Upload
07chapmanmad
View
2.504
Download
2
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Citation preview
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