heathertalks

[heathertalks]

Audience Analysis Blog #10: Audience Studies in an Era of Datafication

Throughout the blogs, we have explored a number of topics, terms and the ways audiences were more than just people who viewed certain content. After reading the blogs, viewers would realize about the ongoing debate of how an audience is defined. With people having online access to their devices, whether they are laptops, tablets or smartphones, they can easily search for and consume content any where at any time. As a result of having the devices, not only are people able to access media content at any time, but they can turn into media producers. Within the past decade, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have played a role in the online experience as they encourage users to create and distribute content for others around the world to share. What I am going to talk about for this blog is how these platforms impact the way we interact with media.

With technology constantly changing, it allows us to be provided a better understanding of how media audiences manage to adapt to the changes. New opportunities for audience engagement have been developed because of the expansion of information or entertainment access. (Sullivan, pp 305) With trends like digitalization and convergence in media technologies, audiences have had their structural elements altered in how they consume media. In addition to a change in audience habits, the result in these trends caused a reform in expectations. A new trend in the form of transmedia production was developed as several media platforms were used in creating a narrative. Instead of relying on one simple medium, like a film, to tell a story, transmedia enables media producers to invite audiences in contributing to a narrative. With the Internet, audiences were encouraged to engage with and help develop their own story with media texts. Sullivan states that audiences of TV shows want to “create their own venues for sharing their views; they even want to influence the development of the program.” (306) One example that I would like to share is a video that explains a little bit more on transmedia storytelling using Star Wars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUP_GmB9W1s

With the growth of transmedia, we would experience a more fluid border between media texts. Audiences nowadays have become involved in paratexts, textual material that is part of the narration of certain media. Let us say there is a particular TV show or film series that your friends watch but you do not. They would often quote stuff from the show, wear T-shirts related to it, they even share memes on social media. So, you decide to start watching it to get in on the conversation. As soon as you start watching it, you start to understand the quotes or objects from the show and their significance. When we start watching the show, the decoding of the messages begins as we understand the meanings of the quotes and / or objects related to it. Paratexts are common in the world of fandom that we experienced it a couple of blogs back. Paratexts include fan merchandise, posters and advertisements. I can see people confuse paratexts with intertextuality because of the relation to certain media content. It is possible for intertextuality to be paratexts because of their relation to the media as some films and TV series can be based on other forms of media, such as comic books. Paratexts can be related to intertextuality because even if a certain comic book series was not adapted into a television or film series, it is possible to be have merchandise based on books or certain events.

One last thing I would like to talk about is the concept of datafication. It is referred to as the gathering, recording and examination about the world and activities of individuals. The Europeans have turned their focus of mediatization, the establishment of media becoming this institution that connects with human interaction in several social institutions like business or family. (Livingstone, pp 171) In the Internet age, with people constantly connected to social media, digital data is gathered on their behalf. The problem with datafication is how companies can easily know people more which would result in an invasion of privacy.

Over the past semester, I have learned a lot more about audiences and how they play a role than I realized. While it was nice to understand the general functions of audiences, the way that emerging technologies and growing media platforms helps us learn more about them in their habits and their tastes. Reading the news in learning about the patterns of the audiences helped me understand the world around me even more. I can connect this blog with the previous ones because it is a continuation of them with transmedia and paratexts.

Sources

1) Sullivan, J.L. (2020). Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power. 2nd Ed. 303-321.

2) Livingstone, S. (2019). Audiences in an Age of Datafication: Critical Questions for Media Research. Television & New Media. 20(20). 170-183.

[heathertalks]

Audience Analysis Blog #9: Online, Interactive Audiences in a Digital Media World

How does one become famous overnight? Is it as easy as it sounds? To some people, it feels like it, to others, not so much. In the entertainment world, it is possible for people to instantly become a star. With films, there have been cases were directors see someone and ask them to be in their projects. With a growing amount of technology and media platforms, it is more possible to be a sensation. Take Rebecca Black for example. In early 2011, she had a video for the song Friday uploaded to YouTube. Within the first month, it garnered 30 million views. Overtime, the song had been re-done in the form of parodies, remixes and was featured on the television series Glee. The discussion of this blog will be how audiences in media have changed through one that are online and interactive and how they pose a challenge in figuring out audiences in this age of new media.

Over the past decade, there have been changes in technology that allows people to create, upload and view media content. In a case like Rebecca Black, she uploaded the Friday music video using the video site YouTube. One concept that I would like to start with is digitalization, a method that allows images and sounds of media to be recorded and transmitted. (Sullivan, pp 268) Media has its content converted into a language consisting of ones and zeroes called digital or binary code, there are many benefits to this language as it provides an efficient amount of space, supports the quality of the content and allows different devices communicate with one another with no problem. With digitalization, there would be endless possibilities in artists in both video and musical to create and upload their content to share with a world that may not otherwise realize their existence without the use of technology.

Even when people do not aspire to become musicians or filmmakers, they can still take part in digitalization by creating content of their own and uploading it for fun. Some people would create user-generated content (UGC) among their favourite media such as video games. This particular content allows people to create their own content and share with others. One example is video game mods, short for modifications. What users would do is take certain video games, using some code, they would add a little spin to the games. What I am about to show is a WatchMojo video of games that are often modded. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C_Ds63FqN8

With many people creating their own content, they would usually store it in an online place called the cloud. Clouds would not only allow web servers to store files but to have applications in which millions of users can connect with media content similarly. (Sullivan, pp 271) Clouds, video sharing sites like YouTube, Wikipedia and social media sites like Facebook have one thing in common. They are considered platforms, digital infrastructures that allow communication between at least two people or groups. The infrastructures function as intermediaries within all sorts of user types. These platforms provide users with a space to communicate with one another. Examples of these platforms include online shopping sites, social media and video sharing media.

One platform that I would like to touch down on is social media. Now, social media is one of those things that people have a love-hate relationship with. While most of us would use social media on a regular basis, we all have that one friend that hates it with a passion. I would often jokingly tell my dad, just be glad that you are not on social media, your head would explode. I know people that complain about sites like Facebook because it is one of the reasons that we have become slaves to our phones. To some extent, I have to agree because I have read articles about the ‘fear of missing out.’ Even if those of use have checked Facebook three times a day, we tend to have that anxiety with us ‘Liking’ multiple pages and having 600+ friends. To best describe social media, they are services based on the internet that enable a certain amount of people, whether they are one individual or a community, to connect with one another in the creation, distribution, engagement and providing of user- generated content. (Sullivan, pp 271) There are differences in demographics among certain social media platforms, with Facebook and YouTube having a large usage whereas to sites like Twitter and Instagram have their usages be different in other demographics.

In the world of social media, there are several terms that some users may not realize exist but are useful in understanding the platforms. Measures of exposure are built-in to every social media platform in demonstrating the number of users that viewed the content. These measures would include a post on Facebook or a tweet. A dashboard allows users with a number of ways in seeing the amount of uses that people reacted or comment on a particular post. Using Tumblr the past few months, I am so used to referring to the dashboard as a place where we can generate and upload content. As someone who has used Facebook within the past decade, these two terms, measures of exposure and dashboard are new to me, I would so be used to seeing the dashboard as ‘the wall.’ Viral posts are common in social media as it is content that is shared a million times within a short period of time. (Sullivan, pp 277) While Sullivan’s book said that it can be a YouTube video or Twitter post, I would have to disagree as it can be any form of media content from a photo or a news story. There are a wide variety of viral posts in all social media platforms that are often shared by people around the world.

When it comes to posts and social media platforms, we generate and share all sorts of content but what if we could make posts about our lives and the world around us? This is when the concept of blogs and vlogs come in. There are obvious differences between the two log types as blogs are short for web logs while vlogs are short for video logs. Like me, some of you would own a laptop and use it on a regular basis. Almost every laptop is equipped with a built-in camcorders or camera. This would make way for people to create their own vlogs and upload them to YouTube. A more general definition of vlogs would be content that has a user make a discussion in front of a camera and use little to no editing. (Sullivan, pp 282) Vlogs uploaded to video sharing sites like YouTube would include responses to other videos, diary entries and comedy performances. One example of the Vlog that I would like to show is that of Stephen Georg. I have mentioned him on an earlier blog about Twitch Streaming, he actually has two channels. One that allows him to record playthroughs of video games and the other that has him ‘life-blogging,’ or recording a series of diary entries. This is one example of one of his life-vlogs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrIHMzhJh7M

Switching to blogs, or web logs, they tend to be a little simpler in having online websites be used in a journal format. To learn the origins of blogging, you would have to go back to the late 1990s when the first sites that enabled blogging were OpenDiary and Live Journal. Sites like this and Blogger.com have people create their own website that focuses on blogging within seconds. One does not have to understand programming languages such as Java or HTML in order to maintain the blogging sites. (Sullivan, pp 289) In 2010, when social media sites like Facebook and Twitter gained traction and took over the blogging scene. One obvious example of a blog is mine or any blog on Tumblr. While some people would blog about photography or working on cars, I am blogging not because it is part of an assignment, but it is part of me educating users about the concepts of audiences in how they evolved with the use of technology.

I have often told people that we are so fortunate to live in a technological driven society and sites like YouTube that allow us to create and upload content to entertain others. In addition, social media sites like Facebook help us share and engage with content as it adds elements like humour in what goes on in the news today. These sites also offer users with a chance to add their own spin on already existing content such as video games with the mods. Even if we do not consider ourselves to be artists, it still allows us to be creative in offering our own texts and provide other users with some form of entertainment. Even blogging sites have a way of allowing users to create their own content, whether it is in plain text, images, or videos.

Sources

1) Sullivan, J.L. (2020), Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power. 2nd Ed. 265-302.

[heathertalks]

Audience Analysis Blog #8: Media Fandom and Audience Subcultures

When we consume our media, whether it is watching our favourite TV series or movies, playing our video games, cheering for our sports teams, listening to our music, etc, we become fans of that particular media, whether we know about it. As fans, we invest in our favourite media and sometimes recommend or talk about it among our friends. Some of us would like to keep it simple in just consuming the media while others would go all out, such as buy T-shirts and other merchandise, create fansites, go to comic-conventions, etc. Just like creating our own media reception context, we create our own way of being fans.

Let us start this blog by asking what is a fan? How do you consider yourself to be one? Can you still be a fan if you did not have a certain trait? A fan is considered to be an audience member that shares a love of a certain type of media, whether it is a celebrity, TV / movie / video game franchise, sports team, etc. Fans are invested in their favourite media as they would examine the plots, characters and the texts’ messages. (Sullivan, pp 239) Fans would interact with one another in discussing the media text as they become part of an interpretive community. Texts created by fans in the form of fan fiction is used to suit their desires. Short for fanatic, the term was initially used to refer to someone belonging to a religious membership. The British would refer to media fan cultures as ‘cult media.’ It is interesting to note how the word ‘fan’ had an original religious meaning as people’s love for something could result in negative views of fandom as individuals would be looked upon as delusional.

Now, before we get into further detail about fandoms, let me tell you my experiences as a fan. I am a fan of many things, from sports to blockbuster films and TV series to gaming. I would often wear shirts / sweaters from my favourite teams, I have a couple of gaming T-shirts, I would attend sporting events. I would not really consider myself as hardcore as some people would describe themselves. Later on, in this blog, I will give out some examples of fandoms that tend to be a little too much.

There has been a debate on what fandom means among researchers with competitive agendas. Early studies concerning fans had an objective in disproving the negative stereotypes of fandoms. (Sullivan, pp 241) John Fiske explained that fans broke away from the negativity by creating ownership over the media texts by going into interpretive play with them. Early scholars were attracted to the notion that fan participation became a political resistance as it resulted in the idea of commodity audience being challenged. Through their own consumption of media, fans develop their own sense of identity. There was more to fandoms than sharing a love for a specific TV show or film series as it formed a pop culture interpretation that developed a sense of community. With a growing number of platforms and media products, the concepts of fan and fandom has broadened. There are different levels of engagement when it comes to passion in fandoms. In order, these levels are consumer, enthusiast, fan and producer.

Sometimes, fandoms can result in groups in the form of a subculture. It is usual for fan groups of a specific interest such as Star Trek and Star Wars to form. The selection of mainstream cultural aesthetics had the fans incorporating it into their personal lives as it would create a subculture. (Sullivan, pp 244) Fans who show their love of a certain franchise had a tendency to be looked down on by the status quo in their engagement. In some cases, fans tend to go a little overboard with their love of their franchise. What I am going to show is a WatchMojo clip of toxic fandoms and the extremes that they went when something goes wrong with their favourite franchises. The reason for me showing this is to demonstrate the lengths some fandoms would go to show their displeasure.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMouE-raVGY

One franchise that I would like to talk about is Star Wars. I am an avid Star Wars fan, I have seen the original films multiple times, played some of the games when I was younger. So, you might say, I am a Star Wars nut. The fan base has a reputation for being toxic. When the first of the prequels came out, two of the actors, one who played Anakin Skywalker, Jake Lloyd and one who played Jar Jar Binks were not well-received. They got a ton of hate from the fans and it messed them up both bad. What I am going to show is a clip on how the fanbase resulted in Lloyd’s misfortunes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jO-H_1M0CQ 

In addition, fans stated their dissatisfaction for one of the recent sequels, they started creating petitions to have The Last Jedi changed. I actually went on Facebook to say that they are being ridiculous, and Disney is just laughing their butt off over this. I got 1,300 reactions from that comment and managed to ruffle a few feathers over it. The reason for me writing it is how we have no control over the final product, and we should accept the movie for what it is and move on.

Star Wars is an example of fandoms who devote their love to their franchise. After the first film was released in 1977, it resulted in an explosion of fan enthusiasm. (Sullivan, pp 250) Will Brooker states that the original films are considered the official texts. The films would be considered the center of the Star Wars universe as several it branched out into several texts, such as a series of books, an NPR-broadcasted radio show in the 1980s, even a TV special featuring the fan favourite Ewoks that made their debut in Return of the Jedi. What adds fuel to the franchise is the fanbase. They wanted continuity from the original trilogy’s narrative in multiple texts. The community among Star Wars fans communicate with one another and share their interest among the texts. What distinguishes fans from simple viewers of the franchise is the ability to share their own unique interpretations.

One other example that would be worth discussing is fandom of the Netflix television series, Stranger Things. For those who are not familiar with the show, it is set in the 1980s in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana. The series revolves around supernatural events happening in the town, including the appearance of a mysterious girl with telekinetic abilities. Fan involvement with the show included social media usage which included Twitter, Instagram, Reddit and Fanfare. Post patterns consisted of plot, re-watching, para-social and fan art. Plot posts seem to appear in all four platforms as they feature questions concerning the new season, fan reactions to the show and observations. (Pouls, pp 5) Data showed that close to the second season, people watched the first season to get prepared. First-time posts occurred among people who completed the first season. In all social media platforms, fans posted about re-watching the first season. Re-watch posts is common before the second season is released. Twitter and Instagram featured countdown posts as they indicate the amount of time before the second season is released.

There are many things to describe ourselves as an audience, such as a simple viewer to an avid fan. As fans, we do more than consume our favourite content, we live in our fandom through a variety of things. They include wearing simple T-shirts, purchasing merchandise or novelties, take part in online discussions or just simply enjoying it. It is possible to be a fan of a variety of different media, such as TV shows, sports teams, bands, etc. While it is nice to be a fan of certain things, it is possible to get carried away with the fandoms, as I showed in the examples with the WatchMojo and Star Wars videos. It is worth looking at the creative ways that some fans show their love for their favourite franchise. The love is fueled through social media as we have discussed in Stranger Things. Furthermore, growing trends in new media help broaden fandoms in helping them demonstrate their identity.

Sources

1) Sullivan, J.L. (2020). Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power. 237-263.

2) Pouls, S. & Gilpin, D. (2019). Socially Mediated Stranger Things: Audience Cultures and Full-Season Releases. Southwestern Mass Communication Journal. 34(2). 1-11.

[heathertalks]

Audience Analysis Blog #7: Reception Contexts and Media Rituals

Routines. We all have them. No matter what time or day it is, there is always this one thing that we do. Our morning rituals would have us getting up, having a shower, watching the news, eating breakfast, brushing our teeth, etc. After we have dinner, some of us have a nice hot cup of tea. Some of us spend Sundays relaxing, watching football. On a particular day, we watch our favourite television programs. These examples show us our quirks in having a routine. What has this got to do with the role of an audience member? Other than the examples I discussed is that part of our routine, we tend to consume certain media in our daily lives. In the time of writing this blog, I am watching a football game, it is part of my Sunday rituals. In addition, I use my computer to read news and look at content around this time of day (5:40 at the time of writing this blog). Every one of us has some sort of routine that gets us through a day which includes the amount of media that we consume. In this blog, I will explain how we have media consumption be part of our daily routines.

To start off, let us look into media reception and its forms. Sullivan defines it as “the study of audience interpretation of media that occurs in specific context.” (208) We use certain physical spaces at particular times in developing our media experiences as they are key for us in the acknowledgement of media content. For example, while I am writing this blog, I am providing myself some background noise in the form of my television in my living room. In the early 1980s, scholars started studying the media usage among the local, situated and contextual aesthetics. We see the term context as a reference to the particular environments where people tend to consume media. Contexts are seen as daily micro-settings or physical environments and a reception’s interpersonal connection. Sullivan stresses the importance of contexts as they are considered “a place and a web of interpersonal relationships and interactions that occur within that space.” (209) Time also comes into play of this as we utilize media, whether it is planned or we have an opportunity, in particular times. Our reception contexts consist of three aspects in space, time and social environment.

Social contexts help us develop our own media environment. The interaction between space and time helps us in the way we obtain texts and how we examine these texts. We consume media in a specific physical context or a location’s physical dimensions. Some people would relax in their home, wearing headphones as they watch Twitch streams because they wanted time to themselves. People who use media forms in unique ways are always going to have experiences different from their peers. The role that spatial context in media’s reception is essential in our media experience’s social contexts. As audience members, we define reception spaces, along with relationships that occur in them. For example, in a Zoom meeting, people would sit alone in their bedroom or their office, with their headphones on to avoid being distracted.

During a time of new technologies developing in how we consume media, which include streaming sites that change the way we watch TV, the concept of time-shifting has come into play. While we have our routines in how we watch our favourite programs, sometimes we have other commitments. This causes us to adapt to ‘appointment view’ in order for us to watch our shows. Sullivan explains that audiences “adapted their activities to be able to consume a TV program at the specific time it was broadcast.” (212) With technologies, such as digital video recorders (DVR) or streaming sites, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, audiences are turning to the concept of time-shifting in getting their media fix. With several media platforms in our access, we can select the times we can watch our favourite programs at a more convenient time.

Although a lot of us would be viewing content on our laptops, tablets or phones, in one weekly lecture, Good talked about how television is still an essential and widely used media technology being used in a domestic context. Despite technology growing, especially with media, the amount of television usage has not changed. In his 1997 book Time For Life, John Robinson, a sociologist studied how Americans spent their free time through the use of surveys. In the timeline between 1965 and 1985, Americans had about a hundred free hours on a weekly basis with forty of them being used for leisure purposes. Participants in the survey said that they spent half of the time watching television. In Robert Putnam’s 2000 book Bowling Alone, he used time-use data with historical trends to support an argument that more Americans would prefer to watch television at home as opposed to participating in civic and community activities. This article is a recent example of how much television American watch. https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-7/television-capturing-americas-attention.htm The reason for me putting out these examples is to support Sullivan’s statement in how television continues to play a role in our media consumption despite alternate ways in viewing content.

One term that is similar to routines is ritual. Anthropologists examine the concept of ritual because they wanted to learn about daily human behaviours among different cultures internationally. People would consider rituals as their daily habitual activities. For example, during weekends when people have free time, they would shop for groceries and / or do some work around the house. Some people have dinner at 5:00 and watch the news at 6:00. Even if our favourite TV show is on, we drop everything to watch it at a particular time. Rituals may have some importance to individuals however, the rest of society believes that it is not much of a big deal. Anthropologists are more concerned with rituals that have certain cultures perform formalized actions during events, such as weddings or funerals. I pointed this out because we all have rituals or routines that we follow on a basis and as an audience, how we consume media is no different. Like I said, we all have TV shows that come on in a certain time that we go out of our way to watch. In addition, sports fans would get together to watch games as they would incorporate where they are, what they eat, how they watch it as part of the ritual / routine. At this time of the year, Christmas specials would be popping up in our favourite TV networks and we would watch it. Some people would even watch the Hallmark Christmas movies.

An example of our media rituals and media reception coming into play is how we watch movies and sporting events. When watching a sporting event, Kim discusses that a dark movie theater would create an emotional response to audiences watching a sporting event as it would cause them to focus on the game. (391) Audiences would create a cheering atmosphere in a theater or home viewing experience as they would don their favourite team’s colours and act like they were at the game in developing realism in the experience. The space would be occupied by family members and / or roommates as they would put up with distractions, such as lighting, background noise and people moving around.

Realism in a media experience as it helps create the content’s naturalness in having individuals experience the concert or sporting event themselves. The more a reception space resembles an event the media content depicts, the more likely audiences would react a similar way as if they are actually at the event. This would help audiences develop a sense of presence. (Kim, pp 392) I put this out because the way we respond to certain events become part of our rituals and our social contexts. Again with my love of sports, it is a great example because not everyone can attend games so they would rather stay home, go to somebody’s house or go to a bar and they would try to obtain a sense of realism such as dressing in their team colours. Another example is a Royal Wedding where people would get up early, dress up in England-like attire and watch the wedding as if they are part of it. In a time of Covid, we use entertainment-related events to figure out ways on making an experience realistic in order for us to distract what is going on in the world.

Our routines in our media environments become a part of our consumption in media, that we tend to forget about what goes on in our world. We are so fortunate to grow up in a technological-based society that we can make arrangements in how we consume content at a time that we feel is more convenient to us. In a time of Covid, we become accustomed to a change in our routines where we depend on media to keep us entertained and we use certain spaces and times that we are comfortable with. We have a variety of different ways in how we consume media, whether it is the time, space, social context or devices. We all have TV shows that come on at a certain time in what area, we all have a schedule of what we want to watch or play, it is a part of our reception context.

Sources

1) Sullivan, J.L. (2020), Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power. 207-234.

2) Kim, K., Cheong, Y., & Kim, H. (2016). The Influences of Sports Viewing Conditions on Enjoyment from Watching Televised Sports: An Analysis of the FIFA World Cup Audiences in Theater vs. Home. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. 60(3). 389–409.

[heathertalks]

Audience Analysis Blog #6: Interpreting and Decoding Mass Media Texts

Over the past few blogs, I have talked about how our roles as audience members go from individuals who simply view selected content to ratings contributors to being active users of media. There is another I would add to the list in the form of interpreters and decoders. Now, I bet you are all wondering what does figuring out codes have anything to do with how we view content. For one thing, it is related to our opinions as we use them to make our interpretations of what content that people view. We wonder about audiences’ acknowledgements in media content. If there are similarities, what are the patterns of audiences when it comes to reactions. What I am going to talk about is audience interpretations in media as several terms would be explained such as semiotics, signs, ideology and encoding / decoding.

To start off, let us define semiotics as it is “the systematic study of signs and their significance in society.” (Sullivan, pp 168) Understanding semiotics helps us learn about interpretation in the process of communicating ideas. Ferdinand de Saussure, a French linguist, was a prominent figure in semiotics as he developed an interest in language’s building blocks and meaning. He explained the concepts of signs as a key to communication among people. No matter what the text is like, whether it is words, images or acts, signs are essential in communication between at least two people. Signs come in different forms such as simple or straightforward, like this blog for instance, or complex, like the code or programming / web design language to create the blog. Signs can be demonstrated as things that they are not. They play a role as markers that have important information about a referred object or experience. Signs consist of two elements: the signifier, the sign’s form and the signified, the signifier’s representation.

Ideology is a concept that I would like to talk a little bit about as it shares a connection with mass media. When people think of ideology, they would think of it as a set of beliefs and opinions that are shared on the basis of social and / or political views. Scholars would study ideology in figuring out how meaning and power intersect and attempt to understand the meaning of people’s ways. In the 1930s, the Frankfurt School, a research group that consisted of German scholars, was formed to examine the media’s role from the view of Marxism. They pointed out that the media was responsible in convincing citizens into accepting the economic status quo. (Sullivan, 170) They coined the term ‘culture industry’ as it is defined as the development of dominant ideologies. One example of ideology is news sites. Within the past four years, there have been debates on whether the news is trying to push a certain agenda, for example, liberal vs conservative. There are news sites out there that try to balance sides, giving them equal coverage however, there are some that focus on one particular political side. For example, the left would have NPR and Mother Jones while the right would have Fox News and Breitbart.

The next thing is the discussion of encoding and decoding messages. In an essay, Stuart Hall, discusses the encoding and decoding processes in a communication exchange. The processes are seen as moments in how intervention of a text’s meaning was conveyed, resulting in power relations. Encoding the message is the first determining moment as the message is created by someone such as a journalist, a podcaster, or in this case, a blogger. The content’s creator is responsible for putting out a text that audiences would understand. In a case, such as television news, a ‘story’ is formed through an event before it can go through the process of being a communicative event. This results in language systems, professional codes of production and conventions of message production working together. (Sullivan, 172) When the news is broadcast, standard practices occur in determining what events would be considered news, along with how to present them to audiences.

In decoding, audience members utilize cognitive and associative resources in deconstructing a message while at the same time, be acknowledged of structures with the likes of language and conventions in culture. (Sullivan, 172) For the audience to be affected by a text or message, they need to decode it. In other words, after receiving an encoded message, the audience offer their own unique interpretations from their contexts.

One key aspect in communication and our media experiences is intertextuality. In this concept, we take experiences and what we know about media texts and utilize them in our viewing of our film and television programs. We connect texts such as films, TV shows, video games, books and connect them with other media. Sullivan states that “we create meanings out of our media universe by relating specific messages to others that we have seen or heard.” (193) Intertextuality is everywhere in today’s media, for example, when I am on Facebook, I would spot pictures of movies that would offer their own spin on what is going on in the world. There are several examples of intertextuality in today’s TV shows and movies as The CW have several TV shows that are based on comic books, such as The Flash and Riverdale, along with popular fictional character like Nancy Drew. In terms of movies, during the summer, blockbusters would be shown as some would be based on comic books, reboots of series, etc.

At this point, you are probably thinking ‘those terms are nice but why are they related to mass media and our role as an audience?’ The answer be sound complex without these terms, but they are worth learning about. Everyday, we consume a good amount of content and media. Some of us would start our day watching the news and / or sports. During the day, we would go on social media, listen to music or even stream our favourite TV shows. What we do not realize is the number of texts and messages that we are exposed to. When we see headlines in the news or sports, we become enticed to click on the links to help decode the messages and understand what is going on. However, not all links to news sites are reliable. Some sites try to frame certain stories in an effort for audiences to click and offer their own spin on the story. One site that I visit often is Palmer Report, a blog that focuses on political stories and how they decode what the media is showing. One thing that the site would explain is how the media would insist that Trump’s fanbase was everything. They wanted the base front and center so people would tune in to get a rise. Palmer explained why the base is irrelevant to his re-election chances. Why am I talking about this? Because I wanted to give out an example of how news sites would encode messages to present to the mass audience while an alternative news site like Palmer Report helps the same audience decode the message. One example of Palmer Report decoding a message is the rumor of Trump possibly running in 2024. https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/no-donald-trump-isnt-running-in-2024/34369/ Originally, one of Trump’s former campaign members Steve Bannon suggested that he could run in 2024, causing the media to go into a frenzy.

Another example of how we use signs and attempt to decode messages is how we figure out certain things in the form of guessing. We all play games in which we try to guess something on the basis of clues. The clues are considered signs and we use the signifiers and the signified to determine what the clues mean as well as attempt to decode the message or guess what that thing is that we are trying to identify. Although I do not watch the show, I would like to use the reality series, The Masked Singer, as an example as it relates to this. In the program, a celebrity puts on an outrageous costume and sings, all while a group of panelists try to determine who that person is. There is a clue video to help the panelists guess who is really behind the mask. What I am going to show is a sample of the show from the first season with the performances, clues and reveal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7r3seBU9VE The reason for me showing this is to demonstrate how different people (the panelists) offer their own interpretations (or decoding) into who could be the performer with the clues (or signs) that are provided.

One other thing that would be worth talking about is the Showtime television series, Dexter. In case you have never heard of the series, it is a crime drama that ran from 2006 to 2013 and starred Michael C. Hall as the title character, a forensic technician for the Miami police department who specializes in blood strain analysis. He leads a double life as a vigilante serial killer who hunts down other serial killers. The show gained notoriety for its controversial ending. How it connects with the blog’s topic is how audiences examine the text and offers their own take on the show and its premise. Dexter uses the Code of Harry to see criminals who managed to slip through the cracks of the legal system. If they meet the code, then they will be punished. (Granelli, pp 5056) Critics have often questioned the moral complexity of the show and the effect it has on an audience. Granelli explained that the show causes the audience to “question concepts inherent to the genre.” (5057) Psychologists have examined the way audiences have interpreted texts, especially media that demonstrates morally reprehensible actions. Shows like Dexter, who tend to play the anti-hero are nothing new as works such as Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul and Sons of Anarchy have demonstrated codes that break morally of everyday citizens. I always felt that these shows are popular because the main characters break away from the ideologies and codes of morality and do what they can to obtain their own personal goals. In a study by Granelli, participants believe that Dexter Morgan is one of four things: 1) A justified vigilante in an ‘eye for an eye’ justice 2) Psychological puzzle that demonstrates human complexity. You do not always know who people really are 3) Gratuitous murder as it glorifies murder and 4) Deviant escapism as people consider it to be stirring, emotional and entertaining. I added this in the blog because of how media, one that depicts over-the-top violence, creates different reactions for viewers and allows them to offer unique opinions on certain codes and moralities. The last two things on the list, gratuitous murder and deviant escapism, shows people’s general opinions on some cable programs that have a certain amount of violence and explains that programs on certain networks are not for everyone while at the same time, these same programs are for people who do not like the restrictions of broadcast television in terms of content.

While this blog is a little long, I wanted to explain general terms that help in examining messages from the media and decoding them. Several examples were used to help explain interpreting and decoding signs, messages and texts better for audiences. In addition, many texts or messages can have several meanings, or be polysemic. Our roles as audience members help us understand certain messages and convey with our peers into figuring out what some texts really mean. We consume texts to become entertained and we do not realize that we do more than just watching our favourite content. Overtime, we view texts to understand their meanings and why we continue to watch.

Sources:

1) Sullivan, J.L. (2020). Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions and Power. 2nd Ed. 163-205.

2) Granelli, S., & Zenor, J. (2016) Decoding “The Code”: Reception Theory and Moral Judgment of Dexter. International Journal of Communication. 10. 5056-5078.

[heathertalks]

Audience Analysis Blog #5: Uses and Gratifications

As audience members, we watch anything that interests us whether it is films, concerts, sporting events or videos on social media. When we view content, we play the role as an audience but what if you could do more? What if you could interact with the creators of that particular content. In the uses and gratifications approach, we figure out the way people utilize media as opposed to acting as an outside force. The theory enables the audience to figure out the media exposure that they want to engage in. In the late 20th century, the uses and gratifications approach opened the door of new ways in seeing consumers of media more than the outside influence of being an object.

I would like to start off this blog with an example of this. Twitch TV is a video streaming site that enables users to record themselves playing video games. During streams, people can interact with one another or with the streamers via chat. Even as an avid gamer, I do not really go into Twitch that often, mainly because there are other things I watch. One channel that I would watch if I would be on would be StephenGeorg as he is one of my favourite YouTubers. He would do playthroughs of video games from an assortment of consoles, sometimes with his wife. https://www.twitch.tv/stephengeorg is the link.

To understand the early examples of uses and gratification, you would have to go to the late 1950s. Communication scholar Bernard Berelson provided a hypothesis that communication research was dying and that “the great ideas that gave the field of communication research so much vitality ten and twenty years ago have to a substantial extent worn out,” (Sullivan, pp 138) Elihu Katz, a prominent communications scholar, supported the claim that studying media influences towards audiences have ran its course. Katz suggested that issues in the influence of media should be reframed to show the conditions that people determine in selecting what media and content they want to view. Katz said that communication scholars should look into the uses that people have with the media. This would result in a functional audience inquiry as the reasons for people selecting what media messages for consumption. His argument implies that audiences have their own opinions in which some are created within their social        environment in terms of media exposure.

When it comes to looking into the difference between the users and gratifications approach from other inquiries, one of the first things is how it rearranges the common notion of the connection between the media and the audience. This causes the hypothesis that the audience is affected by media, with users and gratifications, this idea is the opposite as members of the audience would select what media channels to consume to satisfy their tastes. This would be considered a functional perspective on audience activity. The purpose of functional theory examines people’s reasoning behind their actions. People are made to be “rational, decision-making creatures whose actions can be understood within particular social contexts.” (Sullivan, pp 143) Criteria concerning the approach is based on five assumptions: 1) An active audience were the media usage is aimed at the individual’s goals 2) A member of the audience connects need gratification with their media choices as he or she fulfills a specific need in selecting which media to consume 3) There is a competition within mass media sources for an individual’s attention 4) Audience members understand their needs in finding which media to consume and can identify needs to researchers of the media when asked and 5) Scholars do not judge others based on their media selections. They figure out the motivation behind the individuals; selection of media on their own. The audiences are depicted as thoughtful in their utilization of the media and can explain researchers why they selected their media for consumption.

Examples of this from personal experiences that I have is I use a variety of different media that reflects my interests. I am an avid sports fan so naturally I would watch sports on TV, but I also stream highlights of different games through websites of leagues, such as the NHL and NFL. I enjoy gaming as I would play on my Playstation as well as watch play throughs of games through YouTube and on occasion, Twitch. I stream movies and television shows using my laptop. I consider myself to be old-fashioned because I prefer to watch things using either my television or laptop. The screens are a bit bigger than those on a mobile phone and they are simple to work with.

In the 1940s, female radio listeners were a subject for a project by Columbia University’s Office of Radio. This project concerning radio audiences was conducted in 1937 for the purpose of studying “what radio means in the lives of listeners.” (Sullivan, pp 140) The research focused on analyzing the radio audience size and creating something that looks into their reactions towards a specific program. One of the project’s directors, Herta Herzog, combined data about female radio listeners from several large studies that focus on radio audiences. Herzog’s targeted data was the reactions of female listeners of daytime radio serials. She wanted to know what satisfaction that the audience gets and the judgements of psychologists. Furthermore, she wanted to look into the audience structure and what gratifications occurred. Three unique gratifications to listening to the radio serials was: 1) A kind of ‘emotional release’ 2) Fantasizing about being in that particular world for fulfillment 3) Searching for advice with focus on social etiquette

The reasons behind radio listeners being engaged in their serials reminds me of reasons for others watching television. When I am watching television, I usually would watch as a means of escapism, like the fantasy of being in a different world. In addition, I would watch my favourite shows as a means of unwinding after a long day. Every once in a while, I would look at the comments section of fan pages of the TV shows and some of them would praise the show while others would be “well, this show is terrible now because of this.” I would tell jokes about the show to give myself my own take.

The uses & gratifications approach has been improved in recent years thanks to new technologies as they contributed to new opportunities in gratification. The Internet has been provided with social gratification as there is already an established process and content gratification. (Pantic, pp 152) One such example is social media sites like Facebook, Instagram as a means of connecting with others.

With new media, uses and gratifications can consist of distinguished medium-specific and broad elements in terms of content. One example of a medium-specific element is using Facebook to share photos or ‘like’ content. On the broad elements side, interactivity would be considered an example. The use of the Internet as a medium is demonstrated as a two-way communication between users and the medium. When I am on Facebook, I would often share medium-specific content, such as photos, videos and links. In other words, I am using both medium-specific and broad categories when I am on social media.

As audience members, we consume content to satisfy our tastes in entertainment such as watching videos of our favourite artists or clips of our favourite TV shows. What we do not realize is that we have more power than we realize in controlling what media that we consume. With the Internet, we can easily interact with others and our favourite content creators in making suggestions. The biggest impact of uses & gratifications is the use of social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram because we can voice our opinions, share content about any artist on our pages, ‘like’ certain people or causes, etc.

Sources

1) Sullivan, J.L. (2020). Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power. 2nd Ed. 107-131.

2) Pantic, M. (2020). Gratifications of digital media: What Motivates Users to Consume Live Blogs. Media Practice and Education. 21(2). 148-163.

[heathertalks]

This link shows the audience numbers for every Super Bowl.  In 2013, streaming numbers started to count and as the years went by, the amount of people watching the event through streaming increased. The reason for me putting this link in my blog was to demonstrate how audiences are attracted to annual events of spectacle and how they grow using traditional and streaming means.

[heathertalks]

This is a site that shows the latest polls in the 2020 presidential election as it would be connected to the topic of public opinions and polls. The majority of the polls show Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the lead along with potential democratic senators. The polls in some sites tend to change on a weekly basis as there are some voters that want to vote for one candidate or undecided.

[heathertalks]

This is an example of what Americans are streaming according to Nielsen research. In a time of Covid, more people are staying home and depending on stream sites to occupy their time. The most popular sites in Canada include Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Crave and Disney+.

[heathertalks]

With the Covid-19 going into a second surge, many areas of the world are contemplating going into another lockdown or closing down several places to help combat the spread. Cinemas are one example because of the many surfaces that people touch. This link is one example of letting audiences know what is going on in the world or their area as it shows an action in media.

[heathertalks]

Audience Studies Blog Entry #4: Audiences as Ratings Contributors

As members of an audience, we have managed to play several roles from being ones who voice our opinions of what goes on in the world to people that tend to share things about what goes on in the news. One of the roles that we play is contributing to ratings during events. When someone thinks about ratings, they think about that in television however, as audience members, we can attend sporting events or concerts and we would consider ourselves to be contributors of ratings as we would be the ones watching the events. The last few years, I have developed an interest in the ratings system when it comes to television shows. I am not one of those crazy people that would be like “OMFG, why isn’t my show in the top 10? Are people really that stupid?!” I have been interested in how TV shows can get good ratings and have them stay good and people’s general opinion of the direction a certain show is headed. In addition, I tend to make guesses of what show is going to get canned and what show is safe because of the ratings, so it is a bit of a game I like to play.

The ratings system is the most important tool in measuring audiences. Two companies in the US are responsible for the ratings are Nielsen Corporation for television ratings in both broadcast and cable TV, with addition in streaming audiences and Nielsen Audio for broadcast radio. Although there are many smaller research studies, the two companies are monopoly suppliers of audience data. They managed to keep their status as monopoly companies using a huge upfront launch in an audience viewership’s nationwide survey which would discourage other companies from trying to compete. (Sullivan, pp 107) In addition, media companies and advertisers make an economic agreement that would cause financial transactions between them to go smoothly. This is when the ratings come in.

Like public opinion polling, it can be complicated to analyze every audience member of a TV program or radio broadcast. Researchers would use a sampling unit from a population. In Nielsen’s case, the television household would be considered the sampling unit. These households are dubbed the ‘Nielsen families.’ After the sampling unit has been selected, families would then be selected, Nielsen would utilize two sampling techniques in analyzing TV households: multistage cluster sampling and stratified sampling. In multistage cluster sampling, Nielsen would take every US county and sample them at random. Those counties would then be divided into city blocks and have the smaller groupings sampled at random in the compiling of a list of households for measuring. The second type, stratified sampling, would be used to address errors. In stratified sampling, the viewing public would be placed into groups referred to as a strata. The strata would be divided into particular groups, such as gender, income, age and race. (Sullivan, pp 109) If there is a strata of male or female participants, it would be easier for Nielsen to obtain a random sample of individuals to get a proportion match. These two samples would help Nielsen obtain a national sample of the Americans’ television viewing habits.

While we get an understanding of how TV ratings work, we should examine the numbers of our shows. When ratings of our shows go down, we tend to become a little concerned. The thing is it happens a lot to our shows as people lose interest, whether it is the quality or other stuff they want to watch. However, the thing I feel is behind the falling ratings is how more people are relying on new technology to watch their favourite shows. I have had conversations with friends in the past of how people are cutting their cords and buying android or over-the-top (OTT) boxes like Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV, to watch their shows, sports, movies, etc. We live in a world now that we can go to streaming sites or subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD), whether it is Netflix, Crave or Amazon Prime Video, pick out a movie or TV show and start watching it. For example, on Netflix, I am watching Outlander, a period drama that is on Starz. Some of the reasons for people cutting cords include that they are sick of seeing commercials, the ability to pause and possibly binge back-to-back episodes.

In the 1980s, the Video Cassette Recorder, or VCR for short, was introduced in recording one’s shows. This device would enable viewers to speed up recordings and skip commercial breaks. A game-changer in the ratings system occurred in 1999 when the TiVo and / or digital video recorder (DVR) came into play. The easy usage and the digital nature of the device allowed people to record more of their favourite programs, causing a change in viewing habits. As more people purchased and used the device, measuring audiences started to become complicated. Because of this, Nielsen had two sides, program providers and advertisers to worry about. Program providers wanted Nielsen to add to ratings in DVR viewing a week into viewing and advertisers were concerned about consumption data within the program’s first 24 hours.

One of the mediums that advertisers depend to get products out is television. The ratings depend on audience size also known as exposure. As audience members, we are the currency for figuring out the “cost paid by advertisers for network and spot advertising.” (Buzzard, pp 512)

As audience members, we consume a fair amount of media in our daily lives, one of the ways is watching television programs, whether it is the news, live sports or our favourite comedies. As we watch the programs, we are contributing to the ratings. While we are not always going to buy everything that the commercials show us, it is incredible of how far we have come in our viewing habits. Like I said early in this blog, I have developed an interest of the ratings system of television. The reason for this was to get a glimpse of people’s viewing habits and figure out what shows could be worth watching and what shows could get a pass. I have an interest of how people think when they see certain programs because the differences of opinions can create an understanding of why certain shows are popular. In addition, I am amazed of how viewing habits in television have changed because when I was in high school, we could not watch TV shows through mobile phones and unless someone had a good video card, watching TV shows on a computer was iffy. Not to mention, we had no streaming sites. We live in the era of Peak TV where we have so many channels to choose from and what comes with it, so many TV shows. In addition, with streaming sites, we have an endless amount of TV shows and movies to choose from. Life is short and you are not always going to watch the same shows that your friends watch. I prefer to keep my TV habits sensible as I would watch whatever is on during the night and watch one or two episodes on Netflix using my laptop. It is just simple that way.

[heathertalks]

Audience Studies Blog Entry #3: Public Opinion and Audience Participation

We all have opinions. Some we share with others, others we keep to ourselves. We may have the same opinions as our peers, others we know are not the most popular. Our opinions could be formed in several ways, through personal experience or our everyday uses of media. Sometimes, we use our opinion to help shape our world. For example, in two weeks, the people of the United States will determine who should run their country the next four years. Now, before people get their feathers ruffled, this is not a political blog. This blog is meant to explain the concept of public opinions and how as an audience we use it to shape our world.

For us to understand public opinion in today’s world, it is important to learn about the ways this concept underwent changes. When we think of public opinion, we think of polls that are conducted in newspapers and online. Public opinion is referred to as a “group consensus about matters of public concern which has developed in the wake of informed discussion.” (Sullivan, pp 69) Public opinion is used to communicate with the general public on what they desire on the basis of sentiment and policy preferences for the government. A participatory democracy is demonstrated through citizens voicing their thoughts and concerns to authority figures, such as government officials.

One concept that I would like to discuss is the public sphere, as there are two types: the representative and the bourgeois. The representative public sphere was formed in the Middle Ages when kings and feudal lords were only part of the public. Jurgen Habermas, author of The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, explained that individual citizens did not have the power to select others as their leader. The king would conduct elaborate rituals and ceremonies on a stage before the people. Habermas states that the publicness of representation was not seen as a public sphere, but a status attribute. (Sullivan, pp 71) The king was the single epitome of society as he is a representation of the body politics. The people played the role as spectators as their purpose was to portray the monarch’s glory and honour in bolstering the ruler’s divine right.

In the bourgeois public sphere, citizens broke free from the feudal lord to create their own group that would make their own public decisions. In this social organization, citizens were able to make business and form politics with one another without depending on the state. The public was utilized as a social process that was developed through the conversation among individuals. (Sullivan, pp 72) Conversations would take place at English coffeehouses or French salons. The later would enable men and women for a meeting that the state did not sponsor. Salons would not only enable individuals to talk politics but one of the first places that people’s opinions would be shared.

In the 1930s, a popular research approach in analyzing public opinion was the survey. A survey’s purpose is to count and describe a population’s characteristics. In opinion surveys, the public is seen as a numerical aggregate in counting the private responses of individuals about certain topics like politics. The design of the surveys were meant to analyze a population of individuals who might have an opinion that concerns the survey’s subject. Due to the possibility of a huge amount of people in the survey, a sample would be utilized for completion. One setback in survey research is how people who get selected to take part would choose not to. The problem with this is that the general findings would be inaccurate, especially when individuals who choose not to participate differentiate from willing survey participants. What would further complicate things in the future is how more people are ditching their landline phones for mobile phones that are not listed in telephone directories. (Sullivan, pp 78) In addition, some of those individuals who have mobile phones are much younger, non-white, not married and / or not homeowners.

Another issue on public opinion that would be worth to touch down on is the news. The last few years, there has been an on-going debate on which news sites are telling stories properly and which are not. One method that some journalists and / or media companies would use is framing. Framing happens when aesthetics of a perceived reality are selected and made to look more salient in a communicating text. This approach is used to “promote a particular problem definition, casual interpretation, moral evaluation and / or treatment recommendation.” (Sullivan, pp 87) Studies in the 1980s and 1990s show the affect media frames have in how people interpret the news and how they make judgements. One book by Iyengar and Kinder explained that individuals’ awareness of public issues were developed by the news as well as be given framework in how these stories would be acknowledged.

One concern with the news and why there is a debate about what news sites put out the better information is the concept of fake news. As we use social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc, we start to become aware of what news is accurate and what is not. Some of us could be gullible enough to believe false information. During the 2016 US Presidential election, Republican candidate Donald Trump would criticize mainstream news sites like CNN, calling it ‘fake news’ when it ran stories that he did not agree with. The term was used so often that it lost its meaning, causing problems, such as extreme violent behaviour among readers. Fake news would be referred to as articles that would be false by intention and result in misleading readers. (Sullivan, pp 89)

Public opinion can also be shared through online forums as individuals can communicate with others around the world and post anonymously about their thoughts, beliefs and views. People utilize online forums from the comfort of their own home or anywhere while being anonymous. As people write in forums, they expect other users to read and respond to their posts. When it comes to online communication, people have little to no knowledge about their targeted audience as they utilize imagination in planning a model. This mental representation in guide online interaction is ‘imagined audiences.’ (Kornfield, pp 280)

There are two things in online forums that are considered in developing a user’s imagined audience: 1) The extent of which forums can have people come together who share similar interests. 2) The feedback mechanisms that enable audiences to join forums, create threads and respond to posts.

This blog was meant to educate readers of how far we have come as an audience in forming and developing opinions. As we look at the world around us, we become aware of what goes on, how it affects us and what can we do to change it. The past few years saw us become more aware of what we see in the news through social media as we read several news sources while others new into alternative media to get their news fix. This can be problematic because people have different opinions of what sources they trust. In addition, we tend to learn and debate a little bit more about the stories we read through online forums. As we read more about it, our opinions are shaped to determine how we live our lives, how we vote and even what media we consume.

With opinions and news, I would take part in online discussions, whether it is with friends or with news sites. I would try to stay away from politics unless I am conversing with people who have similar views. I have a hard time conversing with people who have different views because sometimes, it is not worth it. I would go out and vote in elections but I prefer to keep my views to myself in case problems set in. I would use social media to read the news of what goes on in the world, in fact, I follow ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR and CNN. I try to avoid the comments section in certain topics because you would always get this one poster that feels the need to get a rise out of others. The biggest issue I have when it comes to reading the news on social media, people complain about certain stories being dubbed as ‘fake news.’ It bothers me because no one is forcing people to read from these sites. If there is a site that I do not like or news I can not stand, I do not touch it. I do not complain, I just move along.

[heathertalks]

Audience Studies Blog Entry #2: How as an Audience we can be Influenced by Media Messages

Everyday, we consume several forms of media, whether it is the morning news, what we see in social media, our favourite websites, listening to our favourite radio station or what our friends show us. Sometimes, we would be influenced by what the media tells us, prompting concerns by some scholars. For example, when the motion picture, or movies as we like to call it, became available to the public, there was some concern about the influence of movies in sociological changes, such as delinquency. Early years of media had a form of learning effects that could potentially influence children and other populations. Hugo Munsterberg, a Harvard psychologist, explained how films effect humans’ sense of reality. (Sullivan, pp 33) In his 1916 book The Photoplay, perceptual processes among audiences are analyzed through their viewing of the screen’s moving pictures. Munsterberg points out that audiences need to be within the conceptual world of the film’s setting for them to understand the plot and characters of the film. Acceptance of the film’s reality must be achieved for them to understand the plot of the film. Munsterberg said that it is necessary for the audience to be confused by the film’s narrative in order to acknowledge communication and critical in learning about mediated communication.

Munsterberg was concerned with how motion pictures would cause a displacement from real-world social interaction and with how films could embed things into audiences demonstrate the effects that would become the dominant paradigm. The term moral panic is referred to as describing strong negative public reactions in spreading new social behaviour. (Sullivan, pp 34) The reaction would be considered an overreaction as providing accommodations for this new behaviour would be complicated. Another term would be media panics as it would revolve around the beginning of new media or content. Audiences seem to be vulnerable to negative influences from the media or content because the messages are delivered straight to everyone.

One such example of this is radio as it was introduced in 1933. In the book The Psychology of Radio (1935), the authors debated that the rhetorical conventions of radio would cause many complex issues would be oversimplified. There was a concern of this narrowing listeners’ minds, mainly due to the amount of radio programs featuring ‘experts’ who tell listeners how to live their lives. There was also concern of radio being utilized as a tool for propaganda, as it was explained as a “systematic attempt to develop through the use of suggestion certain of the listener’s attitudes and beliefs in such a way that some special interest is favored.” (Sullivan, pp 38)

In the 1950s, a new medium was introduced in the form of television. Like radio, audiences were able to consume live events, such as news updates, sporting events and entertainment however, with television, people use their eyes and ears in consuming it. A decade later, there was some concern about the amount of programming from three networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, as it had cheap, over-commercialized fare with the likes of “game shows, violent dramas and mindless comedies.” (Sullivan, 51) At one point, FCC chairman at the time, Newton Minow called television programming, ‘a vast wasteland.’ There was concern about the violence in TV as US Senator John O. Pastore suggested that violence in both TV and the news media was a ‘public health risk,’ causing children to be aggressive.

One other form of media that I would like to touch on is the mobile phone. Portable devices like smart phones and tablets enable us to carry them around and connect with family, friends and colleagues. In a 2017, Pew Research Center survey, about one fifth of Americans were dependent on their phone for Internet access. Sherry Turkle explained how adolescents are ‘tethered’ to their phones however, they are constantly connected to family and friends. Because they are near a phone twenty-four hours a day and the Internet is always on, the phone is ready for availability. While teenagers have some security and safety having a connection to their parents, they are at risk of feeling distracted as they have a fear of missing out on communicating with their friends and would engage in dangerous behaviours like sexting or texting while driving. (Sullivan, pp 54) With this in mind, teenagers feel that they are ‘addicted’ to their smartphones.

We consume all sorts of media for being informed and entertained however, we do not realize the setbacks of what we use. We watch movies to be entertained and as a means of escape from our world. We listen to the radio to hear our favourite artists and be informed of what goes on in our world. Over the years, violence is becoming more accepting in television as there have been an increase of channels and comes with it, something for everyone, including children. I agree that we are becoming slaves to our phones however, by being constantly connected, we are informed about what goes on in our world and what can we do to change it. While most of the things on this blog focuses on the negativity, there is still some good that comes with these mediums as we would be informed about the world around us. I have found it interesting how there have been some criticisms to new technologies at first but overtime, we grew to accept it.

With media messages, they prove that forms of technology have their pros and cons. As someone who is majoring in Film Studies, this concept fascinated me because whenever a new form of technology develops, there seems to be excitement among the public however, for every group that is eager to test the new technology, there are others that feel uneasy. One thing that caught my eye was the discussion on mobile phones and how people admit they are ‘addicted’ or ‘tethered’ to their phones. I always felt that nowadays we have become slaves to our phones. I have been to restaurants where people are on their phones, whether it is texting or taking pictures of what they ordered. One of my friends sat across this one family who had a kid that could be passed off as thirteen. He was on his phone and his mom was literally feeding him his dinner. I swear, I am not making his up. I have read about people being on their phones and a lot of it has to do with the fear of missing out or falling out of the loop. I am not really bothered with this, I would normally use social media to keep in touch with my friends, post things and check news and sports.

[heathertalks]

Audience Studies Blog Entry #1: What is an Audience?

When people think of an audience, they think about the amount that attended events such as concerts, sporting events or watched them from home. While they are being entertained, they are playing a big role without even realizing it. When they contribute to the numbers of a concert or ratings of a TV show, they also play a role in the consumption of certain forms of media or use their voice for a cause. The purpose of this entry is to introduce readers to the concept of an audience, explain the role that people play as members of an audience and in future entries, explain that particular role even further.

The term ‘audience’ is defined as the “action of hearing; attention to what is spoken.” (Sullivan, pp 3) The word’s root, aud, is an indication of verbal information processing. In medieval times, an audience would be provided to constituents, as the term would show two people in a conversation. The audience’s view shows a transaction between a speaker and a receiver, therefore, demonstrating a message’s content and an action of sending and receiving it. The audience would acknowledge the receiver’s role in the conversation as a symbol. The person responsible for creating the message and sending it would do so, using a channel, whether it is personal or any type of mediated communication. The sender’s message reaches the receiver, thus, reaching its goal of communicating with the audience. A mass audience is a common model for an audience as a group of people have obtained a certain message through a media channel.

There are three basic audience models, according to audience media scholar James G. Webster: audiences-as-outcome, audience-as-mass and audience-as-agent. In ‘audiences-as-outcome,’ people are sought as having the media manipulated by them. It demonstrates how the media has an ability to create detrimental effects on people and implicates society. (Sullivan, pp 7) In ‘audience-as-mass,’ the audience is a large group of people who are scattered around, act autonomously and have no knowledge of one another. In ‘audiences-as-agent,’ people are free agents in making choices of their media, utilizing their skills for their chosen texts, creating their own content and using their selective media in suiting themselves. This model enables audiences to be independent in selecting what media that they will consume.

Sometimes, audiences can have the ability to help change their world. Using a structure, any social behaviour between human beings can be reproduced over time. They are shown when they are developed in an institutional form, for example, they have a specific status quo that has members of society to behave in a certain way. Another term is agency were people determine their actions in a current atmosphere. Giddens explains how humans were able to decide and perform actions based on the agent’s goals. Giddens states that “action should be conceived as a continuous flow of interventions in the world which are initiated by autonomous agents.” (Sullivan, 20) As humans, we can be reflexive on our actions as our environments and surroundings help determine what is the best course of action in achieving our goal. Structure and agency combine to form structuration theory, a perspective in using a sociological point of view in examining human societies.

Audiences also have something called power as they can use their numbers to achieve a particular goal. They can obtain power through achieving goals without obstacles and have a larger ability to convince others to join their cause. In the political world, power is utilized to make decisions that would cause some conflict of subjective interests with the use of political participation.

There are several examples of audiences using their voices to achieve goals. One such case was online campaigns to bring back television series. A few years ago, Fox cancelled the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, prompting a fan campaign for networks to pick up the show. Two days after cancellation, NBC picked it up and it is now going into its eighth season. Over the next few entries, I will explain the many ways that audiences would utilize their power in reaching their goals.

One way to give audiences power is to interview them. By interviewing audiences, the daily micro-tactics of appropriation manipulated media forms and goods and enforced culture’s importance. Theories of political economy and media imperialism were challenged, demonstrating re-appropriation, globalization and counterflow as well as resisting dominant media power. (Livingstone, 568) Lastly, it explained why media influence is dependent on context.

As a member of an audience, I have had many experiences which had me attend sporting events or watch all sorts of TV programs. We act as audience members for many platforms, whether it is live events, programs, even online video sites like YouTube have their share. We consume many forms of media, thus enabling us to become an audience member. This blog that I am writing right now, this is for an audience as I am creating content. In future entries, I hope to help readers understand how audiences work and how they play a role as members.