For instance, to understand an advertisement we would have to adopt the identity of a consumer who desired the advertised product. This concept is used by Marxist media theorists to explain the political function of mass media texts. Note that this framework seems to posit an apparently empty category of synchronous mass communication which is hard to imagine. Whatever the shortcomings of any particular typology, however, all of the factors referred to here have the potential to influence the mode of address employed. On television, a direct mode of address is largely confined to presenters rather than to 'guests'.
Direct address is rare in the cinema, and when it is used it tends to be for comic effect.
The mode of address also varies in its formality or social distance. For a discussion of modes of address in television news see Hartley 1982, Chapter 6. They define 'the functions of address' in terms of the construction of such subjects and of relationships between them. They note that 'the phatic function works in terms of both inclusion and exclusion. Familiarity with particular codes is related to social position, in terms of such factors as class, ethnicity, nationality, education, occupation, political affiliation, age, gender and sexuality.