others have
to say.
Importance of word of mouth

8. ENCODING/DECODING
Stuart Hall drew upon the Gramscian hegemony theory in
developing the encoding/decoding model.
He wanted to focus on how dominant ideological messages
can be resisted or reinterpreted by audience members.
At the encoding stage, the producers of texts create
messages (codes) which they expect their viewers/readers to
understand.
When the audience come in contact with the text, we decode
the messages to create meaning.
Fundamentally, media messages are POLYSEMIC – they
contain numerous possible interpretations.
However, we can be steered towards a preferred reading of a
text.

9. Stuart
Hall
Preferred,
Negotiated
and
Oppositional
readings of
media texts
For
example…

10. McDonalds want you to think....

11. You may agree
Or.....
You may disagree

12. Or.....
You may think that big macs do taste good,
but I’ll only have them every now and again

13. So here we have three separate readings of
that one advert

14. In 1980 David Morley did a study of
audience responses when watching
the BBC TV show Spotlight. As a
result of his research, he decided that
audiences tend to fall into three
groups based on their interpretation
of the text.....
Preferred Reading
Negotiated Reading
Oppositional Reading

15. The preferred
reading is the
reading media
producers hope
audiences will take
from the text.

16. Audience members from
outside the target
audience may reject the
preferred reading,
receiving their own
alternative message.

17. Negotiated reading is when
audiences acknowledge
the preferred reading, but
modify it to
suit their own values and
opinions.

18. What is the
PREFERRED
reading?
The
NEGOCIATED
reading?
The
OPPOSITIONAL
reading?

19. ACTIVE AUDIENCES
The Uses and Gratifications Theory
The audience has a set of needs (Blumler and Katz 1975)
•Diversion
•Integration & Social Interaction
•Personal identity
•Surveillance/Information
We use the media to gratify our needs.
We actively seek out media products that we really want.
Links with liberal-pluralist perspectives (consumers hold the
power over producers)

20. Coronation Street viewers are
individuals who are motivated by
different impulses
A need for
company
The need
to be part
of a
group
The need to
identify with
characters
and
scenarios
Relaxation
The need for
structure and order
– offers a
reassuring routine
To combat
loneliness –
allows audience to
perceive
themselves to be
part of an
IMAGINED
COMMUNITY

21. USES AND GRATIFICATIONS
1) SURVEILLANCE/INFORMATION
We want to find out about society and the world.

22. 2) INTEGRATION & SOCIAL INTERACTION
Companionship through identification with
television characters
We want to find out more about the
circumstances of other people so we can
empathise/sympathise with the lives of others.
Sociability through discussion about television
with other people.

23. USES AND GRATIFICATIONS
3) PERSONAL IDENTITY
Finding reinforcement for personal values.
Identifying with a valued other in the media.
Gaining insight into one’s self.

24. GRATIFICATION
4) DIVERSION
We use the media for enjoyment, relaxation or just to fill time.

25. What uses and gratifications do the above offer their
audiences?

26. NEW MEDIA – THE INTERNET
UTOPIAN
• The internet user is
savvy, well informed
and creative
• Distinctions
between production
and reception are
blurred
• Online communities
allow audiences to
interact with each
other and producers
• Active
DYSTOPIAN
• Studies of internet users have
shown an unequal distribution
in terms of gender, age,
ethnicity and social class.
• There are increasing levels of
corporate domination – big
companies exploit the
potential for making money
from users.
• Levels of control and
surveillance inhibit the
autonomy and creativity once
associated with the internet.