Fight Club

1. Audience Theories
 The Hypodermic Model
 Encoding and Decoding Model (Reception Theory) – Stuart Hall
 Uses and Gratification Theory – Blumler and Katz
The Hypodermic Model:
Suggests that the audience respond to a media text in the same way. Itis the
theory where thoughts and
feelings are injected into the
audience. Itmay change
people’s views and how they
think about a certain topic.
The messageit may send
could be powerfulenough to
influence someone to act a
certain way. An example of
this could be the right wing media in the UK. The Daily Mail or The Sun
manipulates opinions against people on benefits and migrants.
ReceptionTheory:
The producer encoding texts/meaning into a piece of work. For example, scary
music and props will be encoded into a horror film. This is then decoded by the
audience, who may view and respond in different ways.
This could be down to different things such as age, gender or social class /
political views. Also cultural background or circumstances of exhibitions. This
theory was created by Stuart Hall.
There are 3 different readings that may be then decoded.
 Preferred
 Negotiated
 Oppositional
 Preferred means you agree with the encoded messages concerning representation;
you have decoded them positively and you enjoy the producers intentions.
 Negotiated means you don’t fully agree with the encoded representations, but you
also don’t disagree with them. You have still decoded them positively.

2.  Oppositional means you are completely opposed to the representations within the
film/video. You have decoded them negatively and find them damaging or
inappropriate.
Preferred - Borat as I have a sense of humour which not everyone will get.
Negotiated – Fight Club as it had a lot of violence in it, which was tolerable but not amazing.
Oppositional - Songs of Praise.
Uses & Gratifications Theory:
Individuals mightchooseand use a text in the following ways:
 Diversion –Escape fromeveryday problems & routine.
 Personal Relationships –Using the media for emotional and other
interaction.
 Personal Identity –Finding yourself reflected in texts, learning
behaviour and values from texts.
 Surveillance –Information which could be useful for living, e.g. weather
reports, financial news, holiday bargains.
Fight Club Information
Fight Club is an American film based on the 1996 novelby Chuck Palahniuk.
The film was directed by David Fincher, who is an American director and
producer. He has created films, television series and music videos. The film was
created in 1999 and was firstreleased on September 10th
1999 in Venice. It
was released a month later in the US. The distributor of the film Fight Club is
20th
Century Fox film corporation and was given the certificate of 18. Ithad a
budget of 63 million dollars and made a profit in the box office, with a total of
100.9 million dollars’ earnings. Fightclub is about a man who is struggling in
life, with mental health and socialproblems. He meets a woman called Carla
(who is the love interest), who is doing the same as him by attending these
theory sessions. Wealso meet a character called Tyler Durden, who our main
protagonistbecomes friends with and decides to create a fight club. The club
grows and grows and the situation becomes more serious, as the group start
turning into a terroristlike organisation. Tyler plans to destroy all the upper
class and corporatecompanies, ruling the world, but our main character
doesn’twant this. He realises he has to fight against him, in which he finds out
Tyler is justhis own alter ego, and can only be killed by harming himself.

3. Fight Club is a very violent film as it is, so it musthave been very bad before
the cuts were made. Within the film there is scenes of violence as well as
scenes of a sexual nature and strong language. This resulted in the film being
given a certificate 18, eventually.
All films have to go through the BBFC and their
process in deciding a certification for a film.
There was much debate on what Fight Club
should or should not be given. The film arrived
at the BBFC with an age 18 request from its
distributor, 20th
Century Fox. This was seen by
the majority of the BBFC’s examiners, and also
by the director, the president and vice
presidents of the BBFC. This provoked a wide
range of opinion. Some felt an uncut18 was
acceptable for this adult viewing experience,
however there were concerns under the BBFC
guidelines of the time aboutthe glamorisation
of violence. There was worry thatthis film may
encouragepeople to take in interest in bare –
fist fighting. After extensive consideration, the final decision to take cuts,
under the guidelines of between 6 and 7 seconds to two scenes. These scenes
were focused on the pleasures of beating the helpless victims to a bloody
mess. The firstcut was in the scene where Lou fights Tyler in the basement.
They were told they had to reduce the heavy and explicit punches to the head.
Reductions in violence were also required in the scene wherethe narrator
fights a blond man of whom he is jealous. The film was then passed as 18 for
occasionalstrong violence. In the US, the film has
been classified as uncut R.
Alexander Walker feels the film was “an inadmissible
assaulton personaldecency”. He believed there was
too many messages and ideas that could promote
violence or terrorism. Another quote was “it echoes
propaganda that gave license to the brutal activities
of the SA and SS, as well as resurrecting the Fuhrer
principle”. This shows how strongly hefelt about the
film. He feels the film will make morepeople violent and resortto violence &
terrorism. This is a good example of the hypodermic model, as he believes
anybody who watches the film will turn this way. The hypodermic model is the
theory that information is injected into people and they may change their

4. opinion on bare knucklefighting and terrorism. “Adults should be free to
choosetheir own entertainment”. This quote follows the Uses and
Gratifications theory created by Blumler and Katz. This theory believes there
are 4 different ways peoplemay chooseto use a text; diversion, personal
relationships, personalidentities and surveillance.
I did feel that the film was extremely violent in parts, butnot throughout.
There were scenes without violence, which helped describethe story/plot, but
when there was violence, it was extreme. There were also scenes of terrorism,
which are a big talking point in films, as it may encourage people to take part
in these acts. 2 years after this film was created, the 9/11 acts took place, like
they did in the film. There werealso scenes of a sexual nature, but nothing too
much.
“New BBFC Guidelines established the principle that adults should be free to
choose their own entertainment, within the law, and it was considered that
there was nothing in FightClub that wasin breach of UK law, or felt to be
harmful.” –BBFC
This is a quote created by the BBFC on the film Fight Club. Itsays that there
was nothing in the film that was against the law. This talks in favour of Blumler
and Katz theory that people will chooseto interpret different pieces of media
in different ways. However, according to Uses and Gratifications theory, there
was content which individuals may choose and use a text in a specific way. For
example, diversion, they may think that a fight club would be a good way to
get away fromeveryday problems.
Survey Responses
After watching the film Fight Club, I created a survey for my classmates to fill
out. These questions weredesigned to gather opinions on the film, and how
different people viewed it differently. My survey was primary research, as itis
in the formof a survey. I think my survey Is aimed at a primary audience. This
is becausethey aren’t necessarily the ‘target audience’, but are viewers that
affect the consumption statistics. Anybody can watch this film and enjoy it, but
only certain people will fit into the target audience category. For example, I
think the film is aimed towards young, working class males; as that what the
main character is. It’s aboutescaping from every day matters and going to a
fight club to clear their head. You don’tsee any women at the fight club. I

5. don’t think there is a specific ethnicity that Fight Club is aimed towards. My
audience responses rangefromvery different opinions on the film, from
different type of people.
My firstquestion found out whatthe gender was of my audience. All of my
respondents were
male, meaning I
couldn’t get a range
of answers from
different genders.
This doesn’thelp my
survey, as I don’t
have a female point
of view, however it
shows thefilm is
maybe moreaimed
towards a male
audience, especially
as the main
characters are male.
I also asked whatmy
respondents view on the
violence within the film was.
This question got me multiple
different opinions, but the
majority voted for 1 option. The
most common answer was ‘just
right for the subjectmatter’.
This means these people
thought the violence was
correctfor the messagethat
was trying to be sent across
fromthe film. This doesn’t
mean they didn’t think it was
very violent, but it means they thought it was acceptable and wasn’ttoo much.
However, 1 person did think the violence was too much and wasn’tneeded

6. within the film. This is a good example of StuartHall’s ‘Reception Theory’ as it
is clearly encoded differently by different people. The majority thought it was
fine for the subjectof the film, but one person didn’t agree with it.
Another question I asked was in relation to Stuart Halls reception theory. It
was whatthe audience thought of the film and the answers to choose from
were; preferred, negotiated or oppositional. These are the 3 readings that the
reception theory then believes will be decoded. Preferred means you are in
favour of, negotiated means you are in the middle and oppositionalmeans you
are against. These can be decoded by the audience, who view and respond in
different ways. Their opinion may be changed on things such as gender, social
class, age or political views. 71% of my questioned audience had a preferred
reading of the film, meaning they
responded to the film in a positive
way and felt whatwas included
within the film was necessary.
However, 29% werenegotiated,
meaning they weren’t sure
whether they agreed with
everything within the film. This
shows peopledo view media with
different opinions. All of the data
so far is quantitative data.
Another piece of my primary research
came through the question ‘Do you
think you were diverted by the film in
any way?’. 43% of respondents voted
yes, with 1 respondentexplaining
why.
He
explained that he was diverted by the
“political subtext, narrativeand visual
style”. This agrees with Blumler and
Katz’s theory that people use a media
text for diversion. Some people did
answer that they weren’tdiverted by the film. This may be because they had

7. to watch it in college and may have seen it as work rather than something they
wanted to do.
I asked my participants what they liked and disliked aboutthe film, and
received a wide range of answers. Oneopinion was that they liked the
storylineof the film, but felt the violence
was too much. This shows thatthere was
definitely a lot of violence within the film,
and somepeople thought it was an
unnecessary amount.
Some other answers ranged from “enjoyed the plot twist” to “liked the
narrativeand visualstyle”. Another respondentalso commented on their
dislike for the “excessiveviolence”, which is hard evidence that multiple
people thoughtthe violence was a bit too much.
Finally, I asked whatthey would rate the film out of 10 stars. As the vast
majority of the people who completed the survey wereover 18, it is a good
thing for the production company that my results had an averagerating over
8.5 stars. This means the intended target audience as an averagereally
enjoyed the film. The lowest rating, I received was 6 stars, and the highest
being 10 stars; proving it was a liked film.