Audience Theories

Hi!
I was given the tast to research popular audience theories that have influenced the way we watch films as whole. I believe my findings were intriguing and then as a class we reported back what we found. Resultantly, this exercise was meaningful and gave me a greater insight into what audience theories were favoured over others. I shall not be talking about The Hypodermic Syringe Model theory I have previously stated what it was in a past post. However here are the audience theories we discussed:

Cultivation Theory
This theory is concerned with the affect of television programming and also on the attitudes and behaviour of the public in general - findings suggest that those who watch more television (heavy viewers) perceive the real world as it is portrayed on television (The Mean World Syndrome). Additionally, television has become the main source of storytelling in today's society.

In no relation horror but just in films and programmes in general, here is a short clip that shows the cultivation theory being used:




Copycat Theory
Relates to how something is publicised in the media and it suugests that the public naturally copy what they see to gain the qualities etc of those that appear on the screen such as copy cat murderers etc.
Desensitisation Theory
This theory concerns the over-exposure to varying behaviours on screen and makes the audience immune to these and thus harder to shock. As a result of this, the effects are generally more wider spread.

Again here is another clip that goes into more depth about this theory:




What I have learnt?
Although I do believe that all the theories are being used within the media society today, I still feel that The Hypodermic Theory is being used the most. I believe this because it relates more to how an audience receives the information from the programmes or films that they watch.