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COMM 3P18 BLOG turned 2 today!

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Week 11: Chapter 10: Audience agency in new context

 LAST LECTURE :) 

    The overview of this chapter we will be returning to some major themes that we already learnt and some new ones such like – transmedia production, paratexts, and longtail.

Transmedia: coined by Henry Jenkins, ”refers to the coordinated use of multiple media platforms (or technologies) to craft a narrative.” (Sullivan,2013, pg.241)

  An example: usually on my Instagram explore page, there would be influencers who would post clips of their YouTube video and then when it gets to the good part, they would stop it and tell you to go check it out through their YouTube link in their bio. Half of the time I do not click the link because that is too much work. That shows how they the influencers go through different media platforms to get consumers to watch their content.

Paratexts: “modern audiences have also become avid consumers” (Sullivan, 2013, pg.241)

 An example: I always watch a movie trailer on YouTube to make sure I would like or find it interesting, just so I do not end up wasting my money if I go to the theatres to watch it. There has been times that I would watch the trailer but then come to realize that all the good parts where in trailer and I basically watched the whole movie in the 2-3 minute video on YouTube.

Long tail: It is a mathematical pattern that “demonstrates the result of fragmentation. Most audience focus on their viewing on a few very popular media products or hit programs (the head), but the rest of viewer attention is spread out across a larger group of much smaller, niche content options.” (Sullivan, 2013, pg.243)

 Textbook example: “online streaming video services like Hulu, Netflix, Popcornflix, and others can provide instant access to many lesser-known films and television programs for relatively little cost, making it possible to cater to a selective group of viewers who might be interested in these films.” (Suliivan,2013, pg.243)

I agree with that example because personally, there are a lot of shows and movies that I would never watch until I seen it on Netflix and I gave it a chance. For example, there is a show called Elite, it is a Spain originated show that is in Spanish and I would never come across it if I did not have Netflix and it was not intended for me, a monolingual individual. The show was intended for the small percentage of people who speak and understand Spanish.

Audience polarization: “individuals are beginning to avoid media content that they find distasteful or offensive.” (Sullivan, 2013, pg.243)

 I can honestly say that I partake in audience polarization especially on social media. Being Black and having other friends on social media who is my skin colour tend to come across distasteful content. As I said previously, I use social media as an escape from reality so it hurts me to see videos on my fellow Black people going through the most, especially in America. I have seen little children getting pinned down by police, getting shot because they were reaching in their pocket for change to pay for a drink, being followed in stores with no reason other than the fact the individual’s skin is darker, or the fact that there is over 64,000 black girls in America that is currently missing. I just like to numb myself from all of that, because it is honestly too much and my social media to me, is supposed to be where I go for happiness.

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Week 10: Chapter 9: Online, interactive in a digital media world

     Digitalization: “the standards by which media images and sound are recorded and transmitted” (Sullivan, 2013, pg.216) “Napoli (2011) cites two more important trends that are shifting the orientation of media institutions to audiences – specifically, audience fragmentation and audience autonomy. First we have, media audiences, have been continually fragmented into smaller and smaller groups thanks to the dramatic expansion. in media channels (cable and satellite, for instance) and media platforms (including the Internet, handheld media devices such as iPods and tablet computers, and media capable mobile phones)” (Sullivan,2013, pg.217) The other important trend is audience autonomy, “This term describes "how contemporary characteristics of the media environment, raining from interactivity to mobility to on-demand functionality ton which audiences have control over the process of media consumption".

A really important question was discussed in class today, “who has the power in the digital age?”

      We first said the audience, because without an audience there is no reason to produce content. A television show will only continue running on the most important thing which is views. The more views the more running time, the more ads, the more money. If said audience enjoys that much, they are most likely going to post it on social media telling friends and family about this tv show bringing in more audience members. For example: I love the show, Shameless and I got a least 5 of my friends hooked to it because I would rave about it so much on social media. The second answer is prosumers: hybrid of producer and consumers. A perfect example of this would be anybody who has social media and is active on said platforms. For example: you have a Instagram account, you post photos (producer) and you consume other people’s photos, videos, and etc., (consumer), making you a prosumer.

                           The rise of the participatory culture:

        There is now a  never-ending opportunity for prosumers, the internet is literally our playground to develop whatever you want. Participatory culture is “fans and other consumers are invited to actively participate in the creation and circulation of new content” (Sullivan, 2013, pg.219) YouTube is the perfect example for this because there is so many subcategories that did not even exist 5-10 years ago. I watch this one YouTuber named Blove and she doesmukbang (where you sit in front the camera with a big plate of food and you talk about anything). She literally said multiple times, that she makes as much as doctors do and she didn’t even go to college just because of how popular she got on YouTube. To me that is crazy how someone can just sit in front a camera and eat and make as much as people who go to school and get an education for years.

       Crowdsourcing media production: “the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call”

       An example of crowdsourcing would be in Beyoncé’s Brown Skin Girl music video she got young black girls and black women from all over the world to be a part of her music video. It relied heavily on social media for Beyoncé to get the clips of the girls and women to then approve them and put it into her music video.

In lecture, Professor Good, showed was Star Wars Uncut, where anyone can go on the website and design a part of Star Wars and then individuals can later see the movie whatever way it was created, whether it was cartoon or anime styled. It was a very interesting concept.

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BLOG #2: Week #9: Media fandom and audience subcultures

I presented this week :) 

Defining fan culture:

The word fan, originated referring to a religious membership “of or belonging to the temple, a temple servant, a devotee” (Sullivan, 2013 ,pg.192), it is shortened from the word fanatic.

This week is going to cover and explain how and why media audiences uses their interpretation on media content that would shape our needs and wants.

When I hear the word fan, I think of someone who likes something or someone who they relate too. This brings me to the term Fandomis “associated with the cultural tastes of subordinated formations of the people, particularly those disempowered by any combination of gender, age, class, and race. Instead of audiences’ viewing choices being determined by institutional constructions, fans develop their own self-identity around their media consumption” (Sullivan, 2013) This would challenge the connation of the negative stereotypes of fans. The negative stereotypes of fans, would be “media fans are often portrayed as brainless consumers”. In seminar, I gave the example on how I was a fan of Selena Gomez when I was a child and I wanted everything that she had her face on. This put me in the “brainless consumer” category, even though it was not my money.

The continuum of Fandom: (levels of fanatic behaviour)

Consumer: “Someone who just goes on social media and scrolls through different content.” (Sullivan, 2013)

My example: being on my phone and going on Instagram, and liking photos of things that interest me.

Enthusiast: “Start to collect the related products of all kind” (Sullivan, 2013)

My example: Grey’s anatomy, I love that show, I watch it every week and I follow all my favourite cast members on social media.

Fan: “put in an extraordinary amount of time and passion and dedicate the media text they love.” (Sullivan, 2013)

My example: From 2010-2016, my favourite TV show was Pretty Little Liars and I was obsessed. I had everything that was all about Pretty Little Liars, I even texted an American number so I could “text” one of the cast members. My parents was not too happy about that.

Producer: “people who turn their fan activity into a profession and market it.” (Sullivan, 2013)

My example: I see a lot of “drama” YouTube channels, where they make videos regarding their favourite YouTubers and those channels would potential make money off the YouTubers that they love.

There are two types of aspects in media fandom:

Social aspect, “where media fans band together in either informal or more formally structured groups to share their mutual interest with others” (Sullivan,2013, pg.195) This can cause a show not to get cancelled, even though the show’s production company wanted to cancel it; fans are able to come together keep it running. For example: Grey’s Anatomy got renewed for 2 more seasons due to fans were upset at the fact that it was going to get cancelled at season 15. Interpretive aspect, is the “fans acting as interpreters and producers for media content” (Sullivan, 2013, pg.195) An example: Would be when I was addicted to Pretty Little Liars, I used to take notes in a notebook to try to keep up with what exactly was happening and try to get clues on what exactly I may have missed.

Poaching: having the fans continue the story for themselves.

As we presented this week, it was hard for us to figure out what exactly poaching is. We had a grasp understanding that it was letting fans write about their favourite media texts, fan fiction. Wattpad is an excellent source for that, there are a lot of fan fiction stories about Beyoncé, One Direction, and many more.

My partner and I were unable to talk about this point in seminar, it was the narrative styles in Fan Fiction; that I think would be important to know.

“1. Re-contextualization: short stories or “missing scenes” that fill in gaps in the existing media text  ~TV program, films, etc. 

2. Expanding the series timeline: explores characters backgrounds or rewrites unpopular endings to the existing media narrative ~Brian from Family Guy dies and they bring him back 

3. Re-focalization: shifts the focus away from central characters to focus on secondary, minor, or one-off characters ~often occurs to minority people

4. Moral realignment: inverts the moral universe of the original narrative, villains are transformed into protagonists with their own narratives ~ Moana the movie

5.Genre shifting: changes the primary genre of the narrative transforming sci-fi to mystery ~Grey’s Anatomy doing a musical episode 

6.Crossovers: blurring boundaries distinct media texts 

7.Character dislocation: man, characters are removed from their original situations and given alternative names, identities, and milieus

8. Personalization: fan writers write themselves into their favourite media narratives

9. Emotional intensification: explore psychological motivations of main character, focusing on moments of crisis "hurt-comfort" stories

10. Eroticization: explore characters sexuality and sexual encounters not seen in the primary narrative” (Sullivan, 2013 pg.205)

Because fandoms is such a free online thing to be a part of, it is the most active thing to do online, where people and feel connected with others. Everything has a fandom and everyday it continues to go with more people. There are just different levels, from just reading the fan fiction to having sexual encounters with the characters.

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BLOG #2: Week 8: Reception contexts and media ritual

     This week in lecture we focused on audience interpretation of media, media reception, and how time and space help us to understand content. “It is important to understand that contexts refer both to a place a web of interpersonal relationship and interactions that occurs with that space” (Sullivan, 2013, pg.163)  

    Spatial or physical context: “the concrete, physical dimensions of the location” (Sullivan,2013 pg.163)

     Social context: “”… by the people and relationships that are found there” (Sullivan,2013,pg.163)

     When it comes to spatial or physical and social contexts, I would say that that I would be more connected with the social context part of engaging. When I watch movies or tv shows, I like to watch them by myself and then go talk to people about it and get their perspective on the particular thing I am watching. I say that because I dislike when I am watching shows with my friends or family, they want to talk and ask questions. 

      An example on how we put encoding and decoding, is through text. Texting is a type of communication that can be altered on the receiving end. Sometimes it’s not what the sender said but the way the receiver interprets, which can sometimes be problematic also known as the decoding process. Going further into receiving, the reception theory  is three interpretive positions: A dominant – believable meaning, negotiated – probably agree with some but not all aspect, and oppositional reading – does not agree at all with the content of message. As an advertiser or anything relating to that, you would want your audience to have a dominant understanding of what they are taking in.

       Another important context that we learned is about time and media use. “Time – shifting: …. Viewers can choose to watch their favourite shows at more convenient times and on a variety of media platforms such as computers, video games players, iPods, iPad, kindles, and more” (Sullivan, 2013, pg.165)

     My personal example: Whenever I wanted to watch a show or movie, I can  choose to do so. Especially, this semester I have had something due every day since October 1st; I am able to go back and watch what I have missed. Back in the day, if we missed an episode or something, we were unable to go online and watch it but now there is streaming services where we can.

      In the textbook I found something interesting regarding How Americans Use Their Free Time (2007). The research stated that “ relaxing and thinking (17 minutes), playing games (20 minutes), participating in sports (19 minutes), reading (21 minutes), communicating and socializing (38 minutes), and watching TV (2.6 hours)” (Sullivan, 2013, pg.166) This proves that Americans spends more than half their time watching television.

    In seminar, I spoke upon how daytime television was meant for the stay-at-home wives and older but I remember when watching Desperate Housewives as a child. Even though the intended audience was for older women, different individuals of all ages watched it.

    To close of this week’s blog, the last term in the chapter is Ritual, “the meaning behind every human behaviour” (Sullivan, 2013, pg.178) . Rituals is everything we do, we do it feel secure, for example: when I go on an airplane, I have to chew gum as we start to take off. Chewing gum helps prevent your ears from popping so I do it all the time because I hate the feeling.

     In seminar, we talked about how sport events can bring people together and also even if you do not like sports you still want to be there for the experience and being with friends and family. More specifically, Americans, they love their football and having the food and the drinks and watching the half-time show is a part of their American culture.

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BLOG POST #2: Week 7: Interpreting and decoding mass media text

     When reading any type of text, we instantly try and understand the direct meaning or theme. By doing so, we must utilize the text and figure out and interpret the key elements that connects us with the text.

    In the cartoon provided above, we can see that everything has two sides to it, one half of the pic that man is really excited to see a boat to escape the island, but on the other half is excited that he sees land maybe because he has been at sea for a long time. That proves that interpretation depends on the person and the situation that they are in.

    Along with interpreting comes encoding and decoding. Encoding a message means “The creator must place an idea or event or experience in a format that will be meaningful for audiences” (Sullivan, 2013, pg.140) and the decoding process means “the reception of the message by the audience” (Sullivan, 2013, pg.141)

     An example on how we put encoding and decoding, is through text. Texting is a type of communication that can be altered on the receiving end. Sometimes it’s not what the sender said but the way the receiver interprets, which can sometimes be problematic also known as the decoding process. Going further into receiving, the reception theory  is three interpretive positions: A dominant – believable meaning, negotiated – probably agree with some but not all aspect, and oppositional reading – does not agree at all with the content of message. As an advertiser or anything relating to that, you would want your audience to have a dominant understanding of what they are taking in. 

     The picture above represents exactly what sign, its signifier, and its signified means. “Signs are defined by the interaction between two specific elements: the signifier, or the form of the sign, and the signified or referent, which is the concept the signifier represents” (Sullivan, 2013, pg.137)

    Another important definition that we learned was Intertextuality: “the fundamental and inescapable interdependence of all textual meaning upon the structures of meaning proposed by other texts.” (Sullivan,2013, pg.154) For example in seminar I said how: when engaging in media, I tend to compare and contrast with my opinion to create my thoughts about said things. More in-depth example would be on my social media on the explore pages it would be my favourite shows, movies, funny clips, food, and etc., because it is what I like. It is not just one type of thing on one type of media outlet. My consumer content is spread all over different social media outlets.  

     Looking at how media and media platforms have expand since I was a child and what levels it reached at this time is overwhelming.  Things were very limited back in the day, with where to watch things, there was no Netflix and other streaming services. We would have to watch the movie on DVD and rent it from Blockbusters and etc. Nowadays, there are so many online streaming services that do different things. “media technologies have burrowed themselves deeply into our everyday lives, permeating even out the most private moments and spaces…” (Sullivan, 2013, pg.135) That quote is very prevalent especially in children, I remember in the summer I was babysitting my 6 year-old cousin.  I was trying to figure out how to do something on YouTube and she said “give it to me ill do it”, and she did it! I was so surprised because it is not like I am not tech-savvy, I am very much into technology. It was just interesting to see someone who is 16 years younger than me; who is learning ABC’s, show me how to work a website.

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BLOG #2: WEEK 6: Media Ratings & Uses and gratifications

      We tend to see audiences as active users of media with the fact that we use media for everything but most importantly, to grab information from the world. There are two types of audiences: Ritualized audience: “tended to use TV more habitually, watching in order to consume time or to be diverted from other activities.” (Sullivan, 2013 pg.117) and Instrumental audience: ”searching for a specific type of message content. seeking out informational material in a purposive way. (Sullivan, 2013 pg.117)

    In the textbook, there is the definition of Political Economy of Communication, which is a research tradition that examines these fundamental issues of power and access to resources in the communications industries”. Which is then explained as “The political economy of communication uses the tradition of this general theory to explore a few key issues, most notably the history, development, and current structure of mass communication technologies and their close connections with profit-seeking organizations in capitalist societies” (Sullivan, 2013, p.79).

    An example of that would be: communication products and how companies get to us young people. Communication products is any type of mass media and how companies can get you to look at what they are selling.

   Personal example: On every social media account that I know exist online as some sort of ad, telling us to try this and try that. This ploy is very useful and works efficiently because they know that majority of their target market is on social media and spend most of our time being an audience through our phones.

      Elihu Katz’s theory of Uses and Gratification goes hand in hand with the theory of work and leisure. Elihu Katz’s theory studies what people do with the media (Sullivan,2013) (pg.109). We as people are always working, as audience members even on our days off or our down time we are working as consumers. We using the Uses and Gratification theory, we bring our own sets of beliefs, needs, and values that would shape our everyday lives from the environment we are in to the media that use. (Sullivan et al., 2013). In lecture, Professor Good spoke about how using Uses and Gratifications theory to see how audiences are active, discriminating and selective. We are told that we can relax on the weekends from a typical school/work week which, is approximately 120 hours. The theory debunks that stereotype because we are actively engaging in something even if we are not physically moving, making us selective online.  Because we have such “free” time on the weekends, we use media more. Exposing us to channel our attention to mass media and connect it with cognitive personal needs. Our personal needs is better explained by Elihu Katz. They are: “1.  Cognitive Needs: Needs related to strengthening information, knowledge, and understanding 2. Affective Needs: Needs related to strengthening aesthetic, pleasurable, and emotional experience 3. Personal Integrative Needs: Needs related to   strengthening credibility, confidence, stability, and status 4. Social Needs: Needs related to strengthening contact with family, friends, and the world 5. Escape Needs: Needs related to escape or tension release, also weaken(s) contact with self and ones social needs” (Sullivan, 2013 pg.13)

     Personal example: I would consider myself in this society as an individual in the social need stage. The social need stage reflects who I am, I want to stay connected with my family and friends especially if I do not see them every day, and I also want to see what is going on in the world and how it may or may not affect me. I would also state that I am in the escape needs stage just because I use mass media sometimes in a way that helps me escape from reality on those tough days.

     In today’s society especially in the Western World, digital media is very influential. As a University student, I am always on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube. I always see advertisements, it is everywhere! The creep part is when I google something like Nike shoes then there are Nike shoe ads and ads relating to shoes.YouTube and Snapchat have the worst ads because most of the time, I cannot skip them and then sometimes it works and I actually go see the product/services they are providing.  Advertisers have taken over the social media realm, which is good for them because that is where our demographic is and that is their target market.  

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AUDIENCE STUDIES (3P18) BLOG POST #5: Media ratings and target marketing

     This blog I will be going through the textbook and/or the article and also give personal experiences on where I see fits.

Demographic: “…advertisers look at the size of specific subgroups that are of particular interest, based upon certain basic social features…” Sullivan (2013)

My experience:

    My mom has a hair care company that caters to women and men of a certain hair type. When she promotes her business, she will post it on social media using commonly used hashtags by people of that specific hair type; if she is going to an event to sell her products, she would go an event that is specially organized for people of that target market. This allows her to promote her product by doing word-of-mouth marketing and also gets people to spread the news of her boutique.

    Another way for media outlets like TV to get their target market to watch their shows, is by getting the people they watch the most on YouTube. YouTube is a fast growing social media platform where people can become a micro-celebrity  by just posting one thirty second video. If TV networks want to get my views on their channels, they are most like to YouTube sensation to come on a show or have their own show. For example: The Canadian YouTube Lily Singh, has over 14 million subscribers. Lily has recently got her own late night show on NBC, with that being said her supports would be excited for her and they would go and watch it on NBC, bringing up the views on the network. "Media corporations must find some way to break into this private realm to measure and catalog consumers' behaviors for commercial purposes…”Sullivan (2013)

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AUDIENCE STUDIES (3P18) BLOG POST #4:Public opinion and audience

    In the beginning of lecture we picked up where we left off from the previous week, where we were asked if we are “objects or agents?” I voted for agents. “Theoretical models spawned from the uses and gratifications’ approach regard media consumers as having ongoing involvement with mediated personae both during and after media consumption” Brown (2015)

    As I said perviously, media controls the way people think no matter how much people say it does not influence the way they think. A perfect theory to go what was learned this week is the agenda-setting theory. Agenda setting to my understanding is “how personal and media agendas can shape our everyday lives. Media agenda especially; media agenda emphasizes news media at any time. Over time the media agenda will shape what the audience sees. My experience would fit perfectly under the term framing; occurs when journalists or media producers ‘some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in communicating test..” Sullivan (2013)

     My experience: I came to realise when the Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their pregnancy, it was all over the front page of every newspaper. Meanwhile, in the back pages were reports of global warming and local crime rates. The vast majority rather read about the next royal baby than global warming. Recognizably, the reports are more important but the royal wedding is more pleasing to the eye and would sort of distract the audience from the real issues. I also feel that most of us have the need for orientation for certain issues, like finding out the latest news in the entertainment industry.” Squires (2018) Another definition that I think is similar and coexist with agenda-setting is spiral of silence, the term is defined as “claims that individuals naturally fear social isolation and will therefore monitor the political views expressed in the media and repress their own opinions if they are in the minority” Both agenda-setting and framing go together of affecting people’s perception of worldwide news.

My experience:

This experience is not personal, but I remember in PSYCH 1F90 we learnt about The Asch Conformity Experiments which, “revealed the degree to which a person's own opinions are influenced by those of groups. Asch found that people were willing to ignore reality and give an incorrect answer in order to conform to the rest of the group.” Cherry (2019) People rather be wrong than to be socially isolated, even though they are right.

Doxa and Episteme:

     Plato was a respected philosopher from the 4thcentury BCE. He was skeptical of the fact that people can make decisions based on their own best interest. He  came to the conclusion of his own thinking that there were only two types of thinking –Doxa and Episteme.

Doxais refereed to being the opinion, suggested to be influenced by society, on the other hand, “episteme was knowledge about something that cannot be debated because it is backed up my scientific principles. Sullivan (2013)

My experience:

     If I am ever auguring with my friends for fun or a serious matter, I always tell them to back up what they are saying with evidence and validate why they think they can win the argument. In a way, that is kind of similar to episteme because in order for people to believe what you are thinking you should be able to back up your thoughts.

My experience in seminar:

    We discussed more about sampling and survey participation and how sometimes it can be misleading. Sampling is when a group of people form a specific region is chosen to complete a survey. This can be inaccurate depending on how the group was selected because they might all think the same or feel like they need to think the same. It would more wise to do random simple sampling because your results would be more diverse. We then also talked about portable people media and nano meter. Portable people meter (PPM) would measure how much exposure to audio and visual multimedia platform, by clipping a pager to an individual. The nano meter, is a remote that measures but does not work as affect because people may forget to use it while they are watching or listening to something. That is why, I personally think that the (PPM) is better for the company to use, it is more accurate for research purposes.

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AUDIENCE STUDIES (3P18) BLOG POST #3: Effects of media messages

     I found a great interest to this weeks’ lecture about how media messages affect individuals psyches. This week, we learnt the following main terms mass media, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft , 4 types of involvement, and parasocial interaction/ parasocial relationship. The dependency theory was created my Sandra Bell-Rokeach and Melvin Defleur in 1976. Dependency theory, “a systematic approach to the study of the effects of mass media on audiences and of the interactions between media, audiences, and social systems.” Lin (2014) An example would be  the unfortunate position that Muslim people in North America are put in because of misleading information and stereotypes that are being told about them through mass media.

      Mass media is way of communicating to a large group and/or groups, of people in a short period of time. “Mass media means technology that is intended to reach of the general public.” Coleman (n.d.)

       The two terms ‘Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft’(while I type it, I still do not know how to pronounce the two words) The two terms were coined by Ferdinand Tonnes. Gemeinschaft symbolizes a community. People in gemeinschaft are more connected and have interpersonal relationship with one and another. Gesellschaft is the opposite of gemeinschaft, gesellschaft is a more looser in regards to relationships with people in your community, they are more like strangers. Everybody is doing their own thing, this is mostly seen in high populated cities.

      My experience

     Being in gemeinschaft vs. gesellschaft society, I personally feel like Canada is a gesellschaft society as a whole. In my home city, it is definitely a gesellschaft city; very populated and busy, everyone does their own thing and goes about their business. Occasionally, I will get a smile but other than that people here have tunnel vision. In a gesellschaft society, we are strangers towards each other until we come to a confined space where it is by force to greet each other. Back in 2017, when I went on vacation to Barbados, a small island in the Caribbean. I can tell that it is a gemeinschaft society. One day, I was walking to the beach from our Airbnb alone and there were construction workers who were working and as I walked passed one, he got upset that I did not say good morning to them. He was not mad but he knew that we were on vacation so he was just letting me know for next time. As I going to town, the same thing everybody who walks passes you either smiles or greets you. Being in a gesellschaft society all my life then going on vacation to a gemeinschaft society was a culture shock to me.  

      Moving on to the four processes of audience involvement. “These four processes are identified in the academic literature as transportation, parasocial interaction (PSI), identification and worship. In order to more effectively understand these four processes with respect to each other…” Brown (2015)

1.     Transportation: “‘…a highly transported individual is cognitively  and emotionally involved in the story’”  Brown (2015) An example: watching your favourite show, and getting attached to the storyline of your favourite character. In my life, my favourite show would be Grey’s Anatomyand when my favourite character Callie left, my heart broke.

2.     Parasocial interaction (PSI) / parasocial relationship (PSR):

-      PSI- “is an imaginary interaction between a [media consumer] and a [media] personality, which over time may develop into a self-defined one-way relationship.” Brown (2015) An example of that would be with Grey’s Anatomy, I have been watching Grey’sfor 16 seasons, so I feel like I am a part of the show. Sometimes , I go into this universe where I feel like I am inside the show interacting with the characters.

-      PSR- “ as a pseudo relationship that results from a false sense of intimacy created during media consumption.” Brown (2015) My experience with PSR would be with Dr.Mcdreamy in Grey’s Anatomy,I swear him and I were going to get married, he was so cute but then the writers killed him in the show and I cried because him and I had a connection.

3.     Identification:

-      “requires that we forge ourselves and becomes the other

-      Identification ends and worship begins when a persona becomes the primary focus of a media consumer’s time and attention and object of his or her life” Brown(2015) My example would be kind of similar to  my prior example for PSI, when I watch Grey’s and I forget who I am; It is like an escape from reality. For me, watching online television such as Netflix where there is no commercials has helped me escape the reality of University and how tiring it is.

4.      Worship:

-      “celebrity worship can be described as relegating to celebrities the attention and the status normally given to God, a god, or some other form of deity” (Brown,2015) I have a couple examples that I have seen throughout my life when it comes to worshipping celebrities. I remember in seminar, we were asked if we ever worshipped an celebrity and I rose my hand and said when I was younger I was obsessed with Selena Gomez, anything about her I knew, all the movies and tv shows she was in? I knew. Looking back at it, it was quite a scary obsession but ever since then I have not been obsessed with any celebrity. Another example of worship would be Beyoncé’s fandom “Beyhive”, in the entertainment world, people know not to mess with Beyoncé because her fans will come for your life and threaten you. My last example takes another interpretation of the term “worship”. Kim Kardashian uses her power as a celebrity to get the attention of The President of United States to help get people out of jail who have been wrongfully accused.

    We also learned about Cooley, He feared how negatively media can affect people. He was afraid that different forms of media would give the public only a superficial understanding of public issues.“Cooley was one of the first intellectuals to link the development of individuals’ psyches and worldviews with a) their immediate surrounding, including social feedback from peers, parents, and etc…” Sullivan (2013)

My experience:

    Being a student in University who has been in school for over 18 years, I am about to be done. Being on social media, and seeing so many ads to apply for a new credit card scares me. If I was not so strong against getting credit cards, I would have got one by now and max it out and be in debt. The ads would what is spreading false information because they are making it seem that getting a credit card is getting a great thing but really you have to be really smart about using it and read the fine print.

[mekeda3p18]

AUDIENCE STUDIES (3P18) BLOG POST #2: History and concept of audience

Audience /ˈôdēəns/

       “The audience is “situated and contingent... [and] the story of the audience is no more and no less than the story of the ways in which this concept [of audience] has been imagined and used by communities and societies in specific historical and cultural contexts” Sullivan (2013). Audience has changed dramatically over the years, in this blog, we will be focusing on the making sense of audiences through history, and early audiences. There are four points to the different senses of audiences. The first point is size, size went “from thousands co-located in space to many millions around the world to billions sharing the same content.

      I see it has over the years, be technology advancing and changing, the more content spreads nationally and internationally. An example of that in real world, would be a couple of years ago, I was looking to different universities. I went to Trent University in Barrie; the campus is very small and not all courses were offered at the same campus. They had something were if the professor is at the Lakehead campus, he is able to teach the class in Barrie through live video chat. I thought that was pretty cool, to see how technology has made such an impact in education where more students can take the course no matter what campus they are at.  

      The second point is danger, this point also correlates with early theatre audiences. In the Greek audiences between 4th– 5thcentury BCE, audiences were usually talkative, unruly by shouting, throwing fruit, and etc. Usually, the working-class would sit in the front and the rich would sit in the back. During the 17thand 18thcentury, the audience became more quiet but it was mostly an active audience. As we enter the 19thcentury, the audience would mostly be made up of the working class who would come together at specific times and different places to experience some form of routinized show. Sullivan (2013) There was also a problem when it came to being part of an audience in the 19thcentury. There was always this fear of what people might do, once gathered in the theatre. Following the 20thcentury, after the American civil war in 1865, there was a redefinition of what constitutes the meaning of theatre. Sullivan (2013) It is said that danger and sizing also co-exist, the bigger the crowd the more dangerous it can be. In the 21stcentury, I can see the extreme difference; usually people who can afford more expensive tickets are in the front up close to the person who is preforming, and the further you go back the cheaper the tickets are. For example, if I was to go to a Beyoncé concert, I would be in the nosebleeds (all the way in the back) where Beyoncé would look like an ant, because that is what I can afford. Even being in the nosebleeds says a lot because the concert overall is very expensive.

         The next point would be Sullivan’s theory, the chapter describes the three models of audience, which are Audience-as-outcome, Audience-as-mass, and Audience-as-agent. Each model is defined in the text as:

Audience-as-outcome: “sees people as being acted upon by media. Typically, it refers a concern about the power of media to produce detrimental effects on individuals, and by implication on society as a whole” Sullivan(2013)

Audience-as-mass: audiences are seen as “a large collection of people scattered across time and space who act autonomously and have little or no immediate knowledge of one another” Sullivan (2013)

Audience-as-agent: “people are conceived of as free agents choosing what media they will consume, bringing their own interpretive skills to the texts the encounter making their own meanings, and generally using media to suit themselves” Sullivan (2013)

    My experience:

    Gears more towards “audience-as-outcome”, media plays a huge role in how people think about everything. For example: on social media, I keeps seeing a lot of clips and post about climate change and how our planet is dying. By me seeing that over and over, that makes me what to do better whether it is using no plastic straws or recycling the right items.  Another example of audience-as-outcome would be false news that is spread through media, like a female celebrity that is pregnant but in actuality she was bloated that day.

   Audience-as-outcome is a perfect example of how media platforms can lead their audience true or false conclusions.

    Lastly, power is defined as the ability of one actor to alter the decisions made and/or welfare experienced by another actor relative to the choices that would have been made and/or welfare that would have been experienced had the actor not existed or acted.” Sullivan (2013) A part of the lecture notes said “powerful audience members are people who are asked about their experiences. An example of that would be this course, we are asked for a personal experiences  whether its in seminar or in paper that we have to write. Students are powerful audience members in school whether it is elementary or post-secondary.

[mekeda3p18]

AUDIENCE STUDIES (3P18) BLOG POST #1: Introduction

        Being the first week of Audience studies (COMM 3P18), we were introduced to what would be to me a very interesting course. I was confused at the beginning on what exactly we are going to learn. “How can we study audiences?” ‘Would I be a part of an audience if I was studying an audience?’ ”, those were just a a couple of questions I had beforehand during our first lecture. I then thought to myself, the different types of audiences I experienced and I instantly thought about how I would act at a play or musical theatre compared how I would act at my favourite singers’ concert. Being an audience member at play would require you to be quiet throughout the duration of the play giving your undivided attention to the actress and actors while as being at your favourite singers’ concert; you would be singing along and scream with excitement.We also had to talk about a time when we were a part of an audience this summer, so besides the obvious [televisions, computers, and etc.], I went to a Shenseea (a Jamaican dancehall artist) concert.

       We were told to purchase Top Hat for participation, which was really cool, I like how you can engage with the class on your laptop or smartphone. I believe that using Top Hat is a good and fun way to the lecture while getting marks. The word of the day is prosumer; prosumer is a hybrid word mixed with producer and consumer. Producer defines as “someone who creates and distributes content and consumer defines as someone who takes/purchases goods and services. Prosumer defines as “which is defined by the consumer taking part in the design process of the services or products consumed” Phade (2018). An example of a prosumer would be someone does Do-It-Yourself projects.

        As the lecture continued we learned about the following terms: massive audiences and general of audience, which to me is the two most important terms in course. Massive audience defines “where many anonymous individuals are receiving a particular message via some kind of media channel (either simultaneously or at different points in time). Sullivan (2013) “Audience was defined was defined for us in multiple ways:

“1.The act of state of hearing

 2a) formal hearing or interview can audience with the pope  

b) an opportunity of being heard 

3a) group of listeners or spectators 

b) a reading, viewing, or listening public 

4. a group of ardent admirers or devotees” (http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/audience)

        The question that was being asked in lecture was asked “how have audience changed throughout our lifetime?” To answer that question, audience has changed exponentially throughout history regards to my grandparents to this current generation with me growing up in the 21stcentury. Being in the 21stcentury, there are more ways to be an audience compared to the past. New ways, you can be an audience member is on your phone, on your laptop and etc. Going back when my grandparents and parents were growing up, there was only would be physical audiences and visual through television, and audio audiences.Our first lecture ended with TA’s information, and overall information about the course. As we continued to go to seminar, we went around the class introducing

        As we approach our seminar, we went around the class introducing ourselves which is a type of audience for each person. We concluded the class, by picking partners and signing up for facilitations.

            I am excited to see what this class in store this semester 🙂