Hart said that "Texts need audiences in order to realise their potential for meaning. So a text does not have a single meaning but rather a range of possibilities which are defined by both the text and by its audiences. The meaning is not in the text, but in the reading"

Abercrombie (1996) said "Audiences are not blank sheets of paper on which media messages can be written; members of an audience will have prior attitudes and beliefs which will determine how effective media messages are"

Baker said this "The key ideas about media audiences that you should remember are these:
The media are often experienced by people alone. (Some critics have talked about media audiences as atomised- cut off from other people like separate atoms)
Wherever they are in the world, the audience for a media text are all receiving exactly the same thing."

Gauntlet said that To explain the problem of violence in society, researchers should begin with that social violence and seek to explain it with reference, quite obviously, to those who engage in it: their identity, background, character and so on.

The Ritual approach attempts to suggest some common threads among many, if not most, of the genre audience. Their intention is to find links between culture and texts, and attempt to answer what role genre texts play in genre audiences’ lives. The approach is somewhat anthropological and redefines the relation between reader and text from one of aesthetic consumption to one of ritualized practice.

The BBFC

What does the BBFC stand for?
The BBFC stands for the British board of film classification.

When was it first established?
It was first established as the British board of film censors in 1912

What does it do?
The role of the BBFC is to establish which certificate should be applied to each indivivual film before being released.

What issues are the BBFC concerned with?
One of the issues the BBFC are concerned with includes violence especially things such as • What is the overall attitude of the film towards violence?
• What is the dramatic context of the violence?
• Is the violence perpetrated by the hero or villain?
• Are there consequences or rewards for the violence?
• How is the violence treated?
• Is there undue emphasis on weapons?
• Is it prolonged?
• Are there lots of close-ups?
• Is it stylised eg slow motion, soundtrack, editing, and do these techniques accentuate the images or restrain their impact?
• How much do we see of:
Process, e.g. blows, bullet impacts, blood spurts, etc?
Effects, e.g. injuries, bodies, forensic detail etc?
• What is the viewer’s relationship to what is shown?
• Do we identify with victim or aggressor?
• Are we repelled or excited by the violence?
• What is the power relationship between victim and aggressor?
• Is there an element of torture/sadism?
As well as issues such as language, sex and sexual violence, dugs, horror, imitable behavior and discrimination
What other classifications categories have been used by the BBFC apart from the U, PG, 12, 15 and 18 that we are familiar with today?
The H certificate - introduced 1932 to show horror and unsuitable for children
The X certificate - introduced 1952 no children under the age of 16 can watch
The advisory U and A certificates introduced in 1970 while the X certificate is raised to 18
In 1982 certificates PG, 15 and 18 are introduced
In 1989 the 12 ceritificate is introduced