Audience and Manipulation

The audience are the people who use the media product. They can be split by gender, class, age and more. Demographics are the way we categorise audiences based on these basic details. 

Audiences are-

-Easily changed

-Easily pleased

-Easily displeased

-Easily influenced

-Easily lead

-Easily shaped

-Easily convinced- given false hope

Key theory 15- Media effects, Albert Bandura

The effects model- aka the hypodermic needle model.

The needle is the media text, the subject is the audience and the contents are the ideologies. This model is for passive audiences. In order for this theory to work people who play gta would have to be killers etc etc. 

An example of this is the propaganda used in the world war to turn Germans against Jews, however it wasn't just the propaganda- it was more complicated. The hypodermic model is too simple. 

Key theory 16- Cultivation theory, George Gerbner

When we cultivate something we look after it for it to grow.

Gerbner said that television doesn't insert ideologies into audience's brain, but seeing something over and over normalises and encourages it. 

"The idea that prolonged and heavy exposure to [tv]...cultivates" , as in grows or develops in audiences "a view of the world consistent with the dominant or majority view expounded by television"

However, this theory is now quite outdated, it's a fairly simple theory which dismisses an oppositional audience. It doesn't bear in mind that not everyone watches excessive amounts of television and it's distressingly similar to the effects model.

Hegemony is where one group wields power over another with consent- the rules the group gives are accepted. 

Adidas leg hair-

Hegemonic rules like this are generally cultivated by models or other role models like elder siblings or parents. 

Key theory 17- Reception theory, Stuart Hall

How the audience can take in media products, particularly producer's ideologies. 

The preferred reading is the 'right' reading of a text which can be enforced by positioning. When you watch a thriller film the right reading is to be scared. 

This concept has to be approached carefully: often texts intentionally have multiple meanings/readings, and audience can potentially get whatever they want our of any media text.

Three audience groups.

The dominant reading- the audience that agree with the dominant values in the text and agrees with the values and ideologies.

The oppositional reading- the audience completely disagree with what they see, and rejects the dominant reading.

Negotiated reading- The audience generally agree with what they see, but may disagree with certain aspects.