Audience theories

This is my brief analysis mind map of all the audience theories that go to the early effect/hypodermic model to the ethnographic model.

There are 6 different audience theories in which help analyse of media texts on audiences. Studying these models have helped me understand what target audience I should aim for if my music video was to be a success.

1. The Effects model: Supposed power from the mass media to inject their audiences with ideas and meanings. Similar to a propaganda as people can slowly become brainwashed and follow the actions or behaviour that they view on media texts.
2. Inoculation model: Long-term exposure to repeated media messages makes audiences 'immune' to them. Seeing specific media texts that are explicit initially is a shock to viewers, however after the first time of witnessing something, if the exposure continues it tends to be that the viewers don't become shocked by something they see in media texts. For example: Racism on TV is isn't considered shocking anymore as it usually occurs around us and is a problem that is slowly becoming solved.
3. Two-step flow: People discuss media texts that they have previously experienced with other people. Respect levels of different people varies towards different people who are considered 'opinion leaders'. Mainly extrovert personalities are known to be opinion leaders. They arte basically people who opinions are respected by the majority of groups around them. With this perk, they can lead people on to watch a programme or listen to music that they have never experienced before. They do this by listening to the opinion leader and what they have to say about what they are doing/watching/listening.
4. Uses and gratification: Suggests media texts are designed to satisfy an individual with a certain representation, such as music videos. Music videos can display what the latest trend is in areas such as fashion or music genre to audiences, which soon follow what they see. This creates identity by using characters to define ourselves. This links into two-step flow as the opinion leaders usually are the ones who experience new trends first and begin to spread what is happening worldwide, or soon to be.
5. Reception analysis:  Extension of the 'Uses and gratification' model. Concentrates on the audience themselves and how they come to the text. Audiences create the meaning of texts and this depends on their individual and grouped social values (e.g - Age, gender, race, class)
6. The active audience: A decoding process in active audiences who are not simply using the media for gratification purposes. Mode of address - This is how media shouts at the audience, e.g how music videos are presented to audiences. There are three different types of an active audiences: Dominant, Negotiated and Oppositional.
7. Ethnographic model: Researcher enters into the culture of certain groups and questions them to understand their engagement to media texts.

 - Target audience: After some research looking into music video genres and audience theories, my target audience is going to be aimed towards an age group of around 15 - 25 years old. This is because this age spectrum is usually the ages in which media texts and social websites are heavily consumed and influence that likes of people. The audiences theories such as two-step flow occur in working and educational environments such as college. It is also the primary age in which teenagers and young adults begin to become more experimental with their music. This is good as the Arctic Monkeys new single 'Arabella' is a newly combined genre of a hip-hip inspired beat and rock 'n' rock guitar and vocal work. Fashion is also a priority of people under this age description. They admire the mis en scene in music videos more than what elder people do, purely because it interests them more. 

 

Here is a survey that I created to help me figure out my target audience: