A summary of the two opposing theories of audience and representation.

2. Karl Marx (The Communist Manifesto – 1848)

4. BOURGEOISIE

5. PROLETARIAT
Mr Arden?

6. Antonio Gramsci (b.1891)
(Marxist theory repurposed as a media theory in 1967)

7. Bourgeoisie = media owners

8. Proletariat = media
consumers

9. Passive audience
Accepting
Content
See the world as the media producer wants them to
see it

10. Michael Gurevitch
(Culture, Society and the Media – 1982)
Formulated liberal
pluralism as a media
theory, bringing
together two political
theories.

11. Active audience
Audience educated by the media, not hypnotised by it.
Audiences approach media texts as educated, savvy people
able to interpret at different levels.
Able to accept and conform to the dominant idea the media
producers represent, or challenge it, or develop it, or use it for
their own purposes.
Even more the case now the population are free to produce
their own media texts – YouTube, etc.

12. Test it out!
Watch the opening to a thriller and explain how the
two theories apply.
A Marxist analysis would say the audience will blindly
accept an idea the film represents.
A pluralist analysis would say the audience may
challenge it and think something different.