Theorists - Audience

Question 1

Reception theory

Explain Stuart hall’s theory

Answer 1

Hall proposed that audience members can play an active role in decoding messages as they rely on their own social contexts, and might also be capable of changing messages themselves.

Question 2

Reception theory

Stuart hall’s Dominant, Oppositional and Negotiated readings:

Question 3

Media Effects

Explain Bandura’s theory

Answer 3

He talks about ‘Uses and Gratification’
* Places more importance on the audience, instead of the actual message.
* It thinks about “what people do with media” as opposed to “what media does to people”.
* Assumes that audiences are not passive and take an active role in interpreting media in their lives.
* Audiences use media to fulfill gratifications.

Question 4

Media effects

Bandura: what are the audiences have four main needs that are gratified by the media

Answer 4

Surveillance
Identity
Relationships
Diversion

Question 5

Hypodermic needle theory

Explain Bandura’s theory

Answer 5

The hypodermic syringe model believes that the media can have a direct and immediate effect on the audience. This model sees the audience as all the same, and that they believe what they see in the media without questioning the content. The media has a very powerful impact on audiences and can change our ideas and behaviour. The media influences us by ‘injecting’ ideologies into our minds which are designed to trigger a response – we are immediately influenced and imitate what we see.

Question 6

Hypodermic needle theory

There are 2 ways Bandura believes audience behaviour is acquired:

Answer 6

• Direct experience: people imitate violent, or aggressive behaviour as a result of their own experiences of aggression.
  (Victim of abusive parents/bullying).
• Modelled learning: Bandura also believes that direct experience alone can not account for all of our human traits. Therefore, he believes that we learn behaviour by watching the actions of others.
  (Being in an abusive environment/household/watching violent media; video games/tv shows etc).

Question 7

Hypodermic needle theory

Bandura: Talk about the Bobo Doll experiment

Question 8

fandom theory

Explain Jenkins theory:

Answer 8

Jenkins argues that these fan communities are more complex than they appeared to be, he suggests that fans often use cues within texts to construct alternative readings. Sometimes those cues are knowingly included by producers to prompt alternative fan responses.

Question 9

fandom theory

Jenkins: Participatory Culture

Answer 9

• Media producers and audiences have converged (come together) as a result of digital networking.
• Audiences are engaging in participatory culture – using technology to create online communities.
• This empowers audiences to effect wider social change.

Question 10

fandom theory

Jenkins: Textual Poaching

Answer 10

They take elements from media products to recreate/remake their own culture and meaning.

Through this ‘poaching’, the fans rethink personal identity issues such as gender and sexuality; writing stories to shift focus onto something else.

They could expand stories, fill in missing scenes from the official narrative to satisfy their needs.

The development of the ‘new’ media has accelerated ‘participatory culture’, in which audiences are active and creative participants rather than passive consumers

Question 11

fandom theory

Jenkins: power of fans

Answer 11

Audience members now act like a focus group that are able to provide feedback to media producers.

Fans can use their collective voice to create campaigns to demand change or boycott certain products.

Fan labour – fans share and like things on social media that serves as free advertisement for media producers.

Question 12

fandom theory

Jenkins: Recontextualisation

Answer 12

possibly providing a backstory, filling in gaps or developing narrative for some characters.

Question 13

fandom theory

Jenkins: Expanded timelines

Answer 13

imagined sequels

Question 14

fandom theory

Jenkins: Refocalisations

Answer 14

focus on secondary characters

Question 15

fandom theory

Jenkins: Moral realignments

Answer 15

explaining an antagonist’s reason for being ‘evil’.

Question 16

fandom theory

Jenkins: Personalisation

Answer 16

putting yourself in the story

Question 16

fandom theory

Jenkins: Crossovers

Answer 16

characters from one show might be placed in another.

Question 17

End of Audience Theory

Explain Shirky’s theory:

Answer 17

Shirky’s theory looks at how the internet and digital technologies have had a profound effect on the relations between media and individuals.

Media audiences have now become producers who ‘speak back to’ the media in various ways, as well as creating and sharing content with one another.

Question 18

End of Audience Theory

Shirky: What is a ‘prosumer’?

Answer 18

Audience behaviour has changed due to the internet and the ability for audiences to create their own content at home thanks to the lower cost of technology. This new convergence (coming together) of producers and audiences doesn’t just consume media, but also produces it – creating the term ‘prosumer’.

Question 19

End of Audience Theory

shirky: ‘Audiences can never be passive’, explain why she thinks this

Answer 19

The relationship between media and audience is fluid.

There is no longer assumed to be one way of interpreting a product or one audience response.

Audiences are made up of individuals whose social and cultural experiences impact their response to media.

Media products and industries are acutely aware of their audience and the strategies needed to engage them.

Question 20

End of Audience Theory

Shirky: Web 2.0

Answer 20

The second phase of the internet – focus has shifted towards audiences creating and collaborating rather than just receiving information

Question 21

End of Audience Theory

Shirky:The digital revolution

Answer 21

Digital media has allowed audiences to break the production barriers that prevented audiences from making their own media.

Question 22

End of Audience Theory

Shirky: Mass Amateurisation

Answer 22

The use of digital media by everyday audiences to produce broadcast media.

Amateur products can be distributed both quickly and on a global scale.
Traditional broadcasting relies on television and radio transmitters, whereas digital media can be globally distributed and quickly. YouTube videos etc.

Digital distribution enables audience feedback.
The one way communication of traditional broadcasting means that audiences cannot provide feedback.

Question 23

End of Audience Theory

Shirky: Positives of Mass Amateurisation

Answer 23

Innovation/creativity
Original ideas/pluralistic views
Encourages different points of view
Audience feedback

Question 24

Shirky: Negatives of Mass Amateurisation

Answer 24

Bias Fake news No accountability - Impossible to regulate Increase in crime: illegal images, copyright, extremism

Question 25

# Cultivation Theory Explain Gerbner's theory:

Answer 25

Cultivation theory suggests that repeated exposure to television over time can subtly cultivate viewers’ perceptions of reality. Long term exposure to violent media makes the audience less likely to be shocked by violence.

Question 26

# Cultivation Theory Gerbner: Why is television so influential?

Answer 26

It’s easy to decode. It is effectively ‘cost-free’, which differs from other cultural activities such as reading, going to the theatre or the cinema. Encoded realistically to mimic everyday life. It’s controlled by only a few media producers. Consumption of television is more intense than other forms of influential activities.

Question 27

# Cultivation Theory Gerbner: Enculturation

Answer 27

process of learning social norms through watching others.

Question 28

# Cultivation Theory

Answer 28

News-based media, according to Gerbner, is just as violently problematic as fictional drama on TV. With fictional TV violence, audiences are more aware of it not being real. With news programmes, representations of real-world violence have the potential to evoke a more attitudinal response from audiences.

Question 29

# Cultivation Theory What are the 3 effects of increased perceptions of violence on audiences?

Answer 29

Representations of violence define who is powerful/powerless in the real world. Narrative conventions are used to maintain a clear sense of authority – ‘happy endings’ encode the idea that the law and ‘good people’ will always win. Media narratives often justify violence against particular groups.

Question 30

# Cultivation Theory Gerbner’s Research: ## Footnote Gerbner set up this project to measure how often violence was shown in television programmes. This is what he found in US TV in 1975:

Answer 30

* 80% of TV shows had some violence in them – 9/10 in the case of children’s tv shows. * 8 violent incidents per hour but 16 per hour in children’s tv. * White males were the least likely victims of violence. * Women were most frequently presented as vulnerable victims of crime – particularly mature, single and non-white women. * Violence against women was often used at the very start of a TV drama.

Question 31

What is the violence index?

Question 32

# Cultivation Theory What does Gerbner mean by Resonance?

Answer 32

Occurs when a media message is especially noteworthy to an individual because it somehow coincides with a viewers’ lived experience. This provides a double dose of the message conveyed on television.

Question 33

What does Gerbner mean by Mainstreaming?

Answer 33

Occurs when people who watch a lot of television, but have little to no experience of violence personally, still have an increased perception of real-world violence. They have a mainstream perspective that they cultivated through frequent exposure to the same television messages.

Question 34

What does Gerbner mean by ‘Mean World Syndrome’?

Answer 34

The idea that society is far more dangerous than what it really is