Audiences of the Media

Audiences of the Media

Introduction

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· It would be unusual for any of us living in a contemporary western

society to go throughout a day without encountering some form of mass

media.

· This is not surprising. The media is directed at us, we are its

audience.

· There seem to be 3 important questions:

o Does the media affect our behaviour or beliefs?

o If it does produce an effect how can this be explained and measured?

o To what extent do we ignore or subvert media messages?

· In general there seem to be two main approaches to the study of

audiences.

· One approach views the audience as very much the passive recipient

of media messages – the media produces effects in an audience.

· The second approach considers the audience as much more actively

involved in media interpretation – the reception analysis model.

· Or more simply:

o What does the media do to us? (The passive audience)

o What do we do to the media? (The active audience)

· This division reflects the more general argument within social

sciences as to the extent to which our behaviours are determined by

the wider society, or the result of freely exercised choice.

Passive Audience Models

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The hypodermic syringe / Effects model

· The earliest model of media effects has two main features:

o The effect is fairly immediate.

o It is a simple stimulus-response model of human behaviour.

· According to the theory, the media is like a syringe which injects

ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience who as a powerless mass

have little choice but to be influenced.

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... middle of paper ...

...drip drip” effect of constant exposure to certain

messages, in others the audience will accept media rather uncritically

and in other cases resist media texts.

· Clearly this suggests not only different types of media text, but

also the idea of different audiences.

Conclusion

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· We need to be aware of the broad shift from a perception of mass

audience to one which recognises that, whatever the size of audience,

it is made up of individuals.

· Along with this altered view is a shift in emphasis from what the

media do to the audience to an acceptance that audiences bring many

different approaches to the media with which they engage.

“It’s not just what the media do to us, but what we do to the media

that counts”. Discuss this assertion with reference to developments

in audience studies.