Audience Theories

Audience Theory

Utopia - Richard Dyer

The media theorist Richard Dyer has noted the audience look for 'utopian solutions' to the World's problems within film. The concept of a 'Utopia' is a perfect society with no flaws, which is present in many films, such as 'Back to the Future: Part II', which envisages a beautiful future with major technology and lower crime.

Hypodermic Needle Theory - The Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt school theorised that when an audience watches a film, they are passive meaning that they are told how to think.  They believe that characters can be 'demonised', values can be presented and many other things could be present through the media. The audience are supposed to be told how to think, as there is no other form of information. This is where the 'needle' image comes from, as if people have views 'injected' into them.

Users and Gratifications - Blulmer and Katz

The Blulmer and Katz media theory of 'users and gratifications' is the theory that audience members know what they want from a media text. They will consume different texts differently and this can be seperated into four categories: Information (find out about relevant events, seeking advice, education, gaining a sense of security through knowledge), Personal Identity (find out models for behaviour, identifying with another, re-enforcing their values and gaining insight into themselves) Intergration (gaining insight into others lives, identifying with others for belonging, finding a basis for conversation, carrying out social roles, enabling them to connect with friends, family and society) and finally entertainment (escapism, relaxing, cultural or aesthetic enjoyment, filling time, emotional reasons, arousal).

'Wallpaper' - David Buckingham 

David Buckingham believes that young people see the media as a 'wallpaper' in their daily lives, using it to make sense of their life and experiences around them to develop their taste. A strong example of this would be what many newspapers have described as the 'Skins' generation, basing their musical tastes and lifestyles around the Channel 4 drama show 'Skins'.