Lecture 11 The audience of
mass communication
Objectives:
Understand the concepts of audience and
their various implications
Have an idea on the approaches to the
understanding of audience and two models
in particular,passive and active audience
Understand their relationship with social
and media development
Media and audience
Early,(pre-print e.g,
religion service,visitors,
news letters,
drama/theatre),localized,
passive,known
Middle,(printing)
dispersed,national,
passive,choice,shared,
anonymous,hetergeneous
Modern,(audiovisual),
dispersed,mass,
national,passive and
active,choice,shared
and individual
Activity I
How about the audience
in digital time?
Post-modern (digital)
Dispersed
Multinationals
Global access
Increasingly active
Unlimited choice
Increasingly individual
Known?
Specified?
Approaches and classification to
the study of audience
Approaches
Mass
Group
Market
public
Classification
Place
People
Type of medium or
channel
Content
Time
Passive models of audience
People/audience are assumed to be part of mass
society
People are transformed by
technological/industrial changes
Functionalist/transmission models of the
audience,mass comm lecture 6.ppt#2,Linear
model of communication process,Lasswell mass
comm lecture 6.ppt#3,Linear model of
communication process,Shannon and Weaver
These are so-called,magic bullet” or
“hypodermic” theories
Stimulus/response,action/reaction,cause/effect
Passive audience
Receivers
consumers
Markets
targets
Active models
People /audience are assumed to be individuals in
social contexts within an overall society,
People transform and interpret media messages,
not a simple transmission of data,the impact
cannot be deduced simply by knowing what the
message was
Active audience
Individuals
Social units
decoders
The Uses and gratifications approach
Spectators?
Reception studies/cultural analysis
Finding out what people do with the media
messages they encounter (either actively or
passively) –linked to literary –critical studies,
Media use reflects socio-cultural context and
gives meaning to cultural expressions and
experiences
Methods,interviews /surveys
Reception studies/cultural
analysis (Cont.)
Media text has to be read—audience perceptions
construct the meaning and experience of media
output
Media use is situation-specific and involves
‘interpretative communities’
Audience are never passive,nor are all members
equal,since some will be more experienced or
more active than others.
Assignment
Think about this question,are audience
consumers of media products or are they the
public of social concerns?
Will new media bring new concepts of audience?
Group survey,design your questionnaires and
find out whether people are passive or active in
using media product,Sample questionnares.doc