Audience Theory

Hypodermic needle theory: This is the theory that the messages and values in the text directly influence the audience. They are 'injected' into them like a drug and the audience accept the message as they are passive and do not actively use the text. This can be applied to our film since we portray characters in certain ways and the audience accept that certain characters such as Owen are bad and other characters such as Katie and Chloe and good.

Uses and Gratifications Theory: This is the theory that the audience are active and challenge and use the text in certain ways. The four ways they can use the text are Diversion, Surveillance, personal identity and personal relationships. Diversion is when audiences use the text for entertainment and pleasure, Surveillance is when they gain knowledge or understanding from the text. Personal relationships is when the audience can discuss the text with others use it for companionship, personal identity is when the audience can relate to the situation or characters. For our film, diversion can be applied as they will enjoy watching it, personal relationship as they will discuss the film with their friends and personal identity as they can relate to the situations in which the characters find themselves.

Stuart Hall: The theory that a text has three types of of readings. A preferred reading are the target audience and people who accept the text completely, a negotiated reading is when people accept most of the text but challenge certain points and an oppositional reading is when the audience reject the messages and values completely. The preferred reading are our target audience of males between the ages of 15-26 but also people who are fans of thrillers. A negotiated reading are people who may watch thrillers if they are with friends but not want to watch them all the time. An oppositional reading may be people who are retired and people younger than 15 as most of them will not enjoy it and will reject they messages and values.