Audience Theory - Two Step Flow

Learning Objective:

Key terms: Opinion leaders
These are people in society who may affect the way in which an audience interprets the media. For example politicians, teachers, celebrities and parents

Two Step Flow theory 
The idea that ideas flow from mass media to opinion leaders, and from them to a wider population.
This theory reinforces the idea that audiences are sophisticated in their responses, they are individuals, active not passive.

An audience may not have witnessed an actual event themselves, hence the two step flow  but may be influenced by the opinion leader. 

For example the reviews in a newspaper by recognised film critics and similar quoptes on film posters will influence an audience who have yet to see the film in question. This is particularly true if they trust and value the opinions of those commenting on the text.

Politicians commenting on a newspaper story may influence an audience who have not actually read the article themselves.

Task 1:

Write a paragraph which includes the following words about the newspaper front page below.

Opinion leader, editor, mediation, selection, omission, construction, moral panic.

Audience Theory - Pick and Mix (David Gauntlett).

Learning objectives: 
To consider David Gauntlett's Pick and Mix theory in relation to

Key words: Sophisticated audiences

This is another theory that understands the autonomy of the audience. It couteracts the theory that all audiences are affected by what they read. 
Gauntlett focuses on the way in which magazines and advertisements attract and represent audiences. His suggestion is that audiences are sophisticated and use texts to satisfy their needs. They pick the bits of the text that are appropriate to them and their lives and ignore others. 
This challenges the theory that women, for example, will be adversely affected by the unrealistic images they see on the front covers of women's magazines. They may read the magazine, ignoring the articles relating to sex and relationships and 'pick' the articles on fashion and beauty.

To conclude, Gauntlett talks about a highly sophisticated media user that isaware of what they want and don’t want from media texts and is also aware of themselves as a consumer.

Task 1:
Apply Gauntlett's pick and mix theory to the magazine front cover below

Task 2: 
List the modes of address and language used on the cover.

Audience Theory - Uses and Gratification

Learning objectives: 
To apply Uses and Gratification theory to 

Key words: 
Diversion, Information, social interaction, Personal identity.

Uses and Gratification Theory. Blulmer and Katz.

Uses and gratifications theory (UGT) is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. UGT is an audience-centered approach to understanding mass communication. Diverging from other media effect theories that question "what does media do to people?", UGT focuses on "what do people do with media?"

• Diversion (escape from everyday problems - emotional release, relaxing, filling time etc.)

• Personal relationships (using the media for emotional and other interactions e.g. substitution soap opera for family life OR using the cinema as a social event).

• Personal identity (constructing their own identity from characters in media texts, and learning behaviour and values – useful if trying to fit into a new country/culture)

• Surveillance (information gathering e.g. news, educational programming, weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains etc).



Task 1:
How could you apply Uses and Gratification theory to the feature film Harry Brown?

Task 2: Apply Uses and Gratification theory to the text in your own coursework investigation.

Audiences - Responses

Learning objectives:


Key words: Stuart Hall

The positioning of audiences by media texts suggests that the audiences shouls accept the messages contained within the text and decode the text in the way expected by the text's producers. However, audiences do not all respond to the texts in the same way.
They may accept or challenge the messages encoded within the text.
Stuart Hall accepted that audiences were active, not passive and suggested that there were three main ways in which audiences may respond to a media text.

There are a few important things to remember about the three different positions that we can take.

Preferred Reading

Is not just about 'liking' a text - you must understand what the purpose of a text is and agree with its ideologies and the messages it carries.

Oppositional Reading

Is not just 'disliking' a text - there are many reasons why someone may take an oppositional reading - but whatever these reasons are, the audience member must understand what the intentions of the text are, but reject them.

Negotiated Reading

Can be the case whereby an audience member agrees with some ideologies and not others, but it can also be the case where the audience doesn't fully understand the intentions of the text - or is confused about the purpose of the text.

Task 1:

Discuss reasons for the three different possible readings of the trailer below.

Bullet points.
* This text can be your specific example for the exam.

Audiences - Positioning

Learning objectives:
To consider how audiences have been positioned in the trailer for the feature film American Sniper.


Key terms: 
Active audience. This describes an audience who responds to and interprets the media texts in different ways and who actively engages with the messages in the ways suggested here.
Passive audiences. This describes an audience that does not engage actively with the text. They are more likely to accept the preferred meaning of the text without challenge.  this also suggests that passive audiences are more likely to be directly affected by the messages contained within the text.

• Encode
• Decode

Audience positioning

Media texts are constructed in order to place audiences in a particular position in relation to that text. Audience positioning concerns the relationship between the text and responses an audience may have to that text.
The producers of the texts encode the text with signs and messages and the audiences decode these messages.
Different audiences will decode the same text in different ways and will therefore have a different response.

The Encoders are those who produce the texts - in the case of a magazine this would involve:

• Editors
• Journalists
• Photographers
• Designers

In question 2C or 3 of the MS1 exam you may be asked to discuss how media texts position audiences.
You must support your points with specific examples.

How do media texts position audiences?

Through the technical codes employed by the text. In a moving image text. the camera shots and angles used place the audience in a particular position.
For example, the use of a close up shot at an emotional time in the narrative may encourage the audience to be sympathetic to that character.
A point of view shot positions the audience as a character and allows them to experience events from that perspective.
This may enhance audience pleasure in the text. However, the positioning may be an uncomfortable one.

For example, the use of an extreme close up shot of a character's face during a tense moment in the narrative may make the audience feel uncomfortable. The camera may take the audience where they do not want to go, for example in a horror film.

Task 1: 
List how you think technical codes used in the trailer for the film American Sniper may position the audience.

Audiences - Key points

Learning objectives: To list the main points of audience theory in preparation for the exam.

Key words:
(Effects / Hypodermic needle model)
Active audiences/passive audiences
Psychometric audience profile (Young and Rubicam's 4C's)
Stuart Hall response theory
Uses and gratification theory (Blulmer and Katz)

Understanding audiences - Key points:

• The relationship between the media text and the audience is fluent and changing.
• Unlike in the past there is no longer assumed to be only one way of interpreting a text and only one audience response. (Effects / Hypodermic needle model).
• Audiences are not mass and their responses are complex and sophisticated and are influenced by a range of factors.
• The audience are made up of individuals whose social and cultural experiences may affect how they respond to any text.
• Media texts and the industries that produce them are acutely aware of their audiences and the strategies needed to attract them.
• There are a range of theories that explain the ways in which audiences respond to media texts and the reasons for this.

Task 1: 
Summarise the following audience terms and theories using the links provided.
Bullet points - Orange books - work in pairs.
Psychometric audience profile (Young and Rubicam's 4C's)
Stuart Hall response theory
Uses and gratification theory (Blulmer and Katz)
NRS

Rep of Ethnicity

Learning objectives: To consider the representation of ethnicity in the media.

ETHNICITY ON TV

Martha From Dr Who

     The representation of people from different ethnicities has changed massively over the years.  This is probably because the population in Britain has become much more diverse recently and current society is much more used to mixing with people from all different cultures and backgrounds. 

      Here are some examples of very negative generic stereotypes that used to be seen (and in some case still are) in film and tv:

·      White people – often shown as good, pure, heroes, strong, or sometimes racist

·      Black people – often shown as exotic, strange, tribal, criminal, poor

·      Asian people (Chinese, Korean etc) – often shown mainly as intelligent, submissive (quiet and shy), nerdy, interested in technology

·      Indian people – often shown as being poor, living in large families, very traditional, working in corner shops

·      Middle Eastern people (arabs etc) – often shown as being terrorists, violent, aggressive, rich

·      Immigrants – often shown as being a drain on society, criminals, illegal, bad for Britain, taking British jobs.

      People often note that in TV drama, people from particular ethnicities have storylines that all centre around their culture.  For example, Indian characters often battle with the clash between British culture and their traditional culture eg: arranged marriages etc.  They rarely have storylines that don’t have something to do with their ethnicity.  People also have commented that often people from minority ethnic groups (eg non white) are often portrayed in a very negative way.

      If you get “ethnicity” as an issue in the exam, you should be thinking about the following things when watching the clip:

• ·        Can I identify what ethnicities people are?
• ·        Are people from different ethnic backgrounds shown as different interests, personalities, attitudes, behaviours?  If so, how?
• ·      Is their ethnicity represented as being important in their life?
• ·      Are people from particular ethnicities portrayed as being better, more powerful, than others?
• ·      Are people from particular ethnicities portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ more pathetic than others? 
• ·      How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different ethnic backgrounds?
• ·      What is the message the clip is trying to portray about ethnicity?   

    Clips with examples of ethnicity to analyse

   Spooks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjwvCoiKZ-8

   Hotel Babylon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VG5GJQjyGo

   Eastenders http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y094LCAUMTo 

Ben from Hotel Babylon