Audience Essay

Stuart Hall
Stuart Hall claimed that media texts go through stages of encoding and decoding; his theory states that media texts are encoded by the producer and that the texts contain only the ideologies of the people who made the media text. Decoding is when an audience views the text and interprets their own ideologies into the text. Not all audiences will respond in the same way, and in some cases, not how the producer intended. Hall included three different types of audiences decoding text:

• Dominant/preferred
• Negotiated
• Oppositional

Dominant; this is how the producer wants the audience to view the video.

Negotiated; the audience agree with the text but also disagree with other areas they have different views on.

Oppositional; audience rejects the meaning and creates their own meaning for the text as they fully disagree with the message that is being portrayed.

To properly understand this theory, as a class we analysed the music video for 'Smack My Bitch Up' by The Prodigy. This song caused a serious uproar as it appeared to promote violence against women and actually was seen as the most controversial music video of all time in a 2010 UK poll. Due to it's explicit content, the music video was actually originally banned throughout the UK and US, it was also banned by the BBC and only a lyric-free version was played on Radio 1. Here are some of the notes that I wrote down relating to the different types that I listed earlier.

Using Hall's theory in relation to my video - the dominant aspect of this video is that if the audience love Beyonce then they will love her video and song and will want to watch it purely because they love her as an artist. Whereas the negotiated aspect, the audience could say that they enjoy watching the video as it is creative etc. however it is not realistic and no one from the audience is going to perform any of the actions that Beyonce has carried out in this video making it not relatable. Finally, the audience can reject this video as I said earlier that is not seen as realistic and also they could say her actions are not suitable for her audience that she performs for.

Dominant/Preferred

• a change of gender roles
• assumptions that only males have this lifestyle
• shocks an audience
• gender roles changing in society
• impact of alcohol and drugs is negative
• this lifestyle breaks stereotypes as it could be either gender shown in the video
• assumption based on young people
• negative impact on drugs makes people not want to do them
• drugs/alcohol makes a person delusional
• women can behave as bad as men
• representing equality of gender
• challenges the male stereotype
• it is a true representation

Negotiated

• true men fit presented stereotype however women can also adhere to this, in this video the stereotype is reversed therefore this causes an audience panic
• willing to consume message, enjoy stereotypes being switched
• understands message, doesn't like the drugs/alcohol/violence
• uncomfortable to watch, supposed to come across like this so the audience will know not to act in this way
• people may have experienced one element (drugs/alcohol/violence) therefore it is relatable, but unrealistic as it is shown extreme
• the main character is a woman, audience misinterpreted the message as it is shown from a males point of view, intended message missed
• realistic as women do fight, yet the drama is unrealistic
• we understand the implied meaning although we haven't experienced drugs/alcohol meaning it can be hard to relate
• if the audience doesn't watch the full video, they won't understand the preferred reading
• understanding of implied meaning, desirable for young people, people from other cultures can be 'warned'
• stereotypes are challenged, therefore the audience becomes interested, extreme messages need to be extremely showed
• females may find offensive
• not a true representation of women; not all women act like this

Oppositional

• reject message because we don't feel women are capable of such violence
• don't agree with drugs etc. as they are unhealthy
• creates moral panic due to the extreme adult scenes
• upper class could accept reading as they know what lower class can be like whereas lower class could reject the reading as not all lower class people act in this manor
• women have oppositional point of view because they are angry, religions offended as can go against most cultures
• reject message because her actions are only like that because of her taking the drugs
• seen as offensive or upsetting, bad behaviour could affect religious people or the upper class
• a reject of sexuality, as some people do not agree with homosexuality

Blumler and Katz Theory
Blumler and Katz came up with the uses and gratification's theory which is a popular approach to understanding mass communication. The uses and gratification's model represented a change in thinking, as researchers began to describe the effects of the media from the point of view of the audience. The theory asks "what people do with the media", rather than "what the media do with people".

The model looks at the motives of the people who use the media, asking why we watch television/films in the way in which we do, why we bother to read news-papers, why we find ourselves so compelled to keep up to date with our favourite soap or consume films. The theory makes the audience as they choose what they want to consume, they are not forced in to consumption e.g. you only watch the films you want to watch; you're in control.

The theory argued that the audience have social and psychological needs which generate certain expectations about the mass media and what they're exposed to. In this context the audience means the active participant, it allows them to make choices in relation to what they consume. The audience is in control of their own consumerism.

The 4 needs include:

• Surveillance
• Personal Identity
• Personal Relationships
• Diversion

Surveillance

This is based around people feeling better having the feeling they know what is going on in the world around them. We watch the news because we believe it is a reliable source of information and makes us feel secure as we know what is happening. It is all about awareness, uses mass media to be more aware of the world, gratifying a desire for knowledge and security. Social media influences how this concept works as fake stories are created giving a sense of security.

Personal Identity

Personal identity is how being a subject of the media allows us to confirm the identity and positioning of ourselves within society. When consuming a media product, it allows us to associate and relate to the product directly making us feel gratified and able to relate to a product. Different genres allow people to identity in different ways to different elements. It explains the use of the media for forming personal identity which can be seen in music videos. Different genres allow people to identify in different ways to different elements.

Personal Relationships

Personal relationships relates to relationships with the media and using the media within relationships. All of us form relationships with the mediaas many people use the television as a form of companionship as the television is quite an intimate experience, we feel close to the characters as if we know them and become attached. Using media within relationships is good as you can discuss your favourite television programme to start a conversation, or the television can be a stimulate a conversation for families whilst they are watching the television, this is building relationships.

Diversion

Diversion describes escapism; we watch the television to forget about our problems and daily lives to think about something else. We watch music videos/television to take our minds off our lives and to distract ourselves from our problems. We want to see that we are normal and that people do experience the same things as us.

Discussing this theory in relation to my chosen music video; in this case surveillance isn't anything to do with Partition due to this part of the theory focusing around news.

However we can discuss personal identity; the audience that watches this video may consider themselves a big fan of Beyonce and really enjoy watching this music video due to liking her so much as an artist. The audience can also see Beyonce's personality being portrayed and this may make them want to be like this and have more confidence in themselves as she does in her video.

Personal relationships  can be formed due to fans talking about her music video via social media websites such as Twitter or Facebook or even face to face communication. They could really enjoy parts of her video or either disagree with how she is portraying herself, either way this is building strong relationships.

Finally discussing diversion; people may watch this music video to escape. When the video firstly comes on we see grounds and grand buildings, the audience may see this as escapism. But not only this, they may escape in the way that they are wishing that they could be Beyonce or imagine themselves living her lifestyle; this is showing that they are escaping form their own and focusing on 'better' ideas.

Hypodermic Needle Theory
The hypodermic needle theory implies that mass media has a direct and immediate response on its audience. It was considered the most powerful media theory when it was first created back in the 1920's to 1930's; it was very influential to its audience. It influenced and changed peoples behaviour, when they were injected with all of this information we could see that there was a change in behaviour. The theory acts like a needle due to the fact it is saying that the media acts like a needle as it shoots information into the audiences brain.

Due to the fast rise in radio and television, this is what influenced the theory and put it together. It is basically saying that 'what we see is what we believe' however now we know that this theory is dated as we do not now believe everything we see as we are all more educated. The theory suggests a very large group of people directly and uniformly by 'shooting' them with the appropriate messages designed to trigger a response. It expresses a view that media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver is powerless to resist the impact of the message.

People would be seen as passive and end up believing anything that they were told as they had no other sources of information to check to see if the information they received was really true or not.

There are many cons to this theory, these include;

• the theory is out of date and invalid
• not everyone consumes media in the same way
• audiences not simply passive, their are up to date theories that prove this theory isn't 100% true as shown in Stuart Hall's theory
• as technology changed and became more modern, there were more sources available
• nowadays we are more aware if society and how institutions operate
• we understand conventions and know when to reject messages nowadays

A famous case which showed that this theory at the time was very much true was the War of The Worlds case. This is where people assumed Mars had invaded planet Earth due to a radio announcement and the American's believed it straight away because there was no other sources to check if this information was truly reliable. This case demonstrates a passive audience and how an audience believes exactly what they hear on the news as they see them as a reliable source of information, however sometimes this can lead to misinterpretation, as shown in this case.

Relating to my chosen music video; Beyonce - Partition. Parents may watch Beyonce's provocative video and believe that their children may want to look up to Beyonce and do whatever she does and in this case, that isn't the best idea as we see Beyonce perform in a sexual manor for a man and also enter a club and begin to dance provocatively around a pole. Parents may think that Beyonce is a bad role model/influence to their children and maybe even think that they may want to act like this.