Audience Research

Active Audience • The theory that people receive and interpret media in different ways.

• Factors that affect this can include age, sexuality, ethnicity and social class.

• The audience becomes active when they become engaged in what they hear or see.

• The audience is then able to construct their own interpretations of what they are exposed to.

• Sometimes a lack of knowledge or language barriers could affect the audience ,if they don’t have a good understanding of what is going on then there will be no involvement.

• Difference in culture may also affect how active the audience is due to them being alien to what they see or hear.

Passive Audience

• The theory that as an audience we are manipulated by we are manipulated by the creators of media texts, and that our behavior and thinking might be easily changed by media-makers.

• This theory is usually brought up in discussions by parents or society when they try and explain certain groups in society which are influenced by media.

• Example of this are comics in the 1950’s and Rap videos in 2000’s.

Hypodermic Model

• According to the theory the media is like a syringe which injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience who are powerless.

• It implies that if you watch something violent the you will go out and do something violent.

• Films such as The Exorcist and A Clockwork Orange have been banned in some areas as they have been blamed for encouraging violent behavior.