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Audience Studies (3P18) Blog Post #1

Chapter 1- History and Concept of the Audience

Audience: Information-Based View

The information-based view on audience focuses on a sent transmission of a particular message from a sender to a receiver. This is also known as the transmission view of communication. This model puts emphasis on the act of sending and receiving messages, as well as, the content in which the message carries. In its most simplified model, there is a sender and a receiver of the message, and also, a concept referred to as “noise” (which is anything that can distort the original message for the receiver). This approach has become more important in todays world, where everything that is being said has to be politically correct in order not to hurt anyone’s feelings. For example, today’s comedians walk a very thin line between being funny and being offensive. This means, the way they deliver their jokes are very crucial to which side of the line they land on. Noises like thoughts or feelings of these audiences might lead to backlash on the comedian. The video named Film Theory: Why Pewdiepie's Fiverr Joke Backfired from The Film Theorists perfectly points out the importance of transmitting your messages the right way. It lays out the story of a content creator misjudged by the noises that accompanied his message, this in turn triggered a huge backlash form the Internet. This incident shows the important of information-based view in todays’ politically correct society.

Audience: Meaning-Based View

The meaning-based view on audiences focuses on the feedbacks from the sender and receiver, rather then the context of the message itself. This can be observed most often in an unintentional, face-to-face interaction. These on going communication changes depend on the relationships all parties involved. For example, retail sales associates have to deal with these types of interactions everyday on the job. Depending on the characteristics of the customer, they will have to change their feedback when approaching that customer. A good sales associate will talk to parents, different from teenagers; this is due to the nonverbal communication cues they picked up before they talked to those individuals. A Meaning-base view on audience can be observed almost anywhere at anytime.

Audience-as-Outcome, Audience-as-Mass, and Audience-as-Agent

Audience scholar James G. Webster (1998) states that there are three models of media audience; they are audience-as-outcome, audience-as-mass, and audience-as-agent. Audience-as-outcome model focuses on the power relation between media and audience. It sees that the media is influencing the audience like a subject, with the media holding all the power in this relationship. For example, in old media like televisions and radios, the audience has no power to change with regards to what they want to watch. Yes, audiences can change the channel and the program they consume, but in the bigger picture the media companies make the program timeline that consumers have to follow. Therefore, the ultimate power is still with the media companies. This power dynamic has shifted over the years with the birth of new media, where it allows audiences to watch almost anything anywhere at anytime. Audience-as-mass model looks at audiences as a collection of people made up of many different faceless individuals. This approach assumes audiences act separately and have no knowledge of each other, but at the same time, still belonging to that particular audience. This type of thinking is mostly used when researching audiences’ behaviors. For example, the Nielsen rating for television uses this model to conduct their research. They collect data by sampling out families that represent a certain demographic. Next they monitor their watching habits, which serves to make up their database on what television programs the masses like to consume the most. This model makes getting public opinion from the public way more achievable than asking each and every individual person. Audience-as-agent model takes on a very different point of view than the other two models. This approach looks at audiences as free agents that have free will to choose what ever they want to consume. With this power, audiences can interpret the content their own way, and decide to build on what they have consumed. New media are built on giving these powers to the people. As mention previously, new streaming services like Neflix and HuHu lets consumers hold the power choice, and get to choose what they want to watch on demand. Mediums like YouTube and socials media platforms allow users to customize their profile, by giving them the opportunity subscribe and follow accounts that interest them. The three models of media audience is not perfect in terms of describing every types of audience, but it serves to help navigate the uncertain world of audience study.

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Audience Studies (3P18) Blog Post #1

Chapter 2- Effects of Media Messages

Hugo Munsterberg and Mass Suggestibility

In the late 1890s, movies were rapidly becoming one of the most popular mediums for the low class immigrants. This triggered the elites of the country to raise their red flags about the messages that were being sent through this medium. Since motion pictures can reach hundred of thousands of people at a very low cost, it created new controversy about mass suggestibility. The elites were worried about exposing the masses to dangerous thoughts and emotions, which could then lead to the destruction of the established hegemony of American culture (Sullivan, 28). For example The Purge series of movies challenge this idea by showing the masses, that the upper class benefits the most when the lower-class citizens are killing each other. These movies show that hegemony from the elites is not always in the best interest of the people. This brings us to the root of the controversy; why do people follow what they see in motion pictures? As Hugo Munsterberg points out, in order for audiences to enjoy the plot and story of the film, they have to put themselves in the reality of those characters. They must accept the existence of that reality in order to make sense of the events that are happening on screen. Munsterberg also suggests that these connections audiences made with the reality of the film, makes them vulnerable to psychological suggestions (Sullivan, 29). For example when infants watches televisions, they are learning from the moving pictures that are displayed in front of them. This is the reason childrens television programs are heavily regulated, as infants will absorb and interpret the content in their own way to help them grow psychologically into adults.

Moral and Media Panics

British sociologist Stanley Cohen describes “a strong negative public reaction to the spread of a new social behavior” (Sullivan, 29) by using the term moral panic. She also points out that this behavior is generally an overreaction by the public. In today’s social media society, the chances of moral panic happening have skyrocketed. This is due to the Internet linking the world closer than ever, allowing lots more people to react to other people’s distinct social behavior. For example, back in the today, there was a short-lived social media platform called Vine, where it only allowed content creators to upload seven-second videos. It created negative overreactions from the public, where people think this platform is the sole reason behind the masses’ having a low attention span. Through thorough research as it turns out, Vine is not the sole reason behind this development, rather, it is the increasing consumption of social media that is shortening audiences’ attention span. A sub-type of moral panic is called media panic. This panic occurs with the “introduction of a new type of media or content genre” (Sullivan, 30). This angle also assumes that audiences are vulnerable to negative influences from the new media or content genre. The prefect example to illustrate this perspective is online prank videos. Doe to the fact that this trend was getting more and more negative public reactions, and also, with the passage of time, it eventually died out. This is due to the content of this genre not being appropriate for younger audiences as, pranksters were willing to put innocent people lives in danger in order to get attention and fame on the Internet.

Cultivation Theory

Dr. George Gerbner was responsible for developing the cultivation theory. This theory provided evidence to prove how the excessive use of television becomes capable of changing audiences’ perception of the real world. This research is different as it “focus on the stability of attitudes over time rather than attitude change” (Sullivan, 46). This study took years to complete, due to it being a long-term process in terms of monitoring the attitude of the subjects. Television programs like The Office and Friends are excellent examples that reflect this study. These two shows are poking fun at the real world, which assumes that audiences tend to develop expectations that will coincidentally follow the same pattern as what is shown on the show. Unfortunately, life does not work that way, and audiences need to lower their expectations with regards to the real world in order to live a legitimate life.

Video Game Violence

Video games are the new kids on the block in terms of media; it overtook televisions and ratio as the main medium of the 21st century. According to the textbook, research on video games is still at its early stages; but looking at the research that already been done on video games, it parallels the findings from the cultivation theory on television. This new medium’s arrival has triggered huge mortal panics in America. The latest example of mortal panic cause by video games was when ESPN refuse to air an Apex Legend’s (a “violence” video game) e-sport event, due to the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. This overreaction by the media proves that they are using video games as a scapegoat, as the reason these mass shooting happened. More research on video games needs to be done, in order to save it reputation form the eyes of the masses.

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“Audience Studies (3P18) Blog Post #1”

Chapter 3- Public opinion and audience citizenship

Doxa (Opinion) and Episteme (Knowledge)

Doxa (opinion) and episteme (knowledge) are archetypes of thinking that was used by Plato, to describe how the public forms public opinions. It all started at the dawn of public opinion, where Plato was very interested in the decision-making power the public held. At the same time, he was very doubtful of the wisdom and knowledge the public has. This uncertainty has inspired Plato to contract out two types of thinking, doxa and episteme. He thinks that people with episteme thinking archetype, should form the upper ruling class to make decisions for the masses. To play devil’s advocate is his greatest student Aristotle. He favors doxa’s way of thinking, where “the collective will, could be superior to the opinions of the individual men” (Sullivan, 58). We can see both archetypes of thinking, reflecting how countries are run in today’s world. Countries like China and North Korea that runs on dictatorship ideology follows the logic of doxa. On the other hand, countries like USA and Canada are democratic countries that run on the ideology of episteme. One of the biggest differences between democracy and dictatorship, is that there are no elections in countries that runs on a dictatorship ideology. It echoes very closely to the concepts that Plato and Aristotle point out.

Public Opinion and Societies

Public opinion is a huge part of today’s society, and it’s all thanks to the invention of the printing press. This 16th century device has now changed the power dynamic in society forever, planting a seed for public spheres to form among ordinary people. As more public spheres form, public opinions are starting to influence society more and more. Large institutions like governments and corporations, are aware of the public increasingly having more decision-making power with regards to shaping society. For that reason, Institutions perform constant surveys in order to get more insight on public opinions. For example: At the time that this blog was made, it is election season in Canada. This means, the hot topic for Canadians is; whom are the Canadians going to vote? Major news outlets like CBC and Toronto Star produce approval rates for every political party. These approval rates are then generated from weighing the polls with the use of a Poll Tracker. Polls are then weighed by their age, sample size and multiple other factors including, the track record and past performance of the polling firm (Grenier CBC News). As we can all see, the results from public surveys are very important to the political party itself and to the future of Canada.

Spiral of Silence, Bandwagon and Underdog

Spiral of silence is a phenomenon that was created by our own insecurity. We humans are social creatures, which makes us fear isolations; according to Germen scholar Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann’s theory. This affects not only our lifestyle, but also our opinions as well. This theory points out a very fundamental flaw with public opinion, which is; if everyone is not expressing his or her own opinion due to it not being the popular opinion, then how can we get the most trustful public opinions? With the rise of the Internet this problem is getting worse. According to Neubaum and Kramer, the public is even more likely to be silent when expressing their opinion online. This dilemma has then also created two ways of behavior, the bandwagon and underdog effect. Bandwagon effect states that people will shift believes and opinions to the majority, once they know that their own opinion is not the popular one. We can see this happen all the time in sports, where fans from a losing team will change their behavior and cheer for the winning team. Underdog effect is the opposite of bandwagon effect, where people will tend to support the minority opinion because it is “different” then the majority opinion. For example, there are a huge number of Toronto rap music fans, even though the music industry does not respect rap music coming out of Toronto. Part of its appeal is that it is part Canadian culture and “different” then the mainstream rap music.

Agenda Setting Theory and Framing

Agenda setting theory describes the relationship between the public, the media and reality. This theory states that the news media affects how the public portrays reality, which then affects the formation of public opinion. In today’s society, the connection between the public and the factual reality is getting thinner as time goes on. This is mostly due to the conflict of interest between the agenda of the media and the public, which leads to framing of news by media outlets. Framing happens when the media selects particular aspects of reality and make them stand out more, in such a way that “promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation” (Sulivan, 71). For example, in sports debate shows, they will always frame an entertaining narrative rather than the truths about the athletes. This creates a disconnection between the audience and the athletes, as sports debate shows are the main source of news for sports fans.

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“Audience Studies (3P18) Blog Post #1”

Chapter 4- Media Ratings and Target Market

Political Economy: Communication Industry

Before looking at the political economic approach to communication, first we must understand the heart of political economy. At its core, political economy examines the power relations between management and labor within an economy. Vincent Mosco (a renowned scholar) defines political economy as “the study of social relations, particularly the power rations, that mutually constitute the production, distribution, and consumption of resources” (Sullivan, 78). The textbook also points out three acknowledgments, we must take in to consideration when using this approach: 1, Acknowledge of the rise of capitalism 2, Acknowledge the forces that are beyond the economy (race, class and gender) 3, Acknowledge the existence of social values and ethics. Applying these approaches to the industry of communication, we can then see that there are a lot of relationships to explore. The structure of this economy is held up by the consumption of content, where consumers want to consume high quality content at a low cost. On the other hand, content producers and advertisers are fighting to get the most audiences’ attention by any means necessary. In todays’ media driven society we can see the political economic approach, in the communication industry, at work, and essentially everywhere we look. For example, the birth of YouTube has generated many more opportunities for the masses to become independent content creators. This opportunity has created a new career path for the masses to pursue, which allows more people to hold the power of productions. With this power distributed among ordinary people, (no matter what race, class and gender they are in) it allows the production of more content with variety. This means there is content for everyone to consume, rather than big media corporations deciding what content the masses should watch. Even though Google (the largest database company in the world) owns YouTube and are monitoring the users every move; we still cannot dismiss the unique career opportunities created by this media platform.

Commodity Audience and the “Blindspot” Theory

We are now going to look deeper into audience as a commodity in the communication economy. Dallas W. Smythe first put out the theory of commodity audiences in the year 1977. Smythe’s perspective states that, the audience’s economic usage is to constantly perform labor for advertisers by turning advertising tactics into their needs and wants (Sullivan, 81). He disregards the content of the media stating it is “an inducement”, as it is not the focus of his theory. This argument highlights the true purpose of the media, and the audience within this economy. Where the media does not serve the masses, instead it is “part of the economic system of capital of itself” (Sullivan, 81). The media collects data on audiences when they are consuming content; this data then is sold to advertisers for capital. Smythe called this phenomenon the “blindspot” theory. This school of thought also acknowledges the benefit it has on the commercial media economy. Nike is a very good example of the phenomenon “blindspot”. It is one of the most successful company in the world, dominating in the clothing and sports apparel market. Nike uses a very catchy slogan of “Just Do It” and athletes from all over the sports world to market their product. These two advertising tactics has created the mythological notion for the audience that “using Nike product will make the consumer a better athlete”. Even though we as the audiences, we’re used in terms of being deceived into buying a product, but no one can argue that it is not an effective strategy to market products to consumers.

Target Marketing

The goal of target marketing is to “match a specific advertising impression or exposure to a single individual” (Sullivan, 93). As times goes on, the task of marketing to a demographic gets harder, due to audiences fragmenting into smaller groups. This new challenge can be somewhat overcome with psychographics, which is to separate audiences by their personality or psychological traits. Recently psychographics has been working with lifestyle measurements (grouping audiences by their product and media consumption) to narrow down even more audience groups. These new methods of separating audiences have made target marketing more efficient and accurate, which is very beneficial to the advertisers and consumers. Social media is presently at the top of the list in terms of media, which makes targeting the right audiences extremely easy. Social media accounts record every action you have ever perform on the account. From every post the user has ever liked, to how long have the user looked at the post are all recorded. The best part is that social media platforms are not shy about sharing those data with adverting companies either.

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Chapter 5- Uses and Gratifications

Uses and Gratifications Approach

The uses and gratifications approach are a user-centered approach to understand media audiences; it is also categorized under functional perspective on audience activity. This concept flips the transitional way of how theorists look at the relationship between media and audience. Other inquiries always look at the influence media has on the audience, but uses and gratifications approach twist that around then ask the question: why did people choose to use this media? Using this method creates a new way to look at this symbiotic relationship, as it assumes that audiences have brains to make their own decisions on what media they want to use. The textbook stated five assumptions that need to take in to consideration before applying the uses and gratifications approach: 1, Assume audiences are active and the purpose of media use is to fulfill a particular goal of the audience 2, Assume audiences will take charge in fulfilling a particular goal with media 3, Assume media outlets will compete with one another to satisfied audiences’ needs 4, Assume audiences know what they needs and wants, and able to express those needs and wants 5, Assume no judgment from other people, even scholars. The different features within social media platforms can be used to explain the uses and gratifications approach. Instagram and SnapChat will be the social media platforms that we’ll be using to explain this concept. Both platforms use different methods to achieve the same goal, which is showing off (aka bragging rights) to followers. The difference between both ways of showing off is that SnapChat is better at capturing the moment instantaneously, and on the other hand Instagram is better at showing off the beauty of past memory. Usually, this depends on what the user needs to show off, one platform will be superior then the other. Instagram’s decision to add the option to post stories on their platform proves that it is competing with SnapChat to try to satisfy the users’ needs. No matter what the user’s final decision is, no one is going to judge the user’s decision of what platform to use. The uses and gratifications approach shine a light on a different way to look at media and audience. At the same time this approach is not without its flaws. This theory does not consider the immediate social environment surrounding the audience. For example, what if all the friends of a social media user stop using social media. It will certainly change the user’s decision of using social media again. With this one can easily see why the social environment is an important factor when making media usage decision.

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