1. Audience
Key Concepts in Media Studies

2. Who are the audience?

3. Who is the spectator?

4. Who controls the audience?

5. Who has the power?

6. Is the message a drug?

7. Hypodermic Theory
The media injects the audience

8. The media controls the message
and influences the audience
Nazi propaganda in the 1930s and 1940s…

9. The audience is weak and
vulnerable, easily led, drugged,
dumb, and duped.

10. The audience must be protected from the
power of the media.

11. What do you think?
Can you see any problems with the
hypodermic model?
Does this model view the media in
positive, negative, or neutral terms?
What view of the audience is
promoted by this model?

12. Uses and Gratifications Theory

13. Meaning isn’t fixed and determined

14. Meaning can be negotiated
or encoded/decoded

15. What THEY think it
means and what YOU
decide it means

16. But who are THEY? And
who are YOU?

17. How do YOU use
the media?

18. How do YOU use
the media?
• Education

19. How do YOU use
the media?
• Education
• Escapism or stress release

20. How do YOU use
the media?
• Education
• Escapism or stress release
• Information

21. How do YOU use
the media?
• Education
• Escapism or stress release
• Information
• A means of self-identification

22. How do YOU use
the media?
• Education
• Escapism or stress release
• Information
• A means of self-identification
• A way to belong to a group or society

23. How do YOU use
the media?
• Education
• Escapism or stress release
• Information
• A means of self-identification
• A way to belong to a group or society
• Sexual stimulation

24. Is the actual audience
the same as the
intended audience?

25. CULTS

26. Niche
audiences
Fragmented
society…

27. GENERAL
INTEREST
… is there
any such
category?
Life Magazine…

28. Family viewing

29. Fan fiction…
Home movies…
Blogging…
Podcasting…

30. DO IT
YOURSELF
YOU are the
media AND the
audience(s)

31. Review
• What are the two main theories of audience
we discussed today?
• Write a sentence to characterise each one
• What are the main problems with each?
• How many different forms of DIY media can
you think of?