Audience theories

Introduction to audience theories

There are four media theories that I will explore that are based around the impact the media has upon a target audience. These are Passive audiences, the hypodermic model, active audiences and the uses and gratifications model.

Passive audiences The first idea is that a mass audience are either

passive or inactive. The target audience are seen as couch potatoes absorbing the media text. This commonly applies to commercial television programs. It was originally thought that this didn’t require active use of the brain when watching the media source. The passive audience theory is overall the ideology that the audience believe anything they see within the media.

Hypodermic model theoryThe hypodermic model theory is the idea that

the target audience are vulnerable and take influence from the powerful ideas within the media injected into them. It also suggests the audience may act upon what they see. For example Nazis used this in the lead up towards WW2 to promote their selves are inject their rules into the audience.

Active audiences The active audience theory is the new idea that

audiences interact with what the media is showing them, and avoids portraying them as couch potatoes. This is considered to be a more realistic way to talk about audiences but it subverts against the passive audience theory.

Uses and gratifications model

The uses and gratification model originates from the idea that the target audience vary and are a complex group of individuals who select media texts that best suit their needs.