内容摘要：
　　任何国家文明的发展和对外延伸都会涉及到传播，作为一名中国学生，我自然就去关注了中国古老的东方文明中的传播理论的发展及存在的问题。针对传播学的基础理论——受众理论，结合社会学和心理学的影响，强调受众在传播中的重要性，进一步阐述相关的受众理论。这些理论和方法的整合（integrate）对现代社会的传播学又极其重大的意义。

关键词：传播学 传播者 受众(aud ience) 受众理论 社会学 心理学 两极传播论

　　传播是一切进步的开始。在古老的东方文明的发展史中，传播有其重要的贡献和不可磨灭的价值和地位。然而由于历史条件和文化环境的不同，传播在不同社会时代的表现方式是不同的。中国文化自古以来强调传播中的含蓄，这种以谦为美的社会价值观，注重“点到为止”。所谓“桃李不言，下自成蹊”，“君子敏于行，而讷于言”。因此在古代社会造就了一种含蓄的传播模式，在彼此的沟通中，重身体力行而轻言传，很多思想和理念就是在不言自明的沟通规则下进行传播的。然而现代社会的快节奏和大信息量的特点，让人们的价值观趋向于更重视传播中的高时效，这就要求一种及时，准确，让大多数人一目了然的传播方式。古代的这种含蓄传播自然让位于现代社会的最为普遍的大众传播,它也成为所有传播方式中的主流。但是，长期以来, 这种流行的大众传播把媒介和受众的关系本末倒置了。媒介被视为传播中至高无上的权威,可以把“各种各样的思想、感情、知识或动机从一个人的头脑里几乎不知不觉的灌输到另一个人的头脑里”①,受众成了被媒介所操纵的“媒介奴仆”,在传播学中的地位很卑微。这种不重视受众在传播中的地位和作用观念不仅误导了传播学的理论,而且给传播实践带来了很大的危害。

　　按照社会心理学的观点,传播就是借助于信息的传递而实现的社会行为的互动过程,正如Ｇ·格伯纳所说,传播就是“通过讯息进行的社会的相互作用”。信息在这个双向沟通的过程中表现为一种编码——传递——解码——反馈的动态平衡。实际上，传播就是媒介、传播者和受众辩证统一的过程，任何一方都发挥着积极能动的作用，不能忽视任何一方在传播中的影响。从传播者的角度来说，社会心理学的研究提出，她扮演着一个新闻工具的“守门人”角色。“守门人”是一种形象的说法,它表明在传播过程的每一个环节上都有信息的筛选者、审查者。“在信息网络中到处设有把关人。其中包括记者,他们确定……究竟哪些事实应该加以报道;包括编辑,他们确定……哪些该刊登,哪些该抛弃;包括作家,他们确定有哪些类型的人物和事件值得书写,……包括出版公司编辑,他们确定哪些作家的作品应该出版”等等②。“守门人”这一概念,蕴含了一个基本的社会心理学思想,即作为特定的社会成员,他的行为势必要受到其固有的思想意识、价值观念等主观意识的影响，不是从受众利益的客观角度出发，所以，受众对于媒介绝不是毫无保留地接受的,在不同的传播背景下,对不同的媒介和不同的信息,受众往往会采取不同的态度和评价,或接受,或部分接受,或拒斥,或批判,受众的反应是完全不同的。所以，在传播的互动过程中，我们必须中充分认识到受众(andience)是传播学中的一个重要概念,它是传播活动中的听众、观众和读者的总称。受众是信息的接受者、传播所指向的客体,又是传播反馈的核心环节。传播效果的好坏必须从受众的反应中进行评价,因此,受众是决定传播活动成败的关键。重视受众对传播整体效果的作用，加强对受众理论的研究和认识，自然就成了推动传播在理论和实践方面发展的刻不容缓的任务。

　　受众理论在整个传播学的理论中有着特殊的地位，在传播学中始终是一个理论热点。许多传播学理论实际上就是受众理论,即以受众为核心所建构的传播学。尤其是传播效果的理论,最终都回归于受众分析。受众理论之所以如此重要,正如我国著名传播学学者邵培仁教授所说:“受众是信息传播的目的地,是信息传播链条中的一个重要环节,也是传播过程得以存在的前提和条件。受众是传播效果的‘显示器’,是职业传播者够格的评价者。没有受众的反应和评价,就不能真正地了解大众传播媒介的效能和效率。”受众理论能够成为传播学的一个独立的研究领域,客观上也是与邻近学科理论和方法的发展和完善分不开的。邻近学科的理论和方法为受众理论的形成提供了有力的理论武器和广阔的理论视野。

　　首先社会学理论的导入拓展了受众研究的视野。整个社会无时无刻不处在传播当中,传播涉及到人类社会的一切领域,涉及到一切社会活动。传播学的受众研究,自然离不开社会学的影响，如在媒介管理(media management)的受众分析,在把握受众细分市场特征时,必须从对地理因素、人口统计、心理倾向、生活方式和媒介使用类型这些社会概念与变量的研究中,才能准确地发现受众市场与这些因素的内在联系。此外,受众对媒介反应的差异还取决于媒介环境的因素,包括政治、文化、法律和宗教等。不同的媒介环境所形成的受众特质是不同的,反过来受众特质又会影响媒介的传播方式。受众对媒介的接受方式、认知能力、动机和态度,无不受到媒介环境的制约和影响。例如,在一个封闭的、具有宗教狂热的社会中,受众往往具有很大的盲从性。二战中的德国即是典型的一例③。超越具体的社会历史条件而谈媒介对受众的绝对的影响力,显然是一种主观片面的看法。

　　受众理论的发展与心理学的研究也有着紧密的联系。心理学从19世纪90年代诞生以来,经过了近一个世纪的发展,理论上已经比较成熟,尤其是西方心理学注重实验研究的传统,在受众研究中得到了淋漓尽致的发挥。心理学要研究社会行为的互动问题,要研究人与人之间的相互作用问题,深入而全面地探讨了传播中的很多问题，从而为传播学的形成奠定了广泛的知识基础。心理学基础理论的日臻成熟和应用,启发了人们对受众的动机、需要、态度和个性心理差异等的研究。而受众的动机、态度和个性差异等心理倾向,决定着受众对媒介的选择、认同和反应。

　　如“个人差异论”着重强调的是媒介讯息与受众个性特征的相互作用,并且从个人的心理结构、先天禀赋与后天习性、个人的态度、价值观与信仰等方面分析了作为受众的个人差异,从而表明受众不是被驱赶的一群绵羊,他们对事物有自己的观点,他们对传播内容会因为自己鲜明的个性而做出不同的反应。这与“枪弹论”者把受众看成是被动的“靶子”的观点截然相反。克拉珀提出，受传者对传播讯息会有选择的接触、有选择的认知和有选择的记忆。这个选择过程的根据就是社会心理学家费斯汀格的认知失调理论,人们总是倾向于接受那些与自己的意见、态度相一致的讯息,而抵制那些与自己的意见、态度不一致的讯息,为的是保持认知的协调状态。因为一旦认知失调就使个人陷于一种“心理上不舒服的感觉”。所以人们都竭力避免这种不协调状态的出现。作为受众,避免认知失调的有效方法,就是通过选择性接触、选择性认识和选择性记忆来回避、抵制那些与自己原有意见相抵触的讯息。

　　而受众研究的“社会范畴论”则以受众群体为单位来考察特定的社会群体中的受众对媒介的反应。“社会范畴论”认为,可按照诸如性别、年龄、文化程度等标准,将受众划分为不同的“社会群”,大众媒介则可以针对不同的社会群体的特点去选择与制作信息。美国学者赖利夫妇是较早进入这一研究领域的研究者,在《大众传播与社会系统》一文中,他们揭示了基本群体和参照群体在传播过程中扮演的角色。他们认为,作为受众在如何对讯息作出选择、理解和反应方面会受到这些群体的指导。④作为群体中的一员,在讯息的接受上一定要受到群体和群体规范的制约。所以,那些与受众所处的群体的规范相一致的传播将产生十分明显的强化受众态度的作用,而那些与群体规范相背离的传播,其说服效果也一定十分微弱。

　　心理学正是在对社会行为的沟通和互动的研究中,为受众理论提供了丰富的基础理论知识,并渗透到传播学各具体的研究领域,对受众理论的发展起到了积极的促进作用。在受众理论中,两级传播论的提出和确立是传播学先驱拉扎斯费尔德对传播学的重要理论贡献。拉扎斯费尔德在研究大众媒介的影响时发现,大众媒介并没有直接对大多数受众产生影响。事实上只是一小部分比较活跃的经常接触大众媒介的受众,在接受了媒介的信息后,再通过他们的人际传播来影响更多的受众。这些在形成公众舆论中起到引导和影响作用的人,被拉扎斯费尔德称之为“意见领袖”(opinion leader)。传播学之父施拉姆对“两级传播”的解释是:“概念往往从无线电广播和报刊流向舆论界的领导人,然后再从这些人流向人口中不那么活跃的部分”⑤。在两级传播中,第一级是媒介把信息传递给特殊的受众——意见领袖;第二级再从意见领袖通过人际传播把信息传递给大多数的受众。两级传播理论揭示了传播并非总是呈现着简单的线性过程。受众所受到的传播影响具有多层次性和复杂性,往往有大众传播和人际传播的共同作用。只有充分调动受众的主观能动性和创造性,传播才能充分发挥其效能。受众无法与媒介实现双向互动的交流,受众的传播潜能会受到了很大的抑制。所以大众传播对受众而言是有很大的局限性的。大众媒介的所短正是人际传播的所长。大众媒介与人际传播的优势互补,犹如原子裂变原理一样,其能量能得到最充分的释放。

　　传播学的发展，形成了各种各样的受众理论，他们都从各个角度来强调受众在传播的信息互动中的作用。传播是满足受众兴趣和需要的过程，也是受众充分参与和创造的过程。当信息到达受众时，大众传播起了主要的作用。受众在大众传播的基础上对信息持不同的态度和看法，通过彼此的人际传播，影响和制约着信息的再传播。受众的这种传播，往往渗透力强，有针对性，对大众传播的信息有着进一步的整合作用。因此，在大众传播蓬勃发展的今天，对受众问题的认识和解决，即对推动传播学理，论发展有着重大价值，同时对促进实践中信息的传播，适应当今跨国交流的大形势也有着不可估量的历史性作用。

　　注：①转引自戴元光等著《传播学原理与应用》,兰州大学出版社1988年版,第258页。②威尔伯·施拉姆等:《传播学概论》,新华出版社1984年版,第161页。 周晓虹等:《现代社会心理学》,江苏人民出版社1991年版,第273页。 余也鲁:《传媒·信息与人———传学概论》(威尔伯·施拉姆著)代序,中国展望出版社1985年版。责任编辑:宋全成　③　展江等著《新闻与战争》,上海人民出版社1991年版,第236页。④ 丹尼斯·麦奎尔、斯文·温德尔:《大众传播模式论》,上海译文出版社1987年版,第134、47、5页。⑤　施拉姆《传播学概论》,陈亮等译,新华出版社1984年版,第130页。

Abstract:
The development and propagation of the civilization of any country all relate to communication. As a Chinese student, I pay high attention to the development and the questions about the communication of old oriental civilization of China. In this article, I will emphasize the significance of the audience in communication and further illustrate the relevant audience theory in the light of the basic theory of dissemination and with a view to the influence of sociology and psychology. The integration of the theory and the practice is significant for the dissemination in modern society.

Key Words: communication disseminator audience
audience theory sociology psychology
bipolar diffusionism

Communication is the start of any progress of the society. In the development history of the old oriental civilization, communication has played an important role. However, because of different historical conditions and cultural circumstances, the manifestation of communication in different society is quite different. Since remotest times, Chinese culture stresses on the connotation of communication, a concept of value that advocates modesty and implication, what is called “peaches and plums do not have to talk, yet the world beats a path to them” and “the gentlemen are speedy as a worker and cautious as a speaker”. Therefore, in ancient times, the mode of communication is quite implicit. Under these circumstances, people would like to set an example by personally taking part and never make reckless words. Many thoughts and ideas are disseminated under a self-evident communication rules. However, nowadays the pace of life is increasing with large amount of information. People’s values attach more importance to the quick and efficient communication, which requires for a timely, accurate and explicit propagation mode. The old connotation communication in ancient times is replaced by the popular public communication in modern society and it becomes the mainstream of all the propagation modes. However, the popular public communication has the order reversed for medium and audience for a long time. The medium is regarded as the sovereign authority of communication and it can “instill all sorts of ideas, feelings, knowledge or motivation into other people’s mind unconsciously”①. The audience becomes “medium servant” controlled by the media and it is placed in inferior position in dissemination. The neglect of the significance and function of the audience in communication not only misguides the theory of dissemination, but also jeopardize the communication practices.

According to the viewpoints of social psychology, communication is an interactive course of social behavior with the use of the information transmission. Just as what G Burglah (Ｇ?格伯纳) said before, communication is “the information interaction in the society”. In this course of mutual communication, the information appears as a dynamic balance of coding---transmission---decryption---feedback. In fact, communication is dialectical and consistent with the medium, disseminator and audience. Each party plays an active and significant role in communication. The research of the social psychology shows that, the disseminator acts as a role of “doorkeeper” of the media. “Doorkeeper” is a vivid description and it indicates that the selector and investigator of information exist in all links of the communication. “In the information network, there are so many reviewers, including the reporters, who confirm what kind of facts can be published and what can be put away; the writers, who decide to report the people and the incidents; the editors of the publishing house, who determine the works of the writers to be published, etc”. ②The concept of “doorkeeper” contains a basic idea of social psychology, that is to say, as a social member, his behavior is sure to be influenced by his immanent subjective understanding such as ideology, values and so on, and it does not proceed from the interests of the audience. Therefore, the audience will not accept the media without reservation. With different propagation background, the audience has different attitude and comments on different media and information, either accepting it or partly accepting it, or spurning it, or criticizing it. In short, the audience will have completely different reaction of it. So we must realize that the audience is an important concept of communication in the interaction of propagation. The audience is a general term of all audiences, spectators and readers in the propagation activities. It is the embracer of information and the object of communication and it is the core of the information feedback. The effect of propagation should be judged according to the reaction of the audience. Thus, the audience is key of the success or failure of the propagation activities. It is an important task for us to lay emphasis on the significance of the audience and strengthen the research and cognition of audience theory both in the aspects of the theory and the practice.

The audience theory has a special position in the whole process of communication and it is a hot spot in communication. Many theories about communication are actually the theories about the audience, i.e., the communication is constructed with the core of the audience, especially for the theories about propagation effect, which all center on audience analysis. The audience theory is very important. The famous scholar and professor Shao Peiren says: “The audience is the target of information transmission. It is an important factor of information transmission and it is the premise and prerequisites of the existence of propagation process. The audience is the ‘display’ of the effect of communication, and it is qualified valuator of professional disseminator. Without the reaction and comments of the audience, the efficiency and effect of mass media cannot be fully reflected. The reason why the audience theory becomes an independent research subject in communication is objectively relevant with the development of the theory and practice of interrelated subjects, which provide powerful theoretical weapon and broad theoretical view for the formation of audience theory.

Firstly, the introduction of sociology theory expands the research of the audience. Communication occurs in the society all the time and it concerns about all social fields and social activities. The audience study in communication also cannot be separated from sociology. For example, in the audience analysis of media management, in order to grasp the characteristics of the audience segment market, we can only find the correct interrelations between the audience market and such factors as geographical factors, vital statistics, mental tendency, life style and media type, etc. In addition, the different reaction of the audience for media is also determined by environmental factors, including politics, culture, law and religion, etc. The special characteristics of the audience caused by different medium environment are different; on the contrary, the characteristics of the audience influence the propagation mode of the media. The acceptance mode, cognition capability, motivation and attitude of the audience to the media are restricted and influenced by the medium environment. For example, in a closed society with a fever of region, the audiences usually follow blindly. Germany in World War II is just a typical example③. It is so subjective and unilateral to talk about the absolute influence of media to the audience regardless of specific social and historical conditions.

The development of audience theory closely links with the study of psychology. Ever since it came into being in 1890’s, it is comparatively mature in theory after a hundred years’ development, especially for the occidental psychology that attaches importance to experimental research. The psychology should study on the interaction of social behavior and the relation among people. It should carry out profound and comprehensive study on the questions about communication and lay a wide and solid knowledge base for the formation of communication. With the perfection and application of the basic theory of psychology, the audiences are stimulated to make a study on the difference of motivation, demands, attitude and individual traits; whereas the motivation demands, attitude and individual traits of the audience determine the selection, acceptance and reaction to the media.

Take “theory of individual discrepancy” as an example. It emphasizes the interaction of the information provided by media and the individual traits of the audience, and it also analyzes the individual discrepancy of the audience from the aspects of individual psychological structure, innate factors, life habit, individual attitude as well as the values and the faith. It shows that the audiences are not the sheep. They have their own opinions about the things and they will have different reaction for the propagation content because of different character, which is distinct with the viewpoint that the people believing in “theory of bullet” take the audience as “target”. Clarb(克拉珀) pointed out that the audience will have selective acceptance of the information and have selective cognition and memory. The selection course is based on the psychologist Phistingle(费斯汀格)’s theory of cognition maladjustments. People would like to accept the information consistent with their own opinions and attitude and reject the information that does not conform to their own opinions and attitude in order to keep the coordination state of cognition. Because once the cognition is imbalance, the individual will have “comfortless feeling in psychology”, that’s why people try to avoid the incoordinate state. As the audience, the effective way of this is to avoid and reject the information not consistent with their own opinions through selective acceptance, selective cognition and selective memory.

However, the “theory of social category” in the study of the audience takes the audience group as the unit to investigate the reaction of the audience in social group to the media. The “theory of social category” thinks that the audience can be divided into different “social groups” according to different classification standard such as gender, age and educational background, and the mass media can select and transmit the information according to the characteristics of different social groups. American scholars Mr. And Mrs. Nairy(赖利) study on this for a long time. In Mass media And Social System, they describe the role of basic group and reference group in the communication cause. According to their opinions, the basic group and the reference group will guide the selection, understanding and reaction of the audience.④ As a member of the group, the group and the group criterion restrict the acceptance of the information to some extent. Thus the propagation that is consistent with the criterion of the audience group can satisfy the audience, whereas the audience cannot accept the propagation inconsistent with the group criterion.

Psychology provided abundant basic theoretical knowledge for the theory of audience in the study of the communication and interaction of social behavior, it concerns with all research fields of communication, and it plays a positive role for the development of the theory of audience. In the theory of audience, bipolar diffusionism is the most important theory first brought forward by Lazarspheld(拉扎斯费尔德), the pioneer of communication. In his study of the mass media, he found that the mass media does not directly influence most of the audience. In fact, only a few of the audience that always pay attention to the mass media will accept the information, and then they will influence more audience through interpersonal media. Those people who guides and act on public opinion are called as “opinion leader” by Lazarspheld(拉扎斯费尔德). Founder of communication, Welber Slarm(威尔伯·施拉姆), has given a clear description of “bipolar diffusionism”: “the idea is transmitted through the leaders of radio broadcasting, newspapers and periodicals to the people who are not active in public communication”⑤. In bipolar diffusionism, the first step is the media transmit the information to special audience---opinion leader; and then the opinion leader will transmit the information to most audiences by means of interpersonal media. It reveals the multilevel and complicacy of the communication, not a simple linear process. The mass media and the interpersonal media all contribute to it. Only when the initiative and creativity of the audience is mobilized, can the communication attain the anticipated effect. If the audience cannot have mutual and interactive communication with the media and the propagation potential of the audience will be greatly restricted. Thus the mass media have limitation on the audience. However, the interpersonal media can make up for the shortcoming of mass media, and they are complementary and interpenetrating, just like the theory of atomic fission, where the energy is fully released.

With the development of communication, various theories of the audience come into being. They reflect the significance of the audience in information transmission from different angles. The propagation is the course to satisfy the demands of the audience and it is also the course to arouse the participation and creativity of the audience. When the audience accepts the information, the mass media play a significant role. The audience will have different opinions and attitude for information based on mass media. It influences and restricts the re-propagation of the information through interpersonal media. The propagation of the audience is usually penetrating with strong pertinency and it further integrates the information of the mass media. Therefore, nowadays with the rapid development of mass media, the study of the audience is very significant for the development of the theory of communication, and it also has tremendous historical significance for the development of transnational communication.

Note: ②Welber Slarm(威尔伯·施拉姆), et al: An Introduction of Communication, Xinhua Publishing House, P161. Zhou Xiaohong, et al: Modern Social Psychology, Jiangsu Renmin Publishing House, 1991, P273. Yu Yelu: the preface of Media, Information And Human Being---An Introduction of Communication (written by Welber Slarm威尔伯·施拉姆), China Zhanwang Publishing House, 1985, responsible editor: Song Quancheng.
④ Dennis Michael, Swin Windel(斯文·温德尔): Theory of Public Communication Mode, Shanghai Yiwen Publishing House, 1987, P134, 47, 5.