Audience Studies

We must admit that audiences are easily duped into thinking whatever the director/journalist/author wants them to think. There have been many cases and news that have demonstrated it, since Orson Welles’ 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds to Ebole’s 23-F false documentary. Actually, audiences are so influenced by what they see that they will go out and copy it. Consequently, audiences need censorship to protect them from what they might see and do.

Audiences are not interested in anything political because all they want is entertainment and escapism. McQuail, for example, thinks that there are 5 types of needs that are gratified by the media: be informed or educated, identify characters in the media, simple entertainment, enhance social interaction and escape from the stress of daily life.