Active Audiences Flashcards
Two step flow
Message is sent indirectly from the producer to the reader and is intercepted by an opinion leader who acts as a filter as to what message is received
- share media messages to wider audiences
Two step flow evaluation
Still regards audience as passive because they accept messages from opinion leader
- recognises media owners don’t have a direct impact
Uses and gratifications
Audience use the media in a diversity of ways for different needs
- we therefore don’t passively accept messages, we control how we use it and how it impacts us
Uses and gratifications evaluation
Recognises diversity in media usage
- ignores that media is concentrated in the hands of a few
- not enough supportive evidence
Selective filter
1 we must listen or view a media message
2 we have to accept it - often we will only accept it if we agree
3 then we have to remember it to affect us
Selective filter evaluation
Recognises audiences are not homogenous
- sometimes we select messages we do not agree with
- we may remember messages we don’t want to
Cultural effects
Media content contains strong ideological messages that reflect the values of those who own, control media
- Marxists: audiences have been exposed over a long period of time to a slow ‘drip drip’
Cultural effects evaluation
Recognises that media content helps those who manage and benefit from capitalism
- understands the audience interpret content in different ways with confined limits
Reception analysis (Morley)
1 preferred reading - poeple go along with media messages and it is accepted as legitimate
2 oppositional reading - a minority may oppose views expressed in the media
3 negotiated reading - media audience may reinterpret media content to fit with their own opinions and values
Reception analysis evaluation
Recognises audiences are different and diverse
- methodological concerns with research - demand characteristics
Post modern view
Media is central to the creation of the post modern world due to the choirs they offer
- allows audience members to create their own set of values and understandings of the global information they receive
Post modern view evaluation
Unclear if this has a positive or negative impact on audience members
- impossible to make generalisations about media effects and audiences as viewers react differently
