Audience Theorists

STUART HALL RECEPTION THEORY

• Audiences interpret media texts: dominant, negotiated, and oppositional readings.

• Media texts are encoded and decoded.

• The producer encodes messages and values into their media which are then decoded by the audience.

GEORGE GERBNER CULTIVATION THEORY

Repeated exposure to television over time can subtly ‘cultivates’ viewers’ perceptions of reality

Long term exposure to violent media makes the audience less likely to be shocked by violence. Being less shocked by violence the audience may then be more likely to behave violently.

HENRY JENKINS FANDOM THEORY

• Fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings (textual poaching)

• Fans read texts in way that are not fully authorised by the media producers

• Fans construct their social and cultural identities through borrowing and influencing mass culture images

CLAY SHIRKY END OF AUDIENCE

• No such thing as a ‘passive’ audience

• Audiences are becoming more active - e.g sharing

• Technology has changed our expectations and behaviour (convergent media) - we expect to be able to engage/interact

• Audiences like to be heard and ‘speak back’ to producers