Audience Theory

The media is made up of producers and consumers, also known as transmitters and receivers  Producers create the media and the consumers read the media. Media texts include Television programs, video's and posters etc. 

The simple communication theory

Stuart Hall suggested the encode and decode theory.

The producer/transmitter comes up with a message they want to show in there media. 

They then have to encode it, this might be in English. 

Then they have to say it out loud.

The receiver then hears the message for example they will hear the words of the message.

Finally the receiver has to decode the message.

The problem that this theory has is that the message can be decoded in different ways, for example the receiver may speak a different language to what the message is coded in or the receiver may interpret the message in the wrong way. 

The effects of the media

The first theory of the effect of the media is the Hypodermic needle. This theory suggests that the media brainwashes the consumers. This means that the media says something and the consumer is injected with the message and believe it to be true and correct. This theory dates from the 1920's. 

The second theory is Step flow. This is that the consumer follows the view of an opinion leader, they do not make their own opinion they only select which opinion leader to follow. Opinion leaders are people such as critics. This theory is thought to be a more sophisticated theory than the hypodermic needle theory.

The third theory is Uses and gratifications. This theory gives the consumer more respect, it says that the consumer makes their own opinion and only uses the media for pleasure. They make choices and selections on what to watch and what to believe. This was a republished and expanded version by Blulmer and Katz in 1974 suggesting that the audience use media for

Diversion - to escape or get emotional release from daily pressure. 

Personal relationship - Media creates a virtual companion and social discussion point with others.

Surveillance  - The consumer uses the media to find out what is going on in the world (voyeurism) 

The original theory was suggested by Lasswell in 1948, this was that the audience used the media for 

• Surveillance 
• correlation
• entertainment 
• cultural transmission 

A censor decides what age rating a film is.
A gate keeper chooses what makes the news.

The mode of address is how the media addresses the consumer, whether it is formally or informally. The media can construct a particular mode of address in order to aim the media text at a specific audience. For example the news is very formal and the presenter looks directly at the camera, the producer will have done this so that the audience feel that they can trust that what she is telling them is the truth.
 Oppositional reading is when the consumer deliberately decides to misread the intended message of the media. Rejection or subversion of the preferred reading.

Negotiated reading is when the consumer understands the meaning but it doesn't relate to them so it is of no interest to them to decode it.

Aberrant readings is when someone misreads or misunderstands the message the producers are trying to portray.  

Roland Barthes's theory: 
Denotation in media means that the producer puts in a sign that is supposed to make the consumer think something for example empty wine bottles on a table with a character acting drunk. Connotation is when the consumer takes this denotation and assumes that the character has drunk it all although they have not actually seen them do so.

Semiology is the study of signs and symbols.