Audience Theories

There are three main theories of audience which allow us to gain a better insight about relationships between texts and audience:

·         The Effects Model or the Hypodermic Model

Media texts being consumed by audiences have effect/influence upon the audience. The main consideration is that the effects are negative and that audiences are passive and powerless to prevent the influence and lastly, the power lies with the message of the text. This is also known as the Hypodermic Model in which the messages in media texts are injected into the audience and the audience are powerless to resist. Therefore this shows that the media works like a drug and the audience is intoxicated.

The evidence proposed to support this model is the Frankfurt School experiment in which this school theorised in the 1920’s and 30’s that mass media act to restrict and control audiences for the benefits of corporate capitalism and governments. The Bobo Doll experiment was also sufficient evidence to back up this model as it proved that children copy violent behaviour. Within this experiment:

1.       Children watched a video of a man violently attacking a clown toy called a Bobo Doll.

2.       Children were then taken into a room with attractive toys which they were not allowed to touch

3.       The children were then led to a room with Bobo Dolls

4.       88% of these children imitated the violent behaviour which they had viewed earlier. 8 months late, 40% of these children reproduced that same violent behaviour

·         The conclusion reached was that children will imitate violent media content, however this experiment is unethical as there may possibly be long-lasting effects on some of the children after watching this. They may also adapt violent behaviour into their lifestyle as they grow older.

·         There is no clear method in which we can set the link between violent media texts and violence within children.

This is the most dominantly used theory used by politicians, some parts of the media and a number of religious organisations in attributing violence due to the consumption of media. In each case, there had been a political outery for the texts to be banned and in other cases, laws were changed, films were banned, and newpapers demanded the burning of films. Due to this, there was no case which could be proven to demonstrate a link between the text and the violent acts. This theory also links to the ‘Moral Panic’ theory.

·         The Uses of Gratifications Model

It is clear that this theory is flawed as there are millions of media consumers who are not influenced at all by such genres of texts which contain violence. Furthermore, if media texts really had so much influence, every person on this Earth would be a killer because it is inevitable for one to come into contact with such texts. This therefore means that there has to be another theory put in place.

This theory is the opposite to the Hypodermic Model. The audience is active and uses the text rather than being used by the text. They also use the text for their own gratification and pleasure.

The Uses of Gratifications Model indicates that the power lies with the audience and not the producers. It also emphasises what audiences do with media texts, how and why they use them. This theory shows that the audience is far from being duped by the media, the audience is free to reject, use  or play with media meanings as they see fit

Using media texts to gratify needs for:

·         Diversion

·         Escapism

·         Information

·         Pleasure

·         Comparing relationships and lifestyles with one’s own

·         Sexual stimulation

The audience has total control and consumption of media helps people with a variety of issues:

·         Learning

·         Emotional satisfaction

·         Relaxation

·         Help with personal identity issues

·         Help with social identity issues

·         Help with issues of aggression and violence

In contrast to the common views that violent media texts cause violence within the community is the view that it may be helpful to consume such violent images rather than harmful as the theory suggests that audiences act out their violent impulses by consuming media violence. This means that the audience’s inclination towards violence is sublimated, thus making it less likely for the audience to act violently.

·         Reception Theory

Stuart Hall developed the theory of how texts are encoded with meaning by producers and decoded by viewers.

This theory suggests that:

·         When a producer constructs a text, it is encoded with a meaning or a message which is passed on to the audience through the text for them to decode as they wish. On occasion, audiences will correctly decode this text, allowing them to understand what the producer meant. In other examples, audiences will reject or fail to decode the message

Three types of audience readings (or decoding) of the text:

1.       Dominant or preferred

Audience decodes message as producer wants and broadly agrees with it, like watching a political speech and agreeing with it.

2.       Negotiated

Audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of text in light of previously held views, nor agreeing or disagreeing with the political speech or being disinterested.

3.       Oppositional

Dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for cultural, political or ideological reasons, total rejection of the political party speech and active opposition