Task 3 - What have you learnt from audience feedback?

Modals of audience – Three Models of Audience

The effects Model

The Uses and Gratifications Model

The Encoding-Decoding Model

The Effects Model

- Derives from an early piece of audience research – The Payne Fund Studies

- Implies that audiences are passive recipients of meaning and values of a text

- Also known as the ‘hypodermic model’

Also implied:

- Media effects are cumulative

-Media effects are long time

-Media effects are revealed through both attitudes and behaviour

Can you think of three examples of media ‘debates’ which use the Effects Model as their basis:

1.      Sexualisation of children for example Rihanira coming on to a family program such as the X Factor wearing something inappropriate. Also the racy underwear for children such as padded bras and inappropriate underwear.

2.      Eating disorder for example magazine images of models and cloths size

3.      Video games/TV/Films for example Grand theft auto, Manhunt child’s play

Can you think of three arguments that would contradict the effects model?

1.      There up bringing

2.      Eating disorder’s have been around for a long time before any models

The Uses and Gratifications Model

- Derives from research carried out in the 1950’s – the Personal influence study by Lazarfeld, Blumler and Katz.

- Audiences are far from passive in their approach to the media; rather they actively choose and consume the media to satisfy particular needs and gratifications which they exhibit

Give an example of any media genre might provide the following gratifications:

Diversion: Romcom, comedy, Disney

Personal relationship: Sops; Hollyocks, Big Brother 

Personal identity: Music video

Surveillance: News

Encoding-Decoding Model 1

- Derives from the work of Stuart Hall at the BCCCS

- A theoretical model, which is based upon the notion that the audience do not act as a ‘mass’, but rather as a collection of smaller groups defined by social and ideological elements

-Media texts are ‘encoded’ (both consciously and unconsciously) with the values of their producers – generally white, middle-class, men

- However, the audience is not made up exclusively of these groups and different groups are likely to ‘read’ the text in different ways

The ‘decoding’ process has 3 possible outcomes:

- A preferred reading

- A negotiated reading

- An oppositional reading ( miss the reading and saw it in a completely different way)