Audience Effects Theory

Task 1:

1) What is the preferred reading of a media text?

The meaning the producers intend to communicate.

2) What is the oppositional reading of a media text?

The oppositional reading goes against the meaning the producers are trying to create.

Task 2:

1) Write a definition of a passive audience: 

An audience that takes in information from the media passively.

2) Write a definition of an active audience: 

An audience that is more up to date, and make decisions on their own.

3) Write a definition of the hypodermic needle theory: 

This is the suggestion that audiences are always passive and therefore take the intended message from the producer as if it was injected into their minds. This assumes no individual difference in audience members. 

4) Write down a media product (e.g. TV show, newspaper or videogame) for each category of Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory and WHY it fits that particular audience use/gratification. The first one is done for you: 

The Kardashians - Sets the trend using celebrities as a front.