Audience Theory

We have looked at audience theories to get an understanding of why an audience may want to watch a short film and the different ways in which they may receive the film and its message. I looked at Stuart Hall's encoding and decoding theory in an attempt to understand the ways in which the audience may read the message from the film. I then looked at Blumer and Katz theory of uses and gratifications, and applied both theories to two separate short films.

Stuart Hall - Encoding and Decoding

Hall's theory is based upon the idea that all media texts are encoded with a message from the institution relating to the social, economic and political society it is being presented to. The audience then interpret the text in 3 different ways:

Dominant Reading - the audience read the text as the institution intended.

Negotiated Reading - the audience may agree with some parts of the text, but disagree with others. 

Oppositional Reading - the audience find themselves in conflict with the text and disagree with its message.

I watched a short film called "Middle Passage", in which this theory can be applied to.

The film features a dominant reading that immigrants are moving from country to country, with their families divided in an attempt to get a better life in a country not destroyed by wars. This interpretation also suggests that we - who are much better off than the immigrants - should play a much more active role in helping these people and giving them a better and more fulfilling life.

The negotiated reading may be that the acts of the immigrants go against our law, and whilst they only trying to create a better life for themselves, it comes at the cost of some peoples lives. Whilst people with this interpretation may believe the we should offer immigrants more help, their actions are illegal.

The oppositional reading would be that the immigrants should stay away from our country and go back to their own as they are taking our jobs and making our lives much harder. This reflects the idea of moral panic and is also represented in some mainstream newspapers.

Blumer and Katz - Uses and Gratifications Theory

Blumer and Katz have theorised that the audience themselves are active and use media texts, not that media texts use an audience. In addition to this, the audience may interact with media texts in an attempt to seek please, hence meaning that they choose to watch short films for their content. The audience may seek one of the following in a media text:

- Escapism

- Diversion

- Information

- Information

- Cultural Experience

- Comparing

- Sexual Stimulation

I watched a short film, "Globosome" and tried to identify the different components that may result in one of these features.

The three components I identified in this film were Escapism, Diversion and Entertainment. This film features solely animated, fictional beings and therefore cannot really be used as a comparison or a cultural experience, but can be used as an escape or diversion from the real world that the audience are seeking an escape from.

My short film will be informative and comparing - as those who have not suffered from mental illness' will be educated on the way on which they effect the individual and those around them. Furthermore, it will offer the audience the chance to compare their own life to that of someone who may be mentally ill.