Media Audiences

Media effects - Albert Bandura, Cultivation theory - George Gerbner, Reception theory - Stuart Hall, Fandom - Henry Jenkins, ‘End of audience’ theories - Clay Shirky

Media effects - Albert Bandura

The idea that the media can implant ideas in the mind of the audience directly

The idea that audiences acquire attitudes, emotional responses and new styles of conduct through modelling

The idea that media representations of transgressive behaviour, such as violence or physical aggression, can lead audience members to imitate those forms of behaviour.

Cultivation theory - George Gerbner

The idea that exposure to repeated patterns of representation over long periods of time can shape and influence the way in which people perceive the world around them (i.e. cultivating particular views and opinions)

The idea that cultivation reinforces mainstream values (dominant ideologies).

Reception theory - Stuart Hall

The idea that communication is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding by audiences 

The idea that there are three hypothetical positions from which messages and meanings may be decoded: 

The dominant-hegemonic position: the encoder’s intended meaning (the preferred reading) is fully understood and accepted 

The negotiated position: the legitimacy of the encoder’s message is acknowledged in general terms, although the message is adapted or negotiated to better fit the decoder’s own individual experiences or context 

The oppositional position: the encoder’s message is understood, but the decoder disagrees with it, reading it in a contrary or oppositional way.

Fandom - Henry Jenkins

The idea that fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings 

The idea that fans appropriate texts and read them in ways that are not fully authorised by the media producers (‘textual poaching’) 

The idea that fans construct their social and cultural identities through borrowing and inflecting mass culture images, and are part of a participatory culture that has a vital social dimension

‘End of audience’ theories - Clay Shirky

The idea that the Internet and digital technologies have had a profound effect on the relations between media and individuals

The idea that the conceptualisation of audience members as passive consumers of mass media content is no longer tenable in the age of the Internet, as media consumers have now become producers who ‘speak back to’ the media in various ways, as well as creating and sharing content with one another.