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Audiences

5 dot points across 5 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How have audiences become producers, and what does participation mean for the media?

Audiences: how digital technology has turned audiences into producers (prosumers), the rise of user-generated content and participatory culture, fan communities and online participation, and how producers respond to and use audience participation.
An Eduqas GCSE Media Studies guide to audiences as producers: how digital technology turned audiences into prosumers, user-generated content and participatory culture, fan communities and online participation, and how producers use audience participation.
8 min answer →

Do the media affect audiences, and how have ideas about media effects changed?

Audiences: debates about media effects, the difference between passive-audience models (the hypodermic needle) and active-audience models, concerns about the influence of the media, and a balanced understanding that effects are contested and audiences are not simply passive.
An Eduqas GCSE Media Studies guide to media effects debates: the passive-audience hypodermic needle model, active-audience models, concerns about media influence, and a balanced understanding that effects are contested and audiences are not simply passive.
8 min answer →

How do audiences interpret and respond to media products, and why do responses vary?

Audiences: how audiences interpret media products, the idea of the preferred reading and the active audience, Hall's reception theory (dominant, negotiated and oppositional readings), and why audiences respond differently depending on their values, experience and social context.
An Eduqas GCSE Media Studies guide to how audiences interpret media products: the preferred reading and the active audience, Hall's dominant, negotiated and oppositional readings, and why audiences respond differently depending on their values and experience.
8 min answer →

How do producers target, reach and categorise audiences?

Audiences: how media products target and reach audiences, the ways audiences are categorised (demographics, psychographics, age, gender, lifestyle and interests), how producers use audience profiles to make and market products, and how products are designed to appeal to a target audience.
An Eduqas GCSE Media Studies guide to how producers target and reach audiences: demographics and psychographics, the ways audiences are categorised, how audience profiles shape products and marketing, and how products are designed to appeal to a target audience.
9 min answer →

Why do audiences use media products, and what do they get from them?

Audiences: the uses and gratifications theory (Blumler and Katz), the idea that audiences actively use media to meet needs, the main gratifications (information, personal identity, social interaction and integration, entertainment and diversion), and how products are designed to offer these gratifications.
An Eduqas GCSE Media Studies guide to the uses and gratifications theory: how audiences actively use media to meet needs, the four main gratifications (information, personal identity, social interaction, entertainment), and how products are designed to offer them (Blumler and Katz).
8 min answer →