Theorist: David Gauntlett

David Gauntlett is a British sociologist and media theorist. He specializes in studying contemporary media audiences, the every making and sharing of digital media, and the role of such media in self-identity and self-expression.

Gauntlett published ‘Media Studies 2.0’ online in 2007, which argues that classic media studies fails to define when the categories of ‘audiences’ and ‘producers’ unite, and that new, altered teaching methods are needed.

He states that because of web 2.0, we as audiences can become our own producers thanks to websites such as YouTube. Through this we can create our own identity and even influence other peoples.


Through this, gender identity for example, has become less constricted to previous representations. Web 2.0 allows us to create our own unique identity that doesn’t necessarily follow traditional understandings of gender. The ability and freedom that web 2.0’s allowed means it is now far more acceptable to be different and accepted for our individuality.

The copycat theory

Copy Cat or Modelling Theory: The copycat theory relates to something which is publicized in the media that creates a lot of attention, resulting in other people to imitate, or ‘copy’ this in order to gain the same level of attention. The well known example of this is copycat murders, suicides and other violent acts that come with no other motive other than attention, caused by seeing the same acts in the media, be it film, television or books.

• Audience react differently to various situations as they have different interpretations. An individual perceives a form a behavior described or portrayed by a character in media content
• The individual judges this behavior to be attractive and potentially useful for coping with some personal situation
• The reproduced behavior proves useful or effective in coping with the situation thus, rewarding the individual
• With model use, the behavior becomes habitual for that situation
• Copycat effect - you do what you see
• Centers for disease control and prevention recommendations- 1994
• They began telling news media how to portray news media about suicide to prevent copy cat

Introduction to audiences

Here is a PowerPoint I found on the internet and has helped me have a clearer understanding to audiences. It help break down the different audience categories and is definitely good to read if your starting audience theory.

Screen testing with the projector

Today we went into the black box to test out some projections.

Unfortunately Jem was not available for the screen test, it would have been better to use him as we could have got a better idea of how it will look.

Instead we used Wini as a test subject, and she did some lip syncing in front of some of our footage from Brighton.

 We especially liked how the blue toned footage looked on the projector, which we will keep in mind while editing our projection video. 

We wanted a dream like feel to the projection scenes, so the bright, more abstract worked well with this concept. 

The overall feel of the screen test was a positive one, we are all feeling optimistic about the music video.

The Effects Model

The Effects Model

• The consumption of media texts has an effect or influence upon the audience
• It is normally considered that this effect is negative
• Audiences are passive and powerless to prevent the influence
• The power lies within the message of the text

This model is also called: The Hypodermic Model

• Here, the messages in media texts are injected into the audience by the powerful, syringe-like, media
• The audience is powerless to resist
• Therefore, the media works like a drug and the audience is drugged, addicted, doped or duped.

Psychographic/ Demographic audience

Demographics

Definition: Demographic information is used in media marketing to classify an audience into age, gender, race and other categories. Demographics are broken into bands depending on peoples jobs or status.



Physcographics
 

 Psychographic segmentation divides the market into groups based on social class, lifestyle and personality characteristics. It is based on the assumption that the types of products and brands an individual purchases will reflect that persons characteristics and patterns of living.

Theorists: Stuart Hall

Audience Types
Hall included three different types of audiences decoding of text:
- Dominant or preferred
- Negotiated
- Oppositional 

DOMINANT
- How the producer wants the audience to view the media text they agree with the message is it conveying.
NEGOTIATED
- A compromise between the dominant and oppositional readings, the audience understand and agree with the text but disagree with other areas they have their own views on.
OPPOSITIONAL
- The audience rejects the encoded meaning and creates their own meaning for the text, they fully disagree with the message being submitted.