Audience Theory

In the media there are producers and consumers. The producers are the ones who make the media and the consumers are the readers of the media. Some examples of media text that have producers and consumers are TV Programs, adverts and magazines.

For the producer to get across their message there is a simple communication process
The producer/transmitter must have  a message, this is then encoded (for example: English), the message is then said out load which allows the receiver to hear the message. Finally the receiver then decodes the message.

There are some fault with this process such as the message could be decoded in a alternative way in which the transmitter encoded it.

There are three major models on how people consume the media

• HYPODERMIC NEEDLE

This model explains that people watch/read the media and believe every part of it and every part of each message. This makes the audience passive and almost brainwashes the audience. The theory overall suggest that the audience are being manipulated by the producers of the text and that are behaviour and thinking can be easily changed by the media. Dating from to 1920's, this model was first to attempted to explain how mass audiences might react to mass media.

• 2-STEP FLOW

Paul Lazarsfeld,  Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet.....This model explain that opinion leaders in society have seen the media and make up their own opinion whether it be good or bad. The opinion leaders are the active ones however except when the audience have to decide what opinion leader they want to follow which is they then become passive.

• USES AND GRATIFICATION 

This model gives the audience a bit more respect as active decision making human beings by allowing them to select what they want to consume rather than them be passive. 

Effects

Diversion: Emotion release from daily pressure

Personal Relationship: The discussing of TV with others

Person Identity: Comparing your existence to what you see in the media

Surveillance: Finding out what's going on in the world with things such as newspapers and the internet 

In the media there is always a gatekeeper who's role is it decide what is in the media 

Mode of address
Mode of address is the way the media addresses the audience whether it formal, informal, direct etc

An example would be the news as they specifically use formal language and have direct eye contact with the camera. This gives the reporter authority. The audiences role is then t learn from the authoritative figure. 

Semiotics

The study signs and sign systems which was established by Roland Barthes

Denotation

What an image actually shows and is immediately apparent, as opposed to the assumptions an individual reader may make about it.

Connotation

The meaning of a sign that is arrived at through cultural experiences a reader brings to it.

An example of semiotics would be the denotation of empty bottles on a table which then makes the connotation of that the people in the shot must have drank all of the bottles of drink. 

Oppositional reading

When someone makes a conscious rejection or subversion of the preferred meaning.

Negotiated reading

When someone understands the meaning of the text but it does not relate to them so it is of no interest to decode it.

Aberrant reading

When someone misreads or misunderstands the message the producers are trying to portray. For example, if an older person was the read a teenagers magazine they would misread the message as they are not the target audience.