AUDIENCE THEORIES
Audience Theories
Any form of media has to be analysed on 3 levels:
Production - Text - Audience
Therefore it is essential you refer to theories that explore the
relationship between the audience, media texts and producers:
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Hypodermic needle or effects theory
Cultivation Theory
Two step flow theory Uses and Gratifications
Reception Analysis
Semiotics and audience readings
NB! Audience theories are an essential part of all 3 units in the
second year.
Model
HYPODERMIC
SYRINGE
Level of How Does It Work?
Influence
VERY
HIGH
CULTIVATION
c
THEORY
MARXIST
HEGEMONIC
MAXISTS
PLURALISTS
TWO STEP FLOW
THEORY
HEGEMONIC
MARXISTS
SEMIOTICS
PLURALISTS
USES AND
GRATIFICATION
RECEPTION
ANALYSIS
Theory of Media
it mainly relates
to?
VERY LOW
POST
MODERNISTS
HYPODERMIC SYRINGE
Vance Packard (1957) the hidden persuaders
Media can directly inject message
Audience is;
• passive – weak & inactive
• homogeneous
• like blank pages
CULTURAL EFFECTS MODEL
two step flow
The audience is diverse & more complex
Diversity in the way we identify & recognise – due to
different backgrounds and experiences
•
Preferred (or dominant) reading
•
Ruling classes bombard audience
•
It becomes difficult to ignore and retain a critical
viewpoint
•
This is not a direct process but has a ‘drip-drip-drip’
process
INTERPRETIVE (SELECTIVE
FILTER)
Active audience approach
Some media messages get through others are ignored
or rejected (filtered out)
Klapper (1960) for a media message to have any
effect must pass through three filters
•
•
•
Selective exposure
Selective perception
Selective retention
USES & GRATIFICATIONS
• Blumler & McQuail (1968) suggest that people get
what they want from the media
• Young people may watch MTV for the ‘music’ - middle
age men for the semi-naked pop stars
• They are active interpreters and choice makers
• Marxists argue this ignores possibility of socially
created needs created by capitalism to detract from
class inequalities
RECEPTION ANALYSIS
People interpret media texts differently according to
class, ethnicity, age, etc.
Reception analysis
Morley (1980) – messages often have many
meanings (polysemy)
Audience has three responses
•
•
•
Dominant response
Oppositional response
Negotiated response
Postmodernism & ‘Active Audience’
Approaches
Audience are too diverse
Media is diverse and complex
Generalisations are impossible
Reception analysis at an audience level is meaningless
What is the point then of studying audience effects?
Hypodermic syringe or effects theory
This theory was popular in the 1950s. Academics viewed the
mass media in a negative way in terms of its effect on a
mass audience.
This theory asks who owns and controls the media and what
messages are inscribed into media texts.
The media is seen as a syringe which injects ideas attitudes and
beliefs into the audience who are seen as passive sponge like
junkies who are powerless to resist.
Proposes a simple cause and effect relationship between the
producers of texts and the audience. In other words if you
watch something violent you may act violently.
On a ideological level dominant political ideas and values are
injected into the public by powerful media moguls or groups.
If you constantly see women washing up on TV you will come
to accept this as a ‘natural’ role for a woman.
Cultivation theory
Because of the difficulty of proving the effects of individual
texts on their audience a more refined version of the
effects theory was needed.
Rather than the crude injection metaphor this theory sees the
audience as being more like a patient on a slow drip feed.
According to cultivation theory whilst any one text does not
have too much effect, years and years of watching violence
will make you less sensitive to violence.
Recent research suggests that whereas playing Grand Theft
Auto occasionally might not make you want to run over old
ladies overuse of PS2 can have adverse effects on the brain
development of young children.
There are many criticisms of effects theories but the models
do raise interesting and important questions regarding the
influence of the media in several Unit 4 and 5 topic areas:
Can cartoons create violence in young children? Does the music
industry construct teen identities and sub-cultures as
consumer groups? Does the sports media present male sport
and personalities as more important
The two step flow theory
Based on the premise that whereas the media might not have a
direct effect (one step/first hand) they do have an indirect
effect via selected others (two step/second hand).
This theory is based on the idea that whatever our experience
of the media we will be likely to discuss it with others and if
we respect their opinion (or not sometimes we all gossip or
pass on unsubstantiated stories) we are more likely to be
influenced by it.
In terms of media personalities or respected journalists or
opinion formers we all have our own particular favourites.
These people can be newsreaders, critics, writers,
photographers, sports stars, soap stars, or certain lifestyle
magazines, chatshow hosts etc.
Are your opinions about TV, films or groups ever influenced by
other people?
Uses and gratifications
Dissatisfaction with effects theories led to the development of
theories that give the audience a more active role. U & G
sees the media in a more positive light and gives the
audience an active role in making meaning.
Rather than asking”what does the media do to people?” it
focuses on the audience and asks “what do people do with
the media?”
We all have different needs (leisure, entertainment, information
etc) and some of these can be provided by the media.
Therefore we make choices over what media we want to use
in order to gratify these needs.
This links to a pluralist/liberal theory of media and society in
which we as consumers largely control the media. We get the
kind of media we want and deserve via market forces.
Any ideological messages inscribed in the text are mediated by
the audience who are not passive sponges.
Reception analysis
This extends the U & G approach. Once you accept that people
use the media in different ways then the next step is to
actually study how this happens.
This theory is based on the idea that no text has only one
simple meaning. Rather the audience themselves help create
the meaning of the text.
Each one of us is constructed in many different ways through
family, education, peers etc and it is these differences that
enable us to encounter the world including the media in
different ways.
Reception analysis looks at the differences in the ways people
read texts and the reasons for this.
Asks questions such as “Why do soaps mean different things to
men and women?”
Semiotics and audience readings
Semiotics as you all should know means the study of
signs and focuses on the way meanings are encoded
into a media text and how an audience may decode
these meanings.
Although mainstream texts usually reflect dominant
ideologies and audiences are positioned to accept
this message they still have choices in how they
read/respond to a text. The process by which
dominant ideology is maintained is called hegemony.
These different responses have been categorised
as:
Dominant or preferred response – the dominant or
commonsense values of society are accepted by
the audience
Subordinate or negotiated response – the audience
accepts most of the dominant values but may be
critical of some aspects.
Radical or oppositional responses – the audience
totally rejects the dominant values inscribed in the