1. Media & Audiences: Theories about the Role of the Media in everyday life.
Chapter 10. Pages

2. Preview of slides Overview Uses & Gratification Theory
Reception Studies
Information Processing Theory
Information Processing Model

3. OVERVIEW:
1970’s & 1980’s researchers in US became increasingly interested on media audience. Their attempt was to gain more useful information about audience. As more studies were carried out the Audience Centered Theories were also developed.

4. Active Audience Theory or (Audience Centered Theory)
This theory focus on assessing on what people do with media. It does not focus on what the media do to the people. This theory is micro-level in its approach.
The argument for such theories were quite convincing. E.g. why were advertisers spend billion of dollars to purchase advertising time if the messages on the media has no effect on the audience ? Why were the TV network audience still growing?

5. A. Uses & Gratification Theory
Herzog (1944) was the first to create the theory of Uses & Gratification. He identify 3 types of gratifications:
1. Gratification as a means of emotional release
2. Gratification as opportunities of wishful thinking
3. Gratification as the advice obtained from listening to daytime radio programme.

6. Schramm (1954) continued to offer the gratification theory by describing how individual make media and content choices based on expectation of reward and effort required.
Schramm argued that our decision to select the content materials based on our expectations of having some need met, even if the decision is not to make a choice.

7. The revival of Uses & Gratification thinking
The scenario:
By 1970 the limited effects paradigm had demonstrated study after study media role was found to marginal in comparison the effect it had with other social factors.
But the question that trouble researchers’ mind were that how could this be true when media audiences were on the increase & people spend so much time consuming media? Why were advertisers spend billion of dollars to purchase advertising time if their message had no effect?

8. Why were the network television audiences continue to grow
Why were the network television audiences continue to grow? Didn't any of the media use have important consequences for the people who were engaged in it? Why didn’t research found these reasoning?

9. Therefore the first revival interest among researchers looking into the Uses & Gratifications perspectives can be traced into three development areas such as:
A. 1. New survey research into methods & data analysis techniques to allow new studies to be developed.
2. The increasing in awareness that people’s are active in using the media.
3. Although some researchers found that there were some positive uses of the media but these findings were often ignored.

10. The second revival was because of the
rapid diffusion of Internet & World Wide Web (www) led to the intensity use of the media aggressively (interactively).
In other words researchers began to examine the issues of:
(a) Interactivity i.e. the degree to which participants in the communication process have control over, & can change roles in their mutual discourse (Williams, Rice & Rogers, 1988)

11. (b) Demassification i. r. the ability of
(b) Demassification i.r. the ability of media audience to select from a wide range of media & the characteristics that allow individuals to tailor messages to their needs (e.g. internet) Rugeriero, 2000. .

12. (c) Asynchroneity (mediated. messages) i. e. senders & receivers
(c) Asynchroneity (mediated messages) i.e. senders & receivers of electronic messages can read mail at different times & still interact conveniently

13. In other words uses & gratification theory proved to useful in explaining how & why the ‘new media’ are use to supplement & in some cases replace older media.

14. Blumler (1979) claimed that one of the major problem in using the uses & gratification theory is the ability this theory capable of explaining a wide range of meaning on the concept of activity. He identified several meanings for this term as follows:
(1) Utility i.e. media have uses for people & people can put media to those uses.
(2) Intentionality: i.e. that consumption of media content can be directed by people’s motivations.

15. (3) Selectivity i. e. People use of the
(3) Selectivity i.e. People use of the media might reflect their existing interests & preferences.
(4) Imperviousness to influence: i.e. audience will certainly try to avoid certain types of media.

16. What the uses & gratification theory does is to provide a framework for understanding when & how different media consumers, involvement in the media.
Katz, Blumler, Gurevitch (1974) described five elements in the uses & gratifications model:

17. 1. The media is active & its media use is goal oriented.
2. The initiative link to the need gratification to the media choice rests with the audience member.
3. The media compete with other sources for need satisfaction.
4. Audience are self aware of their own media use, interest & motivates to be able to provide with an accurate picture of that use.
5. Value judgments linking to the need of specific media content should be suspended. That means people can use the same content in vary different ways & therefore the same content should have very different consequences.

19. With above conclusions the researches raised other questions, such as:
What factors effecting the level of activeness of media use among audience? What other factors in the environment (social situations) influence audience needs of which media use?

20. Katz, Blumler & Gurevitch (1974) explained that the ‘social situations’ involving media related needs as follows:
1. Social situation can produced tensions & conflicts, leading to pressure to utilize or consumed certain selected media.
2. Social situations can create an awareness of problems that demand attention thus, to fulfill this demand, information could be obtained form the media.
3. Social situations can deprive your real life opportunity to satisfy these needs, and media can substitute this need instead.

21. 4. Social situations can transmit certain
4. Social situations can transmit certain specific value which also can be obtained from certain media.
5. Social situation can provide anticipated familiarity with the media which must be met in order to fulfilled the aspirations of the social group norms.

22. Uses & Gratifications STRENGTH:
Focus attention of individuals in the mass communication process.
Respect intellect & ability of media consumers.
Provides insightful analysis of how people experience media contents.
Differentiate active use of the media from more passive uses.
Studies of the use of media as part of our everyday social interaction.
Provides useful insight into adoption of new media,

23. WEAKNESSES:
Alliance on functional analysis can create status quo orientation
Cannot easily addressed the present or absent of media effects.
Measurement of key concepts is criticized. It is too micro-level orientation.

24. B. Reception Studies or Reception Analysis
This is an audience centered theory that focuses on how various types of audience members make sense of media contents.
1. Critical theorists view that the producer intended meaning of the piece of content the assumption was to reinforced the status quo also known as preferred reading.

25. 2. or audience provide an alternative
2. or audience provide an alternative interpretation which is known as the negotiated reading.
3. or It is also possible that the audience made an interpretation is directly opposite to the preferred reading which is also known as the oppositional decoding.

26. STRENGTHS:
Focus attention on individuals.
Respect intellectual ability of audience.
Acknowledge range of meanings.
Seek in-depth understanding of how people interpret media content.
Can provide an insightful analysis the way media are used in everyday social contect.

27. WEAKNESS:
Based on subjective interpretation of audience report.
Cannot address the presence or absence of effects.
Qualitative research methods preclude causal explanation.
Too micro level in its orientation.

28. C. Frame Analysis
This analysis deals with the idea about how people use expectations to make sense of everyday life.
In other words the expectations we get from the media are based from:
(a) Previous experience (through media or personal).
(b) Pudience can be quite resistant to change despite of having all the factual information.

29. (c) Audience can associated with emotions such as hate, fear, love.
(d) It is difficult to control despite of having all the factual information

30. Goffman (1974) theory of Frame analysis provides us with a systematic account of how we use our expectations to make sense of our everyday life situations.
Goffman was convinced that the daily life is much more complicated than it appears.
He argued that we often change the way we define the situations as people moves through space & time. In other words our experience of the world constantly shifting, sometimes in major ways other times not.

31. We always monitor the social environment for social cues that signal when are to make the change.
Goffman therefore used the term frame to refer to a specific set of expectations that are used to make sense of a social situation at a given point of time.

32. But when we are ready to move from one set of frames to another we then said to applied the downshift or upshift. We are expected to change frames depending the seriousness of the case.

33. That is we move back & forth between serious & less serious sets of expectations.
It is just like an animal cubs acquiring skill of catching frogs & butterfly and as the cubs grows maturity these skills are transfer to a more serious situations to kill when the animal grows up in order to survive. These skills were learned at the early stage.

34. According to Goffman daily life involves countless shifts in frames & these shifts are negotiated by using social cues. Some social cues are very conventional while others are subtle. E.g. couples usually develop a very complex set of cues when to uplift or downshift in their interaction.

35. In gender ads for example Goffman argued that advertising that uses the sex appeal of women to attract attention of men indirectly teaches us how social cues were learned & that could have a serious consequences – e.g. stereotyping of women etc.
We learned more than just product presentation. We learned vast arrays of other social cues & thus reinforcing the formation of ‘dominant public culture’.

36. What we are experiencing here according to Goffmn what is known as ‘primary or dominant reality’. That is in the real world people will obey certain conventional & accepted rules.

37. In this theory Goffman’s focuses on how individual learn to routinely trying to make sense of their social world that we lived in.
Goffman provides us with an interesting way that we are all attracted of how the media can reinforced the dominant public culture. E.g. ads did not creates sex-role stereotyping but homogenizing how women are publicly depicted.

38. Powerful visual imagery is used to associates products with women
Powerful visual imagery is used to associates products with women. Ads both teaches & reinforce these cues.
According to Goffman we firmly committed ourselves to live in what we experience as part of the frame known as the ‘dominant reality’ – that is a real world in which people & events obey certain conventional & accepted rules.

39. Thus, according to Goffman we are all prisoners of our own reality whatever it might be. And if do make mistake with framing the reality the result would be devastating.

40. Frame analysis theory as developed by Goffman is a microscopic theory
Frame analysis theory as developed by Goffman is a microscopic theory. It creates conceptual framing theory that focuses how individual learn to make sense of their social world through
the use of the concepts of (a) framing (b) what can they learned from the media.

41. C. Information Processing Theory.
This theory discusses the use of mechanistic analogies to describe & interpret how people deal with the flood of information that we they receive every day.
This theory describes individuals as complex computers with certain build in information capabilities. It can received, recognize, filter, make sense, store & retrieve information.

42. According to the information processing theory we can never be conscious of more than very small fraction of the information present in our environment

43. One advantage of the information processing perspective is that it provides more objective in learning.
We blame ourselves if we fail to learn something that we think we should have learned. We assumed that a little more conscious effort learning would have made the difference. But would that a little more efforts would have made much difference? Or could that be possible that could led you to breakdown?

44. In this case what you need is revamping of your routine information handling skills & strategies that is a transformation of your information processing system.
Information processing theory provides us with a means of developing a more objective assessment of the mistakes we make when processing information. These mistakes are routine outcomes from a particular cognitive process & not personal errors caused by personal failings.

45. By the end of this lesson you have learned the following topics as follows:
A. Uses & Gratification Theory
B. Reception Studies
C. Information Processing Theory