The Audience Theory

• We are an active and we have a choice what we want to watch. We are also choosing what media we watch, so we are our own influences. 
• Our way of controlling the media is the way we consume it.
• The audience also understand it in different ways- we also use the media in different ways.

The Theory

• The 'uses and gratification' model represented a change in thinking as researches began to describe the effects of the media from the point of the view of the audiences.
• The model looks at the motives of the people who use the media asking why we watch the TV programs that we do, why we bother to read newspaper, why we find ourselves so compelled to keep up to a soap, or consume a film.
• The theory makes the audience the audience active as they choose what they want to consume, they are not forced in to consumption for e.g. you only watch the film you want as you are in control of your choices. The media simply creates the product.
• The theory argued that audience needs have social and physiological needs which generate certain expectations about the mass media and what they are exposed to. 
• As the audience is the active participate it allows them to make choices in relation to what they consume. This does consume an active audience making motivated choices, making the audience in control of their consumer.

The four needs;

Surveillance: Needed is based around the idea that people feel better having the feeling that they know what is going on in the world around them. (We watch the news as we feel it is a reliable source of information and it makes us feel secure that we know what is happening around us)

Personal Identity: Explains how being a subject of the media allows us to confirm the identity and positions of ourselves within society.

The use of the media for forming personal identity can be seen as in music/idea/films. Pop-stars can often become big role models inspiring young children everywhere (which is why there such on actory when one of them does something wrong)

Music videos and songs such as Meghan Trainers 'All about the bass' and Christian Aguiles and help  us to connect with such identities fit' into society.

Personal relationships; This section comes under two parts. 

Relationships within the media: We can form a relationship with the media, and also use the media to form a relationship with others. Many people use the TV program as a form of companionship but. think about how many times,you've watched the TV on your own, or with other people but sitting in silence.  The TV is often quite immature experience, and by watching the same people on a regular basis we can often feel close to them, as if we even know them. If a character in a soap dies we may grief , as if we have lost a close friend. 

Using the media within relationship: Another aspect is how we can sometimes use the media as a spring board to a form and build upon relationships with real people. Having a favourite TV programme in common can after be a start of conversation, and can even make talks to strangers that much easier.
Some studies suggest that some families use sitting around watching the television as simulation as conversation.

Diversion: The diversion needs describes what commonly termed as escapism, watching the television so we can forget about our own lives and problems for a while and think about something else.
We watch music videos to take our minds off an everyday lives, we want to distract ourself from the problems we experience. We want to see the people experience the same feelings as we do and how we want to forget about our own problems and focus on someone else's problems.