Audience Effects Theory

1) Write a definition of a passive audience: 

Passive: This is the view that audiences passively take in information from the media and that these messages have the same effect on everyone.

2) Write a definition of an active audience: 

Active: This is the more modern and generally accepted view that audiences interact with and make conscious choices regarding the media they consume.

3) Write a definition of the hypodermic needle theory: 

Hypodermic needle theory: This is the suggestion that audiences are always passive and therefore take the intended message from the producer as if it was injected into their minds. This assumes no individual difference in audience members. 

4) Write down a media product for each category of Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory and WHY it fits that particular audience use/gratification: 

INFORMATION/SURVEILLANCE: 
 > Why: learning information that you did not already know or that is useful for living (e.g. documentaries; weather or traffic). 

PERSONAL IDENTITY:
 > Why:  personally relating to something - seeing your lifestyle on screen.

DIVERSION/ENTERTAINMENT: 
 > Why:escapism and being entertained away from your normal life.

RELATIONSHIPS:
 > Why:  social interaction, caring about characters or celebrities, forming relationships e.g watching a soap opera for a long time because you care about what happens to long-standing characters.

The 3 Vs

VISCERAL PLEASURE: Physical thrill of watching something e.g hairs on the back of your neck in a horror film, sport, big explosions. 
VICARIOUS PLEASURE: Experiencing something through the characters. 
VOYEURISTIC PLEASURE: Watching people e.g hidden camera shows / elements of reality TV like Big Brother.

5) Re-watch the clip from Blue Planet above and write a paragraph analysing how elements of the clip offer the audience pleasures or gratifications (use media terminology from Uses and Gratifications theory and the 3 Vs - notes outlined above). 

From the video it can be seen vibrant colours under the ocean it diverse by various sea creatures. Another thing I could see there is more sea creatures.The whale are doing some flips features in a documentary. The sea creatures are experiencing the same thing as humans.There is a submarine that is filming the sea creatures in the documentary. There is a hidden camera in the submarine that is filming the sea creature. The creatures are interacting differently which shows something we don't experience in our day to day life as these creatures living in the ocean. From seeing dangerous animal such as sharks we experience a physical thrill that intensifies the audience.