Audience Theories
Cards (7)
- Henry Jenkins- Fandom TheoryFans are active participants in the construction and circulation if textual meaningsFans are devoted followers of media texts who actively engage with the products to construct their own meanings and interpretations beyond the original message
- Jenkins argues that fans have become more important to media industries as they can be used to promote products, generate publicity and create new content.
- Stuart Hall argued that audiences do not passively accept what they see on screen but instead make sense of it through decoding processes.
- George Gerbner- Cultivation TheorySuggests heavy television exposure will have a significant influence on our perception of the real world. The more we see a version of reality being depicted on the screen, the more we will believe it is an accurate reflection of society.TV is considered to contribute independently to the way people perceive social reality and will have an effect on the audience's attitudes and values
- George Gerber- Cultivation Theory - CRITICISMScreen violence is not the same as real violence. Many people have been exposed to screen murder and violence, but there is no evidence at all that this has lead audiences to be less shocked by real killings and violence
- Stuart Hall - Reception Theory
- How media messages are encoded and decoded
- Preferred - audience takes messages of text how the producer intended, relevant to audience e.g. age, time, culture, likes, fandom
- Negotiated - audience accepts part of producers views but on own terms as well e.g. might relate to narrative but not characters
- Oppositional - audience rejects reading completely e.g. different age, culture, time, beliefs, likes
- Reception theory suggests that audiences don’t just receive messages from the media, but also negotiate them according to their own experiences and backgrounds. This means that different members of the audience may take away very different meanings from the same programme or film.