Underline the key terms
How far can aspects of identity be seen to affect the way in which audiences use online media? Discuss, with reference to Zoella and Attitude. You should refer to relevant academic theories in your response. [30]
Knee jerk reaction
Identity, or who we are, affects audience responses to magazines to a massive extent. However, producers use media language to encode their own ideology in an attempt to position the audience.
Plan
Gauntlet's theory of identity - pick and mix theory! The idea that audiences take elements from media products to construct their own identity
Shirky’s ‘end of audience’ theory - that audiences are increasingly taking the role of producer. This theory is not very useful here
Hall’s reception theory - PNO theory the producer encodes an ideology in a media product, and the audience decodes this ideology. How audiences decode media depends on a variety of factors, and this process is called negotiation
Jenkins’ theory of fandom - the audience gets involved with the product, even creating fan based works. Producers will often encourage this to maximise profit
Uses and gratification - how audiences use or take pleasure from media products, even in the most unlikely ways (escapism, social interaction, sexual gratification, knowledge)
Demographics (age, gender, ethnicity, SE class)
Psychographics )values, attitude, lifestyle)
Encoding and decoding
Producer vs audience intent
Negotiation
Body image
Knowledge
Social interaction
Hegemonic normative values
Cultivation theory
Introduction
DAC - definition, argument, context
Identity refers to how an audience defines themselves, and who they believe themselves to be. Identity is complex, and has changed vastly over time. Factors that can construct identity include age, ethnicity and social class, but also more complex aspects such as values and lifestyle. In this essay, I shall argue that an audience’s identity greatly influences their response to magazines. However, I shall also argue that producers will use media language to anchor meaning, encode their ideological perspective, and position the audience. In order to explore this idea I shall refer to the Aug 1964 edition of Woman, a mass market women’s lifestyle magazine that primarily targets a white middle aged working class audience and presents them with a straightforward and stereotypical set of ideologies. I shall contrast this approach with the 2016 edition of Adbusters, a countercultural anticapitalist magazine that targets an activist audience, and lacks a specific anchorage and therefore encourages its activist audience to negotiate their own ideology and therefore identity.