AUDIENCE RECEPTION THEORY

Introduction to two models of audience theory:

Media Effects model: the idea that people will simply copy things that the have seen in the media.

1. The hypodermic syringe model
2. Two-step flow theory

Read Media Knowall on audience theory

Read 'Ten Things Wrong with the Effects Model' by David Gauntlett Professor of Media and Communications at the school of Media, Arts and Design at The University of Westminster

Read Ruination once again - case studies in the media effects

Read Role models and personal identity

Uses and Gratifications model: McQuail, Blumler and Brown (1972) identified four needs that audiences seek to have gratified by the mass media :

1. diversion (we enjoy escapism, entertainment, release)
2. surveillance (we need information about what is happening in the world
3. personal relationships (we like feeling part of a social group; we feel companionship)
4. personal identity (we explore and reinforce our values through comparison with others)

SECRET CLAREMONT

Challenge: take digital photos of the buildings or grounds from a fresh angle.
Explore PhotoShop's capabilities in order to present these photographs with a twist.

TELEVISION DRAMA

Analysis of five-minute extract of 'Waterloo Road': representations of age, gender, location and social class.

Use BBCiPlayer to explore TV Drama to select a two-minute extract of your own choice to analyse.

PHOTOJOURNALISM

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is a historic photograph taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five United States Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman raising the flag of the United States atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.

We have been discussing how media is mediated, that is, re-presented. Even photography is mediated. However 'true' or 'natural'  a the subject in a shot may appear to be, it has been blocked, framed and cropped. It is important to note this because claims for truth are made about photography as it appears to be the most scientific and transparent of all media.

It may be captioned in order to anchor its meaning.

The particular subject of a photo has been selected as significant whilst another subject has not. The lighting has been chosen for a specific effect: think of how lighting might be used in wedding photos, estate agents' photos and advertising.

A photo may be placed within a collection that also confers meaning: think of police 'mug shots' as opposed to school prospectuses . It may be placed in a location that confers status (an exhibition or museum) or makes claims for historical truth. It may be reproduced for other purposes.


We pay a virtual visit to the Newseum in Washington in order to view its Pulitzer Prize Photographers Gallery and discuss why Rosenthal's photograph has enduring appeal, why its status as an eye-witness account imbues it with special significance and why it became a potent symbol. You should research what uses have been made of this photograph and relate your conclusions to the framework above. It became one of the most famous single photos ever taken; it mobilised the support of the American people that Franklin D.Roosevelt  needed to finish the war against Japan and it enabled the Treasury to raise 220 million dollars in war bonds when it was used as the symbol of the seventh war loan drive.

When accusations were made that Rosenthal had staged the photo, it caused great controversy. Why would this be? Fifty Years Later, Rosenthal Fights His Own Battle: AP News

The Newseum, Washington DC Award-Winning Images and Photographers Who Took Them

Marines Raise the Flag on Iwo Jima

Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal took this photograph of U.S. Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima during World War II. Rosenthal won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for photography.

TWITTER

Twitter is used in our course as an efficient way of keeping in touch with new developments in the media. Reading the tweets of the individuals and organizations that are relevant to our interests, we can rapidly develop our knowledge about what is important and what is current.

Sign up for Twitter yourself. Ensure that you are following relevant organizations.

Visit frequently and follow up leads.

MYTHS AND TRUTHS

We associate the term myth with classical legend, but for Barthes myths were the dominant ideologies of our time. If you remember that all texts are re-presentations of the world, it is easier to grasp how images can be manipulated, even photography which of all the media seems the most 'true' and transparent.


However, Fiske explains that 'denotation is what is photographed, connotation is how it is photographed' (Fiske 1982, 91). In photography, denotation is foregrounded at the expense of connotation. The photographic signifier seems to be virtually identical with its signified, and the photograph appears to be a 'natural sign' produced without the intervention of a code (Hall 1980, 132).


Take the example of the cover of Paris Match, along with Barthes's own comments that the cover reflects the establishment's desire to maintain the 'myth' of the French Empire by representing it as 'natural':


"I am at the barber's, and a copy of Paris-Match is offered to me. On the cover, a young Negro in a French uniform is saluting, with his eyes uplifted, probably fixed on a fold of the tricolour. All this is the meaning of the picture. But, whether naively or not, I see very well what it signifies to me: that France is a great Empire, that all her sons, without any colour discrimination, faithfully serve under her flag, and that there is no better answer to the detractors of an alleged colonialism than the zeal shown by this Negro in serving his so-called oppressors. I am therefore again faced with a greater semiological system: there is a signifier, itself already formed with a previous system (a black soldier is giving the French salute); there is a signified (it is here a purposeful mixture of Frenchness and militariness); finally, there is a presence of the signified through the signifier... In myth (and this is the chief peculiarity of the latter), the signifier is already formed by the signs of the language... Myth has in fact a double function: it points out and it notifies, it makes us understand something and it imposes it on us..." (Barthes 1964)

DECONSTRUCTING A BRAND

The Sex Pistols paved the way for a new genre of music and revolutionized British culture in the 1970s. 

In the summer of 2010 they launched a fragrance with iconic graphics inspired by the front cover of their hit single God Save The Queen. 

A statement from executives at the fragrance company reads, "To wear this scent, you must resist tradition, fight conformity, and disregard aromatic conventions. In the spirit of punk, you must be willing to express yourself with abandon. You take risks and you wouldn't be adverse to creating a little mayhem."

How would you deconstruct the imagery of this brand?

THE RHETORIC OF THE IMAGE

The French semiotician Roland Barthes (1913 - 1980) termed the straightforward description of a text denotation and the added layers of associated meaning and values that society (people interpreting it) gives that text connotation.

• A word has a literal meaning (denotation) e.g. rose
• Beyond this, it may have a symbolic or cultural meaning (connotation) e.g. romance, true love
• Meaning includes both denotation and connotation

Barthes gives us the example of the advertisement for Panzani tinned and dried products as an example of how imagery can create a barrage of persuasive meanings through connotation. How does this text persuade the consumer that Panzani products are an essential ingredient in natural, wholesome, fresh and home-made Italian cooking?

Excerpt from Barthes 'The Rhetoric of the Image' (1977)

SEMIOTICS

SEMIOTICS (also called semiology) is the science of signs, that is, the systematic analysis of language, symbol and image, in order to discover how meaning is created. This approach is associated with Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 - 1913) who explains a sign as being made up of two parts: a signifier (the physical appearance or form which the sign takes) and a signified (the idea or concept it represents).

• Signs take the form of words, images or objects. 
• Signs are arbitrary. Think of the different words used for 'rose' or 'chair' in different languages. 
• This means that these things have no intrinsic meaning in themselves and become signs only when they are invested with meaning. For Peirce, 'Nothing is a sign until it is interpreted as a sign.' (Peirce 1931)
• A sign 'stands for' or refers to something other than itself.

Daniel Chandler, University Of Aberystwyth: DIY Semiotics
Daniel Chandler: Semiotics for Beginners

MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

For Abraham Maslow (1954), human behaviour reflects a hierarchy of needs which range from the most fundamental needs for food, warmth and security through to those related to our personal development. Once lower-order needs are met, people feel free to seek satisfaction of higher-order needs.

Unsatisfied needs motivate our behaviour. Lifestyle magazines, advertisements and television, amongst other media, offer promises to fulfil our needs to be accepted into social groups and our need for self-esteem. Maslow's theory provides a framework for understanding how media works and why certain products have the power to attract us.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

BLUMLER AND BROWN: AUDIENCE NEEDS
THE USES AND GRATIFICATIONS AUDIENCE MODEL
Blumler and Brown (1972) identified four main needs that audiences seek to satisfy in consuming media:

1. Diversion: the need for entertainment, escapism
2. Personal relationships: the value of information in conversation; media as substitution for companionship
3. Personal identity: the need for reinforcement of our beliefs; self-understanding
4. Surveillance: the need for information about the world, which might help us survive or succeed