audience

1. These are a group of people that are targeted for a certain type of product. The audience is an
extremely important factor for companies to consider when producing and promoting their product,
this is because the revenue and profit the business will make is dependent on how well the audience
react to the product. Within the audience theory, there are a lot of different ways that are highlighted
in which we should consider an audience as well how products can connect us with audience.
There are three main theories that can be applied to give a deeper understanding of the relationship
between the texts and audience. These include:
• The hypodermic model or the effects model
• The uses and gratifications model
• The reception theory
However there are more theories and theorists that also give a clearer insight to the audience.

2. The Effects or Hypodermic model
This theory bases itself on the view that the consumption of media texts will have an
effect or influence on the audience. In theory this model is considered negative as the
audience are passive and powerless in terms of preventing the effect of influence, the
way in which this model is presented is as if media in itself works as somewhat of a
drug that gains the audiences addiction. This therefore means that the message within
the text has the power. This theory was more recognised in the 1950s in America but
was developed in the 1920s and 30s.
In 1961 an experiment of this model was conducted by Albert Bandura to try and prove
that children copy violent behaviour. This was known as the Bobo Doll experiment.
Within this experiment children we made to watch a clip of an adult violently attacking
a clown (Bobo Doll), they were then taken to a room with where they were normal
‘attractive’ toys which they didn’t touch. They were then taken into a room filled with
Bobo Dolls, research then proved that 88% of children who were exposed to the video
demonstrated similar violent behaviour. Further research into the same children then
highlighted that 40% of the children showed the same violent behaviour in their actions
towards different situations. This is a good example of the hypodermic model as it
proves how media can have an impact an influence on viewers.

3. Theories of Cultural Effect
This theory is relates to the effects that media has on audiences and society. Theorists have
stated that media is one of the main causes of ‘Cultural Effects’. There are two theories that
help give a better understanding of how media is supposed to influence the audience. Each of
these two views originates from different political perspectives.
The two views include ‘Right wing’ and the ‘Traditionally Left wing’.
Right Wing – TV programmes that are usually shown in the late evening such as Geordie shore,
Ex on the Beach, Big Brother and others are known to give a negative effect on the audience,
this therefore deteriorates the audiences phycology and mental capabilities. This is also
recognised as dumbing down.
Traditionally Left wing – TV programmes such as the news, as media is controlled by people
with power in society they show representations with uphold a certain status. For example a
news channel may be biased towards a story or a team. Furthermore they may prioritise a story
of the royal family over attacks in Syria, highlighting the fact that they first story is more
important due to the people within it.

4. Reception Theory
This theory that was developed by Stuart Hall in the 1970s and is seen to be
completely different as it doesn’t have ‘problems’ or ‘limitations’. This theory was
different as it considered how texts were encoded by producers, then decoded by
the audience. The reception theory suggests that a producer will construct a text
that is encoded with meaning or a message that the audience is supposed to
recognise.
Stuart Hall identified three types categories in which the audience can decode the
text:
Dominate – this is where the audience decodes and understands the meaning or
message that the producers wants them to and agrees with it to some extent.
Negotiated – this is where the audience understands the message, then rejects or
refines certain features of the text.
Oppositional – this is where the dominate message is understood, however rejected
due to cultural, political or ideological views.

5. Uses and Gratifications Theory
The uses and gratifications theory was first introduced by Elihu Katz and is an approach
to understand what audiences do with media texts as well as how and why they use
them. This essentially means that the ‘power’ is with the audience, they are able to
make the decisions on whether to reject, use or play with the meanings. This model is
different to other theories such as the effects model as the audience is free to use the
text rather than the text using them and are able to use the media text for their own
gratification.
The uses and gratifications theory suggests and targets to achieve on of the following:
Identity – knowing a person form their appearance, for example actors, singers, role
models and celebrities are recognised due to their personalised look. Audience can also
empathize because of similar values.
Educate – being able to take information from texts and increasing/developing the
audiences understanding.
Entertain – this is important as media products are there to entertain and interest
audience as they may see it as a break or a sense of release.
Social interaction – this allows the audience to interact with other audiences about the
media product, to share views and opinions.
This theory suggests that people use media to fulfil specific gratifications.