This audience theory is dated from the 1920s, it suggests that the media 'inject' meaning into the audience. It is under assumption that the audience is passive and that the experience, intelligence and opinions of each individual is not relevant.
An example of this would be the Jamie Bulger case.
Jamie Bulger was a two-year old toddler who was abducted and murdered by two 10 year old boys.
The boys had apparently watched 'Childs Play 3' before they killed the toddler. As Bulger's death was very similar to a death in the film, newspapers such as 'The Sun' grabbed on to the story to speculate the debate as to whether such violence in media should be accepted.
The Bobo doll experiment.
Albert Bandura conducted a film where a young girl was acting violently towards the doll, after showing this film to groups of small children he began to see a change in their behaviour. The children were given a replica of the Bobo doll and acted in exactly the same way as what the young girl in the film did. Bandura concluded that violent media content could lead to imitation or copycat violence.
With regards to my own film trailer, as the content is action thriller it is likely that there would be some violence, however firstly the audience of my film would not be young children so therefore these circumstances are unlikely to happen, as my audience will be intelligent so therefore will understand that it is just for entertainment. Secondly, the theory has become a little outdated, and only causes moral panic when the tabloid press elaborate on certain cases.
Two Step Flow- Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet.
This is another audience theory, however is seen as more sophisticated than the one previously mentioned. The theory works like this..
- The media message is transmitted to the audience via a small group of 'opinion leaders'. These opinion leaders will have an influence over the general audience.
- The general audience will receive the media message, filtered the thoughts and opinions of the opinion leaders.
An example of this theory would be social networking sites such as Twitter, if an idol or celebrity 'tweets' their opinion on a certain subject, the followers of that person will see the tweet and are likely to agree with the comment (especially if they are a fan of that person).
This could relate to my own product, as if I created a Twitter/Facebook page for my trailer, in order to promote and advertise, then when I write a status or tweet, the people which follow are likely to have an influence on their own opinion because what I have said.
Uses and Gratifications.
This theory states the the audience choose their media text to fulfil the different needs that they have. Blumler and Katz (1974) suggested the following reasons to choose a text:
- Diversion- escape from everyday problems and routine.
- Personal Relationships- using the media for emotion and interaction.
- Personal Identity- finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts.
- Surveillance- information which could be useful for living.
In 1948 Lasswell expanded their theory and suggested that Surveillance, Correlation, Entertainment and Cultural Transmission are the functions for the audience. Since then the list of uses and Gratifications has been extended, particularly as new form of media have developed eg. video games, Internet.
The introduction of the Internet and social media has provided another platform for the audience to seek the gratification theory. However the technological advancement of the Internet has meant that it is now a digital library full of different media resources.
Social networking sites can also relate to this theory, therefore the audience can seek their gratification through the same process that I stated before.
The possible gratification which can be received throughthe use of a Facebook page could be Socialising, Entertainment, Self-seeking and information.
Furthermore, another form of media which can be linked to my own product could be a advert in a film magazine such as TotalFilm.
The ways in which my audience could be applied to this theory could be firstly, diversion; magazines is a way for the audience to relax and divert themselves from their everyday routines, they will feed the information they see about my film. Personal relationships; reading yhe magazing will allow the audience to identify new films for release, which can allow them to keep up to date with the film industry, which they can then interact the information with peers. Personal indentity, magazines allow areas for the audience to comment in to gain feedback, this allows readers to get involved. Lastly, Surveillance it allows readers to engross themselves with the film industry and learn about my film!
