The document discusses various audience theories that can be applied to media production coursework, including: 1. Effects models which view audiences as passive receivers of media messages. 2. Reception theory which sees audiences as actively interpreting meanings from media texts in preferred, negotiated, or oppositional ways. 3. Active audience models where audiences make choices in how they consume media to fulfill different uses and gratifications. It provides examples and explanations of these theories, and suggests considering how they apply to developing an understanding of the audience for one's own media productions.

1. Applying audience
You have been taught
audience many times –
from the AS and A2
audience research
tasks through to both
years’ exam section 2
teaching. It can all apply
to question 1b too!
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.

2. 1. Effects models – e.g.
hypodermic needle
• 1920s attempt to explain how
mass audiences might react to
mass media
• Audiences passively receive
the information
• Links to Marxism to explain
how the media promotes a
hegemonic worldview the
audience conforms to
• Links to moral panics
• Considered outdated
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.

3. Effects models
(Anderson and Dill)
• study into violent videogames
• found that real-life violent video game play was
related to aggressive behaviour and delinquency
• laboratory exposure to a graphically violent
videogame increased aggressive thoughts and
behaviour
• particularly strong impact on children
• studies like this are often cited in moral panics
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.

4. Effect model
(Moral Panics – Springhall)
- a moral panic occurs when the official or press
reaction to a deviant social or cultural phenomenon is
out of all proportion to the actual threat offered (1998)
- Springhall’s book “Youth, Popular Culture and Moral
Panics” points out that moral panics have occurred in
society since the nineteenth century. He argues that
moral panics give more of an insight into adult
anxieties (e.g. fear of technology and the future).
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.

5. 2. Reception Theory (Stuart Hall)
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.
The media producer encodes a
preferred/intended meaning into a
media text, using media language
and narrative themes. The audience
decodes.
Preferred reading
The audience receives the message
that the producer intended them to
receive.
Judging by the text and image, what
is the preferred reading of this
advert?

6. Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.

7. 2. Reception Theory (Stuart Hall)
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.
Oppositional meaning
We are not subject to the effects
model anymore; we all bring other
knowledge to media texts. This
could lead to seeing a meaning in
the text that is different to the one
the producer intended.
For example, we all know that
Macdonalds food is artificial, full of
rubbish and very bad for us. With
that knowledge, what meaning
might we take from the advert?

8. Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.

9. 2. Reception Theory (Stuart Hall)
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.
Negotiated meaning
More likely, though, we will bring
that knowledge from outside the text
to create a reading that is part way
between what was intended and
what was opposite.
What reading might we negotiate
with the text?

10. Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.
But tomorrow I’m eating a salad!

11. Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.
The preferred or
dominant reading is
the reading media
producers hope
audiences will take
from the text.
The audience may reject
the preferred reading,
receiving their own
alternative message. This is
an oppositional reading.

12. Negotiated reading is when
audiences acknowledge the
preferred reading, but modify
it to
suit their own values and
opinions – a compromise.
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.

13. Applying to AS work
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.
When applying audience theory to our thrillers, it is important to
remember we are designing a product to meet our audiences
expectations and predictions around a film text according to its
genre.
•First, you had to establish what those expectations were.
•Second, you had to balance meeting them and creating surprise.
You were encoding a meaning for the audience to negotiate.
•You were also doing this according to an established picture of who
the audience were, based on research. You guessed how much they
wanted your thriller to conform to expectations and how much they
wanted it to challenge them.
•How you measured the audience, quantitively and qualitatively, is
documented in your evaluations for AS.

14. Applying to A2 work
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.
The music video and ancillary products were different; they were
essentially adverts persuading the audience to buy a physical
recording or an MP3.
You needed to work harder to ensure your preferred reading was
received by the audience.
Thing about the meanings you wanted the audience to receive:

15. Applying to A2 work
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.
The music video and ancillary products were different; they were
essentially adverts persuading the audience to buy a physical
recording or an MP3.
You needed to work harder to ensure your preferred reading was
received by the audience.
Thing about the meanings you wanted the audience to receive:
•The artist is cool?
•The song has deep meaning?
•The artist is talented?
•Following the artist will give you social status?
•You can identify with the artist?
•The artist is fun?

16. 3. Active audience models
• 1960s – generation had grown up with
TV
• audiences make choices about what
they do when consuming texts
• audiences made up of individuals who
actively consume texts for different
reasons and in different ways
• Theories within this model include most
of the ones you have used before
(U&G, the 4Cs), plus a few more.
Investigate the next few slides yourself.
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.

17. Uses & Gratifications recap
Blumer and Katz (1974) state a text might be used for the following
purposes:
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.

18. Uses & Gratifications recap
Blumer and Katz (1974) state a text might be used for the following
purposes:
•Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine.
•Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other
interaction, eg) substituting 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 eg) weather
reports, financial news, holiday bargains
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.

19. Cross Cultural Consumer
Categories (4Cs) recap
Young and Rubicam divide audiences by their attitudes and beliefs:
•The resigned –
•The struggler –
•The mainstream –
•The aspirer –
•The reformer –
•The explorer –
•The succeeder –
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.

20. Cross Cultural Consumer
Categories (4Cs) recap
Young and Rubicam divide audiences by their attitudes and beliefs:
•The resigned – older people with constant, unchanging values and
brand preferences built up over a sustained period
•The struggler – live for today with no plans for tomorrow, often
characterised as victims or wasters
•The mainstream – your middle-of-the-road consumer who keeps things
steady and may change consumption habits if pushed
•The aspirer – materialistic people driven to have ‘the latest thing’ for the
sake of appearances and keeping up
•The reformer – people who value their own independent opinions and
are more likely to find an oppositional reading in media texts
•The explorer – driven by a need for challenge, for finding the new;
young in nature, if not in reality
•The succeeder – people with strong organisation, self-confidence and
goal motivation, who occupy leadership positions in society
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.

21. Applying audience theory to your
work
1) Who is your target audience? How did you develop your
target audience?
2) How does your production appeal to your target audience?
3) What effects could your product have on an audience,
according to the hypodermic needle theory?
4) What are the preferred, negotiated and oppositional
readings that could be made of your product?
5) What uses and gratifications will the target audience get
from the production?
6) Applying Effects Theory, are there any possible negative
impacts of your product?
7) How useful are the theories you choose in understanding
your audience?
Revise and understand how to apply a range of audience theories to our media
production coursework.