Blumner & Katz

The Blumler and Katz is a theory about what audiences do for the media rather than what the media does for the audience. The theory places more focus on the consumer, or audience, instead of the actual message itself by asking “what people do with media” rather than “what media does to people” (Katz, 1959) .The theory also holds that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs.The theory looks at the motives of the people who use the media, asking why we watch the television programmers that we do, why we bother to read newspapers, why we find ourselves so compelled to keep up to date with our favourite soap. It assumes that member of the audience are not passive, but take an active role in media to meet their needs. The theory is broken down into four different needs:

-Surveillance: The surveillance need is based around the idea that people feel better having the feeling that they know what is going on in the world around them, The surveillance model is all about awareness.

- Personal Identity: The personal identity need explains how being a subject of the media allows us to reaffirm the identity and positioning of ourselves within society. e.g. Pop stars can often becoming big roles models. inspiring young children everywhere. if they do something 'bad' then there is an uproar becomes of the effect it will have on there fans.

- Personal Relationships: We can form relationships with the media and also use the media to form relationships with others. The more we watch the same personalities, the more we feel we get to know them. Reality TV shows such as Big Brother give us such a feeling of intimacy with the participants that they can become part of our lives. it feels like we know them but we really don't.

- Diversion: This is when media is used for entertainment. For example, soaps such as Eastenders and Coronation Street, Comedy programmes such as Mrs Brown's Boys and Bad Education or talent and reality shows such as X Factor,  Geordie Shore and Big Brother.

This theory was based on Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model of the relationship between text and audience. the text is encoded by the producer, and understood by the reader, and there may be major differences between two different readings of the same code. However, by using recognised ideas and conventions, and by drawing upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and use of more famous actors, the producers can position the audience and therefore create a certain amount of agreement on what the idea means.

ENCODING - media creates messages/signs
DECODING - audience receive and decode the message/sgins

There are 3 types of audience decodings:
Dominant
Negotiated
Oppositional

Dominant
Where the audience decodes the message as the producer wants them to do so and broadly agrees with it, eg watching a speech and agreeing with it.

Negotiated
Where the audience accepts, rejects, or refines elements of the text in light of previously held views, eg neither agreeing or disagreeing with the political speech or being disinterested.

Oppositional
Where the dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for cultural, political or ideological reasons, eg total rejection of the political speech and active opposition

In class we applied this to Maddonas 'What it Feels like for a Girl'



The audience would each interpret this in different ways. Females who see this video may interpret this as empowering and an example of modern feminism, showing women as not just sex objects but as people who exhibit power and can hold their own against men. Men however may see this video as offensive and an example of misandry, noting the double standards if it was instead a man in a car showing this aggressive behaviour towards women.