Audience response theory

The cultural theorist, Stuart Hall, explored how people make sense of and claimed audiences were active not passive.

An active audience engages, interprets and responds to a media text in different ways and is capable of challenging the ideas encoded in it.
A is more likely to accept the messages encoded in a media text without challenge and are therefore more likely to be directly affected by the messages.

He suggested three main responses an audience may have to a media text:

Reading	Description
Preferred reading	When the audience responds to the ideas in the way the media producer wants them to. For a programme like The Voice UK or The X Factor this could be large scale audience voting and the purchase of the winning singer's single.
Negotiated reading	When the audience responds by accepting and rejecting certain elements. Perhaps voting for the underdog in a talent competition or questioning the programme via social media platforms.
Oppositional reading	When the audience understands the preferred reading but choses to oppose it. For instance, the campaign to stop the winner of The X Factor getting to Christmas number one in the charts.

Reading	Preferred reading
Description	When the audience responds to the ideas in the way the media producer wants them to. For a programme like The Voice UK or The X Factor this could be large scale audience voting and the purchase of the winning singer's single.

Reading	Negotiated reading
Description	When the audience responds by accepting and rejecting certain elements. Perhaps voting for the underdog in a talent competition or questioning the programme via social media platforms.

Reading	Oppositional reading
Description	When the audience understands the preferred reading but choses to oppose it. For instance, the campaign to stop the winner of The X Factor getting to Christmas number one in the charts.

^{There are a number of different readings an audience could have for a programme like The Voice UK}

The Uses and Gratifications Theory suggests there are certain reasons why an audience responds to different media texts:

Reason	Description
Entertainment and diversion	Audiences consume media texts to escape from their everyday lives. They choose entertaining texts that allow them to divert their attention from the real world, perhaps by watching a fantasy film like Harry Potter or reading a fashion magazine like Vogue.
Information and education	Some media texts are consumed by audiences when they want to be informed and educated. Newspapers, news programmes and current affairs documentaries educate and inform. They help the audience to find out what is happening in the world.
Social interaction	Some media texts like The X Factor or I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here provoke interaction with the audience. Social media can now spark an immediate reaction and get people talking while the action is still happening.
Personal identity	Some audiences like to watch or read media texts because they can compare their life experiences with those represented in it. Audience pleasure comes from empathising and identifying with characters or content represented in them. Soap operas or lifestyle magazines can offer audiences this kind of enjoyment.

Reason	Entertainment and diversion
Description	Audiences consume media texts to escape from their everyday lives. They choose entertaining texts that allow them to divert their attention from the real world, perhaps by watching a fantasy film like Harry Potter or reading a fashion magazine like Vogue.

Reason	Information and education
Description	Some media texts are consumed by audiences when they want to be informed and educated. Newspapers, news programmes and current affairs documentaries educate and inform. They help the audience to find out what is happening in the world.

Reason	Social interaction
Description	Some media texts like The X Factor or I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here provoke interaction with the audience. Social media can now spark an immediate reaction and get people talking while the action is still happening.

Reason	Personal identity
Description	Some audiences like to watch or read media texts because they can compare their life experiences with those represented in it. Audience pleasure comes from empathising and identifying with characters or content represented in them. Soap operas or lifestyle magazines can offer audiences this kind of enjoyment.

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