The document discusses various audience and representation theories that are relevant to understanding how media products represent reality and influence audiences. It specifically focuses on theories for understanding passive versus active audiences, how stereotypes shape audience perceptions, and how gender is represented in media. Some of the key theories discussed include hypodermic syringe theory for passive audiences, uses and gratifications theory for active audiences, and theories from Mulvey, Winship, Gaunlett, and Butler on the objectification and representation of gender. The document considers how these theories can help analyze target audiences and inform the types of content produced for a pop magazine.

1. Theoretical Research
Thomas Ngai

2. What do we need to find
out …..
Audience theories
Representation theories

3. Audience Theory
The audience theory are divided into two categories which is
Passive and Active. The higher the income blanket the more
active audience is, on the other hand the lower the income
blanket the more passive audience is
As the active audience have higher income blanket they will be
willing to accept the challenge from the product and they might
want to discover a new concept of product which means they
are more engaging. On the other hand the passive audience will
not want to try on new product as they are weak and powerless,
therefore they will tend to follow the trend.

4. Audience theory-Passive
In the Hypodermic syringe theory it said about when the product
gives the audience an ideology and they are ‘injected’ with it
instantly, which means the audience will easily to accept the
ideologies from the product/media.
As the passive audience is weak and powerless so that they will
blindly accept the ideologies that has been given and they are
being ‘injected’ with the messages. Although the audiences are
weak and powerless but they still be happy on what they are doing,
which can also apply to the hegemonic theory.

5. Audience theory-Active
In the uses and gratifications theory audiences are active and
they won’t blindly accept the ideologies as passive audiences.
Also active audience will not follow trend and they will tend to try
something new (New product). Also the audience can gain
information and personal identity from the product as they won’t
be used by the text.

6. My target audience
As the target audience of my magazine are 18-24 young
teenagers, so that many of them are mass audience as they are
unsophisticated and foxthinker. Therefore most of my audience
will be passive audience as they have low income. The
audience might accept the theory very easily as they are
passive (Hypodermic syringe)

7. Representation theory
The representation theory is about how the media product
represent to the audience…….
There are different way within the representation theory to show
to the audience the reality of the world, such as representation
of female and the stereotype

8. Stereotype
Stereotype is the thought of the audience who agree and keep
the thought of the object or a people even though the stereotype
might be wrong.
There are examples of different stereotype such as…..
 Muslim people are terrorist
 Black people are always relate to guns and drugs
 Chinese people is good at maths
 America is the strongest and they can save the world

9. Constructing Reality
When we encounter the world via a media product we are
seeing a contraction of reality. The story are controlled to fit a
narrative we can understand.
 Framing (Type of shot)
 Anchorage (The way the present)
 Selection (Choose the right subject)
 Organisation (Put in into the right order)
 Focusing (Focus on the audience, with a specific meaning as well as attract
the audience)
 For pop magazine, if there is a medium close up and direct
address of the artist’s image on the front cover, the image will
connotes the artist is positive and confident. However if it is a
very long shot of the artist, it will connotes the vulnerability of the
artist as well showing he/she is not confident on his/her music
career.

10. Mulvey’s theory
She said that women are objectified and viewed through the
eyes of a heterosexual male, which means that women are seen
as passive and male are seen as active. As women are being
objectified so that they have kept themselves into the male gaze
and being ‘looked’ by the male.

11. Winship’s theory
She said that the female is complicit in creating the ideal version
of herself for a make audience. In other word women put herself
into the male gaze to attract male audience. From the research I
have done on this theory, women are always wants to find the
‘ideal facial’ of her and women always looking the most
‘beautiful of her’. This is because women always to attract the
male because of the gratification she will receive

12. David Gaunlett’s theory
David Gaunlet’s said that women empowered of female, as
women are in control in their sexuality as well as the rejection of
passive femininity and the freedom to openly desire others.

13. Butler’s theory
Butler argues that we are born a certain sex, but gender is
performative, for example a man does not need to show
his masculine and women are necessary to show the
femininity.
Gender does not exist outside of these performances. For
example the act of wearing make up defines a person’s
gender, rather than their gender defining the act.

14. Roland Barthes’s theory
Roland argues in his stripteases theory that “Woman is
desexualised at the very moment when she is stripped
naked.” Which means that sometimes women with
clothing will attract more heterosexual audience rather
naked.

15. Why it is important
The stereotype will very easy to affect my target audience as
they are passive audience (Young+ unsophisticated+ foxthinker
+ mass audience)
This research can help me to understand how certain object can
affect the audience and it helps me to know what content should
I produce and what will the audience think when they are
reading my pop magazine

16. Inside the POP magazine
I think the Winship’s theory and David Gaunlett’s theory
can be applied to the women artist in the magazine. For
new artist as they want to make themselves ‘stand out’ by
wearing different kind of clothing (or less clothes) to attract
the attention from the audience, so they might put
themselves into the male gaze. However For more
experienced artist the Gaunlett’s theory could apply to
them because they don’t need to put themselves out to
attract audience’s attention as audience already know who
she is and already recognised her, so that the artist could
represent they are empowered as they are already
became famous.