Audience Theorists Flashcards
How many audience theorists are there?
5
What is Shirky’s theory?
End of Audience Theory
Shirky is an internet optimist.
The power of social media has eradicated the idea of producers and audiences; nowadays people can do everything themselves and there is less of a divide between the two.
Active audiences have become a way for producers to advertise their products for free, as they enjoy sharing media products they like with their friends/posting about it on social media which encourages other people to also consume the media.
What is Jenkins’ theory?
Fandom Theory
Fandoms contribute to the longevity of a media product; without a strong fanbase behind it, the product will inevitably be unsuccessful due to there not being enough “buzz” or “hype” to keep audiences interested.
Fans are “textual poachers” who take parts of their favourite franchises and use these to create new products such as fanfiction, edits, memes etc.
What is Hall’s theory?
Reception Theory
Audiences subconsciously decode the meanings encoded by producers within media products by identifying the specific codes and conventions used to make up that specific genre.
These codes and conventions are deliberately used to construct clear ideologies which leave no room for polysemy (multiple/unclear meanings).
What are the 3 different ways that audiences can interpret media, according to Hall?
Audiences interpret and react to media in 3 different ways:
preferred/dominant/hegemonic reading (the audience agrees fully with the media product)
oppositional reading (the audience disagrees fully with the media product)
negotiated/compromised reading (the audience has a nuanced opinion of agreeing and disagreeing with parts of the media product)
What is Bandura’s theory?
Social Learning Theory
Children’s behaviour is influenced by the media they consume, specifically violent content which causes children to also act violently.
The 1960s Bobo doll experiment showed that children would copy adults’ violent behaviour, but it does not prove whether these children were influenced by the adults or if they acted this way in order to please the adults.
What is Gerbner’s theory?
Cultivation/Hypodermic Needle Theory
Constant exposure to violence, for example hearing about war and death everyday on the news, cultivates a lack of emotional response from the audiences which causes them to become desensitised to said violence.
Overexposure to war, murder, death, destruction causes the audience to develop “Mean World Syndrome”, where they become pessimistic and believe that the world is always negative and violent.
The hypodermic needle model suggests that audiences passively believe and internalise messages within media products.
