Passive and active audience theories
Hypodermic needle theory
The hypodermic needle or magic bullet theory is the theory that media
audiences are passive towards what they see and hear. A theory by Albert
Bandura uses the hypodermic needle theory, he recorded a video of a woman
beating up a doll, had children watch this and then allowed them into a room
with a replica of this doll, the children then persisted to beating the doll and
yelling aggressive verbal terms at it such as the woman in the recording had,
he did the same thing with the same woman beating up a clown, he then put
the kids in a room with a clown, once again the kids persisted to beat this
clown copying the woman.
Society often falls o the conclusion that if something happens
they blame the media, for example, the columbine massacre.
Two high school pupils took to killing 13 pupils and a teacher
on their school, the blame for this was pointed at violent video
games and mainly Marylyn Manson a “shock rock” Goth singers
violent lyrics, and representation as the driving force to this
incident. The hypodermic needle theory shows the audience as
passive soaking in the events that occur on TV and possibly
copying them in real life.
Uses and gratification theory
This theory shows the audience to be active and will take
from media text only what they choose to take in, and
interpret it based on individual preference. Most
underground stuff will be related to the uses and
gratification theory as it is seen as “cool” as it is a less
popular or mainstream and is against the curve.
The uses and gratification is deemed as a form of intelligence as the audience
takes in what it sees and thinks it over as to how to use it, this is the opposite to
the hypodermic needle theory as the hypodermic needle theory says that the
audience just takes the information and follows that, the uses and gratifications
theory also includes the audience only using what gives them gratification, from
what they use, and will search out that type of media over others.
Audience responses
Negotiated
A negotiated reading reading is when an audience takes in a media product, they
will not completely be passive towards it as the hypodermic needle theory
suggests, they can relate to it in some ways and not in others. An example I used
for this is Lord Of The Rings, the relationship between Sam and Frodo, people
may be able to relate to the having a friend who will stand by them, or feel that
they must have someone like this in there life however can see the huge war and
battle scenes as clearly fake, this is just an obvious representation as one cannot
believe magical beings are real.
Preferred
A preferred reading is when an audience is passive, this theory goes hand in
hand with the hypodermic needle theory and means the audience will take in all
that is shown on the screen, the example I would use here is with a programme
like Skins on E4 which touches various topics all revolving around drugs and sex
and student life in university, the preferred reading the audience would take in is
that all uni students are drugged up party animals that care little for their results.
The preferred reading shows that the creators point he was getting at when
creating the product was the message the audience got.
Oppositional
An oppositional reading is the opposite to the preferred reading and goes hand
in hand with the uses and gratification theory. The audience will challenge or
“oppose” the creator’s message and be in complete disbelief, if we use the skins
example again, the oppositional reading would be that no students do drugs or at
least vary little, this says the audience is an active audience which is deemed
“intelligent”
Participatory
The audience will adapt the meaning into there own life and “participate” but
will still be subjective as to what media they are affected by, this shows that the
audience is both active and selective. The audience will take the meaning that the
writer tries to put across and change it for themselves, to use the Lord Of The
Rings example again, some participatory audiences would see Sam and Frodo’s
relationship as homosexual which it is not meant to be seen, but you can make
connections towards this reading
Audience classification
Audience Classification is to do with target audience and how the audience is
classified, if we use advertisement as an example the organisation BARB,
Broadcaster Audience Classification Board, would collect data on when to
advertise a certain product, you would not find adverts for kids toys during a
programme like Skins, as the viewing demographic is majority teen aged and
wouldn’t buy a childs toy.