Identifying An Audience

Identifying An Audience:

People use media texts to gratify their needs for example when they watch Horror films it can be for a number of different reasons: they get a thrill and excitement out of watching them, to watch them with friends to see their reactions to see if they are scared,  the feel of adrenaline that they cause when you are scared, the feeling of vulnerability and to push their boundaries to see what the worst film they can allow themselves to watch is so they can say that they have watched it. They can sometimes relate to then if they have had a past experience that ha been very similar to the scenario in the film. Most people have a fear of 'the other' which is a fear/phobia of anyone who is different to you. 

Audience Reception:

There are different type of audience reception that people can want to expect they will receive from viewers watching their films...

Preferred reading - what the director wants.
Opposite reading - wrong reading of the film.
Negotiated reading - the person knows its not true/someone else's opinion.
Aberrant reading - Stuart Halls theory - the audience doesn't understand it. 

An example of this is the T- Mobile advert where the are lookalikes of the Royal family dancing at the 'Royal wedding'. The preferred reading is that the director of the advert wants the viewers to see the funny side of it and how it is praising the Royal family. The negotiated reading is that it is irrelevant to the company and to phones. The opposite reading is that people would believe that is it the actual Royal wedding which could be believed by the older generations such as 55+ and the aberrant reading is that people don't understand it.

Hypodermic Syringe Theory:

This is when an audience believe the first thing that they hear and don't leave any room for thinking otherwise or their own opinion. This happened a lot in 1957 because they had less choice of media so when they saw something they just believed it however, nowadays this happens less frequently because people are always making pranks and making things up as they go along. Audiences are active rather than being passive and believing everything they hear they will use their common sense and knowledge to know that it isn't true or they will ask someone else to get their opinion on the matter. 

A lot of viral advertising happens now too when you see something that is funny you are more likely to send and share it with your friends on different social media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and vine.