Audience

Question 1

What theorists are relevant when looking at audience?

Answer 1

Bandura and Gerbner will be relevant to any discussion of media effects.
• Hall will be relevant to any discussion of decoding.
• Jenkins and Shirky will be relevant to any online ‘participatory culture’ with ‘amateur producers’.

Question 2

Media effects - Albert Bandura

Answer 2

The idea that the media can implant ideas in the mind of the audience directly

Question 3

Cultivation theory - George Gerbner

Answer 3

The idea that exposure to repeated patterns of representation over long periods of time can shape and influence the way in which people perceive the world around them (i.e. cultivating particular views and opinions)
The idea that cultivation reinforces mainstream values (dominant ideologies).

Question 4

Reception Theory – Stuart Hall

Answer 4

the idea that communication is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding by audiences

Question 5

Fandom – Henry Jenkins

Answer 5

The idea that fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings

Question 6

‘fandom’?

Answer 6

supporters, for a music artist or film franchise

relevant to the online blogs as audiences respond and interact with the bloggers as part of a social online community.

Question 7

‘End of audience’ theories - Clay Shirky

Answer 7

The idea that the Internet and digital technologies have had a profound effect on the relations between media and individuals

media consumers have now become producers who ‘speak back to’ the media in various ways, as well as creating and sharing content with one another.