Audience Theory

All media products have an audience, if not one is constructed.

There are two types of audience: 

• Mass audience
• Niche audience

As a producer, you need to know your audience.

1st Theory - The Hypodomic Syringe

The hypodermic syringe is an audience theory created by The Frankfurt School in the 1920/30s. It suggests that society is made of individuals who are ceceptable to media messages therefore media messages are injected into the thoughts of the audience who accept what they're told, without question. The audience is considered as passive.

2nd Theory - 2 Step Flow

The 2 step flow is the second audience theory created by Lazarsfeld and Kats in 1940. It suggests that there is two steps to the distribution of information to the audience.

First Step

• Opinion leaders get information from the mass media, for example a celebrity reads that 'if you eat oranges during the day it can potentially contribute to weight gain'.

Second Step

• Opinion leaders pass on information with their own interpretation, for example the celebrity goes and tweets his/hers version of the information, 'If you eat oranges it makes you fat'. This tweaked information is then read by millions of their fans.

The strengths of this theory is that the audience is active and seen as a part of society.
The limitations of this theory is that there are more then two steps in the flow of communication.

3rd Theory - Uses and Gratification

Uses and Gratification is a theory created in the 1960s. This theory took into consideration that their audiences were adults who had grown up with television. It suggests that the audiences make choices about what the consume which make the audiences no longer passive. We consume texts for different reasons and in different ways.

Further development of Uses and Gratification


In 1974, Blulmer and Katz made a further development of this theory, suggesting the different reasons why we consume text.

• Diversion - we watch to escape
• Personal Relationships - we use media for emotional and other interactions, for example we form attachments to characters and want to see how they development throughout.   
• Personal identity - You recognise and learn values from what you see.
• Surveillance - Information to make our life's easier, for example the weather forecast. 

This theory has now been extended because of video games and the internet.


4th theory - David Morley


This theory was created in 1980 suggesting that there are three main different ways that audiences react to what they're seeing.

• Dominant reading - audiences share the programs code eg. they believe everything they're told.
• Negotiated reading - They partly believe everything.
• Oppositional reading - do not believe anything and do not share the programs code, they rejects it.