The Audience Theory

Different magazines have different genres, for example lifestyle, fashion, cooking and health etc. These magazines contain information about a specific topic in a specific genre. This information will interest and attract the audience who may have similar interests. The magazines contain hidden messages that the audience actively read and pick apart. People may accept the magazine and its values (hegemonic reading) or reject its values and interpret it in a different way (negotiated reading). This falls under Stuart Hall's Reception Theory. This theory explains that the messages hidden in media texts are encoded by the producers (makers) and decoded by the audience (consumers or readers). With the development of technology, quite a lot of magazines now have a digital versions, which are available to access online. With the rise of digital magazines, it has affected the way an audience has interacted with magazines because people are switching to this new platform rather than collecting or reading traditional magazines (printed ones).

Another example of an audience theory is Bandura's Media Effects Theory. This theory suggests that hidden messages that are contained in the media are directly 'implanted' into the minds of the audience who are viewing the media form. This means that the messages can influence people directly; the messages affect people's values and beliefs. In magazines, the articles are written in a persuasive form. This is done intentionally in order to coerce the viewers and audience to buy a product or products from a particular brand or company. Writers write their own critiques, thoughts and opinions about certain topics or current news affairs in the world. Since the writer's create their own thoughts, values and beliefs, the consumers or readers reading the article may change their original values and beliefs concerning the topic and may adapt to the writer's thoughts and values, so impacting the way the audience views the news affair or topic.