1. Media Theory
1. Audience
a. Audience Understanding
b. Audience Classification
c. Audiences and Media
d. Passive vs Active Audiences
e. Passive Audience: Influence
f. Passive Audiences: Influence over time
g. Active Audiences: Expectations
h. Active Audiences: What they get from
Media
i. Active Audience: Interpretation
j. Audience as Product
By K.McCabe
Updated 2014

2. 1. Audience
Always
question
who are the
audience
and what’s
in it
for them?
K McCabe 2014
What do the audiences expect from the media text
they are engaging with?
From a young age we organise, classify, or predict what
we ‘read’.
When we ‘read’, we activate this ‘ schema’ or pre-existing
knowledge. It acts like an iceberg and shapes our
understanding. The top of the iceberg is what we see/read,
the underneath is the knowledge we bring to it – our
understanding, our beliefs and expectations

3. Audience Classification
Mass Audience = products
created for broad appeal
Niche Audience
Niche Audience = a small
audience targeted to consume a
specialist media product.
Source: Wikipedia
BARB, RAJAR and NRS
count audience figures
K McCabe 2014

4. Audiences and Media
Alternative
Culture
Elite Culture
Mass &
Popular
Culture
Niche
Culture
K McCabe 2014
Marginalised
Cultures

5. Passive vs Active Audiences
Passive Audience
Passive Audience theories include the
Hypodermic needle theory which
Hypodermic Needle
suggests that Audiences passively
absorb and consume Media – we accept
the messages shown to us. Hypodermic
needle is now thought to be outdated as
research shows that audiences engage
and create meaning for themselves
K McCabe 2014
Active Audience
ActiveAudience theories include the
Uses & Gratifications theory which
Uses & Gratifications
suggests that Audiences actively absorb
and consume Media – we use media
texts for own purposes. A criticism of
U&G is that we don’t always know why
we are using or consuming media, and
that other factors like money may
influence the media we consume (eg.
access to pay/subscription services)

6. Passive Audiences: Influences?
K McCabe 2014

7. Passive Audiences: Influence over time
This is the Gerbner’s conclusion that the influence of
media on audiences causes them to believe that the
world is a ‘mean and scary place’. Violence in film, bad
events in News, shocking TV all contribute to this belief –
but are created for increased profit and consumption
K McCabe 2014
Which of these theories could be
challenged? How?

8. Active Audience : Expectations
V
Audiences approach texts
with Expectations – When
we sit down to watch a
Romantic Comedy, we
expect to act a certain way
(laugh, feel happy, get
involved with characters) .
Audience Expectations
and whether they are
met (or challenged) is
very important in
analysing how Audiences
might respond to Texts.
Audience Expectations and
whether they are met (or
challenged) is very
important in analysing how
Audiences might respond to
Texts.
Audience expectations
are made up of
expectations of…
Medium
As Audiences we have become sophisticated in
understanding the limitations and strengths of
each medium – we expect interactivity from
New Digital Media and one-way messaging in
printed media.
K McCabe 2014
Text Type
The Type of text shapes
the way Audience responds to a texts. For
example, an Audience expects particular codes
etc from A Public Information Film compared to
what they expect from a Advert or a Horror.
Subject matter
Institution
Audiences expect different subjects to be
treated in particular ways. For example,
Illness to be treated with respect. This can
then be conformed to or challenged for
dramatic impact
Audiences expect BBC1 to provide
mainstream, non-confrontational
programming, whereas they would
expect controversy and diversity with
CH4

9. Active Audiences: What can they
get from media?
Broadly, these reasons are:
1. Information
finding out about events, satisfying curiosity, gaining a sense of security
through knowledge
2. Personal Identity
reinforcement for personal values, finding models of behaviour, insight
into one's self
3. Social Interaction & Intergration
insight into circumstances of others; social empathy, identifying with
others and gaining a sense of belonging, interaction, enabling one to
connect with family, friends and society
4 Entertainment
escaping, diversion from problems, relaxing, getting enjoyment, filling
time, emotional release
K McCabe 2014

10. Active Audience: Interpretation
Audiences read texts. Stuart
Hall’s Reception Theory states
Reception Theory
that texts are encoded for a
specific and preferredReading
Preferred reading.
If the construction of meaning
needs the audience, it is now
believed that, at best
audiences 'negotiate' Readings
‘Negotiate’ reading
as they modify, select and
discard parts of the text based
upon personal experiences etc.
Oppositional or subversive
Oppositionalor Subversive
readings occasionally happen
when the audience read a text
is a way unintended and
unexpected by the text
Polysemic Texts
producers. Polysemic texts are
open to multiple readings.
K McCabe 2014

11. Audience as Product
Through media texts,
Audiences are
delivered to producers
as potential consumers
for their products. The
‘price’ that the
audience has to pay for
viewing their favourite
programme is exposure
to continual, subtle and
invasive advertising
Some Audiences are more
valuable than others – eg the
Audience of X Factor
compared to the Audience of
a niche TV programme.
Through Social Media,
Audiences are not only
delivered but they act as the
vehicle – sharing,
commenting on texts for
other audiences
Find examples of audiences being
subjected to advertising in subtle
and invasive ways.