T-Mobile

Audiences often receive texts differently. They interpret the meaning in ways which may have not been originally intended.

In the 1930’s the War of the Worlds was played on radio. Listen to the broadcast. Many people believed that martians were invading the earth and there was panic in America.

In the 1957 the BBC ’s Panorama programme showed spaghetti growing on a tree as an April Fool’s Day trick. Many people believed it.

It maybe hard in our media saturated age to understand how audiences could have believed these stories but each year, particularly on April 1^st there are new attempts to trick audiences

In the 1930’s the theory of a passive audience believing everything they hear or se in the media was prevalent. This was known as the hypodermic model as it was believed that audiences received message like an injection from a hypodermic syringe questioning little

You need to research the ‘hypodermic model’ of effects theory.

In the 1970’s theory moved on to active audiences using media texts to gratify certain needs.

You need to research the ‘Uses and Gratification theory’ by Blumler and Katz

Audience theory today is complex and the media industries rely on a sophisticated understanding of the changing tastes and demands of modern media consumers.

You will use the recent T-mobile advert to explain how a media text can be read differently by different audiences

1) preferred reading

2) negotiated reading

3) opposite reading

Watch the T-mobile advert depicting the royal wedding

Research April Fool’s day tricks on you tube. There are some clever ones now and you can see how the media can manipulate audiences.