Applying Audience Theories To My Music Video

Blumler and Katz came up with the theory that audiences are now 'active' rather than passive and focuses on what the audience does for media rather than what the media does the artist as the audience can decide what they get out of the product. The theory suggests that audience watches products in order to fulfil specific gratifications. My media product will be for both entertainment and for personal identity as audiences will watch it for the performance and to be entertained and some people will also watch it and identify with the main character and understand the overall message of the video.

Stuart Hall's reception theory explored how audiences are active rather than passive. An active audience engages with the media and can engage, interpret and respond to it in different and are capable of challenging the messages encoded in it. A passive audience is more likely to accept the messages encoded within the media without challenging it. He suggests that the audience can respond in one in three ways. They can take a; preferred reading, negotiated meaning or an oppositional reading. I believe that the audience for my music video will take a negotiated reading towards my music video as they will understand and be able to relate to some of the narrative but not other parts as the overall theme of the narrative is the mental health of the main character.