Relivant Audience Theories

v  Audience theories

·         Uses and gratifications

·         Reception theory

·         Obstinate audience theory

           -   Active audience theory

Uses and gratification theory

This theory assumes that members of the audience are not passive, but talk an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their lives, e.g. physically buying the magazine or reading an article on the internet.

The audience is soley responsible for the media that they consume, to meet their needs.

In relation to regional magazines and newspapers, audiences choose themselves whether they involve themselves in regional based media, taking an active part of what’s going on within their community. This can result in positive and negative feedback, depending on each individual and their views on the community around them.

Reception theory

 It is likely that the less shared heritage a reader has with the artist, the less s/he will be able to recognize the intended meaning and it follows that if two readers have vastly different cultural and personal experiences , their reading of a text will vary greatly.

 The reception theory extends the uses and gratifications theory by suggesting that texts can also be chosen depending on the more unchooseable aspects of the viewer (gender, Class, Age, Ethnicity, Sexuality) and to support reasons, the background of the viewer can be a contributor to what they consume.

Obstinate Audience Theory

 'There are three decoding options to obstinate audiences and they are as follows; operating inside dominate code, applying negotiable code and substituting an oppositional code'

Giffen, 2009

  This theory assumes that there is a transactional communication between the audience and the media it takes in. it suggests that, as individuals, the audience plays a large part in the way that they influence their message to suit their own beliefs. this means that the audience is able to distort, filter or fail to recognize events that the media present, due to what they mean against their own beliefs.

  -Active Audience Theory

'Different audiences can understand a media message, but can have different responses to it. some people believe and accept the message, others reject it, using knowledge from their own experience or can use processes of logic or other rationals to criticize what is being said'

  Miller and Philo, 2001