1(b) AUDIENCE
In your introduction:
Who is the audience? How did you choose them?
What expectations might they have of your text?
How have you tried to meet these expectations?
What is their motivation for accessing texts like yours?
Linear models:
Sender Message Receiver
For example
(a) ‘Two Step Flow’ theory
Ideas travel from mass media – to opinion leaders – to passive individuals in society
(b) Hypodermic Syringe Theory
Audiences accept the messages that are ‘injected’ into them by the media they consume
Eg. Your thriller opening might suggest that psychotic murderers are bad people
This theory seem ‘outdated nowadays as audience are no longer passive. They are active audiences who enjoy being challenged by the media they consume and will not accept dominant readings neccessarily. They can give oppositional readings.
These theories were popular when mass media was developing. They are they now outdated
Task: 1(b) asks you to apply theory/media concepts to your coursework. But you may also suggest that some theories/media concepts DO NOT fit with your production work.
—How might these ‘linear models’ (two step flow and hypodermic syringe) be too limiting when evaluating the audience of your music video or your thriller?
Uses and Gratifications theory
- Described a number of uses an audience might make of a media text.
- Explained that media texts fulfil audiences’ needs in a number of ways. ee worksheet for details.
Why do you think some media theorists consider this model to be outdated?
Stuart Hall's Preferred Reading theory:
(also links with theory on Media Language)
Stuart Hall argues that media texts are constructed so that they have an intended or preferred reading, which will come from the producers’ own ideas and values. He suggests audiences decode texts in one of 4 ways:
Dominant – Negotiated – Oppositional - Aberrant
Gauntlett on Men's Magazines:
‘In post-traditional cultures, where identities are not ‘given’ but need to be constructed and negotiated, and where an individual has to establish their personal ethics and mode of living, the magazines offer some reassurance to men who are wondering “Is this right?” and “Am I doing this OK?”, enabling a more confident management of the narrative of the self.’
Example of audience negotiations with texts
Modern theory: Cultural Positioning
Another key debate in media is whether an audience can be forced to decode a text in a specific way, or whether an individual’s cultural positioning (could include gender, social group or individual experiences) determines the reading.
So who controls the reading?
Are media representations no longer fixed?
Can media construct audience’s identity?
Consider how the media helps us to create identities for ourselves:
— As individuals
— As a society
— As members of specific groups
Can we really separate people into specific groups or is this an artificial division?
Were these ‘differences’ between people originally there, or are they constructed by the media?
—Remind yourself: Who is the audience? How did you choose them?
—Might your target audience decode your text in different ways?
—How might your text and others like it play a part in shaping identities of individuals and groups?
Task:
2. Evaluating your own work with audiences
Choose one of your productions (main or ancillary, AS or A2) and explain how you selected and targeted a specific audience.
You could consider:
· How you chose a target audience in relation to the genre and form you selected.
· Whether you targeted an existing audience which already enjoys specific existing products like yours.
· How you made creative choices to appeal to this target audience.
· How you think your target audience will use your text (consider uses and gratifications here)
· How your media text could be marketed to the target audience (e.g. making use of social networking and other interactive technology).
1.Who is your target audience? How did you choose this audience?
2.(a) What expectations (uses/gratifications) might they have of your text?
(b) How have you tried to meet these expectations?
(c) What is their motivation for accessing texts like yours?
3. Under Stuart Hall’s theory of ‘Preferred Readings’ what type of ‘reading’ might this target audience give to your text?
Who is the audience? How did you choose them?
What expectations might they have of your text?
How have you tried to meet these expectations?
What is their motivation for accessing texts like yours?
Linear models:
Sender Message Receiver
For example
(a) ‘Two Step Flow’ theory
Ideas travel from mass media – to opinion leaders – to passive individuals in society
(b) Hypodermic Syringe Theory
Audiences accept the messages that are ‘injected’ into them by the media they consume
Eg. Your thriller opening might suggest that psychotic murderers are bad people
This theory seem ‘outdated nowadays as audience are no longer passive. They are active audiences who enjoy being challenged by the media they consume and will not accept dominant readings neccessarily. They can give oppositional readings.
These theories were popular when mass media was developing. They are they now outdated
Task: 1(b) asks you to apply theory/media concepts to your coursework. But you may also suggest that some theories/media concepts DO NOT fit with your production work.
—How might these ‘linear models’ (two step flow and hypodermic syringe) be too limiting when evaluating the audience of your music video or your thriller?
Uses and Gratifications theory
- Described a number of uses an audience might make of a media text.
- Explained that media texts fulfil audiences’ needs in a number of ways. ee worksheet for details.
Why do you think some media theorists consider this model to be outdated?
Stuart Hall's Preferred Reading theory:
(also links with theory on Media Language)
Stuart Hall argues that media texts are constructed so that they have an intended or preferred reading, which will come from the producers’ own ideas and values. He suggests audiences decode texts in one of 4 ways:
Dominant – Negotiated – Oppositional - Aberrant
Gauntlett on Men's Magazines:
‘In post-traditional cultures, where identities are not ‘given’ but need to be constructed and negotiated, and where an individual has to establish their personal ethics and mode of living, the magazines offer some reassurance to men who are wondering “Is this right?” and “Am I doing this OK?”, enabling a more confident management of the narrative of the self.’
Example of audience negotiations with texts
Modern theory: Cultural Positioning
Another key debate in media is whether an audience can be forced to decode a text in a specific way, or whether an individual’s cultural positioning (could include gender, social group or individual experiences) determines the reading.
So who controls the reading?
Are media representations no longer fixed?
Can media construct audience’s identity?
Consider how the media helps us to create identities for ourselves:
— As individuals
— As a society
— As members of specific groups
Can we really separate people into specific groups or is this an artificial division?
Were these ‘differences’ between people originally there, or are they constructed by the media?
—Remind yourself: Who is the audience? How did you choose them?
—Might your target audience decode your text in different ways?
—How might your text and others like it play a part in shaping identities of individuals and groups?
Task:
2. Evaluating your own work with audiences
Choose one of your productions (main or ancillary, AS or A2) and explain how you selected and targeted a specific audience.
You could consider:
· How you chose a target audience in relation to the genre and form you selected.
· Whether you targeted an existing audience which already enjoys specific existing products like yours.
· How you made creative choices to appeal to this target audience.
· How you think your target audience will use your text (consider uses and gratifications here)
· How your media text could be marketed to the target audience (e.g. making use of social networking and other interactive technology).
1.Who is your target audience? How did you choose this audience?
2.(a) What expectations (uses/gratifications) might they have of your text?
(b) How have you tried to meet these expectations?
(c) What is their motivation for accessing texts like yours?
3. Under Stuart Hall’s theory of ‘Preferred Readings’ what type of ‘reading’ might this target audience give to your text?
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