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Audiences (the theoretical framework)

6 dot points across 6 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do you deploy the audience theories (Blumler and Katz, Gerbner, Hall, Shirky, Jenkins) in the Eduqas exams, and how do you structure the active-versus-passive debate?

Audiences: applying the audience theories. Choosing and applying Blumler and Katz, Gerbner, Hall, Shirky and Jenkins to products, structuring the active-versus-passive audience debate, and reaching the judgement the answers reward.
An Eduqas A-Level Media Studies guide to applying the audience theories. Covers choosing and applying Blumler and Katz, Gerbner, Hall, Shirky and Jenkins to products, structuring the active-versus-passive debate, and reaching the judgement, with the exam skills Components 1 and 2 reward.
15 min answer →

Do the media shape their audiences over time, and what does Gerbner's cultivation theory claim about long-term exposure and mean world syndrome?

Audiences: media effects and cultivation (George Gerbner). Long-term exposure, cultivation of beliefs and values, mean world syndrome, and the passive-audience side of the effects debate (with social learning theory as supporting context).
An Eduqas A-Level Media Studies guide to media effects and George Gerbner's cultivation theory. Covers long-term exposure, the cultivation of beliefs and values, mean world syndrome, and the passive-audience side of the effects debate, with Bandura's social learning theory as supporting context, and the application skills the audiences essays reward.
16 min answer →

How do audiences make sense of media products, and what does Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model say about preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings?

Audiences: reception theory (Stuart Hall). The encoding/decoding model, the preferred (dominant), negotiated and oppositional reading positions, and the idea that meaning is completed by the audience, not fixed in the text.
An Eduqas A-Level Media Studies guide to reception theory and Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model. Covers encoding and decoding, the preferred, negotiated and oppositional reading positions, and the idea that meaning is completed by the audience, with the application skills the audiences essays reward.
15 min answer →

How do media producers identify, target and reach audiences, and how does Blumler and Katz's uses and gratifications model treat the audience as active?

Audiences: targeting, categorising and reaching audiences. Demographics and psychographics, mass and niche audiences, mode of address and positioning, and uses and gratifications (Blumler and Katz) as a model of the active audience.
An Eduqas A-Level Media Studies guide to targeting and categorising audiences. Covers demographics and psychographics, mass and niche audiences, mode of address and positioning, and Blumler and Katz's uses and gratifications, with the application skills the audiences questions reward.
16 min answer →

How has the digital age changed the audience, and what do Shirky and Jenkins argue about the end of audience, participation and fandom?

Audiences: the end of audience (Clay Shirky) and fandom and participatory culture (Henry Jenkins). Here comes everybody, cognitive surplus, prosumers, textual poaching, convergence culture and the collapse of the producer-audience divide.
An Eduqas A-Level Media Studies guide to the end of audience (Clay Shirky) and fandom and participatory culture (Henry Jenkins). Covers here comes everybody, cognitive surplus, prosumers, textual poaching, convergence culture and the collapse of the producer-audience divide, with the application skills the audiences essays reward.
16 min answer →

Why do audiences choose particular media, and what does Blumler and Katz's uses and gratifications theory say about the active audience?

Audiences: uses and gratifications (Blumler and Katz). The active audience that selects media to gratify needs, the four gratifications (information, personal identity, personal relationships, diversion), and the contrast with passive-audience models.
An Eduqas A-Level Media Studies guide to uses and gratifications and Blumler and Katz. Covers the active audience that selects media to gratify needs, the four gratifications (information, personal identity, personal relationships, diversion), and the contrast with passive-audience theories, with the application skills the audiences essays reward.
16 min answer →