Audience Interpretation (last assessment 2023) Notes

In order to create a successful media product, you have to consider the ways in which different audiences might consume your product. In this section we will look at the ways in which media texts are constructed to encourage different interpretations from different audiences depending on what they like, what they know and what they have experienced.

Media texts are made up of signs. Signs are designed to convey important and meaningful information in a condensed way. For example, when we see the sign pictured above, we know that it stands for something toxic and life-threatening. In the media, it is agreed among both producers and audiences that certain signs carry specific meanings. In other words, there is a shared understanding of what these signs mean.

Certain media theorists suggest that there is a two-stage process every person goes through when they attempt to work out what a sign means:

• Stage One – Denotation – What can literally be seen in a sign, e.g. a thumb pointing up in the air
• Stage Two – Connotation – The meanings we connect with the sign based on our own broader experiences and knowledge of the world, e.g. a thumb pointing up in the air is a sign of agreement or that someone has done a good job

It is through the process of connotation that different audiences interpret different meanings from the same text.

Debate has raged over the years as to whether media audiences are active or passive. Throughout the first two thirds of the twentieth century, audiences were generally considered to be passive.

Passive Audiences – Audiences that consume various types of media without actively engaging with the messages in the text. They are also happy to accept the meaning in a media text on the most basic and superficial level. They are considered a mass, as opposed to a collection of individuals.

In recent years, particularly since the rise of interactive media, producers have come to realise that audiences are more active in the way they consume media.

Active Audiences – Audiences that actively select the type of media product they want to consume. They are also able to actively engage with and interpret the messages within a media text. They can apply their own interpretations of these messages. There are numerous ways in which modern audiences are more active than traditional audiences:

• Audiences have a wider range of media products to choose from. They can pick and choose.
• Greater portability and convenience – audiences have a wider range of platforms on which they can consume media
• Audiences have various social media outlets on which they can review and comment on media texts – Twitter is a key example of this
• Developments in technology have made it easier for audiences to create ‘consumer-generated content’, from YouTube vlogs to online articles
• Audiences are actively encouraged to phone in on radio shows, vote for their favourite contestants on television shows and email their own stories to news publishers

According to certain theorists, there are a number of different ways in which audiences can interpret the messages in media texts:

• Preferred Reading – The audience interprets, and responds to, a media text in the way that was intended by the creators, e.g. “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the best video game ever”
• Negotiated Reading – The audience agrees with some of the messages in the text while questioning or rejecting others, e.g. “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has outstanding graphics but the story is a little dull”
• Oppositional Reading – The audience completely rejects the messages and ideas of a media text intended by its creators, e.g. “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is disgusting and violent. It should be banned”
• Aberrant Reading – Meaning that is generated depending on what the audience brings to a media text. Each individual’s reading depends on their attitudes, beliefs, values and personal experiences, e.g. “I appreciate that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a good game but I served some time fighting in Iraq so it is difficult for me to play”