Mr Ford

G325

Question 1b

Audience G325

Question 1b G325

Name ......................................................

Mr Ford

G325

Question 1b

Audience OCR G325 Question 1b

In covering this topic you need to be aware of a broad shift from a perception of a mass
audience to one which recognises that, whatever the size of audience, it is made up of
individuals. Along with this altered view is a shift in emphasis from what the media do to
the audience to an acceptance that audiences bring many different approaches to the media
with which they engage.
In its earliest form audience theory believed that an audience was a mass, Blumer set out 4
stages
First, its membership may come from all walks of life, and from all distinguishable social
strata; it may include people of different class position, of different vocation, of different
cultural attainment, and of different wealth. .....
Secondly, the mass is an anonymous group, or more exactly is composed of anonymous
individuals [Blumer means anonymous in the sense that unlike the citizens of earlier
communities, the people who are members of the mass audience for the media do not know
each other].
Third, there exists little interaction or change of experience between members of the mass.
They are usually physically separated from one another, and, being anonymous, do not have
the opportunity to mill as do members of the crowd.
Fourth, the mass is very loosely organised and is not able to act with the unity of a crowd.
Task 1
1. Do you think the audiences for most media texts do come from all walks of life or do
different kinds of people watch very different kinds of programme? Are there any examples
of media texts that you can think of that do seem to have audiences of all kinds of people?

2. How much of your media experience occurs when you are on your own and how much
when you are with others?

3. Think back to your genre work, how is your media experienced?

4. Are there any ways in which you share your experiences of the media with other people
who werent around when you experienced the text? List as many ways as you share
experiences (e.g. msn etc)

Mr Ford

G325

Question 1b

The effects/hypodermic model

The original model for audience was the effects/hypodermic model which stressed
the effects of the mass media on their audiences. This model owes much to the
supposed power of the mass media - in particular film - to inject their audiences with
ideas and meanings. Such was the thinking behind much of the Nazi propaganda
that was evident in Triumph of the Will and similar films. It is worth noting that
totalitarian states and dictatorships are similar in their desire to have complete
control over the media, usually in the belief that strict regulation of the media will help
in controlling entire populations. The effects model has several variants and despite
the fact that it is an outdated model it continues to exert influence in present debates
about censorship and control in the media.
Task 2
Can you think of any examples where the media have been seen to influence
public behaviour or have been blamed for an individuals behaviour?

Is this influence always negative?

What effect do you hope that your text has on an audience?

What would be the incorrect effect be and why might this happen with your
text?

Mr Ford

G325

Question 1b

The Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School developed concerns about the power which modern mass media had
to propagandise on behalf of fascism. This has evolved over time to become similar to the
effects model albeit a less theoretical variant. This has developed in response to the violent
content of certain TV programmes, so far from controlling people the media is bringing about
societies moral downfall. Some of the moral watchdogs, or the 'moral majority' as they styled
themselves, took issue with TV output that was deemed to be explicitly sexual, too violent or
in other ways offensive. Their concerns were for those vulnerable members of the population
who could be corrupted as a result of such material. Perhaps the best known of these
groups in the UK was the National Viewers and Listeners Association (Mary Whitehouse)
which argued that TV was a direct cause of deviant behaviour, especially among the young.
The problems with the effects model, in whatever form, have to do with its roots in
behaviourist psychology. The behaviourist explanation of human behaviour (Skinner and
Pavlov) looks increasingly hard to justify as we have come to develop a fuller understanding
of the complexities of human behaviour, which is not predictable nor is it controllable. There
are also the difficulties of linking cause and effect in terms of how we engage with media
texts. The large number of studies that have been done do not prove the case conclusively
either way. These range from the Walters and Bandura experiments to studies that count
incidents of violence on TV. Other criticisms of this model centre on the stress that it places
on the audience as passive, whereas newer models suggest that the audience is much
more active than was initially supposed. This model, it seems, is something of an outdated
view of audiences but it is constantly revived by politicians and social commentators when
moral panics are generated around issues such as 'video nasties' and their influence on
children (e.g. the Bulger case) or computer games allegedly damaging literacy skills or
contributing to violent behaviour (e.g. the Grand Theft Auto or Man Hunt computer games).
Such concerns often try to scapegoat parts of media output as if these were the sole
relevant factor in anti-social behaviour. This approach ignores the other factors that work as
a mix to influence behaviour i.e. home, school, peers and social interaction.
Notes:

Mr Ford

G325

Question 1b

Uses and gratifications

A more recent model of audience is that of uses and gratifications, which suggests that there
is a highly active audience making use of the media for a range of purposes designed to
satisfy needs such as entertainment, information and identification. In this model the
individual has the power and they select the media texts that best suit their needs and their
attempts to satisfy those needs. The psychological basis for this model is the hierarchy of
needs identified by Maslow. Among the chief exponents of this model are McQuail and
Katz.
The main areas that are identified in this model are:
a) the need for information about our geographical and social world news and dra
b) the need for identity, by using characters and personalities to define our sense of self
and social behaviour film celeb
c) the need for social interaction through experiencing the relationships and interaction of
others soap sitcom
d) the need for diversion by using the media for purposes of play and entertainment. game
show and q
Notes:

Mr Ford

G325

Question 1b

The active audience

More recent developments still suggest that there is a decoding process going on among the
active audience who are not simply using the media for gratification purposes. Morley's view
of dominant, negotiated and oppositional readings of texts is a semiological approach
because it recognises the importance of the analysis of signs, particularly visual signs, that
shape so much of modern media output. In this model, at its simplest level, the audience
accept or agree with the encoded meanings, they accept and refine parts of the text's
meanings or they are aware of the dominant meaning of the text but reject it for cultural,
political or ideological reasons.
Preferred/dominant reading
The preferred reading is the reading media producers hope will take from the text. For
example, an advertisement for a McDonalds Big Mac is intended to encourage feelings of
hunger and a desire to buy a McDonalds. Assuming the majority of the audience share this
reaction then this is also the dominant reading.
Oppositional reading
Audience members from outside the target audience may reject the preferred reading,
receiving their own alternative message. The health-conscious, anti-globalisation
campaigners and vegetarians will most likely respond to the McDonalds advert with
frustration and annoyance.
Negotiated reading
The third way is one in which audiences acknowledge the preferred reading, but modify it to
suit their own values and opinions. A negotiated response to the McDonalds advert might be
I love Big Macs but one a month is enough as they arent good for me.

Task 5
Look at this image below and identify the preferred/dominant reading, oppositional reading
and negotiated reading. It may be easier to assume what you, your siblings and your parents
might think of it.
Preferred

Oppositional

Negotiated

Mr Ford

G325

Question 1b

Mode of address
Still in line with the active audience idea is the concept of mode of address. This refers to the
way that a text speaks to us in a style that encourages us to identify with the text because it
is 'our' kind of text. For example Friends is intended for a young audience because of the
way it uses music and the opening credits to develop a sense of fun, energy and enthusiasm
that the perceived audience can identify with. This does not mean that other groups are
excluded, merely that the dominant mode of address is targeted at the young. Mode of
address can even be applied to entire outputs, as in the case of Channel Four which works
hard to form a style of address aimed at an audience which is informed, articulate and in
some ways a specialised one. Newspapers, too, often construct their presentation to reflect
what they imagine is the identity of their typical readers.
Task 6
Select two magazines, one from column A and one from column B and compare the mode of
address they have. Print off a front cover for each and annotate them, stick them beneath
this table and annotate them highlight all their signs.
A
GQ
FHM
Wired
Esquire
Time
NME

Text A

B
Cosmopolitan
Heat
Hello
Good Housekeeping
Elle
Grazia

Text B

Mr Ford

G325

Question 1b

Task 7
Now take stills/front covers from your own text. Identify the modes of address that they have
and how this might appeal to an audience Try and select as many as possible. You should
include preferred, dominant reading etc. Think back to genre work and see what generic
signs you have used.

Mr Ford

Task 7 cont.

G325

Question 1b

Mr Ford

G325

Question 1b

Ethnographic model
The latest research into audience has resulted in an ethnographic model, which
means that the researcher enters into the culture of the group and uses questions
and interviews to try to understand media engagement from the perspective of the
group. What seems to be emerging from this work is
a) the focus on the domestic context of reception of media texts
b) the element of cultural competence, and finally
c) technologies.
The first of these stresses the fact that engagement with the media is often
structured by the domestic environment because of the domestication of
entertainment and leisure. It appears that the home is not a free space and there
are issues about finance for purchase of media goods, control of the remote, the
gendered nature of watching TV and the 'flow' of TV that fits alongside or within a set
of domestic relationships. So TV viewing may not be the concentrated, analytical
business that some theorists suggest.
The second area is best understood in terms of texts that can be identified as
belonging to a genre that has gender appeal. For example, soaps are usually seen
to have a strong female bias in viewing audience. There is a selection of
competencies that are brought to such texts so knowing about cliff-hangers; the role
of the matriarch or the fluid nature of character relationships simply adds to the
pleasures associated with the text. Think about the texts that you enjoy and even
though you know how a text will be shaped or how it will end these are not barriers to
your enjoyment of that text. Competencies even include the very expectations that
you have for the text. The male preference for news and more factual forms can be
seen as a feature of cultural competence because men occupy more public space
than domestic space and therefore feel the need to be aware of the public worlds
reflected in such texts.
The third area identified relates to the way we engage with the hardware in order to
enjoy the output of the media. There seems to be a strong gender divide here with
computers and complex technology fitting into the category of 'boys toys'. If present
trends in technology continue then there is a real danger that just as our society is
dividing along lines of information-rich and information-poor then there will be a
further demarcation along gender lines. This explains why schools and TV
programmes need to present positive gender representations and good practice that
supports females and technological expertise. You will note that many of the lifestyle
programmes that are on TV use females in less traditional roles as a way of
redressing the balance (think Suzie Perry on the Gadget Show).
Overall the shift in the models for audience has gone from mass audience to
individual viewer with stress on the active audience rather than the passive model.
The level of activity in the implied audience is related to the uses, pleasures, cultural
competence, situation and available technology for the particular audience.

Mr Ford

G325

Question 1b

Task 8.
Using the ethnographic model (try and separate it into the three areas highlighted) evaluate
your own text. Have you inadvertently prevented certain audiences from accessing your
text? Write your response in the space provided below.

Mr Ford

G325

Question 1b

Test on Audience Simple fact retention.

1 Another name for the effects model? 2
2 What were the concerns of the Frankfurt School in a) Europe and later in b)
America? 10
3 What are moral watchdogs? 4
4 What does NVLA stand for? 4
5 What kind of psychology is the effects model based on? 10
6 What is the basic problem with the effects model as a way of explaining anti- social
or deviant behaviour? 12
7 Who still makes use of the effects model? 4
8 What recent cases have cited this model? 12
9 What kind of general perceptions are attributed to the effects model? 6
10 What kind of psychology is the uses and gratifications model based on? 8
11 What four areas are identified in this model? 16
12 What does Morley have to say about the way we read texts? 12
13 Explain 'mode of address' with examples. 15
14 What is meant by the ethnographic study of audience? 6
15 What do we mean by the 'domestic context of reception of media texts'? 8
16 How can we describe some texts as female and others as male? Refer to soaps
and news. 8
17 Is technological expertise a relevant factor in our consideration of the way we
understand audiences in relation to certain texts? 8
18 What is the main shift in emphasis from the effects model to more modern views
of audience? 5
Total marks 150