RESEARCH: Concept - Audience

Audience is an important concept throughout different types of media, as every media product needs an audience. When planning and constructing my trailer the target audience should be kept in mind. Also the use of a focus group will help to make sure that my trailer stays on track and will be accepted by the audience.

The Effects Theory
The Effects Theory, otherwise know as the hypodermic needle theory, looks at how media texts influence those who consume them; particularly how negative messages can affect audience groups. This theory was developed in the 1920's and sees the audience as passive, as they play no role in interacting with the media texts.
However, recent theorists see The Effects Theory as outdated and have also identified problems with it. Some see it as underestimating the audience, which has led to the development of complexed theories about active audience participation.

The Uses and Gratification Model
This model identifies how media consumers use the media to gratify their needs. This theory places more focus on the consumer or audience rather than the actual message of the media text. It assumes that the audience is not passive but instead takes an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives.
Theorists Blumler and Katz state that there are five main reasons why audiences consume media texts:

1. To be informed or educated.
2. To identify with characters or situations.
3. To be entertained.
4. To enable themselves to be socially interacted with others.
5. To escape from their daily troubles.

The Influence Model

This theory recognises that people respond to other influences who may mediate the message of the media. This theory is researched by Stuart Hall who found that audiences share certain frameworks or interpretation and that they work at decoding media texts within these frameworks.

Stuart Hall proposed three types of audience readings:

1. Dominant - the reader recognises what the text's preferred meaning is and broadly agrees with it.
2. Oppositional - where the dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for cultural or ideological reasons.
3. Negotiated - where the reader accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text in the light of previously held views.