Audience Theory...
What are the different types of media audiences?
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Gratification Model: This model is the opposite to the effects model, this is where the audience would be active. The audiences uses the texts for their own gratification or pleasure. The power lies within the audience and not the producers.
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Meaning that the audience is free to reject, use or play with media meanings as they see it. However the audience use media texts to gratify the needs for:
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Comparing relationships and lifestyles with one’s own
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Diversion
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Escapism
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Information
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Pleasure
The theory suggests that audiences act out their violent impulses through the consumption of the media violence’s.
The audience’s inclination towards violence is therefore sublimated, and they are less likely to commit violent acts
The three theories of audiences:
The effects model: This is the model in which this is the consumption of media texts that has an influence or effect upon the audience. However it is normally considered that the effect is negative. With this in mind it demonstrates that the audience are passive and powerless to prevent the influence that is being given towards them. The main power of this lies within the message in which the media is showing, making the audience this idea of being powerless to resist it as it plays an effect on them. This is injected into the audience making this a syringe-like media.
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This is shown within the BoBO doll experiment, this has shown that 88% of the children imitated the violent behaviour that they had earlier viewed. 8 months later 40% of the children reproduced the same violent behaviour
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The third theory is the Reception theory: This is the theory in which it considers how texts were encoded with meaning by producers and then decoded (understood) by audiences.
They believe that in some instances audiences will correctly decode the message or meaning and to understand what the producer was trying to say. I some instances it is possible that the audience will either reject or fail to correctly understand the message.
The different types of decoding are:
Dominant: Where the audience decodes the message as the producer wants them to do and broadly agrees with it. E.g. watching a political speech and agreeing with it
Negotiated: Where the audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text in light of previously held views. E.g. neither agreeing or disagreeing with the political speech or being disinterested.
Oppositional: Where the dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for cultural, political or ideological reasons. E.g. Total rejection of the political speech and active opposition