AUDIENCE THEORYEliana Hajicosta

EFFECT MODELS “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.”

OUR TARGET AUDIENCE 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.

THE HYPODERMIC NEEDLE MODEL 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.

RECEPTION THEORY 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.