Audience Theory

• Agenda Setting


  Institutional values shown through giving prominence/priority to selected stories
• Framing


  Organisation of media language that acts to present a message in a specific way - reflects agenda
• Myth Making


  How words and images are systematically used to communicate and cultural & political meanings
• Conditions of Consumption


  Active media consumers have capacity to make judgements, question and think freely about the media product they are seeing
• Encoding by producers and decoding by audiences

  1. Dominant/Hegemonic - producers intended/preferred meaning is understood and accepted

  2. Negotiated - preferred meaning is acknowledged but decoded to fit individuals own experiences/context

  3. Oppositional - preferred meaning is understood but decoder rejects/disagrees therefor reads it a different way
• Socialisation


  The process of learning the norms and values of our culture - media has an active influence in this process
• Standardisation


  The way the repetition of an idea, behaviour or attitude across the media overtime can normalise/standardise the idea, behaviour or attitude
• Enculturation


  How the media is part of the way we learn social and cultural norms
• Repeated exposure over time

  Influences/shapes how people see the world around them
• Representations


  Cultivate particular views and opinions
• Cultivation reinforces mainstream values - dominant ideologies
• Prosumer


  Those people who create, and adapt existing media content and then distribute it via social media and the internet
• Interactivity


  The act of making references to other texts and popular culture artefacts as part of the signification process
• Participatory Culture


  Referring to the audience's role in creating, producing and distributing media content
• Textual Poaching


  The repurposing of media texts by fans to create new media products. This includes memes, fan-fiction, parody videos etc.
• Fans are active participants in the creation and circulation of meaning
• Zendaya's echo bubble features many prosumers
• Mass Amateurisation


  The capabilities that new forms of media have given to non-professionals and the way the non-professionals have used these capabilities to create and distribute media content
• Cognitive Surplus


  The cultural context of increased leisure time allowing for more sharing, collaboration and creativity using online platforms
• Digital Natives


  A person who is brought up with digital technology from an early age so using it comes naturally to them
• "We the media" - idea that modern audiences are turning into creators
• Web 2.0


  A phase in the history of the internet where it involved interactivity, user participation and collaboration
• Convergence


  The coming together of technologies and institutions to create a new product or media experience
• Digital tech/internet has had an profound effect on the relationships of the media and audiences/individuals
• Audiences are no longer passive consumers of the mass media because of the developments of the internet/Web 2.0
• Media consumers are now the producers who speak back to the media
• Social Learning/Imitation


  Copying actions in real life which have been viewed and copied through viewing an media product
• Moral Panic


  The way that the media stirs up intense feelings (often anger or fear) in the way it covers a news event or issue
• Media Literacy


  The ability to access, analyse and understand media - allows a better understanding of the complex messages received via the media
• Uses & Gratifications


  The idea that the media audiences make active use of what the media offer them. The audience has a set of needs which the media gratify
• Hypodermic Needle Theory


  A mass audience responds immediately to the direct influence of media products
• Bardic Function


  This refers to the nature of the media as a story-teller/information provider within the culture
• Cumulation


  The accumulation of effects over time as individuals view certain media content repeatedly
• Cultivation


  The margin of 'heavy' viewers over 'light' viewers when assessing the perception of social reality that the media creates
• Media producers can plant ideas in the audiences mind directly
• Audiences acquire attitudes, emotional responses and new styles of conduct through interacting with the media
• Media representations of aggressive/violent behaviour can lead audience members to imitate those behaviours in real life
• Audiences use celebrity influences on social media such as Zendaya to help construct their personal identities
• The constant need audiences have to check the media and stay connected can lead to feelings of anxiety and even addiction
• Binary Opposites


  When representations are structured as pairs that reflect oppositional values