Audience
KEY THEORISTS:
- Stuart Hall (Reception theory)
- Laswell (Passive consumption/ communication)
- Shannon and Weaver (Communication)
- Lazarfeld (Communication/ Two step)
- Katz (Uses and Gratifications)
Stuart Hall
- Hall opposed the idea that the media injected ideas into passive audiences (Hypodermic Needle Theory)
- Hall otherwise suggested that media consumers were alert and critical.
- “Hall’s theory of encoding and decoding argues that audiences do not simply accept the message encoded in a media product, but are involved in a negotiation with the producer in order to create meaning.” – AQA
Encoding and Decoding
Encoding = Media institutions encode media products using honed processes and strategies to produce products that communicate messages to their audiences.
Decoding = Media audiences read the messages that are constructed.
- Encoding is the idea that media products are constructed, bias versions of the truth. – “Encoding processes will always construct a mediated world view”. Hall suggests that media encoding is framed by a variety of codes, visual and aural cues.
- He says that these codes may not have links to the product but enhance the messages being represented.
- Hall suggests that media decoding is not simple. He believes that media products produce a variety of audience based readings which are connotational rather than explicit and denotational.
- “Connotative readings are manufactured through our individual experiences and knowledge” – Audiences read products in different ways, some read the intention and some read ‘against the grain’. They need to negotiate with themselves and the producer what they will take from the message.
Passive Consumption
Passive audience = More likely to accept the messages encoded in a media text without challenging them, they are likely to be directly affected by what they are presented with.
‘Hypodermic Needle Theory’ – Audiences are ‘injected’ and they are “knocked into submission” by the messages being sent to them.
- Similar to propaganda in Nazi Germany during WW2. The public was forced to be affected by these messages because it was being, metaphorically ‘injected into them’.
Harold Laswell – Created the ‘Linear Communication Model’. This model breaks down the linear line of communication from each point (the producer to the receiver – the audience).
PRODUCER —> MESSAGE —> MEDIUM —> RECIEVER —> FEEDBACK
Shannon and Weaver – Adapted Laswell’s model and created the ‘Transmission model of Communication’. They suggested that communication is not as linear, it is unreliable and unpredictable, there are a range of factors which need to be considered.
NOISE —> ERROR —> ENCODING —> FEEDBACK (Elements that could affect transmission).
Active Consumption
Active audience = Individuals who are active and interact with the communication process and use media texts for their own purposes.
Paul Lazarfeld – Created the ‘Two Step Flow Model of Communication’ as he suggested that a linear model was not complex enough to understand the relationship between the message being send vs received.
He theorised that mediated messages are not directly injected into an audience but they can be filtered through opinion leaders who interpret these messages and then promote them to their audience. —> Those around us exert and influence during the process of communication. (Bias, interpretation, rejection etc)
Active Selection
Elihu Katz – Created the idea of the ‘Uses and Gratifications’ theory. It suggests that audiences are active and engaged within what they are consuming because they have decisions to make on how they perceive it.
They look out for pleasures/ uses and gratifications from products which are categorised as:
- Information / education
- Empathy and identity
- Social interaction
- Entertainment
- Escapism