Audience theory

Audience theory

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  AUDIENCE THEORY Tallulah Duffy
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  HIERARCHY OF NEEDS In1943, a man called Abraham Maslow wrote a paper called the ‘Hierarchy of Needs.’ He studied different people to work out the different stages of motivations of people. Albert Einstein, Frederick Douglass and Eleanor Roosevelt are examples of people he studied. The theories Maslow came up with can be applied to social media marketing. For example, what motivates consumers and brands on social media platforms. Maslow used the pyramid scheme to present his findings. He placed the most fundamental biggest needs at the bottom of the pyramid and the then focusing on our secondary needs – so and so forth. Simple actions like breathing are at the bottom oft the pyramid; physiological needs. On the top of the pyramid are self-actualisations such as lack of prejudice and acceptance of facts.
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  PASSIVE AUDIENCES The earliestideas about film was that audiences were passive and inactive. This theory originally derived from Harrold Lasswell. The audience were treated like couch-potatoes and were said to have absolutely no say in what they watched on screen. The hypodermic model – The media is able to inject its ideas into the audience who appear to be passive and weak. The media can therefore insert propaganda into its audience. An example of this is during the Weimar republic where the audience were told that the problems caused from the republic where all outsiders faults and they had no access to any other form of media or proof that this was false. The idea was that people would believe anything they were told.
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  ACTIVE AUDIENCES Audiences aresubconsciously and consciously interpreting texts themselves – both cognitively and emotionally. This involvement with the text has several dimensions: • Interpretation • Evaluation • Comprehension • Perception • Response
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  THEORY PROPOSED BYPROF. GEORGE GERBNER AND LARRY GROSS – UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 1970S • This theory suggests that the media spoon feed audiences the same message • These messages are present heavily in advertising – often the same/similar products are advertised on repeat • We can become inured to violence on television because we are so used to watching it – desensitisation, this can distort our view on reality and the real world outside of a TV screen THEORY CRITICISM – VIOLENCE ON SCREEN IS DIFFERENT TO REAL LIFE VIOLENCE; CAN’T BE COMPARED. THERE IS ALSO NO HARD EVIDENCE TO BACK UP THE THEORY CULTIVATION THEORY
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  TWO-STEP FLOW THEORY Thistheory suggests that media is presented to us through two stages. At first the media will reach ‘influencers’ who will promote the media type and hopefully give it good publicity. An example of this is the Coke Friends campaign. Secondly, the media type will reach the masses; the general public. Information about media is interpreted through the influencers and then passed on to us. It is therefore difficult to create an opinion when the information received is so filtered. Weaknesses of the theory are communication. It is very difficult for the audience to form a homologous relationship with a media form. The opinionated leaders; the influencers interfere with the communication process and the media’s direct message audience. The influencers seem to have the greatest impact on people they are most similar to, in societal status,
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  THE DOMINANT READING •This is the same as the media content that creators make • This is when the views presented in the media are opposed THE OPPOSITIONAL READING RECEPTION ANALYSIS THE NEGOTIATED READING • This is when people interpret media to fit with their own life Reception analysis models state that there are 3 different types of ways media is presented. These are the ways audiences ‘read’ the media content
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  RECEPTION THEORY • Receptiontheory was developed by Stuart Hall • A theory of encoding and decoding - a producer encodes a piece of media and the audience are left to decode it • Different audience members will decode the piece of media in different ways • Stuart Hall state that the audience member must adopt one of the following 3 positions when the text is decoded: Dominant or preferred reading- how the producers want us as an audience to view the text, the messages are clear if the audience is the same age and experiences the same culture Oppositional reading- when the audience rejects the reading of the text and interprets it to fit their own meaning Negotiated reading – a combination of the options above – for example if the audience understand some of the messages but the meaning of the text is complex. Different factors can effect this such as age, gender and mood at the time of watching
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  USES AND GRATIFICATIONMODEL This model has the same layout as the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This model suggests that we as an audience make active decisions when viewing something and we look for media texts that will fulfil our needs. For example, a recipe when we are trying to cook or a comedy movie when we need cheering up. - Developed in the 1960s by Blumler and Katz The main uses of the ‘Uses and Gratification and Model” 1. Personal relationships – virtual relations with characters e.g to hinder feelings of loneliness 2. Diversion – need to escape e.g. unsatisfaction with reality 3. Personal Identity – value reinforcement e.g. TV shows sharing similar beliefs to us 4. Surveillance – the need to know what’s going on in world (similar to Marslow’s need for security) e.g reading the news