The Three Effects of Audience Theory
The Effects Model
(the hyperdermic model)
The hyperdermic model suggests that audience is passive and will usually copy the behaviours they consume through media texts, almost as if they have no controll over their own behaviours. The influence of audiences is mostly seen in a negitive way, eg, younger generations will tend to copy dances they see in music videos from popular artists. The hyperdermic model is a metaphor suggesting that the producers and creators of the media texts "inject" ausiences with media and this causes an almost "copycat" behaviour.
Evidence of this is the "Bobo Doll Experiment", in this experimant there was a group of children that were shown a video of adults acting in a possitive way towards the bobo doll but then there was a separate group of children who were shown a video of adults acting in a negative way towards the bobo doll, in the negative group 88% of the children copied the negitive response when given the bobo doll, however after 8 months, the same children were given a bobo doll again and only 40% of children acted in a violent way.
The Gratification Model
This is a theory that suggests that the audience has the power, and is free to use, reject or play with the media thats being consumed.
Reasons for the consumption of media are:
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Diversion
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Escapism
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Information
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Pleasure
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Sexual Stimulus.
Maslows hierachy of needs:
The Reception Theory
The reception theory takes into account how dicrectors encode media texts and then how those media texts ae then decoded by the audience.
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.