Audience Theory
What Is 'Audiencehood' ?
Audiencehood is the study of audiences.
Active Audience
Passive Audience
- Easily Manipulated
- Compliant
- Weak Willed
- Controlled
- Closed minded
A passive audience is an audience who will not question and decisions, andjust go along with anything that us put infront of them. thet often will just sit and consume to product without thinking about it.
The hypodermic syringe theory
http://www.slideshare.net/aarchersimmons/passive-and-active-audience-theories-2014
- Engaged
- Involved
- Responsive
- In Control
- Free Willed
An active audience is an audience who is challenged by the themes, events etc. that may be brought up from a media product. This type of audience will usually question, think outside of the box and in general, take in the experience from the media product, and be able to gater their own opinion and take part in discussions etc.
''Media producers have an imaginary entity in mind before the construction of a media product...''
Ien Ang is Professor of Cultural Studies at the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Western Sydney, Australia, where she was the founding director and is currently an ARC Professorial Fellow.
In my opinion, This quote is making reference to media producers having an intended or target audience before putting money and creating a product. Ang uses the term 'An imaginary entity' which in my opinion, is her way of saying that media producers have to think about an audience that may not exist yet before the creation of the product. For example, the imaginary entity is the media producers estimated type of target audience. Once they have established this then they would continue to 'construct' or create the product, with the 'Imaginary entity' or ideal target audiene in mind.
''Audeincehood is becoming an ever more multifaceted, fragmented and diversified repertoire of practises and experiences''
In my opinion, this quote is suggesting that the principle of audiencehood or being anaudience or thinking of a target audience is not as simple as it used to be as people in this day and age are more of an active audience as over years, we have been exposed to the same material, audiences have developed to a point where a 'repitoire' of the same things dont interest them anymore. Audiences are more active and want something that will challenge them, their beliefs and in general, wanta product that is diferent and not just a replica of previous products.
Ang uses the words 'Multifacered, fragmented and diversified' which signifies the fact that audiences are not as simple minded when it comes to media products as I mentioned before, audiences have been eposed to the same things for so long that it no longer has the same effct it used to, therefore media producers have to change what they are doing to make their products more challenging and interactive with the audience, to create a new experience. She then goes on to say 'repertoire of practises and experienced'. In my opinion, she is talking about the fact that audiencehood is evolving and shaping more around the audiences personal practises and experience.
Stewart Hall's Reception theory
Dominant/Preferred
The reader fully shares the texts code and acceps and reproduces the preferred reading (which might not have been the result of and conscious intention on the part of the author - in such a stance, the code seems 'natural' and 'transparent'
Oppositional
The reader, whose social situation places them in a directly oppositional relation to the dominant code, understands the preferred reading but does not share the texts code and rejects this reading, bringing to bear an alternative frame of reference (radical, feminist etc.) E.g. when watching a T.V. broadcast produced on behalf of a political party, they normally vote against.
Negotiated
The reader partly shares the texts code and broadly accepts the preferred reading, but sometimes resists and modifies it in a way that reflects their own position, experiences and interests - this position involves contradictions