Audience Theory

Stuart Hall - Reception Theory

Media texts are encoded by the producer which the audience then consume and decode. Whoever produces the text fills the product with values and messages, which different people decode in different ways (and not always in the way which the producer intended).

Different factors may change the way people perceive messages, these factors could be:

• Gender
• Age
• Race/Ethnicity/Culture
• Religion
• Current mood
• Personal identity
• Education
• Political Views

Usually, people will either adopt a dominant, negotiated or oppositional view of media texts.

Dominant

The audience view the text in the way the producer intended, they agree with the ideology & the messages.

Negotiated

The audience neither agree nor disagree but they see the point in the messages. Their opinion is neutral.

Oppositional

The audience rejects the reading of the text and will therefore create their own. They may even be upset, angry or offended by the text.

Blumler and Katz - Uses and Gratifications

The uses and gratifications model considers how we as an audience control the media, rather than the other way around, through our own needs and our desire to fulfill them. It is broken down into four different needs:

Surveillance
We feel more secure when we know what is going on in the world around us and therefore gratify this need through watching/reading the news and weather forecasts. It reassures us and we become more passive and accepting of this information. Sometimes, however, false stories can be published which give us a false sense of security.

Personal Identity
Being a subject of the media reassures us of our identity and position in society and helps us to form our personal identity. Since pop stars often become huge role models and they can heavily influence those who consume them (and therefore is the reason why there's such an outcry when they do something wrong).

Personal Relationships
People use the television as a form of companionship, and by watching the same people (or characters) on television on a regular basis we begin to feel very close to them, as though we know them in person. We might even grieve for the loss of the character in the same way we might grieve for somebody we know in real life.

Diversion

Can also be known as escapism, watching television as a way to escape our everyday lives and think about something else. We are diverting our attention to something else.

Hypodermic Needle Theory

The hypodermic needle theory implies that mass media is very powerful and influential and therefore has a direct effect on the audience. The media controls us and our opinions are based upon what the media tells us. The term 'hypodermic needle theory' comes from the idea that the media 'Injects' us with appropriate messages.

A famous early case which supports this theory occurred during the 1930s where a radio broadcast of 'War of the Worlds' performed a realistic news broadcast in order to heighten the effect of the story and people listening assumed the news broadcast was real and Earth was really being invaded by Mars. This case shows how audiences can be very passive towards what they read or hear from the media and therefore this can lead to misinterpretation.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the media was considered very powerful due to the fast rise in and popularity of television and radio as well as institutions taking persuasive approaches in advertising.

It could be said that the Hypodermic Needle Theory suggests that the media is dangerous and the audience are powerless because of the 'injecting' of messages and values directly into mass audiences. People believe what they are told because it is the only source of information for them.

However, it could be argued that this theory is very outdated as the emergence of the internet and the development of technology and the way in which we consume media means we can access a vast amount of sources and are therefore more aware of our society.