There are lots of different types of audiences and theories of audiences to consider when choosing or addressing an audience in film or TV.
Audiences have changed a lot throughout time; the medium of TV and film have changed quite a bit and quite differently in the century it has been around.
For instance, in the 1920s when cinema started to become popular and silent film was at a high, people sought after cinema to show them a world they hadn't seen before. Silent films were the gateway to a new world that was undiscovered and unexplored to the average person, and allowed them to escape from whatever troubles they may have had on their minds after the first world war.
However, during the 20th century, a lot of theories of the media were tested and proved; for example, in 1930, a radio play of H.G.Wells'
War of the Worlds was produced by Orson Wells (
Citizen Kane) and broadcast through the radio. People - who, back then, weren't used to hearing things like radio plays - truly believed that the world was being invaded by aliens and that people and cities were being killed and destroyed.
Likewise, in 1957 the BBC released a Panorama depicting spaghetti growing on trees. With only twelve years after the war, people didn't have access to foods from other countries, so spaghetti wasn't widely consumed by the average person, so people truly believed that spaghetti really did grow on trees. Due to the lack of other sources of information - as this was prior to the invention of the internet - it wasn't surprising that people believed the BBC for what they said, but the April Fool's joke did raise a point of how, if uneducated or ignorant, the general public will believe almost anything they hear.
Both of these are prime examples of
hypodermic needle theory; the theory that a message can be given to the public and the public will believe it without questioning it, and how passive audiences can be quite problematic, if you take into account how propaganda works and can convince audiences of almost anything.
Another theory is the
uses and gratification theory, by Blumler and Katz, which describes how audiences choose things to gratify certain needs. This is also known as an active audience, an audience that choose their media and chooses to engage with it.
An example of this is soap operas, and how people may watch them for things such as escapism, surveillance, to valid or make them feel better about their own problems, or for light entertainment. Soap operas engage these audiences by keeping shows consistent and scheduled throughout weeks, keeping continuous and engaging storylines for different sets of characters, and by making sure that characters are diverse and appeal to at least one or more social group.
In contrast, horror films are usually viewed for different reasons. For instance, horror films are normally consumed in groups of friends, for reasons such as the adrenaline rush, to get scared, to feel excitement or fear, to have fun, or to confront and conquer fears, or sometimes even morbid curiosity. These things provide things for people that some mediums can't, such as a soap opera wouldn't help an individual confront or face a fear, or a romantic comedy wouldn't give someone an adrenaline rush.
Stuart Hall also created the
encoding/decoding theory in the University of Birmingham, which talks about how different audiences consume texts differently. There are three that we talk about:
- Preferred Reading: the audience has the reaction to the text that the company intended.
- Negotiated Reading: the audience consumes the text but does not necessarily agree with the message.
- Opposite Reading: the audience has the opposite reaction that the company had.
