This document discusses several key concepts related to audiences and media effects: - Audiences are "imagined communities" constructed by media institutions for profit motives. - Audiences can be passive, directly influenced by media messages, or active, interpreting messages based on their own contexts. - New digital technologies have fragmented audiences into niche groups. - Uses and gratifications theory sees audiences as active in using media to fulfill personal needs. - Reception theory examines how audiences decode media texts based on their own frameworks and experiences.

1. Nalini Prasad

2.  “Audience doesn’t constitute itself, it
doesn’t know itself, it doesn’t govern
itself. All is done by institutional bodies-
media organization, research and
government agencies. Thus, audience is
the ‘imagined community that enables
those institutions to operate.
-ANDERSON (1991)

3.  Without audiences there would be no
media.
 Media organizations produce media
texts to make profit – no audience = no
profit.
 The mass media is becoming more
competitive than ever to attract more
and more audiences in different ways
and stay profitable.

4.  An individual or collective group of
people who read or consume any
media text.

6. Active
Audience
Passive
Audience
Hegemonic
Model
Pluralist
model
Uses and
gratifications
theory
Effects
model
Reception
theory

7.  Passive audience theory (the
hegemonic model) The idea that the
media ‘injects’ ideas and views directly
into the brains of the audience, therefore
controlling the way people think and
behave. Media has a direct and
powerful effect on it’s audience. Can
you think of any examples of this in the
media today or in history?

8.  Active audience theory argues
that media audiences do not just receive
information passively but are actively
involved, often unconsciously, in making sense
of the message within their personal and
social contexts. Decoding of a media
message may therefore be influenced by
such things as family background, beliefs,
values, culture, interests, education and
experiences.

9. Gender Age Sex
Social
Class
Ethnicity

10.  Digital technology has also led to an
increasing uncertainty over how we
define an audience, with the general
agreement that a large group of people
reading the same thing at the same time
is out-dated and that audiences are
now ‘fragmented’. The division of
audiences into smaller groups due to the
variety of media outlets.

11. Mass audience
•Mass audience – often termed ‘broadcast
audience’. Those who consume mainstream or
popular texts such as soaps or sitcoms. Media
and communication that targets a very large
group of people (women, men, children, adults
etc.)
Niche audience
•much smaller but very influential. A niche
audience is a small, select group of people
with a very unique interest.

12.  McQuail, Blumler and Brown (1972) mentioned 4
major areas of need which the media in general
seek to gratify.
 Diversion: an escape from routine and problems, an
emotional release.
 Personal relationships: companionship, feeling part
of a social group.
 Personal identity: exploring or reinforcing our own
values through comparison through others values
(this would include the values of the media
producers and of celebrities).
 Surveillance: the need for a constant supply of
information about what is happening in the world.

13.  Emphasises what the audiences for media
products do with them.
 Power lies with the individual consumer of
media who is imagined as using particular
programmes, films or magazines to gratify
certain needs and interests.
 The audience is made up of individuals free
to reject, use or play with media meanings
as they choose •
 THE AUDIENCE IS ACTIVE.

14.  Stuart Hall claimed that audience
members share certain frameworks of
interpretation and that they work at
DECODING media texts rather than being
‘affected’ in a passive way. So Media
producer ENCODES meanings into text
Media consumer (the audience) DECODES
meanings (relies on our own experiences,
social demographic etc.)

16.  DOMINANT- where the reader recognises what
the programmes ‘preferred’ or offered
meaning is and broadly agrees with it…eg flag
waving patriot who responds enthusiastically to
Presidents speech.
 OPPOSITIONAL- where the dominant meaning
is recognised but rejected for cultural, political,
or ideological reasons…eg pacifist who
understands the speech but rejects it.)
 NEGOTIATED- where the reader accepts,
rejects or refines elements of the programme in
the light of previously held views.

17. CREDIBILITY means trustworthiness and competence.
Before the audience accepts any message he will
judge whether the communicator and the
organization the individual represents, can be relied
upon and is competent enough to give the
information.
 Aristotle divided the aspects of persuasion into
three categories: ethos (credibility), pathos
(emotion) and logos (logic).

18. Media credibility refers to the perceived
believability of media content "beyond any
proof of its contentions.“ Media credibility
research has shifted the focus from
characteristics of individual, personal sources
to characteristics of media behaviour such as
objectivity, accuracy, fairness, and lack of
bias.

19.  Message The recommendations from research, the
technology constitute the content or subject
matter, the message.
 Information which is relevant to particular set of
audiences, constitute the messages, otherwise for
them this is ‘noise’.
 A good message clearly states what to do, how to
do, when to do and what would be the result.
 Messages which are relevant, interesting, useful,
profitable, credible (latest and best, based on
research findings) and complete (neither too
much, nor too little) are likely to motivate the
people.

20.  Media occupies a significant part of people’s
daily lives, it significantly impacts the social
construction of reality, the shape of public
consciousness and the direction of socio-political
change. Therefore, media's credibility is as
important as the message itself.
 Television viewers find hard news more credible
than soft news.
 The credibility assigned to different media varies
by race and gender of news consumers.
 Communication to be successful must be target
oriented.
 Response of the audience is the ultimate
objective of any communication function.