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Audience theory offers explanations of how people encounter media, how they use it, and how it affects them. Although the concept of an audience predates modern media, [1] most audience theory is concerned with people’s relationship to various forms of media. There is no single theory of audience, but a range of explanatory frameworks.
Moreover, reception theory suggests that texts are not necessarily absorbed in their entirety, but rather selectively received and interpreted based on the audience's interests and preferences. This selective reception reinforces the idea that audiences actively engage with media texts and shape their meanings based on their own needs and desires.
The imaginary audience refers to a psychological state where an individual imagines and believes that multitudes of people are listening to or watching them. It is one of the mental constructs in David Elkind 's idea of adolescent egocentrism (along with the personal fable ).
These leaders tend to influence others to change their attitudes and behaviors. The two-step theory refined the ability to predict how media messages influence audience behavior and explains why certain media campaigns do not alter audiences' attitudes. This hypothesis provided a basis for the two-step flow theory of mass communication. [9]
According to Alberts, Elkind, and Ginsberg the personal fable "is the corollary to the imaginary audience.Thinking of themselves as the center of attention, the adolescent comes to believe that it is because they are special and unique.” [1] It is found during the formal operational stage in Piagetian theory, along with the imaginary audience.
The multiple audience dilemma is a communication theory that describes what happens when a person (or group) creates different images of themselves when communicating with different audiences. For instance, a study examined what happens when participants are asked to appear as a "nerd" to one audience and a "party animal" to another.
For example, attribution theory predicts that a student who turns in a late assignment may explain to the professor that the tardiness is uncharacteristic and due to a situational factor like an unusual computer problem while the professor might believe the tardiness was due instead to a dispositional factor like the student's laziness.
Active audience theory is seen as a direct contrast to the Effects traditions, however, Jenny Kitzinger, professor of Communications at Cardiff University, argues against discounting the effect or influence media can have on an audience, acknowledging that an active audience does not mean that media effect or influence is not possible. [5]