Theories of Entertainment.

Richard Dyer
Richard Dyer argues that one of the functions of entertainment is utopianism.
The categories of utopian entertainment include;

• exhaustion
• scarcity
• dreariness
• manipulation
• isolation/fragmentation

However, there are utopian solutions to this. They include;

• energy
• abundance
• intensity
• transparency
• community 

Dyer suggests that these are temporary solutions to the inequities of society. This basically suggests that watching films is a way of escaping reality for the audience.

Herbert Blumer
 He suggests that there are ways to describe and categorise an audience;

• gender
• age
• culture
• education
• class
• region

In 1950, Blumer described  mass audience. The mass is very loosely organised and is not able to act with the unity of the crowd. Throughout the second world war, many leaders attempted to use media as propaganda as a way to try persuade a mass audience. However, in our society, this may not be as effective due to the way people now access media. For example, a lower class audience may not be able to afford computers/television and therefore may not experience media used to persuade a mass audience. The same thing applies linked with age, as a younger generation may not want to do things such as read a newspaper, meaning that they also wont experience the media suggested.