MODELS OF AUDIENCE BEHAVIOUR

I have looked at various models of Audience behaviour as it will help me understand my target audience. Audience is an important aspect of creating my film opening as it allows me to know what methods to use when making my film so that it appeals to people.  

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs 

Maslow stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs and that once fulfilling a need will strive to fulfil the next need. The model below shows five stages of motivational needs that can be divided into basic needs (physiological, safety, love and esteem) and and growth needs (self actualisation)

People have to satisfy lower level basic needs so that they can progress to higher levels. People may reach the highest level known as self actualisation once this has been done. Progress is often disrupted by failure to meet lower level needs. For instance negative life experiences such as a divorce may cause disruption. 

Another model of audience behaviour
The media effects model:

• sees audiences as passively led
• the audience is seen as influenced and manipulated by what they consume as gullible and impressionable 

The model presents audience behaviour as choices that are pursued to meet a variety of needs. Blumer and Katz stated that these needs are for:

• entertainment
• escapism
• distraction
• seeking information
• personal identity
• social relationships (e.g on-screen relationships) 

Issues with the model:

• it treats children as inadequate - children are however often able to analyse and talk critically about mass media 
• the effects model is often based on artificial studies
• the model deals with social problems "backwards". When explain the problem of violence in society, researchers should explain for instance social violence explaining it with reference to those engaging with it. They should include their identity, background, character etc however the 'media effects' approach comes at the problem backwards. It starts with the media and then makes a connection with social beings.

Two step flow model of audience behaviour

• Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and hazel Gaudet 
• they analyse decision making processes of voters during a 1940 presidential election campaign; they published results in a paper called the people's choice 
• they found that information doesn't low directly from text into mind of the aufience unmediated. 
• instead they found that mass media content first reaches “opinion leaders"
• these are people who are active media users; they collect interpret, and diffuse the meaning of media messages to less-active media consumers 
• opinion leaders pick up information from the media where they pass on the information to less active members of the public implying that most people receive information from opinion leaders through interpersonal communication rather than directly from mass media