Audience Theories
The Effects Model
The effects model discusses the effect or influence media consumption can have on the audience. It is normally considered that this effect is negative as audiences are powerless in preventing the influence. The model which is also known as the Hypodermic model talks about how the texts are injected into the audience by syringe like media, making the audience powerless in resisting. This means that the media works like a drug and the audience become addicted.
One piece of evidence for this model is the Bobo doll experiment. Essentially, this experiment involved children watching someone violently attack a doll. Later the children were then placed in a room filled with these Bobo dolls. 88% of these children began to violently attack the dolls just like the adult did. 8 months later, the same experiment took place with the same children and 40% of them reproduced the same behaviour. This experiment proved that the majority of the children imitated the violent behaviour of the adult. However, there were still many problems with the experiment.
Here is the footage of the Bobo Doll experiment.
The Uses and Gratifications Model
This is the opposite of the Hypodermic model. In this model, instead of the audience being influenced by the media, they use it for themselves. They use it for their own gratification or pleasure. In this model, the power lies with the audience and not the producers. The audience is allowed to reject, play or use the media however they want.
As the audience are now in control of the media, they can use it to deal with issues such as learning, emotional satisfaction, issues with personal and social identity etc.
There are also certain downfalls with this model. Such as the fact that it suggests the viewing of harmful images may be helpful and not harmful.
The Receptions Theory
This theory involves the producer of a piece of music trying to include a meaning or message in the constructed text. They will then hope that the audience will correctly decode this message to understand what the producer is trying to say. However, there are some instances where the audience can either reject or fail to understand the message.
Staurt Hall identifieds three different types of audience decodings, there is;
1. Dominant - Producer wants them to broadly agree with the message e.g. political speech.
2. Negotiated - This is where the audience neither agrees or disagrees with the piece of text e.g. being disinterested in a political speech.
3. Oppositional - This is where the maning of the message is fully recognised yet the audience will still reject it e.g. total rejection of a politcial speech.