Audience

AUDIENCE

Users and Gratifications Model of the Media:

- Mass media is a huge phenomenon, able to reach millions through different 'platforms'.
- Builds direct relationship with the audience - overcomes distances. Arguably 'injects' messages into their minds - 'Uses and Gratifications' model looks at effects of media from point of view of people taking it in/receiving it. In a nutshell, people are motivated by desire to fulfil certain needs by using the media.

SURVEILLANCE:
- Based round the idea that people feel better knowing what is going on around them - this could be the reason we watch the news or read newspapers - when we find out news (even bad news) we end up feeling more secure about our own lives, because 'ignorance is a source of danger' so we know what to be wary of.

USING THE MEDIA WITHIN RELATIONSHIPS:
- If one has a favourite television programme in common with someone else, it is a topic of conversation and a means to keep in touch and talk about something. For example, if two people watch 'Hollyoaks' they can relate to one another and talk about how they feel about certain issues within the programme.

DIVERSION:
- Diversion is also described as 'escapism'
- A way in which an audience member can get away from the boring reality of their own lives and be taken into another world of soap operas with happy endings and ideal relationships. People almost feel like they can be a part of this other world if they watch it and know what is going on/have an opinion on the events that occur in the programme.

The Audience:
Mass audience is always fragmented - media institutions no longer seem to be interested in keeping the audience together, but are now interested in 'triggering engagement' in people.
- Push media to pull media - the idea of instead of the audience having certain media pushed at them in the form of film posters or trailers, the audience use social medias and other means to control what they are shown and pull what they want to see towards them. This way they should value the media more as it is more personally tailored to them.
WEB 2.0 - Youtube is a good example of web 2.0. Web 2.0 is 'a new phase of the internet which allows us to create material, distribute it to one another and perhaps move closer to the democratic 'spirit' of the internet that its inventor had in mind'. Youtube is an example of a website in which people can access more or less any video they like, and encourages creatives to make films and music and share it online easily and for free.

Media audience theories:
Some case studies suggest that the media are responsible for a large range of 'social problems', however, there is lack of real evidence for the support of the idea that, for example, playing violent video games leads to violent antisocial attacks or vandalism. There are methods of 'protecting' people from having access to this content however, such as certification and censorship.
- The 'hyperdermic syringe model' views audiences as 'passive recipients of 'injected' messages'.
- 'Cultivation theory' is the idea that over a period of time of being exposed and told a certain idea through the media, we automatically tend to take that stance on an issue and adopt the opinion ourselves.
- 'Desensitisation' is the idea that the more we are exposed to seeing violence through the media, the less shocked we are to see it in real life.
- 'Copycat theory' claims that when we see actions 'modelled' on screen, some individuals may act out what they are shown. (This theory gets a lot of media attention).
Although all of these theories are valid and have had a lot of research done into them, it is widely believed that the media are not responsible for social problems within society as there is a lack of evidence.