Lo6 : active audiences

Active audience theory

• we are able to filter and adapt to content in media (Gauntlett,1955)
• We have uses and gratifications (McQuail, 1972)

the four aspects that McQuail speaks about are 

- escapism 

- surveillance

- personal relationships 

- personal identity 

• encoding/decoding model Hall (1980) 

- Preferred reading, the audience accept the most 'transparent' meaning following the dominant viewpoint/ideology/story 

e.g sees and advert and immediately buys the jeans 

- Negotiated reading, partially agrees with meaning, making their own opinions

e.g not buying jeans because they are too expensive however you like the style 

- Oppositional reading, meaning understood but don't agree and think opposite 

e.g don't think the jeans advert is appropriate and don't agree with societies stance 

encode - to put in 

decode - to take out and understand 

In this advert we can see the encoded rise en scene and we can figure out the targeted audience, our first encoded message we perceive is the female model, she is the main focal point and is holding the advertising bag. We see the actress Marion Cotillard, audience members will see this famous, well known person and relate the handbag to her success and fame this will help the advert to sell the bag to people who seek recognition and fame. After her success we see the model in a very formal costume, her dress is very low cut and reveals a lot of cleavage and this relates to Laura Mulvey (1975)'s theory where she discuss' women being shown only for sex appeal, the dresses colour is black and once again this colour denotes wealth and affluence. Even little details of the model demonstrate the target audience of 25-50 year old females ABC1 for example, very manicured nails, her desirable curled hair and position where she seems wanted by male attention.

Another aspect that also attracts the target audience due to the encoded message is the location, the image was taken in Shanghai and we see it  from a sky high view, the fact that the models are on a building rooftop create the impression of a upperclass occasion that they were attending, the location allows the target audience to create an ideal self and the bag will allow you to attend similar occasions such as this if bought.

positive impact of DUNKRIK

The positive aspect of the media product Dunkirk is the historical accuracy and the informative aspect that is shown to the audience, it creates awareness on the historical events that won't have been thoroughly thought through for a lot of the audience, it gives us a realistic account of what happened at that time and place.

We see a big mix of both positive protagonist and antagonists, the positive characters give the audience an inspirational figure to look up to or to base an ideal slef/partner on

Negative aspects of Dunkirk would be that it portrays men in a very violent and controlling manner Representation of men (Earp & Katz, 1999), It demonstrates women only being there to aid men and not being equal, Representation of women (Mulvey, 1975), It also has ideologies shown on racism as only English soldiers are evacuated from the life threatening situation leaving behind french soldiers who fought on the same side so therfore should be seen as equals.