Audience Theorists

By Ella McLeod

David Gauntlett(Things Wrong With the Media Effects Model)

• Gauntlett published ‘Media Studies 2.0’ online in 2007, which argues that classic media studies fail to define when the categories of audiences and producers unite and that new teaching methods are needed.

• He claimed that the effects model tackles social problems ‘backwards.’ - To explain the problem of violence in society, researchers should begin with that social violence and seek to explain it with reference to those who engage in it. The 'media effects' approach, comes at the problem backwards, by starting with the media and then trying to get connections from there on to social beings, rather than the other way around.

Blumler and Katz• Uses and Gratifications theory is a popular approach to understanding

mass communication. The theory places more focus on the consumer, or audience, instead of the actual message itself by asking “what people do with media” rather than “what media does to people.” – People take not a passive but an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives.

• The theory also says the audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs, the people use media to fulfil gratifications.

• Finally this suggests media competes against other information sources for viewers gratification.

Jeremy Tunstall• Primary, Secondary, Tertiary Audience Engagement• Watching films in a cinema involve a primary mode of audience engagement as the

spectator is immersed with the narrative while watching a programme at home on television may involve eating a meal at the same time, texting, using social media or other additional activities. Tertiary audience engagement is using the text as background media like music radio.”

• Primary (Close Attention) e.g cinema, books• Secondary (The medium in question is relegated to the background) e.g Radio,

some TV, Music.• Tertiary (Although medium is present, no conscious monitoring takes place) e.g

pictures

Katz and Larzasfeld

• Two Step Flow Theory• This theory asserts that information from the media moves

in two distinct stages. First, individuals (opinion leaders) who pay close attention to the mass media and its messages receive the information. Opinion leaders pass on their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content.

Stanley Cohen

• MORAL PANICS• A moral panic is an intense feeling expressed in a

populatin about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. A moral panic occurs when a “Condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests.”

• Those who start the panic when they fear a threat to prevailing social or cultural values are known by researchers as moral entrepreneurs, while people who threaten the social order are described as ‘Folk Devils.’

Martin Barker

• Challenging Moral Panics – “Barker suggests once you have entered into a debate about violent video games, for example, you must have already decided about negative media effects.” Martin Baker said “You can only have a witch-hunt if you believe in the existence of witchcraft. You must have already decided on negative media effects if your question is, “does this product have the potential to deprave its audience?”