Audience Theory Passive and Active.

Learning objective:  How audiences are classified according to 'passive or active'.

• Key words: Targeting. Construction. Involvement. 

Audiences as Active or Passive

As we continue to look at various debates and theories associated with Audience we must consider how valid they are. Some of the theories we look at are very old and may seem very dated.

Every time we encounter a model that tries to assess the relationship between the Audience and a Media Text we can ask one simple question...

DOES THE MODEL VIEW THE AUDIENCE AS ACTIVE OR PASSIVE?

We always see the audience as a 'mass'. Despite the fact that we can clasify the audience into groups, we can't analyse audience members individually.

There are many theories which examine the relationship audiences have with a text. 

These theories consider the audience in two ways Passive or Active.

This does NOT mean that there are two different types of audience - 

a Passive audience and an Active audience. 

It simply means that we must decide how we view the audience based on the theories and decide which we find most convincing.

But what do we mean by Passive & Active? Here are some of the words we associate with each one...

PASSIVE

• Easily manipulated 
• Compliant
• Weak willed
• Followers
• Controlled
• Dominated

We may think of metaphors such as: Zombies, Sheep, Pushover...

ACTIVE

• Engaged
• Involved
• Responsive
• In Control
• Free willed

Basically having the ability to choose and to have our own mind when it comes to interpreting the world around us.

 Look at the three statements and decide which is most true for you...

• “Media texts can make people behave in different ways – become more violent, for example” 

• “Audiences are easily manipulated masses of people who can be easily persuaded to buy products through advertising or follow corrupt leaders through propaganda"

• "The audience have control over the media, without an audience there wouldn't be a text to consume. Therefore it is the audience that gives a text its meaning - the media panders to our needs” 

Task 1: Homework

Justify your choice and conclude why the other two statements are incorrect. Give specific examples.
200 words Orange books.

Year 12 written tasks success criteria:

Knowledge of the concept of audience/representation/narrative

Awareness of relevant theories

Uses examples to draw on relevant issues

Use of media terminology/key words

Quality of written communication