Post 7 - Audience Theory

People to consider:

David Gauntlett:

The effects model used to be popular theory when discussing audience in media. However, in more recent times, The 'Hypodermic Needle' theory, suggesting that the audience are 'injected' with information without them really realising, has become out of date.

David Gauntlett suggests 10 reasons for why the effects model is now incorrect, from his study in 1998:

1. The effects model tackles social problems 'backwards.'

2. The effects model treats children as inadequate.

3. Assumptions within the effects model are characterised by barely-concealed conservative ideology.

4. The effects model inadequately defines its own objects of study.

5. The effects model is often based on artificial elements and assumptions within studies.

6. The effects model is often based on studies with misapplied methodology.

7. The effects model is selective in its criticisms of media depictions of violence.

8. The effects model assumes superiority to the masses.

9. The effects model makes no attempt to understand meanings of the media.

10. The effects model is not grounded in theory.

Julian McDougall:

http://www.participations.org/Volume%207/Issue%201/mcdougall.htm

Audience reception theories to consider:

• Preferred reading/ Dominant hegemonic position


• Negotiated reading/ Negotiated hegemonic position


• Oppositional hegemonic position


• Aberrant decoding


• Moral Panic


• Mode of Address


• Profile the target audience


• Consider the viewing environment

Analysis of 4 short films in relation to this:

1) 'Whore'

Due to the name of this short film, the audience are instantly making judgements on the characters, particuarly the female characters, before they have even watched any of it. This could be the preferred reading which the producers desired, so that when the audience start to learn more about the characters, there are surprises or elements to their character which perhaps the audience didn't intially anticipate. The audience could have a negotiated reading of this short film too as the boyfriend character could be seen in several ways, he could be seen as a 'user' and an unpleasant boyfriend, or he could be seen as the victim of the girl. Furthermore, this short film could lead the audience to have some form of moral panic as the film represents young British teenage girls in a very negative way; leading the audience to perhaps worry about teenage girls in their lives.

2) 'Tender'

The preferred hegemonic reading of the short film 'Tender' is that the main character, the boy in the image above, should be felt sympathetic towards due to the way that he is constructed. His life is shown to be very dull, dangerous and upsetting as he is living in the slums of social realism, with a young mother who cannot pay the bills, and has an abusive, violent boyfriend. However, the abbarant reading could be that actually the audience ignores this, and instead thinks that this character deserves what he gets due to the ending of the film where he takes a weapon which is previously shown being used as a weapon that his mother's boyfriend uses to beat her with, and uses it to beat up a girl that he knows.

3) 'About a Girl'

The preferred reading of the short-film 'About a Girl' was that the producers intended to shock the audience with the enigmas and the ending. However, it could be argued that there are elements of an oppositional hegemonic position when analysing this short film, as there are several different moral messages which come across in this film. For example, although the audience may agree with some of the messages being conveyed by the characters, they may strongly disagree with the actions of others, such as the cruel actions of the girl towards her baby.

4) 'Jade'

I have chosen to also analyse this short film in relation to audience theory, as it could be percieved in many different ways. In regards to the profile of the target audience, 'Jade' won the Berlinale Silver Bear for Best Short Film, and so it was fairly successful. The mode of address which 'Jade' uses is very conventional; it suggests that what the audience is viewing is reality as although there are several eye-level, head-on shots, the characters never directly look at the camera and address the audience.

Writing my short-film script:

In conclusion, the analysis of the short films will aid myself and our group when writing our short film's script as we are now much more aware of the hegemonic positions which we will want our audience to be in, as well as constructing our characters and locations in the way which we want our audience to percieve them, in order to create the preferred reading.