Audience Theory

Today we learnt about Audience Theory and how there are two main types of audience, these are both passive and active. Not only this but we also learnt about Denis McQuails theory or used and gratification's. As a result of todays lesson, I decided to create a post about Audience Theory and what I have learnt.

Active audience members make their own choices in relation to the type of media they consume. However In contrast to this a passive audience member will consume the types of media that Is placed In front of them, is popular or Is just easily accessible. Active audience members become more Involved with the media areas they are Interested In, they are more like fans where as passive audience members are more like passers by.

Modern audience members make these types of decisions and choices via media databases such as the internet through search engines like Google and YouTube. Audience members can click both manually searched topics as well as topics that Interest them through suggestions that appear on the homepage of websites or if on YouTube, down the right hand side of the current video they are watching. Modern audience members will also access their media through Social Networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, two other common ways modern audience members may consume their media are TV and radio. In contrast to this audience members from the 60's, 70's and 80's consumed their media very differently and made their choices about which media they liked via magazine articles, newspapers, concerts and word of mouth. This was more of a trial and error approach.

Denis McQualis theory of uses and gratifications provides potential reasoning behind why active choices are made by audience members and why they behave the way they do.

McQuail believes active audience members make choices to express their personal identity, for example who they are and their personality. McQuail also believes they make choices to create personal relationships with others, sharing common interests such as music. As well as this McQuail believes active audience makes choices to create a sense of escapism and enjoyment. Finally McQuail states that active choices are made after audience members gain information and updates from a variety of media platforms such as TV and the news, magazines, the internet and through friends.

I believe it is important to understand the differences In both active and passive audience members and how they behave as a result. I also believe that by understanding McQuails theory of uses and gratification's I can better educate my knowledge which will extremely useful when It comes to identifying and appealing to an audience when creating our music video, digipack and magazine article.