Audience Theory

The audience theory can be explained through a number of complex ideas and concepts. The first theorist I will be referring to is Stuart Hall.

He stressed the role of social positioning in the interpretation of mass media texts by different social groups.

A couple questions he makes us think about –

• Do the media compel us to want to be perceived in a certain a way?
• Do we buy into what they sell all the time?
• Does the media give us a membership?

He came up with the Reception Models:

Dominant- The person totally buys into what sells, and it feels natural e.g a feminine girl reading Cosmopolitan.

Negotiated- The person shows some interest and accepts the media, although has to convince themselves to do something.

Oppositional- Understands the text but rejects it completely and doesn’t share the texts code.

 

Also there are USES AND GRATIFICATIONS:

• This is the idea that people use the media to get specific gratifications e.g turning into a detective show to see if you can share the crime.
• Opposition to the hypodermic needle.
• These needs serve as motivations for using media to fufil their needs.

 

PASSIVE VS ACTIVE

This is the Basic Model-

Identify- being able to recognise the product / person in front of you, aspiration to be someone else.

Educate- acquire information, knowledge

Entertain- what are you consuming should be enjoyable and a form of escapism

Social Interaction– sparks debates, provides a topic of conversation e.g X-Factor Contestants

 

Hypodermic Needle-

• Implies mass media has a direct effect on its audiences.
• Powerful influences on behaviour change (1940s-50s)

Several factors contribute to this theory such as the rise of radio, TV and population and advertisement and propaganda.

The needle works by injecting them to get a desired response, and people see it as a dangerous mean of communicating an idea. People are seen as passive as they have a lot of information passed at them and people end up thinking what they’re told because there is no other source of information.

 

Another theorist is Maslow-

• He sought to explain why people are by particular needs at particular times.
• This means that people will try and satisfy their most important needs first, and when a person succeeds in satisfying an important need, they then move onto the next.

The system goes: psychological needs (air, food, water), safety needs (medical insurance, job), belonging needs (friendships, love), esteem needs (attention, self-respect), and self-accusation needs (truth, justice, wisdom).

 

 

 

 

 

Another theorist that relates to our trailer is Richard Dyer and his Star Theory. This theory suggests that celebrities are manufactured by institutions for financial gain, and that stars are constructed to represent real people with real emotions.

Within our trailer, Daisy is constructed to be a social expectation and generalisation of teenage girls around the world, however we know that we spent hours doing Daisy’s look and discussing how we wanted her to come across, therefore we are aiding to the theory that celebrities, or in our case Daisy, are constructed for gains and so people think they can relate to them. By showing Daisy as having good values, having a good time with her friends, not taking drugs etc. we are creating a perfect commodity for the audience to latch onto, and conforms to the things expected of a normal teenage girl, therefore replicating her to be a role model for the teenage audience.