AUDIENCE THEORY

1. Audience Theory

2. David Morely
Three Positions
Morley outlined three hypothetical positions which the reader of a
programme might occupy:
• Dominant (or 'hegemonic') reading: The reader shares the programme's
'code' (its meaning system of values, attitudes, beliefs and assumptions)
and fully accepts the programme's 'preferred reading' (a reading which
may not have been the result of any conscious intention on the part of the
programme makers).
• Negotiated reading: The reader partly shares the programme's code and
broadly accepts the preferred reading, but modifies it in a way which
reflects their position and interests.
• Oppositional ('counter-hegemonic') reading: The reader does not share
the programme's code and rejects the preferred reading, bringing to bear
an alternative frame of interpretation.
Morley argues that 'members of a given sub-culture will tend to share a
cultural orientation towards decoding messages in particular ways. Their
individual "readings" of messages will be framed by shared cultural
formations and practices‘.

3. Reception
Reception analysis is a theory that focuses on the audience’s reaction to a
particular media text, with the audience interpreting the meaning of the media
and then providing judgement, which is influenced by individual circumstances.
Individual circumstances can mean many things, with aspects like nationality, age
and religion being prominent circumstances.
An example of this could show an actor in a positive light throughout, which cuts
anything potentially negative about the actor to a bare minimum. A member of the
audience after viewing this, would analyse the media and provide judgement
based on their circumstances.
This theory is active, because the audience interpret the media based on individual
circumstances and have different opinions, differentiated by a passive audience,
who would consume the media without any individual opinions or viewpoints on
the media text.

4. Effects debate
The effects debate is based on how media can potentially influence the audience in a
negative way, and that they need to be protected from inappropriate material via
censorship.
The main point of this theory suggests that there is a ‘moral panic’ as if a threat is
identified whilst absorbing a media production many audiences go into a panic. A
good example of this is the film 2012. After this film was released many conspiracies
were generated about the world ending in 2012 and many people even sold their
belongings.
Newspapers, websites and radio broadcasts across the country would intensify the
danger of threats they depict as threats such as GTA, whether or not it is an actual
threat that causes gun crime etc. Viewers and listeners would then consume these
reports, therefore causing more panic and anxiety across the community.
The effects debate is passive, as the consumers are provided with information that
has been intensified which will most likely be believed due to a well respected news
channel reporting it. The consumers do not challenge and defy it, as that would be
active and not passive, they just accept it.
In reference to this, as our trailer would feature combat, a child could possibly be
influenced by fight scenes featured in the trailer. The child could then try to replicate
these with a friend, only to result in their friend or themselves being badly injured.

5. Supporting the effects debate
The Bobo doll experiment was the collective name of experiments
conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961 and 1963 when he studied children's
behaviour after watching an adult model act aggressively towards a Bobo
doll. There are different variations of the experiment. The most notable
experiment measured the children's behaviour after seeing the model get
rewarded, get punished, or experience no consequence for beating up the
Bobo doll. The experiments are empirical approaches to test Bandura's social
learning theory. The social learning theory claims that people learn through
observing, imitating, and modelling. It shows that people not only learn by
being rewarded or punished, but they can also learn from watching
somebody else being rewarded or punished. These experiments are
important because they sparked many more studies on the effects of
observational learning. The studies not only give us new data, but this data
has practical implications, e.g. how children can be influenced from watching
violent media or playing games.

6. Uses and gratification
The uses and gratifications theory implies that the audience, when consuming the
media, have a set of needs they desire that’s delivered by the media.
There a four of these ‘needs’ in which the audience desire. They are;
• Diversion – The media text diverts the audience from their everyday lives.
• Personal Relationship – Having social interaction by watching media with a
friend, or forming a bond and friendship with a character in the media text.
• Personal Identity – Audience compares themselves to the situations or
characters in the media text. Like the audience seeing someone who performs
crazy jumps, they may then want to perform crazy jumps too.
• Surveillance – Having an interest to learn information about the world and its
events, like news broadcasts and documentaries.
The uses & gratifications theory is an active theory, as the audience consume the
media with the aim of getting specific needs out of it. They do not consume the
media and accept it without questioning the content, like a passive audience
would.

7. Two step flow
The two step flow is known for consisting of two stages, which starts with the
‘opinion leader’. The opinion leaders, who can be highly regarded or respected,
consume a piece of media themselves with full attention. After consuming the
media, whether it was a film, image, radio, the leaders than pass on the
information about the media as well as their opinion or view on it.
The second stage of this theory involves the people in social contact with the
opinion leader. These people will receive the information along with the leaders
opinion on it from the opinion leader. The people in social contact with the leader
then consume what the opinion leader says without question. A good example of
this is a popular footballer in a team, relays information to his team mates along
with his opinion, due to that player being most popular the rest will follow and
believe him almost indefinitely.
This is a passive theory. It is passive due to the audience agreeing with the opinion
leader, due to their reputation or hierarchy, immediately- without any sort of
reaction or questioning. The audience don’t feel the urge to question the leader’s
view on the media text, instead they accept it – therefore it’s passive.

9. The Hypodermic Syringe Effect
This media theory is all about the way an audience receives a text. Essentially, the
audience are passive receivers of media messages that they interpret uncritically.
The theory is popular when there is a media panic, such as the case of Jamie Bulger,
a toddler, who was brutally murdered by two other children. The two killers’ defence
rested on the fact that their young minds had been corrupted by ‘video nasties’ that
showed horrible violence as fun. There were even echoes of the manner of the
killing in a film called Childsplay 3. The tabloid newspapers made a simple link
between the violence the two child-killers had seen and their behaviour. This link is
questionable. Most people can see the difference between reality and texts; only a
small minority indulge in aberrant decoding of texts. The hypodermic syringe theory
is part of a wider media issue called the effects and uses debate. The early
exponents of the effects theory were known as the Frankfurt School, and they
analysed the power of the mass media in capitalist societies such as the USA and in
totalitarian societies such as Nazi Germany. Drawing on Marxist methodology, the
Frankfurt school emphasised the power of the media to influence a largely passive
audience; to inject ideologies that supported the stats quo and those who benefited
from it – the elite.