Audience Theory

Audience theory is a starting point for many different media tasks. Whatever it is you always need to consider the target audience and how that audience will respond to the text. Audience theory is the way in which an audience are fed or perceive information provided from different formats.

The Hypodermic Needle Model - This theory dates back to the 1920's to give a view on how mass media effects mass audiences. It suggests that audiences receive this information without any attempt to challenge or process it because they are swayed in the way they think. This theory was designed when media was still very new so it could influence and manipulate audiences much easier.This theory soon became too clumsy for media researchers.

Two-Step Flow - This 1940's theory suggests that the information from the media does not go straight in to the mind of the audience, but instead it is filtered through 'opinion leaders' who then communicate it to the people they have influence over. So the information is not necessarily a direct process but seen as a 'Two-Step Flow' because it passes through two steps. This theory has diminished the power of the media.
 





Uses and Gratifications Theory - In the 1960's people who grew up with the first televisions were adults who chose what they did when consuming media texts. Audiences were made up of individuals who consumed the text for different reasons in different ways. This theory shows that individuals have the power to control what they choose to listen to and process. This means that different types of media have to compete to achieve peoples interest to process the information.

Reception Theory - In the 1980's and 1990's the way individuals interpreted the text changed depending on their circumstances, e.g. gender, class, age etc because peoples background seemed to change the way people read things and thought about them. Individuals started to change the way they interpreted information so certain things were not clearly defined because people saw them differently through their relationship with the information.




This theory would be very useful in our own film because it helps us to make sure information is clear and perfect for our traget audience so that the audience get the best out of our film and we only add things that will appeal to these people.