Media Audiences

It has been shown that media can have a negative influence on young audiences through violent TV or video games, which can breed aggression. Supporting this, there are sociological theories that suggest that media has a direct and immediate influence on its audiences.

Let us try to evaluate the view that media influences its audience, by studying the following media theories.

• We will mention several media audience theories.
• We will look at media audience examples.
• Then, we will discuss how audience effects in media look like.
• We will consider the types of media audience.
• Finally, we will discuss social media audience.

Media audience examples

We will go through some models that attempt to explain how media and audiences interact. These are the hypodermic syringe model, two-step flow model, selective filter model, reception analysis model, cultural effects model, and the postmodernist model.

Fig. 1 - There are several models to explain how the media and audience interact.

Media audience theory

There are many media audience theories. Let us start with the hypodermic syringe model, as the first media audience theory.

The hypodermic syringe model

According to this theory, media has a direct and immediate effect on the audience. The theory assumes the audience to be a 'homogeneous mass', and the audience believes what the media portrays without questioning the content. Audience engagement is the audience actively engaging with media messages. In the hypodermic syringe model, audience engagement is low.

Media effects on the audience: The culture industry

This theory is associated with Neo-Marxists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer.

In other words, they suggested that popular culture in the USA was like a production factory, where the content was produced to manipulate the masses.

They further argued that the type of content produced by the culture industry made the mass audience passive and vulnerable, and encouraged false needs and interests that could be met by becoming good customers of capitalist products.

Media effects on the audience: Imitation or copycat violence

Albert Bandura conducted the 'Bobo Doll' experiment in 1961, involving young children and testing for aggressive behaviours through imitation. The children were shown media of adults attacking an inflatable bobo-doll with a mallet and verbally abusing the doll. The children were then sent to a room filled with toys, but were told that the toys were not for them. Later, the children were taken to another room, where there were dolls and mallets.

As the children were upset and frustrated by being told that the toys did not belong to them, they started acting aggressively by beating the dolls with the mallet - imitating what they saw in the media.

Experimenters used a control group of children that were not exposed to media violence. The children in this group did not become violent, despite being taken to a room with a doll and mallets.

Media effects on the audience: Desensitisation

Elizabeth Newson argued that the effects of media violence on its audience, especially children, were indirect and gradual.

The theory suggests that children and teenagers are subjected to acts of violence through viewing films and television. Prolonged exposure to acts of violence encouraged audiences, especially children and teenagers, to identify with violent perpetrators, thus becoming 'desensitised' to violence. She further argued that children see violence as a normal way of solving problems.

Fig. 2 - Children may become gradually desensitised to violence in the media

Criticisms of the hypodermic syringe model

Audience effects media

The audience can affect the media as well as the media can affect its viewers. Recently, there have been more studies on on how these two interact. We will now consider further media theories, such as the two-step flow model and the selective filter model.

The two-step flow model

Created by Elihu Katz and Paul Lazarsfeld, this theory suggests that the audience is active and influenced by influential people or those who they look up to - called 'opinion leaders' - rather than directly by the media.

Katz and Lazarsfeld further argued that opinion leaders dominate social networks and form an opinion on media content. Then they pass on their interpretation within their social circle to influence audiences.

Media content undergoes two steps:

• The opinion leaders are exposed to media messages.

• The audience internalises the interpretation of the active opinion leaders.

Selective filter model

According to this theory, the audience does not easily accept the media content as the truth. The model suggests that media messages pass through the following filters before influencing the audience:

• Selective exposure

• Selective perception

• Selective retention

Audiences are exposed to selective media content - they actively choose what they want to watch, read, or hear. Different groups, influenced by things like their interests, age, and education, choose the content of the media.

Censorship is an example of this; adult media content that prevents children from watching certain shows or films draws the interest of young children rather than adults.

Fig. 3 - The selective filter model suggests audiences choose what they want to watch, read, or hear.

The audience rejects some of the media messages they are exposed to if it does not fit their perception or understanding of the world around them. Finally, the media messages need to 'stick' in the mind of the audiences to have an influence.

Reception analysis model

This theory suggests there are three major types of 'reading' for an audience. The audiences do not passively accept the media's perception of content, but they choose to read them in different ways.

• The dominant reading: sharing in the view considered to be legitimate, often shared by media content creators, editors, journalists, etc.

• The oppositional reading: opposing the views expressed in the media messages.

• The negotiated reading: the audience interprets media content to match their own values and opinions.

These different 'readings' divide the audience into separate roles, each with its own outcome. Audience profiling is the process of dividing an audience into separate groups depending on their behaviours. Audience profiling can be used by media producers to portray different media messages to each reception group.

Types of media audience

David Morley suggests that audiences belong to different cultures, which influences their interpretation of media content. According to reception analysis theory, this inconsistency in audiences' perception confirms that they are not passive, homogeneous, or impressionable. Consequently, there is a range of 'negotiated' readings.

Polysemic refers to the capability of having several different meanings at the same time. Morley argues that audiences have different aspects to their identities, and they interpret media messages in various ways, often altering and modifying their interpretations over time. He stressed that audiences are active and not passive. This makes their interpretations unpredictable.

Media audience theory: The cultural effects model

Media content reflects the ideas and values of media professionals - owners, producers, or controllers, who expect the audiences to accept their ideology in interpreting media messages. Exposure to the dominant ideology has a gradual 'drip-drip' effect, ultimately influencing the audiences to share the views of the owners and influential professionals.

Opposing views and opinions are usually not included in the media content through processes such as agenda-setting and gatekeeping.

The theory emphasises that audiences are active, but their interpretations are narrowed due to ideological control.

Media audience theory: Postmodernist model

Postmodernists argue that the media, being an integral part of postmodern society, gives individuals the opportunity to shape identities and adapt to a lifestyle of their choice. They criticise the hypodermic syringe model for assuming the audiences to be homogeneous, and also the reception analysis model for assuming that there is one dominant or preferred reading of media content.

Individuals read media messages in various ways, influenced by a range of factors such as individual life experiences. Audiences can also change their interpretation of media messages gradually and make multiple readings of the same media content. Simply put, according to the postmodernist model, the audiences are the most active.

Social media audience

Finally, postmodernists suggest that there is no such thing as an 'underlying' reality. They further argue that media constructs people's realities. For example, a person's social media profile on Facebook or Instagram is hugely influenced by media trends and sometimes is not in line with the person's real identity.