Audience Theory Research

Two-step Flow Theory

Opinion Leader is a leader for a certain group who gives details and information to lesser active persons in the group. They interpret the information to their own group

In Public, Political leader is an opinion leader.

Katz and Paul (the two developer of this theory) seems "the flow of media messages from radio and print to opinion leaders and then the leader leads the messages to lesser active users within the population"

An example of this theory:

Carol watching News in ANB Channel they flash the headlines with “Research reveals some toys are leads the children’s aggressive and Violent”. That day Carol calls her little son and went for shopping and carol warn her son some toys are not good and made skin allergy which leads her son to avoid those toys.

Opinion leader: Mom

Audience: Her Son

Added information: Skin Allergy

Uses and Gratifications theory- 

Uses and gratification theory searches to understand why the audience seek out the media that they do and what they use it for. This theory differs from other media effect theories in that it assumes that individuals have power over their media usage, rather than positioning individuals as passive consumers of media. 

It explores how some individuals deliberately seek out to the media in order to fulfill certain needs or goals such as entertainment and relaxation.

This example by Coldplay 'Adventure Of A Lifetime' is an example of a alternative genre artists music video being applied to the uses and gratifications theory. Due to the fact that the theory entitles the audience to fulfil certain ideas, such as entertainment and enjoyment. This music video being all narrative suggests it has been produced for entertaining purposes. 


Reception Theories is when producers or directors constructs a text encoded with hidden message or meaning that the producers or directors want to convey across to the audience.

There are three types of audiences reading messages:

Dominant→

Dominant is about what the audience wants to hear from people and agreeing, but with limited knowledge on the subject.

Negotiated→

Negotiated is when the audience agrees, disagrees or questions a political speech or news broadcast due to previously held news.

Oppositional→

Oppositional is when the audience recognises the Dominant message but rejects it due to culture or political opinion.

This music video produced by Lorde for the song 'Green Light' is an example using the reception theory. The theory allows the audience to read the messages conveyed in the video in three different ways.  This example allows the audience to decode the meanings for example, dominantly being sharing the text's code and accepting the message being easily shown, eg, the character on a night out and struggles that comes with that. Negotiated, where the audience understands and agrees with the text but also have their own views and oppositional, rejecting the encodings and creating their own views on the messsage. The confusing nature of this example makes it easier for the audience to decode in each way

Barthes' code theory

1.The Action code

-is the way the story avoids telling the truth or revealing all the facts in order to create mystery.

2.The Enigma code

 -the way the tension is built up and the audience is left guessing what will happen next.

3.The Semantic code

-this code points to any element in the text that suggests a particular or additional meaning by way of connotation which the story suggests

4.The Symbolic code

-this is similar to the Semantic code, but acts on a wider level, organising semantic meanings into broader and deeper sets of meaning. 

5.The Cultural code

-this particular code looks at the audiences wider cultural knowledge and ideology. This gains more context and meaning to the text (how we think of the world and how it works)

The 1975's music video for their song 'Robbers' is an example of a music video using Barthes codes. In this particular example it uses 'The Action Code', it does this through avoiding to tell the story as the audience don't realise whats happening and the multiple flashbacks until we reach the end of the video therefore creating mystery. This can also be applied to the Enigma Code as the audience are watching the tension build as they guess the narrative.

Todorov's Narrative Theory

1⏩ Equilibrium

a state of calm that represents 'normal life' in a narrative.

2⏩ Disruption 

something happens to disrupt the equilibrium that is shown in the beginning of the film

3⏩ Distruction

protagonists realise what has happened and begin to try and solve the situation

4⏩ Resolution

the protagonists devise and try to plan a solution as they believe they will resolve the problem they face

5⏩ New Equilibrium 

the problem is solved and the state of equilibrium has been restored

Levi Strauss' Binary Oppositions 

Examples: 

↝ Good vs Evil 

↝ Sane vs Insane

↝Human vs Supernatural

Within media binary opposition is used frequently to identify who is who. Not only his but it creates a interesting narrative consisting of two sides battling/competing against each other. 

An example of Strauss' Binary Opposition is Imagine Dragons music video to 'Thunder'. It shows two groups of people being Aliens and Humans, portraying differences between them both and shows them almost 'battling' against each other.

-Researching narratives has been useful as it gives me the starting point for my initial ideas. By this I mean selecting the best narrative structure to follow within my genre and with my ideas that already exist. In terms of the audience, I can select those narratives that will be more effective than others in order to engage my target audience and entertain them in the best way possible.