ANNABEL TRUMAN | A2 MEDIA STUDIES

Audience Theory

Richard Dyer’s Theory

Richard Dyer’s theory was that audiences buy into films that offer them some sort of utopian solution to their own lives; gives them a sense of escapism

Pretty In Pink (1986)In the film pretty in pink

there is a utopian solution featured, The ‘nerdy’ girl gets the ‘jock’ guy at the prom which is a utopian solution to a scenario that doesn’t always pan out like it does in reality.

People buy into films like this because they want to feel uplifted or experience something positive which sometimes can be the opposite of people’s lives.

The Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt school’s theory debates whether the audience is easily manipulated; questioning their intelligence and their opinions

The Hypodermic Needle Model

The Frankfurt School

With coming of age films the audience is generally not passive. The audience tends to be more empathetic and tends to think about the characters lives and how the storyline affects these characters.

A common syntactic element in coming of age films is the social groupings/cliques the characters are placed in. The way characters are represented will make the audience think about themselves and how they can relate o he characters.

Blumler & Katz Theory

Blumler & Katz believed that audiences watch films for the following reasons Entertainment & Diversion Personal relationships/ social

interaction Personal identity Information/Education

An example of a film that fits into all of these categories is Richard Linklater’s Boyhood (2014)

David Buckingham Theory

The main audience for coming of age films is young people as they can easily relate to the storylines or they know someone that can relate to the storyline in the film. By relating to the product they can then identify themselves with the characters and offer some form of empathy towards the characters. For example in most coming of age films there is most often a group of outcasts and people that have not had an easy childhood; they may have been bullied when they were younger could relate to these characters on the screen.

David Buckingham Theory

A film in which the audience could relate to the characters would be The Breakfast Club (1985) as there are characters that fit into all different stereotypes

The JockThe RebelThe Goody-to-shoesThe Prankster