Outline the three main approaches to Audience Studies assessing the strengths and weaknesses.

The study of audience refers to the analysis of individuals or groups of people whom media products are directed at. Originally the term audience was used to describe a group of people gathered to hear a speech, lecture or debate but the meaning has since been extended to cover readers of books and viewers of television, cinema, etc.

There are three main approaches to analysing audience behaviour. The first approach is the Effects model, which is also often called the hypodermic model. The effects model is an approach that emphasises on the effect media has on its audience. The basic assumption is that the mass media have a direct, immediate and influential effect on its audience, and it is argued this effect is often negative. In particular there has been great concern about the possible harmful effects the media has on young people. Mediums such as cinema, pop music, television and radio have been blamed for various social problems concerning young people, especially violent behaviour. An example being the argument that films like Reservoir Dogs are to blame for murders and attacks that have occurred. The effects model is closely linked with The Frankfurt School, which was a group of German theorists who studied mass culture in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The Frankfurt School theorised the possible effects of modern media, especially in response to German fascisms use of radio and film for propaganda purposes.

The main strength of the effects model is that it was the first approach to try and analyse media effects systematically. It could also be argued that one of its strengths is that it attempted to isolate the effects of the media from other influences. The effects model started in the 1940’s and is now considered very simplistic. Within the effects approach the audience is seen as impressionable and open to manipulation, summed up by Armand and Michele Mattellart in Theories of Communication book; ‘The effects model seems to overlook the fact that possible effects of intervening variables in the communication process and presents the masses as being unquestioning receptacles of media messages’. Another weakness of the effect/hypodermic model is the fact that the research relied heavily on laboratory situations and the results cannot therefore used in everyday situations in the real world. It could also be argued that the researchers assumed the media were the most significant influence on the individuals and failed to acknowledge the way that social relations also have an effect on media consumption.

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The uses and gratification model is a more up to date approach and unlike the effects model this theory proposes a much more active audience experience in which the individual uses the mass media to satisfy certain psychological and social needs. The approach is mainly concerned with the choice, reception and response of audience members. It emphasises on what the audience of the mass media actually does with the information they are given. The model moves away from the idea that media tells us what to do, as we as audience members do have a chose which television programmes and newspapers we view. Audiences have certain needs (or uses) that they seek to satisfy (or gratify) in the media. According to Denis McQuail ‘It is assumed that needs arising out of social circumstances and psychological dispositions determine both the pattern of use of mass media and response to mass content.’ (Cited in Gration et al 1988:114)

These needs could for instance be satisfied by the media in terms of information, security, escape, group identification and have been grouped under the four main headings of Diversion, Personal Relationships, Personal Identity and Surveillance. Diversion means to escape from routine and everyday worries of life. Personal Relationships can be to do with either companionship for an isolated person or topic for discussion with others for someone more social. For example, “Did you see that documentary on music culture last night?” Personal identity is concerned with audience members making comparisons between themselves and people in the media. Whilst Surveillance is basically just audience members gaining information about what is going on around the world.

The Uses and Gratification model was most prominent during the 1970’s and 1980’s with the work of the already mentioned McQuail along with other academics such as Blumler, Katz and Rozengren. In Blumler and Katz’s The Use of Communication they emphasise the social origin needs which the media pur DICTIONARY OF MEDIA to gratify. For instance where a social situation causes tension and conflict, the media may provide easement or where the social situation give rise to questions about values the media provide reinforcement.

Strengths of uses and gratifications approach

The uses and gratification is seen as a very popular and well thought out model that has various positive aspects. For instance within the uses and gratification model the audience is a lot more actively involved with the media, which obviously means results will be more accurate. The audience is also differentiated (by gender for example), rather than homogeneous and the model allows us to see that some media are used differently by different audience groups.

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The encoding/decoding approach is the process of engagement linked with production. When media companies produce media texts often there are messages placed within them that should be interpreted in a certain way by the audience’s members.

The meaning of the words encoding and decoding are related to semiotics (the study of signs). Encoding is the process of translating ideas, opinions and feelings into messages in a form that is likely to be understood when sent. The code in which a message is sent is a system of signs and rules that control the way these signs are combined to produce meaning. A code could be spoken or written language, sign language or body language. Communication can only take place effectively if the communicator encodes the message in a code that the receiver shares.

Decoding on the other hand is the process of understanding and interpreting messages. Decoding information is a skill and like all skills can be improved with practice. For instance all sighted people can see objects and people in their environment and therefore react to them appropriately (for example avoiding a moving car). However Birdwatchers, navigators, detectives and scientists are trained observers in their particular areas.

Stuart Hall argues that there is a basic distinction between the social processes that encode and decode media texts. Cultural forms can be encoded through a specific mix of professional norms and technical equipment. The decoding strategies employed by the audience are similarly dependent upon social structural relations, political and cultural dispositions and access to the relevant technology. While a Halls ‘Encoding/Decoding’ article states the dual nature of textual production, it is most often remembered for the emphasis it places on three forms (preferred, negotiated and oppositional) of audience reading strategy. Preferred reading agrees exactly what the media is saying. Negotiated reading begins to ask questions but still shares a common sense view to negotiate its own understanding. Whilst Oppositional reading is a completely different interpretation and means what’s being told is totally reject completely by the audience member/s.

This model forms the backdrop to David Morley and Charlotte Brunsden’s Everyday Television: Nationwide (1978) study in audience research. After analysing general news and current affairs programmes, Morley and Brunsden went on to examine political communication programmes, intended for a wider audience in term of class and gender, such as the programme Nationwide. This was the starting point for the study of popular genres such as situation comedies, sports programmes and soap operas. Everyday Television explored the way these mass entertainment programmes perceived the lives of men and women from a broad range of social groups, including a study of representation of masculine and feminine genders, social classes and ethnic groups. Morley suggested that the encoded text serves to position subjects as a maker of a political group and the decoding process is related to social class.