The difference between audience research and audience theory

Theory: is different ways of thinking about audience

Research: produce evidence about the relationships between the media and audiences

Audience research is always linked closely to a certain audience theory:

E.G.  if your researching if shows like the walking dead encourage violence in teenagers, you are working with the idea that the media strongly influences teenage audiences


Their is the idea that audience research does not always produce facts about the audience, it's influenced by strong assumptions about the audience which it tries to prove. When a research question is formed their are always some assumptions that form it

E.G. if you do some sort of investigation after your family watch an episode of Downton Abbey, you must assume that different members will act in different ways to the programme, this makes use of the'uses and gratifications' approach to the audience.


 DIFFERENT TYPES OF AUDIENCE THEORY:

The Hypodemic model :

Suggest?- that the media 'injects' the message they want to put accross directly into the audiences minds (not literally), this infers that the media could be as addictive as drugs
Strengths?- this idea draws our attention to the power that the media produces, it also stresses the importance of the different typed of media (e.g. TV, radio ) that audiences have access to
Weaknesses- however this idea is often seen as powerless and passive because it is mostly applied to wh?en women and childeren are the subject of reaserch, also the actual way people use the media is often unnacounted for

The Cultivation theory :

Suggest?- its main idea is that if the audience consume more and more media they could develop some views of the world that are often false
Strengths?- this idea is good as it draws our attention to the fact that the audience gain alot of knowlege form the media therefore it becomes an important part of their lives
Weaknesses?- however this theory is hard to prove

The Desensitisation theory:  

Suggest?- its main idea it that if we are exposed to too much violence/sexuality in the media that we will become less sensitive to violent and sexual behaiviours
Strengths?- it draws peoples attention to how violence/sex is strongly represented in the media and the volume of it.
Weaknesses?- the problem is that it cannot be easily proved because it has different effects on different groups e.g. class/gender/location

The Copycat theory:

Suggest?- that people immitate what they see in the media
Weaknesses?- it feeds off the types of concerns that many parents have about their childs high exposure to media and their use
Problems?- for example different people have different levels of risk to different media due to their lifestyle and upbringing. Also it's really hard to measure the long term effects

Uses and Gratifications approach:

Suggest?- this theory studies what the audience does with the media and how they relate to it, this approach takes account of peoples personality and needs
Strengths?- this idea views the audience as an acitve/intelligent group of people and it states that life experience is way more important than media experience.
Weaknesses?- this view is too optimistic of the audience and it overlooks the power that some media texts have on us

Reception analysis and Ethnography:

Suggest?- that audiences are reffered to as active producers of the meaning of media rather than just mere consumers
Strengths?- it values the very specific, detailed responses of individuals and groups, it strongly suggests that life experiences are more important than media exdperiences an it helps them to make active and positive life choices
Weaknesses?- however more emphasis is given to the responses of the audience than the institutional aspects of the media therefore some researchers end up analysing audiences lifestyles meaning the actual media reception is often neglected for a vers socialogical approach.