Audience Theory

Maddie Chapman

The Effects Model

o The consumption of media texts has an effect or influence upon the audience

o This effect is considered negativeo Audiences are passive and powerless to prevent

the influenceo The power lies with the message of the text

The Hypodermic Model

o This theory suggests that messages are injected into the audience by the powerful syringe-like

media.o Again, the audience are powerless

o The theory suggests that the media works like a drug, and the audience of particular media texts are

drugged and addicted.

Also known as…

Evidence of the Effects Model

• The Frankfurt School theorised in the 1920’s that the mass media acted to restrict and control

audiences to benefit of corporate capitalism and governments

• The Bobo Doll experimentThis is controversial research that apparently proves

that children copy violent behaviour

The Bobo Doll Experiment

o The experiment was conducted in 1961 by Albert Bandura

o During the experiment, children watched a video where an adult violently attacked a clown called a Bobo Doll.

They were then taken to a room with attractive toys that they were not permitted to touch. The children were then

led to another room with Bobo Dolls. o Statistics show that 88% of the children imitated the

violent behaviour they had viewed. 8 months later 40% of the children reproduced the same violent behaviour

The Effects Model

o There are key examples that support the theory ‘The Bobo Doll experiment’

o The film ‘The Clockwork Orange’ 1971 in a number of sex attacks and other violent attacks

o The film ‘Child’s Play 3’ in the murder of James Bulger in 1993

o The film ‘Severance’ in 2006 in the murder of Simon Everitt

The Effects Model contributes to Moral Panic…

o The media produces violent ‘copycat’ behaviouro The media produces mindless shopping in

response to TV advertisementso The media produces inactivity and laziness

resulting in students failing exams and unemployment

Audience Positioning

o Stuart Hall (1973) suggested texts were encoded by the producers of texts to contain certain meanings related to social and cultural background of the creator of the text. However, once the viewer of the text ‘decoded’ that text

then the meanings intended by the producer may change

o He went on to suggest three main perspectives involved in the way in which an audience responds to a particular text. This involves how the audience is positioned by the

text and its subsequent response

1) Preferred or dominant readings

o This is where the audience interprets the text closely to the way in which the producer of the text intended. If the social and cultural experience of the

reader of the text is close to that of the producer then there is little for the audience to challenge.

2) Negotiated readings

o This is where the audience goes through some sort of negotiation with themselves to allow them to

accept the way in which the text is presented. You may agree with some elements of the text and

disagree with others. You may need to adjust your viewpoint in order to get the most out of your

viewing

3) Oppositional or resistant readings

o This is where the user of the text finds themselves in conflict with the text itself due to their beliefs or experiences. For example, a narrative in a soap

opera that views a woman who is having an affair sympathetically will encourage a resistant reading

in a person whose culture is against adultery

The Uses and Gratifications Model

o It is opposite to the Effects Modelo The audience is active

o The audience uses the text and is not used by ito The audience uses the text for its own gratification or

pleasureo The power lies with the audience not the producers

o The theory emphasises what audiences do with media texts, how and why they use them

o The audience is free to reject, use, or play with media meanings as they see fit

The Uses and Gratifications Model

Diversion

Audiences therefore use media texts to gratify needs for…

Escapism

Information Pleasure

Comparing relationships and lifestyles

with one’s own

Sexual stimulation

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1943)

The Uses and Gratifications Model

o The audience is in control and consumption of the media it helps people with issues such as

o Emotional satisfactiono Relaxationo Learning

o Help with issues of personal identity, social identity and aggression and violence

The Uses and Gratifications Model

o Controversially, the theory suggests the consumption of violent images can be helpful rather

than harmfulo The theory suggests that audiences act out their violent impulses through the consumption of media

violenceo The audiences inclination towards violence is

therefore sublimated, and they are less likely to commit violent acts

Reception Theory

o Given that the Effects Model and the Uses and Gratifications Model have their problems and

limitations a different approach to audiences was developed by Stuart Hall in the 1970’s

o This considered how texts were encoded with the meaning by producers and then decoded

(understood) by audiences

Reception Theory

o Stuart Hall developed three types of audience readings (decoding) of a media text..

o Dominant or preferredo Negotiatedo Oppositional

1) Dominant or preferred

o Where the audience decodes the message as the producer wants them to do and broadly agrees with

ito For example, watching a political speech and

agreeing with it

2) Negotiated

o Where the audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text in light of previously held viewso For example, neither agreeing or disagreeing with

the political speech or being disinterested

3) Oppositional

o Where the dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for cultural, political or ideological reasons

o For example, a total rejection of the political speech and active opposition