Theoretical research of my media coursework

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. 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.

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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