Audience theories

 To understand the evolution of the effects
theory from the 1930s to the 1980s.
 To be able to articulate the effects theory,
the social cognitive theory and the
cultivation theory in the analysis of the
media’s construction of public opinion (exam
related LO)

 The Frankfurt School (Frankfurter Schule) refers to a school of
neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, associated with the
Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am
Main, in the years between the twoWorld Wars (1920s-1930s), and
who were exiled to NewYork during the Second World War.
 The philosophical tradition now referred to as the ‘Frankfurt
School’ is perhaps particularly associated with Max Horkheimer
(philosopher, sociologist and social psychologist), who took over
as the institute's director in 1930 and recruited many of the
school's most talented theorists, including Theodor W. Adorno
(philosopher, sociologist, musicologist), Erich Fromm
(psychoanalyst), and Herbert Marcuse (philosopher).

 The Frankfurt School was concerned with the impact of the rise of the
media industries on totalitarian and capitalist societies.
 The ‘culture industries’ (as Theodor W. Adorno described them)
constantly seek greater audiences, in search of the economical
profit and therefore sustainability of the media product as well as
political power, in order to affect legislation, for instance.Thus,
they will construct texts intended to reach and appeal to mass
audiences, hence “dumbing down” the product.
 The mass audience (which is seen as a passive audience, not as active
consumers) is thus indoctrinated and manipulated by the hegemonic
ruling classes, and progressively less able to criticise it or act against it.

 Their argument was that the rise of the ‘culture
industry’ resulted in increased standardisation within
society. Under capitalism, culture is processed through
the mass media as something which is bought and sold.
Culture is commodified by the mass media in order to
fit the capitalist system.
 Mass media are seen as a way of either indoctrinating
or merely distracting (by offering entertainment
products devoid of any informative value) the workers
while drip feeding them ideologies and beliefs.

 The original model proposed to explain how this worked was the
hypodermic needle model, which demonstrates the effects of the
power of the mass media to inject ideologies in their passive
audiences.
 This theory owes much to this supposed power of the mass media
in the mechanisms of propaganda of the Nazi regime, commonly
seen in Nazi propaganda films such as Leni Riefenstahl’s ‘Triumph
of the Will’.
 Watch this video: 1935:Triumph of the Will -The Power of Propaganda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7hJVaTW45M

Other Marxist theorists related to Media:
 Antonio Gramsci (22 Jan. 1891 – 27 April 1937)
 Walter Benjamin (15 July 1892 – 26 Sept. 1940)
 Herbert Marcuse (19 July 1898 – 29 July 1979)
 Louise Althusser (16 Oct. 1918 – 22 Oct. 1990)
 Jürgen Habermas (18 June 1929)

 Albert Bandura (December 4,
1925) is a Canadian-
American psychologist and
Professor Emeritus of Social
Science in Psychology at Stanford
University.
 Bandura has been responsible for
contributions to several fields of
psychology, including social
cognitive theory. He is known as
the originator of social learning
theory (renamed social cognitive
theory), and is also responsible for
the influential 1961 Bobo doll
experiment, which demonstrated
the concept of observational
learning.

 Bandura uses psychology to arrive to the same
conclusions as Adorno and Horckheimer had
arrived 30 years earlier.
 Audiences learn behaviours, values,
ideologies, etc. from the mass media through
processes of observational learning, which in
return conforms and conditions audiences
behaviours.

 The media can influence people directly, for instance
in the construction of “public opinion”: values, beliefs,
judgement and behavior can be altered directly by
media modelling.
 Empirical evidence best supports direct influence rather
than the alternative models of media effects: two-step
flow, agenda-setting, no effects, or the media
reflecting existing attitudes and behaviour.

George Gerbner (August 8, 1919 –
December 24, 2005) was a professor of
communication and the founder of
cultivation theory.
Cultivation theory examines the long-
term effects of television. "The primary
proposition of cultivation theory states
that the more time people spend 'living'
in the television world, the more likely
they are to believe social reality
portrayed on television.“
According to the theory, cultivation
leaves people with a misperception of
what is true in our world. Under this
umbrella, perceptions of the world are
heavily influenced by the images and
ideological messages transmitted
through popular television media.

Concept
CultivationTheory
Explanation
 Gerbner studies the effect of television on the audience's perception of crime.
 His theory suggests that people who watch a large amount of television have
an over exaggerated opinion on crime and how much it occurs as well as how
severe the crimes actually are. He called this "mean world syndrome".
 His theory states that because media forms such as news reports, television
programs and films contain over exaggerated representations of crimes,
mostly negative, people's perceptions are dramatically influenced.The term
used by Gerbner to describe this is "cultivation theory".

 Concepts
CultivationTheory
 Quotes
“Who tells the stories of a culture really governs
human behavior. It used to be the parent, the school,
the church, the community. Now it’s a handful of
global conglomerates that have nothing to tell, but a
great deal to sell.” (Gerbner)

 The theory was developed to explain the power of television.
Gerbner found that heavyTV viewing led to ‘mainstreaming’ – a
common outlook on the world based on the images and labels onTV.
Mainstreamers would describe themselves as politically moderate.
 Draws attention to the need to investigate the longer-term effects on
audiences within a ‘digital bubble’ who only consume messages from
a narrow range of sources that target their demographic and
psychographic (e.g. news feeds on Facebook).
 In a way, this theory is based on the principles of observational
learning, such is the case of Bandura’s social cognitive theory.

 Exposure to television over long periods of time cultivates
standardised roles and behaviours.
 Gerbner used content analysis to analyse repeated media
messages and values, then found that heavy users of television
were more likely, for example, to develop ‘mean world
syndrome’ – a cynical, mistrusting attitude towards others –
following prolonged exposure to high levels of television
violence, in which audiences become fearful of the world,
mistrusting of others or desensitised (less or no sensitive) to
violence.

 Gerbner’s interest in the attitudinal effects of violent representations suggests
that news sites which value ‘bad’ news are possibly creating the belief in the
audience that the world is a dangerous place characterised by negative events.
 Gerbner studied the effect of television, however his study is relevant when
referring to biased print and online news, and long term social media exposure
to this media texts, which may lead to cultivated effects (think of online and
social media tabloid newspapers’ sites or the role of companies such as
Cambridge Analytica in spreading propaganda, demagogy, fake news, and
general misinformation on social media sites such as Facebook).
 However, it could be applied to audiences who remain within a print or digital
‘bubble’ and have their viewpoints constantly reinforced, such as the ‘Mail-
readers’ or ‘Guardian-readers’ who never read other sources of news.

What was the
purpose of the BBC
as stated by its
founder, John Reith,
in 1922?
So what is the
purpose of media?
Why do you think
that people
consume media
products?

BBC's core mission, as set out by the BBC's founder
Director Genera, Lord Reith in 1922, is to :
 to inform
 to educate
 to entertain.
 Which ones of these would you say that apply to
journalism?
https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/communications-committee/news-parliament-2015/bbc-charter-review-report-published

 Journalism ethics and standards comprise
principles of ethics and of good practice as
applicable to the work of journalists.
 Historically and currently, this subset of
media ethics is widely known to journalists as
their professional "code of ethics".

While various existing codes have some
differences, most share common elements
including the principles of:
1. Truthfulness
2. Accuracy
3. Objectivity
4. Impartiality
5. Fairness
6. Public accountability

 This tabloid newspaper’s front cover
presents the three judges in the
Supreme Court of Justice that
ruled that the results of the
referendum should be passed
through and approved by the
Parliament, as it is stated in the
British legislation.
 Does this newspaper cover show
respect for the rule of law, one of
the main BritishValues? Explain
your answer.
 Is this report informative or
educational?Therefore, can we call
this journalism.

Read the headline of this British
tabloid and answer the following
questions:
1. How does this headline represent
the reported story? Is this an
accurate representation?
2. Is it truthful?
3. Is it objective and impartial?
4. Is it fair?
5. Is this an example of demagogy
and propaganda? Explain your
answer.
6. Do you think that this newspaper
should be accountable for the
information provided?

 To know the meaning and purpose of the uses and
gratifications audience theory.
 Be able to understand and explain the purpose of the uses
and gratifications audience theory.
 By the end of the lesson you should be able to apply the
uses and gratifications audience theory to the analysis of a
given media text (exam related LO)

 The uses and gratifications is a theory that aims to
explain what motivates different audiences to
consume different media texts.
 In other words: Why do people watchTV, films,
read newspapers, listen to the radio,…?
 This theory refers to the use that audiences give
to media texts and the gratification that they
obtain from the consumption of those media texts.
Monday 25th September 2017

In 1974, Katz, Blulmer and Gurevitch suggested a series of
possible reasons why audience members might consume a
media text:
 Surveillance: Information gathering.
 Personal identity: Learning behaviour and values and
constructing their own identity from media texts.
 Personal relationships: Using media for emotional
interaction.
 Diversion: Escape from everyday routine.

Can you provide an example of a specific media text that you
may use for:
 Surveillance?
 Personal identity ?
 Personal relationships?
 Diversion?

In 1987, Denis McQuail suggested a very similar but slightly more
detailed breakdown of audience motivation:
 Information (Surveillance)
 Learning (Information and education)
 Personal identity (Personal identity)
 Integration and social interaction (Personal relationships)
 Entertainment (Diversion)

 Information: Satisfying curiosity and general interest, finding out about the
world; seeking advice.
 Learning: Self-education; gaining security through knowledge.
 Personal identity: Finding models of behaviour; reinforcement for personal
values; models of behaviour; identifying with valued other; gaining insight into
oneself.
 Integration and social interaction: Finding basis for conversation and social
interaction. Identifying with others (sense of belonging); gaining insight into
circumstances of others; identifying with others; basis for conversation with
others; substitute for real life companionship; helping to carry out social roles;
enabling connection with family friends and society.
 Entertainment: escapism; diversion; relaxation; cultural or aesthetic enjoyment;
filling time; emotional release; sexual arousal.

According to the uses and
gratifications theory:
 What are the audience’s uses
and gratifications for this
media text?
 In other words: Why would
people read this story? or
What are the reasons for
them to consume this media
product?

According to what you have studied in this lesson about the uses and
gratifications theory, write a 150/200 word text answering the following
two questions:
1. What are the expectations of the Daily Mail’s target audience? In
other words: Why do people buy the Daily Mail? or What are the
reasons for them to consume this media product?
2. What are the uses and gratifications that the audience get from the
content delivered? In other words: How is the Daily Mail fulfilling
those expectations with the content that they provide? or Do you
think that the Daily Mail delivers what its audience expect? Explain
your answer.

Define and explain (you can use an example) the main concepts
learnt in this lesson:
What are the uses and gratifications that motivate audiences to consume media
texts?
 Information (Surveillance)
 Learning (Understanding the world around us)
 Personal identity (Personal identity)
 Integration and social interaction (Personal relationships)
 Entertainment (Diversion)

Role of a text according to its institution-audience relation:
 Active institutional view: Message transmitted from institution
(active emitter) to audience (passive receiver), which accepts the
preferred reading (the one which the media producers want the
audience to receive)
 Negotiated view:The institution encodes a meaning into the text
which the audience interprets in relation to other factors (i.e.
knowledge of previous similar texts) Meaning is ‘negotiated’
between institution and audience.
 Active audience view:The meaning is re-created by the audience
(active receiver).The institution becomes passive since it has no
control over how the audience re-creates the meaning of that text.

 Stuart McPhail Hall (3 February 1932 –
10 February 2014) was a Jamaican
born cultural theorist and sociologist
who lived and worked in the United
Kingdom from 1951.
 Hall, along with Richard Hoggart and
RaymondWilliams, was one of the
founding figures of the school of
thought that is now known as British
Cultural Studies orThe Birmingham
School of Cultural Studies.[1]

 The reception theory focuses on one simple aspect: How a message is
decoded and its meaning interpreted by the audience? (This is why this
theory is also known as the “encoding-decoding” theory).
 In a sense, this is an extension of the uses and gratifications theory.
Reception analysis is based on the idea that no media text has one
single meaning.
 Instead, the individual members of the audience themselves help to
create the meaning of the text.They decode the text, creating
different meanings for it.
 Factors such as gender, social status, social context, cultural
background can be enormously important when we construct the
meaning of a text.

 Dominant-hegemonic reading: A ‘preferred reading’ that accepts the
text’s messages and the ideological assumptions behind the messages.
The dominant view and what the creator wants you to see.
 Oppositional Reading: The complete opposite reading to what the
creator had intended.The reader rejects both the overt message and
its underlying ideological assumptions.
 Negotiated Reading: An understanding of the dominant reading but
can also see it from other perspectives. The reader accepts the text’s
ideological assumptions, but disagrees with aspects of the messages,
so negotiates the meaning to fit with their ‘lived experience’
 Aberrant Reading: Completely reject the product as the reader has no
view at all on the matter.

Reception/Encoding-Decoding theory

According to Stuart Hall,
there are 3 main ways which
audiences take about media
representations.They are
called views.
 The reflective view
 The intentional view
 The constructionist view

 According to this view, when the media represents
something, the audience are taking the text’s literal
meaning and trying to create in their minds a replica of it,
like a reflection. (Passive audience)
 This is the view that many people have of how news
works: the news producers take the “truth” of news events
and supposedly present it to us as “accurately” as possible.

 This time the most important thing in the process of representation
is the institution presenting its view of whatever they are representing
through a very specific use of words or images which are intended to be
read in a literal way (Ideology- the intentional view works at the
descriptive level of representation/denotation-Passive audience)
 According to this theory, if you see a picture of an attractive person
drinking a can of Coke in an advert, it will have the same meaning to you
as the advertiser intended: “go and buy a can of Coke, because this is
what the cool people drink!

Any representation is a mixture of:
 The nature of the matter represented (itself).
 The ideology of the people producing the representation.
 The reaction of the audience to the representation.
 The context (hegemonic ideology) of the society in which the representation
is taking place.
This is really a response to what have been seen as weaknesses in the other two
theories- constructionists think that a representation can never just be the
truth or the version of the truth that someone wants you to read since that is
ignoring your subjectivity as an individual when reading the text, and your
ability to make up your own mind (active audience) as well as the influences of
the society that you live in on the way that you do so.

Reception theory (David Morley, 1980)
In 1980, David Morley conducted a very detailed audience study,
observing how many different social groups read the same media text.
He called this the ‘politics of the living room’ and explores how our
understanding of one text may be affected by:
 our previous knowledge of similar texts and
 our expectations, based in our previous experience with similar
texts.
He discovered that there are three main types of reading:
 Dominant (or hegemonic)
 Negotiated
 Oppositional (or counter-hegemonic)

How a message is decoded and its meaning interpreted (read) by the
audience?
David Morley (UK.1980) The Nationwide audience and the politics of the
living room.
 Dominant (or hegemonic) reading:The reader shares the
institution’s codes and ideology, and accepts the preferred reading.
 Negotiated reading:The reader partly shares the programme’s code
but modifies it in a way which reflects their position and interests.
 Oppositional (or 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 (i.e. a feminist
reading of a ‘lads’ magazine)

 Henry Jenkins is the Provost
Professor of Communication,
Journalism, Cinematic Arts and
Education at the University of
Southern California.
 He is the author and/or editor of
seventeen books on various aspects of
media and popular culture,
including Textual Poachers:Television
Fans and Participatory Culture, Hop on
Pop:The Politics and Pleasures of
Popular Culture, From Barbie to Mortal
Kombat: Gender and Computer
Games, Convergence Culture: Where
Old and New Media Collide, Spreadable
Media: Creating Meaning andValue in a
Networked Culture, and By Any Media
Necessary:The NewYouth Activism.

 Fans take elements from media texts to create their own culture (think of the effect
that celebrity culture has on certain audiences, or the construction of identity through
music genres).
 The development of the ‘new’ media has accelerated ‘participatory culture’, in which
audiences are active and creative participants rather than passive consumers.
They create online communities, produce online content, collaborate to solve
problems, and shape the flow of media.This generates ‘collective intelligence’.
 From this perspective, convergence is a cultural process rather than a technological
one.
 Jenkins prefers the term ‘spreadable media’ to terms such as ‘viral’, as the former
emphasises the active, participatory element of the ‘new’ media.

 Draws attention to the potentially revolutionary effect of online media on news and the threat this
represents to traditional models of news gathering and distribution.
 Draws attention to how online newspapers increasingly rely on participatory media such as Facebook,
Instagram, andTwitter to disseminate news.
 Draws attention to the role of amateur producers in citizen journalism (grassroots journalism).
 Online newspapers have not embraced the ‘publish then filter’ model of the new media as top newspaper
brands rely on their authority as a news brand to sell themselves, so this theory explains less about online
newspapers than it would for fully user-generated online content.
 This optimistic view of the power of amateur producers may underestimate the power of the oligarchy of
media conglomerates to shape and control online content and the importance of journalism as a
professional practice.

Shirky holds a joint appointment at NYU, as an
AssociateArts Professor at theTelecommunications
Program (ITP) and as an Associate Professor in
the Journalism Department.
He is also a Fellow at the Berkman Center for
Internet and Society, and was the Edward R.
MurrowVisiting Lecturer at Harvard's Joan
Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public
Policy in 2010.
Shirky studies the effects of the internet on society.
He has written two recent books on the subject:
Here Comes Everybody:The Power of Organizing
Without Organizations(2008) and
Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a
Connected Age (2010).

 In the ‘old’ media, centralised producers addressed atomised consumers; in the
‘new’ media, every consumer is now a producer.Traditional media producers
would ‘filter then publish’; as many ‘new’ media producers are not employees,
they ‘publish then filter’.
 These amateur producers have different motivations to those of professionals
– they value autonomy, competence, membership and generosity over economic
profit, for instance. User-generated content creates emotional connection
between people who care about something.This can generate a cognitive surplus
– for example, Wikipedia can aggregate people’s free time and talent to produce
value that no traditional medium could match.
 ‘The Audience’ as a mass of people with predictable behaviour is gone.
Audiences are now more fragmented than ever, behaviour is variable across
different sites, with some of the audience creating content, some synthesising
content and some consuming content.The ‘old’ media created a mass audience.
The ‘new’ media provide a platform for people to provide value for each other
(as in the example of open source .

 Draws attention to the potentially revolutionary effect of online media on news and the threat this
represents to traditional models of news gathering and distribution.
 Draws attention to how online newspapers increasingly rely on participatory media such as Facebook,
Instagram, andTwitter to disseminate news.
 Draws attention to the role of amateur producers in citizen journalism (grassroots journalism).
 Online newspapers have not embraced the ‘publish then filter’ model of the new media as top
newspaper brands rely on their authority as a news brand to sell themselves, so this theory explains less
about online newspapers than it would for fully user-generated online content.
 This optimistic view of the power of amateur producers may underestimate the power of the oligarchy
of media conglomerates to shape and control online content and the importance of journalism as a
professional practice.

Audience theories

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