Audience Theories.

Audiences are grouped according to what they do with the media e.g an active audience.

There are 4 types:

-Those who reinforce their personal identity by comparing their own role with similar media roles
-Those with a need for companionship
-Those with a need to be informed
-Those with a need to be entertained

Stuart Hall and David Morley came up with the Encoding/Decoding Model. This is the idea that audience vary in response to media messages because of social position, gender, age, ethnicity, occupation, experience and beliefs. It is encoded to present preferred reading.

There are 3 kinds of response:

-Dominant: Audience agree with dominant values..

- Negotiated: Generally agree with dominant values expressed but may disagree with certain aspects according to their social background.

- Oppositional: The audience disagree with dominant values expressed within the preferred reading.


The Hypodermic Syringe Model concludes that the media are powerful agents of influence and a capable of 'injecting' ideas and behaviours. Children and teenagers are considered susceptible to this.