Audience Pleasures

These are the two theories that apply to my trailer: 

The Hypodermic Needle Effect

This theory states that the media acts as a syringe that injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience - who have little choice but to be influenced.

The theory originated out of what is referred to as 'The Frankfurt School', who were a group of German Marxists in the 30's who witnessed first hand how Hitler used propaganda to influence a nation.

It popular when considering violence in films. Films such as 'The Exorcist' (1973) and 'A Clockwork Orange' (1971) have been banned in the past - partly due to the belief that the audience may go on to copy the crimes witnessed in the films.

Many people view the hypodermic needle effect as simplistic as it fails to take into account people's individuality. The theory is not generally used in terms of film anymore but it is still occasionally used in reference to why society has become increasingly violent - with the blame being placed on video game violence.

The Cultivation/Culmination Theory

According to this theory any one media text does not have too much effect - it would take years and years of watching more violence that will make you less sensitive to it. This process is called desensitisation.

Many people have the belief that the media affects our behaviour and that advertisers justify their fees by working on this assumption, but it can be very difficult to prove how much effect (if any) a text might have on an audience. Researchers have spent a lot of time and effort in trying to prove the validity of this theory - with no success. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that there is no truth in it.

Uses and gratifications

This is arguably the most important of the theories in terms of audience pleasure. This theory suggests that we all have different uses for the media and we make choices over what we want to watch. For example, when we come across a media text we are expecting to get some sort of gratification from it. As well as this is also says that the individual is in control and selects a media text based on their needs and satisfying them.

Researchers have found four types of gratification:

Information: we want to find out about society and the world in order to satisfy our curiosity. We can fulfil this by watching programs like the news and documentaries

Personal identity: we may watch TV to find models of our behaviour. So, we tend to identify with characters as they help us to decide what we feel about ourselves. We can do this by watching soaps and dramas

Integration and social interaction: we use the media to help us find out more about other people and their circumstances. Watching TV helps us to empathise and sympathise with the lives of others. We may even end up thinking of some of the characters as friends. As well as this, TV can help us get along with the real people around us better as we are able to talk with them about the media

Entertainment: we simply use the media as a source of enjoyment, relaxation or just to pass the time

Of these uses and gratifications I think entertainment will apply to my trailer - as according to my questionnaire my target audience watch them for enjoyment, with some saying they like to be scared by them and also like getting an adrenaline rush from them

However, as important as this theory is there have been some criticisms made. Firstly, it completely ignores the fact that we don't always have a choice in what we receive from the media. I.e. family may end up listening to the same music as us sometimes. And, we don't have a choice in the advertising we see on billboards etc however objectionable we may find them. Secondly, the advertisements we see may be sexist. This is something we obviously cannot change the advert to want we would like to see. This problem also affects out encounters with the media - we generally have to choose what we want to consume from what is available. This undermines use and gratifications as it would meant that we may not all have the same potential to use and enjoy the media products we want.