Audience Theory

Richard Dyer

• Audiences want media products that offer them Utopian solutions to their problems (1992)
• They want diversions and escapism

Blumler and Katz: uses and gratifications theory

• An approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs.
• Uses and gratifications is am audience-centered approach to understanding mass communication. Diverging from other media effect theories that question"what does media do to people?", it focuses on "what do people do with media?"
• Gives the consumer power to discern what media they consume, with the assumption that the consumer has a clear intent and use. 
• Moves consumers on from being the victims of mass media, forcefully fed what production companies pick, to seeing them as an audience to whom the media must appeal, competing with other diversions for their attention

The five components comprising the Uses and Gratifications Approach: 

1. The audience is perceived as being active  
2. In the mass communication process, much initiative in linking gratification and media choice lies with the audience member.
3. The media compete with other sources of satisfaction
4. Methodologically speaking, many of the goals of mass media use can be derived from data supplied by individual audience members themselves 
5. Value judgments about the cultural significance of mass communication should be suspended while audience orientations are explored on their own terms.

5 main reasons people consume media

1. ·         Be informed or educated
2. ·         Identify with characters of the situation in the media environment
3. ·         Simple entertainment
4. ·         Enhance social interaction
5. ·         Escape from the stresses of daily life

Hypodermic needle

• Simple message to audience. Information is ‘injected’ into the audience and it’s as simple as that.
• ·         Theory suggesting that an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver.
• ·         Based on assumptions about human nature

Stuart Hall Encoding and Decoding (1970s)

Encoding = the creation of texts

Decoding = interpretation of texts

·         The theory offers a theatrical approach of how media messages are produced, disseminated and interpreted 

• ·   Claims that TV and other media audiences are presented with messages that are decoded, or interpreted in different ways depending on an individual’s cultural background, economic standing and personal experiences.
• ·         Hall advanced the ideas that the audience members can play an active role in decoding messages as they rely on their own social contexts, and might be capable of changing messages themselves through collective action.