Eliana Hajicosta

“The hypodermic needle model - The intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver.

Two-step flow - The people with most access to media, and highest media literacy explain and diffuse the content to others. This is a modern version of the hypodermic needle model.

Uses and gratifications - People are not helpless victims of mass media, but use the media to get specific gratifications.

Reception theory - The meaning of a "text" is not inherent within the text itself, but the audience must elicit meaning based on their individual cultural background and life experiences

Obstinate audience theory - This theory assumes that there is a transactional communication between the audience and the media. The audience actively selects what messages to pay attention to.

The Zimmerman-Bauer - study found that the audience also participates in the communication by influencing the message.”

The target audience is mainly aimed at residents who were effected by the riots generally, being from London, Manchester or Birmingham. However the documentary attracts residents who live locally in Manchester mainly, this is because the documentary specifically topics Manchester. The documentary is aimed at both genders (Male and Female) ranging from the ages of 18-40. Our research during a focus group and questionnaire evidently shows that both genders would find it interesting at the age of 18 and over. We chose to range it between these two ages because it could attract audiences involved, affected or even interested in the riots themselves.

This suggests that an intended message is

directly received and accepted by a specified

audience – our documentary shares a direct

message/opinion and instantly draws our

specific audience to follow this and accept

our (the producers’) point of view. This is

less relevant to our media text as our

intended audience is able to have a specific

response either disagreeing or agreeing with

the message being portrayed.

The “audience reception” is more relevant to

our documentary. This means our intended

audience focuses on the content of the

documentary. They are then able to read the

media text based on their personal

experiences. Our production group will aim

to portray a certain message/opinion

throughout the course of the documentary,

where the audience will either agree or

disagree, this thus allows our audience to

express different views towards the

production.