Audience Theorists

what is stuart hall's reception theory?

• it is about how audience's receive media

• producers encode (create) meaning (this is the preferred meaning)

• audiences decode meanings in 3 different ways based on context, background, values, beliefs and ideologies

what are preferred readings created through?

1. technical codes

2. genre

3. media language

what are 3 ways audiences can decode meanings?

1. dominant

2. negotiated

3. oppositional

what is a dominant reading?

the viewer accepts the preferred reading

what is a negotiated reading?

the viewer accepts some elements but modifies them to reflects their own views or experiences

what is an oppositional reading?

viewer rejects preferred reading

what was albert bandura's theory?

• media has a direct influence on audience member's values/behaviour

• the media can also have indirect influence through social networks

• he argues that audiences imitate behaviours they see in media

how does the SLT link to media effects on audiences beliefs (etc)?

• based on the bobo doll experiment

• children observe models in society (parents, teacher, TV characters)

• these models provide examples of how to behave, this could be imitated

• the extent to which it is imitated relies on how similar/familiar the model is to the child and the reward/punishment associated with the imitated behaviour

what is george gerbner's cultivation theory?

• media can influence audiences over a long period

• people who watch a lot of TV are more likely to have a negative view on the world (mean world syndrome)

• people who watch a lot of TV were more likely to have similar views (mainstreaming)

what does mainstreaming mean?

when heavy media users would change their original perceptions and beliefs to fit in with the views being put forward by the media

what is resonance?

when the messages are relevant to the audience and coincide with the audience's existing views

what is henry jenkins theory?

• participatory culture

• audience members become textual poachers, taking aspects from media texts to create their own content

• convergence culture

• spreadable media

what is participatory culture?

the idea that the development of new media allows the audience to be active and creative participants rather than passive consumers

what is a textual poacher?

type of prosumer as they take text from an already existing piece of media (putting eleven in a fanfic)

what is convergence culture?

media is shared, adapted and consumed constantly on a range of different platforms

what is spreadable media?

when content is adapted by audience members for their own purpose and shared with others

what are the fans of ST like?

• strong online fanbase

• they have created negotiated readings of the text

• they're textual poachers

4 netflix/industry products made for stranger things

• dustin's thinking cap

• hellfire club shirts/rings

• news reporter video on youtube

• pandora x stranger things

3 audience-made ST products

• fan art/fanfics

• 'stranger short: encounter' (fan made encounter video with a demogorgon)

• new poster ideas

what is clay shirky's theory?

• audiences can't be seen as a single mass of people

• audiences engage differently with media products across different platforms with media products across different platforms with some creating/adapting the products themselves

• ST is created by industry professionals however some audiences can become prosumers and make their own content