Audiences 1- Nirvana Task. 4C's. U&Gt. Reception theory. Cultivation theory.

You will learn what an audience is, the difference between mass and niche audiences and passive and active audiences.
Key words: Profit, fragmented, institutions. mainstream, niche. Nirvana.

TWO STEP FLOW THEORY

The Two-Step flow theory destroys the idea that audiences absorb the content of a media text directly, but suggest that a social class or demographic get their interpretation of the media through a representative of that class, known as an opinion leader. Modern day opinion leaders can be bloggers and also independent media companies that are not state controlled.

This is true with the news in today’s media –  you have journalists and commentators responding to news stories that emerge from hegemonic sources, each source will either challenge or interpret the dominant ideology differently.  This is most prevalent in the British press and their political stance, as this can affect their angle on news stories.

  

AM:
When media text producers profile their audience they take into account AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHICS
(class/economic status, gender, age, geographical location) along with their viewing preferences/needs.

There are mass or mainstream audiences
basically large audiences who consume mainstream or popular culture (Marxist would claim that this audience is largely made up of the ‘working class’), such as Hollywood films, Eastenders, reality TV, Premiership football, simple Hollywood, tabloids - They don't work too hard to source their texts.

and niche audiences
A niche audience is smaller than a mass audience but usually very influential. E.g. those that Marx would define as upper class/middle class, who may wish to see ‘high culture’ programs. Hence the launch of BBC Four for those who wish to hear/see artistic high culture programs.

Niche audiences don’t have to be this group though, they can be any small, dedicated group who advertisers feel are worth targeting or creating products for.
Examples could include, certain films (e.g. 'adult' movies - which can not really be called ‘high art’), fishing magazines, farming programs, environmental.

In other words, text producers think about the following before developing a text...

1) What social class will the primary target audience fall under?
2) What gender is the primary target audience?
3) What age will the primary target audience be?
4) What nationality will the primary target audience be?
5) What values do the primary target audience have? (Ideology).
6) Audience appeal - what will the primary target audience be looking for in a text? (UGT).

They then think about how they can best re-present their primary target audience through;
genre, narrative, characters, cast, locations, cinematography, sound, editing, advertising etc.

If you need to profile an audience, consider the types of consumers;

THE FOUR C’S (cross-cultural consumer characteristics):
This is one of the earliest, but still most popular, ways of profiling audiences. It profiles the audience in terms of wants and needs, not simply demographic. The categories are as follows:

• Mainstreamers (this is the largest group. They are concerned with stability, mainly buying well-known brands and consuming mainstream texts).

• Aspirers (they are seeking to improve themselves. They tend to define themselves by high status brands, absorbing the ideologies associated with the products and believing their status alters as a result).

• Succeeders (people who feel secure and in control – generally they are in positions of power. They buy brands which reinforce their feelings of control and power).

• Reformers (idealists who actively consume eco-friendly products and buy brands which are environmentally supportive and healthy. They also buy products which establish this ‘caring and responsible’ ideology). Individuals (highly media literate, expects high-production advertising and buys product image not product, requires high-profiling sophisticated advertising campaigns).

Consider how the consumer would look to the text for one or more of these reasons:

Uses and Gratification Theory:
This theory is the opposite of effects theory because it relies on the premise that audiences have free will and choose to consume certain things for different reasons. The theory was developed in the 1960s and was in expanded in 1974 by Blumer and Katz who suggested a series of possible reasons why audience members might consume a media text:

• Diversion (escape from everyday problems - emotional release, relaxing, filling time etc.)
• Personal relationships (using the media for emotional and other interactions e.g. substitution soap opera for family life OR using the cinema as a social event).
• Personal identity (constructing their own identity from characters in media texts, and learning behavior and values – useful if trying to fit into a new country/culture)
• Surveillance (information gathering e.g. news, educational programming, weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains etc).

This can lead you on to ….
Stuart Hall. His ‘Reception Theory’ study which determines how different audiences view the same text. He found that the way audiences DECODED a text that had been ENCODED by text producers, generally fell under one of the following readings:

• A preferred reading; of the text most likely to be received by the intended target audience who share the same ideologies (people read it as the creators intended – this is the closest to the hypodermic needle).

• An oppositional reading; generally by people who are not in the intended target audience (they reject the meaning intended and receive an alternative meaning).

• A negotiated reading; basically accept the meaning but interpret it to suit their own position/ideologies.

Task one: Answer the question
What are the audiences for the music video embedded below?
Why do the audiences choose to consume this text?
How do they consume the text?

[Consider: Genre. Iconography. Targeting of primary and secondary audiences. Mise-en-scene. Cultural ideology.]

500 Words Orange books.

Year 13 written tasks success criteria:

Knowledge of the concept of audience/representation/narrative

Awareness of relevant theories/debates/views

Uses examples to draw on relevant issues

Use of media terminology/key words

Quality of written communication

_______________________________________________________________

—
Three questions that you need to be prepared for:
1) Why do audiences choose to consume certain texts?
2) How do they consume texts?
3) What happens when they consume texts?

______________________________________________________________

PM:
When considering audiences...
You could discuss TWO STEP FLOW theory
Which suggests that information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience unmediated but is filtered through "opinion leaders" who then communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence.

Which can bring you on to
Mediation and how the text tries to involve an audience through
Mode of Address, persuasive, emotive language.

Don’t forget dominant ideology
Marxists are likely to find evidence in the modes of address of almost every text that confirms evidence of a class divided society in which workers are exploited by capitalists.
Feminists are likely to find evidence in the modes of address of almost every media text that there are assumptions about gender.

Cultivation Theory

Cultivation Theory - George Gerbner and Lawrence Gross of University of Pennsylvania (1970’s) began the study of the impact of television.
is a social theory which examines the long-term effects of television.
"The primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people spend 'living' in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality portrayed on television."
Cultivation leaves people with a mis-perception of what is true in our world.

Grebner coined the phrase: "mean world syndrome," a phenomenon in which people who watch large amounts of television are more likely to believe that the world is an unforgiving and frightening place. He focused on the effects of mass media on everyday life.

Basic Idea:
Heavy viewing of television creates an exaggerated belief in a 'mean and scary' world
This television effect is enhanced because of the decline of religion as the major storyteller in society
Television is the major source of violent images

Variations in opinions held by those who watched lots of TV compared with those who did not were measured to compare the ‘cultivation differential’.
In practice, this means that those viewers who watch lots of TV are found to have different opinions about the world outside of their front doors than those who watch less TV.

So TV cultivates the opinions of people who watch several hours of it each day, every day.

TV has to cater for the broad tastes of mass audiences, so instead of innovative programming able to accommodate diverse cultural and political views, TV producers tend to fall back on tried-and-tested formulae. This mainstreaming effect cultivates a narrow minded view of the world to which TV viewers become accustomed and cannot see beyond.

On a positive note, cultivation theory may go some way to explaining the ‘release-valve model’ of media effects in which an individual’s negative energy (anger, frustration, jealousy, hatred) is unleashed upon, say, moving pixels in video games, rather than real-life people.

Television viewers classified into two categories.

Heavy viewers who watch TV for four hours or more daily
Light viewers who watch TV for two hours or less daily

Heavy Viewers

Are less selective in what they view
More likely to expect to be involved in violence
More worried about walking alone at night
More likely to overestimate the size of law enforcement
Are more distrustful of people

In summary:
The cultivation theory is a theory that insists that television is responsible for our perceptions of day-to-day norms and reality.

Heavy viewers would perceive the world as a more dangerous place because of the higher exposure to violent television portrayals.

By watching more television a person becomes:
- more materialistic
- indifferent about environmental issues
- more violent
- more racist
- Unaware of what reality is and what television is

Task two:
Write a discursive essay with consideration given to Gerbner and Lawrence Gross' Cultivation theory.
The title of your essay is:
Does Media shape our perception of day-to-day reality?

What are the flaws of the theory? Use specific examples.
Is media is such a prevalent source?
Has it becomes a part of daily life that is unconsciously trusted?
Relate your essay to your Research Investigation.

500 Words Orange books.

Look at the three statements and decide which is most applicable for the texts in your R.I.
Consider Young and Rubicam's 4C's model when answering.

• “Media texts can make people behave in different ways – become more violent, for example” 

• “Audiences (of this text) are easily manipulated masses of people who can be persuaded to buy products through advertising or to generalise about large groups of people by accepting stereotypes"

• "The audience (of this text) control over the media, without an audience there wouldn't be a text to consume. Therefore it is the audience that gives a text its meaning - the media panders to our needs” 

Task three (Homework): 

Justify your choice and conclude why the other two statements are incorrect. Give specific examples.
200 words Orange books. Homework in by Friday 7/11