AUDIENCE INVESTIGATION

Paige Atkins

AUDIENCE
The Audience are the people that consume a media product at and who it is aimed at. The Audience are sorted into certain categories: demographics and psychographics. Demographics looks at the age, gender, religion, socio-economics and the spending power. Psychographics looks at the interests and the hobbies of the audience.

HYPODERMIC SYRINGE MODEL

1920s, the first theory attempt was to explain how the mass audiences might react to the mass media. Suggesting that all the information is absorbed into the brain without any true thought. This makes consumers vulnerable from the consuming media and are manipulated by producers, as where the consumer will accept dominant ideologies as the social norm.

USES AND GRATIFICATION

1974 Bulmer and Katz developed the Uses and Gratification theory.
Individuals might choose and use a text for a certain purpose such as: Social Relationships Personal Identity Information/surveillance Diversion/Entertainment

TWO STEP FLOW

Lazarsfield, Berelson and Gaudet analysed the decision of the voters in the process during the 1940s presidential election campaigns and published The Peoples Choice with their results The results suggested that the information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience unmediated but its already filtered through opinion leaders who then communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence.

RECEPTION THEORY
Research thirty years ago was researched on how individuals receive and interpret the media text and whether their demographics affected their reading

Stuart Hall addressed this, summing up that the audiences take on their own theories of a media text as people are all different and have different ideologies.

 These audience theories can be relatable to the horror genre. This could include people believing that from the hypodermic syringe model, this will inspire the audience to commit crimes. This has led to films such as The Exorcist to be banned. Studies argue that by just watching the film gives a feeling of the crimes without having to ever commit the crimes satisfies the consumer, also experiences and a sense of empathy can be shared by the consumer.