Everyone consumes the same product however we adapt to it in different ways e.g. my sisters keeper- some people know someone who has had cancer and would feel sad and can relate to it, some people don't so could feel grateful.
People choose to watch comedies because they're funny and allow people to forget about problems and choose to watch them over dramas because it makes them happy.
This theory says that the audience have a choice and makes them a more active audience as it makes them more gratified/fulfilled. It says we control the media as we choose what we consume. If we don't consume it then the media won't produce it, our choices are what controls the media. How we understand and associate with products is based on our life experiences.
This theory is different to the others as it suggests the audience controls the media as we are the ones actively choosing to watch the products we do and why we choose to.
The theory
- Represents a change in thinking
- Looks at the motives of the people of the people who use the media asking why we watch what we do and why we bother to read what we do
- Argues that the audience has social and psychological needs which generate certain expectations about the mass media and what they're exposed to
The 4 needs
The underlining idea behind the model is that people are motivated by a desire to fulfill or gratify certain needs.
- Surveillance:
Based around the idea that people feel better having the feeling that they know what is going on around the world. (we watch the know as we feel that it is a reliable source of information). We use the media to be more aware about the world.
- Personal Identity:
Explains how being a subject of the media allows us to conform the identity and positioning of ourselves within society. (Pop stars can often become big role models, inspiring young children).
- Personal Relationships
2 parts- relationships with the media & using media within relationships
Media within relationships- We can form a relationship with the media and also use it to form a relationship with others. Many use the TV as a form of companionship and TV is often seen as quite an intimate experience. We can sometimes use the media as a springboard to form and build upon relationships with real people. Some studies suggest that some families use sitting around watching the TV as a stimulus for conversation
- Diversion
Describes what is commonly known as escapism (Watching TV to escape our own lives and problems. We want to see that people experience the same feelings as we do.)
Reception Theory- Stuart Hall
States that media texts are encoded by the producer meaning that whoever produces the text fills the product with values and messages. The text is then decoded by spectators (different spectators will decode the text in different ways not always the way producers intend)
The 3 readings are:
- Preferred reading
- Negotiated reading
- Oppositional reading
Preferred reading: what the producers want the audience to think about the text.
Negotiated reading: when the audience understands the text as the producers want them to, but they also disagree/decode the product differently.
Oppositional reading: When the audience decodes the text in a total different way how the producers want them to.
Hypodermic Needle Theory
Is the idea that the audience is injected with information from the media and how our ideas are influenced by the media. This us bad because the public can misinterpret the message and suggests that we are a passive audience.
- It was developed in the 1920's
- Suggests that we are all the same and respond to things in the same way
- Implies mass media has a direct, immediate and powerful effect on audiences
- The mass media in the 40's and 50's were perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour change
- Several factors contributed to this 'strong effects' theory of communication, including:
-the fast rise and popularization of radio and TV
-Suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly bu 'injecting' them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response
-suggests a powerful and direct flow of information from sender to receiver
Cons of this theory:
*Out of date
*Not all people consume media in the same way
*Not everyone watches the news
*Audiences are not simply passive
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