Uses and Gratification of the media towards the audience
A famous individual who went by the name Laswell suggested that media texts do the following for an audience:
- surveillance
- correlation
- entertainment
- cultural transmission
In 1974 there were two researchers named Blumer and Katz came up with something which stated that the audience may chose and use a text for some of these purposes:
- Diversion – escape from everyday problems and routine.
- Personal Relationships – using the media for emotional and other interaction
- Personal Identity – finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts
- Surveillance – Information which could be useful for living
Reception Theory
This theory was founded from work that Stuart Hall had done, this theory states that the text is encoded by the producer and that it is decoded by the reader and that there may be major differences of the code between the two because there are very different mindsets behind who is reading them. If the producers use codes and conventions which are well known by the audience then they can put the audience in a specific position that they will agree with the meaning of the code according to the producer.
Sources
http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=audience
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