Audience Responses

The texts I am looking at can be read in many different ways by different groups of people. The first text is the British sketch comedy, Little Britain. This text will be read differently by people in the US than people from Britain. This is because of our cultural experience. People in Britain are more familiar with the stereotypes presented in these texts as they are constantly regurgitated by the media. An example of this would be the "chav" stereotype, Vicky Pollard. This group of people are often attacked in the media and Pollard defines all of the things associated with stereotypes. Tracksuits, smoking and young mums are all things that the chav is associated with. However in the US, this stereotype does not exist, or at least is not nearly as ingrained in societies conscience. For this reason, people in the US would not find this character as appealing because they could not identify the stereotype and therefore gain entertainment from seeing it presented.

Gender is also a big factor in the way we respond to texts. The example I will be using is Mens Fitness Magazine. Males would respond to this text by having their need for personal identity fulfilled, as a  male would most likely view the muscular and attractive men as models for how they should look and act. They could also respond to this text by having their need for information fulfilled, as the magazine will include information on HOW to look like the models featured.
However, a female audience would have a different response to this. They may completely reject the preferred reading of this text, that this is what the ideal male should look like, as their situated culture may lead them to adopt this ideology in order to fulfil the esteem needs of her male counterpart. Alternatively, they could take the preferred reading that, that IS what the ideal should look like, however they wouldn't consume the text in order to fulfil the needs of the male. They might see the muscular clad men as "eye candy" and are therefore fulfilling their needs for entertainment, rather than any esteem or personal identity needs.

The final text I will be looking at is the video game published by Rockstar North games, Manhunt. This text will have many people who will take the preferred reading of this game and many who would take the oppositional reading. Firstly, the audience who take the preferred reading, will probably have had a cultural experience of being raised in quite a liberal household. This is because of the games subject matter and gameplay being quite disturbing and violent. The preferred reading of the text would be that it is just a game and only used for entertainment, However some audiences could decode this text in a different way, viewing the game as advocating violence and being potentially damaging to younger audiences. This is because of again their cultural experience. They will have most likely been taught that they should not go near media texts with violent or disturbing elements to them as they can affect the mind and potentially cause some of the audience to replicate the actions in the texts.