Positive:

A positive audience is one that takes in information and doesn't think to question, a positive audience is more likely to agree with what the media tells them instead of investigating further.

Active:
An active audience question what they are given by the media and doesn't take it as a direct message.

An example of a passive consumption would be sharing a post on face book, just by looking at the headline instead of looking further into the article, where an active audience will look deeper into the article before sharing so that they have a better understanding of the subject.

 

Hypodermic needle theory.

This theory is all about how the media feeds its audience a message. It implies that all audiences are passive and are subject to just taking in and believing what the media tells them.

Why a needle? The needle model is used as a metaphor to how the media feeds the audience. A needle or injection is used to give someone or something, and the model suggests that the audience is being injected information by the media with whatever it tells them, whether it be truth or lies. The theory suggests that the audience will take in the information from the media and will be forced to believe as there is no other way of accessing the information.

An example of this theory being used is in news programmes over the world. We are fed this information not always knowing the context or source of it and are made to believe what we are being said. This text is somewhat true and I can justify this by using an example or world war 2 propaganda, we were fed information by the media to get us angry and to revolt against the enemy, not everything that was said was true but it got everyone in England to stand against, which proves the point. However, as time has changed more and more people are able to get their own sources of information instead of relying on others which has excluded the theory

 

Uses and gratifications

In contrast to Hypodermic needle theory, this theory suggests that instead of relying on being injected with information from the media, an audience will receive information in many ways as they are not all a passive audience.

This theory puts the audience into 5 different categories to separate how they interpret the media, those being Cognitive, Personal integrative, affective, tension release and social integrative.

Cognitive audiences tend to have the need to gain more information so they generally are more likely to look up or watch documentaries or anything that is made with educational purposes.

Personal integrative needs are connected to social media and is how a person views themselves based on how people view them on social medias such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. These needs are especially seen in a younger audience that has grown up with these outlets and strongly use these to boost their self-esteem based on the number of likes or views a picture or video of them gets. This is shown in how people present themselves to others, that being aspiring to a celebrity or changing their appearance based on what other people like and dislike on social media.

All media text can be used as an escape to any audience many use it to build tension or release it, this being watching a film to unwind and relax. However, everyone is different, to release tension some people may listen to music or watch a tv series whereas others may watch the news.

Affective needs have an emotional link with an audience. They use media to connect with their emotions, that being by them watching a comedy to spark something funny inside them or something to make you cry like a sad film or song. These types of needs are a good way of expressing one’s self-feelings and how they represent themselves. Most audience can relate a feeling to certain genre, but not all are the same though as, some people may watch a horror for the entertainment but others watch it to be scared.

Reception study.

Reception study is contrived of three categories, Dominant, Negotiated and Opposed. They are based on how an audience takes in information from the media, it’s a good way to get an understanding on an audience.

The dominant audience is the audience that will take what they want from the text and not the whole text. This type of audience is more of a passive and bias one, and relies a lot of its information from the news and take the bits what they like and ignore the bits they don’t instead of looking deep into the matter.

A negotiated audience is one that takes in the bad and good from the subject and decides on their answer based on both sides to an argument. These types of people will research into a subject before jumping to conclusion unlike the dominant audience.

The opposed audience takes what the dominant audience agrees with and disagrees with it. This can be due to where the information is coming from or may just be opposed to the audience that agrees with the subject. These types of audiences can be connected to presidential elections and debates, many will disagree with what someone is saying just because of the person before eve researching what they are talking about.