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Audience Studies (3P18) Blog #3

Welcome, to the last installment of this three-part blog series. It seems like it was only yesterday that we started this journey and it has since come to an end. The class audience studies did not seem to be important when I first started going to lectures, however, over time the class taught me much and gave me an insight into a different perspective on audiences along with the context around them. Well done Professor Good!

Moving on with this final audience blog I will be looking to incorporate the final weeks of content in the text “Media Audiences” by John Sullivan, along with some of the journal articles that were referenced in class. Along with referencing the text “Media Audiences” and the journal articles I will be looking at my own personal audience experiences in relation to the articles and the text.

To start off we will be looking at an article titled “The Influences of Sports Viewing Conditions on Enjoyment from Watching Televised Sports: An Analysis of the FIFA World Cup Audiences in Theater vs. Home” written by Kihan Kim. In short the findings of the study are stated as “The results of analyses showed that the viewing condition (theater vs. home) influenced audiences’ sense of presence when watching mediated sports, which, combined with the attractiveness of the game, would determine the suspenseful nature of the media experience, as well as the subsequent enjoyment”(Kim, 2016). The article revolves around the audience interaction between home and theatre during the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which is an important worldwide spectacle that takes place every four years. The World Cup becomes the largest televised event worldwide and has the most viewers for any sports event. The article states that the study was done using “collected data from audiences of two live broadcasts of the 2014 FIFA World Cup matches, either in a theater or a home condition. Study participants were recruited on a voluntary basis by local print and online advertising for a monetary incentive before the target games were held”(Kim, 2016). Then once the games were concluded according to the article “participants were asked to return the pre-distributed but not opened until the match was over questionnaire to the researcher, either by email or conventional mail”(Kim, 2016). The conclusion of the study according to Kim (2016) discovered that audience members preferred the theatre due to its atmosphere, larger screen size, and the better image quality and those factors led to better enjoyment when compared to the television/at home counterpart.

In regards to an experience that can correlate to the article that was mentioned earlier, my own experience would be my own application to the study that they undertook. Growing up my favorite sport was soccer, not only did I avidly play it as part of the school team but I was always playing on my lunch breaks and whenever I had spare time. Growing up and even now I am fascinated by soccer so it was not uncommon for me to watch the World Cup, Champions League etc. During the World Cup that took place in 2010, I was an audience member for the final match where Spain went up against the Netherlands and ended up beating them 1-0, the match was brutal and considered to be one of the most violent matches to date. Four years later, I watched the final of the 2014 World Cup which had Germany taking on Argentina, the match was extraordinary and Germany deserved their victory. The comparison with the article applies when I take into account where it was that I viewed each respective World Cup, for the 2010 World Cup I was an audience member from my house, for the 2014 World Cup, however, I was watching the World Cup at a friend’s home theatre. As stated by Kim (2016), the importance of the screen size, the atmosphere, and the image quality was essential to a greater sense of enjoyment. At home, I was viewing on a normal television, with nobody to accompany me so there was no atmosphere and the image quality was not the best. However, at the home theatre, the screen was massive and the atmosphere was a lot more intense due to the rivalries between opposing sides fandom (Germany vs Argentina). The article was correct and spot on in its research, their research can be applied to most sport-related media scenarios along with many other media scenarios. The World Cup was important to me and I was extremely disappointed when Lionel Messi was not able to lift the World Cup trophy, but fair play to Germany.

The text “Media Audiences” has a memorable chapter regarding fandom and audience subcultures (chapter 8), fandom is quite an interesting topic because it comes off as something that does not seem to be that important but proves to be quite important in the text. The text goes into detail regarding different levels of Fandom and examples that can be seen of fandom in society. Before speaking about fandom in its entirety it is important to look at the term fan in itself. The text describes the term fan as“fan audiences are deeply engaged in their favorite media texts. Fans often reinterpret media content and create their own cultural productions in response”(Sullivan, 2013). So, therefore, we are given a deeper meaning to the term than we would think of upon hearing the term, fans can be anyone that reinterpret media content and create their own cultural productions in response.

My personal experiences with fandom exist for certain media productions, most commonly being television series and movies, but occasionally other events and personae as well. As far as Television series would go, the most recent series that I have engulfed myself it would be “Avatar: The Last Airbender”, it is a show that is presently quite old and I have watched it as a child growing up. Presently it would be the 4thtime that I am rewatching the series (I know get a life right? LOL). The show was loved worldwide and has a sequel that follows the next Avatar, however, in my own opinion, nothing would come close to the first series. This show spoke to me not only because of the action and the well-made storyline but also because of the messages that were sent out, after all, it is the interpretations of said messages that made me a fan of that show. The story can be seen as humorous, action-packed, dramatic, and emotionally taxing for an animation which would be the reason that even after so long I still consider it to be one of my favorite shows.

Fandom is just as important, if not more when compared to fans, this is because the text gives fandom varying levels of involvement with the media content/text whereas the term fans do not involve as much depth. An article by Abercrombie and Longhurst (1998) recognized that there were different levels of passion/ involvement within fan activities and they developed a continuum of audience experiences. The continuum as shown on page 194, is depicted as having four steps/levels of engagement. The first of the levels is consumer, the second would be the enthusiast, the third is the fan, and the final level being the producer. With the inclusion of all the levels of fandom a more inclusive definition was made for the term fandom and it was “the regular, emotionally involved consumption of a given popular narrative or text in the form of books, television shows, films or music, as well as popular texts in a broader sense such as sports teams and popular icons and stars ranging from athletes and musicians to actors”(Sandvoss, 2005).

The continuum of fandom is a great way to categorize where we may stand on the levels of fandom. The first level of fandom we are introduced to would be the “Consumer” level, this level is quite general and can be applied to anyone that is an avid consumer of media texts. In my case I would be a consumer of many television shows and songs, simply by me watching a show and listening to music would be examples of my consumption. The second level on the continuum of fandom would be the “enthusiast” and it can be shown by representing ones emotional and physical representation towards a show, I see it as being someone who avidly buys a certain media texts merchandise and represents their affection toward that media text through products. In my case, it would be extremely rare for me to go out of my way to purchase merchandise for a specific media text and show my fandom off. However, the only exception was when I bought Eminem’s new Kamikaze merchandise (Death Before Defeat Bomber Jacket).  The jacket really spoke to me due to Kamikaze being one of the best albums that I have listened to in a long time and due to the fact that Eminem was not holding back any longer, it made me feel proud to consider myself a fan (or is it Stan?). The next step in the continuum of fandom is the “fan” level, it is essentially when a person goes out of their way and recreates something or someone from a media text and embraces that character. The best way to define it would be by giving examples such as people cosplaying as their favorite heroes/characters or dressing up to be identical to their idols. The best example that I personally can come up with was when I was around 14 years old and I saw “Batman: The Dark Knight” and it simply blew my mind because of the genius way in which it was filmed, the casting and the messages it sent. As a child Batman was one of my favorite heroes, so with the release of the Dark Knight prior to Halloween, it was only right for me to dress up as the caped vigilante for that year, unbeknownst to me however the Joker was the true star in that movie (with age I realized the importance of Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight. Rip...). The final step in the continuum of fandom would be the “producer” stage, this is where fans of certain media texts would go and create their own versions of the text, some of the common fan producer types are fan fiction novelists, parody creators, and remix artists for example. Personally, I have never done any of the above so I am not someone that has gone to this stage in the continuum of fandom, however, I have been an audience member to some other fan producers. My experiences with fan producers can be shown when I watch parodies of music videos, read alternative endings to media texts I enjoy and listen to remixed versions of music. Some of my favorite fan produced content/texts are the musical parodies of The Key of Awesome/Bart Baker and the remix to “Kings Dead” by Joey Badass and XXXtentacion.

The final article that I will be discussing is one that was done on the hit movie Veronica Mars and the lengths that the fan base went to get a second version/continuation of the film. The article states that “this article connects rhetoric used by these fans to longstanding issues around patronage in fine arts, arguing these historical discourses provide a way to deepen our understanding of how fan audiences relate to media industry interests”(Navar-Gill, 2018). This article focuses on the impact that fan audiences ultimately do have on the creators of media texts, fans can break down or build up a media text. The article's author states “Drawing on a series of interviews with Kickstarter backers who supported the Veronica Mars movie, I argue that the experiences and perspectives of Veronica Mars fans during the Kickstarter campaign demonstrate that these fans had a relationship with text and industry that cannot be clearly understood as either celebratory or lovingly subversive [affirmational or transformational]”(Navar-Gill, 2018). The fans had a different relationship with the media text than seen before and when incorporated with the power of audiences and some backing financially they can make large movements in their specified field of fandom.

    The relationship that exists between me and the Veronica Mars film are not close to the people that were studied in the previously mentioned article, however, I do have my own experiences with a similar Kickstarter campaign that I was a fan of, among thousands of others. The campaign was for a type of simplistic Swiss watch that incorporated different technologies at cheaper prices (It was like getting a low-level Rolex without having to sell a kidney). Since I had heard of it I had always wanted to contribute and if memory serves right it raised millions of dollars by the end of the campaign. The people that do contribute certain amounts get varying prizes, I myself got a discount for one watch at their website, but others that contributed more would get free watches and larger discounts. It was an interesting experience and I was part of an audience that had a collective thought that saw something special in the product that we were investing our money in.

This has been an interesting journey, thank you for putting up with my audience blogs, these were the first blogs I have ever written in my life and it was definitely a unique experience. Hopefully, you have learned something about fans, fandom, audiences, the world cup, my television/movie preferences, and my spending habits. Audiences are definitely an important part of our lives, though it's not obvious, audiences are essentially inescapable because wherever we turn we can become a part of an audience or a presenter. As the text states “The key is to start with our everyday, lived experiences as the departure point for deeper analysis of the audience experience” (Sullivan, 2013). Thank you for reading my final audience blog, take care!

References:

Abercrombie, N., Longhurst, B. (1998). Audiences: A sociological theory of performance and imagination. London, England: Sage.

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.

Navar-Gill, A. (2018). Fandom as symbolic patronage: Expanding understanding of fan relationships with industry through the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign. Popular Communication, 16(3), 211-224.

Sandvoss, C. (2005). Fans: The mirror of consumption. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

Sullivan, J. (2013). Media Audiences. Thousand Oaks, Calif. SAGE Publications.

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Audience Studies (3P18) Blog #2

Welcome to the second installment in a three-part blog series regarding my audience experiences. You’re roughly 66% of the way through having to read what I have got to say regarding audiences once you get to the bottom of this blog. Lucky You!

Audiences have engulfed our lives to a point where it's nearly impossible to escape them, this is mainly due to the fact that as a society we can easily become an audience or a presenter. With modern technological advances, it is simple to connect with others using social media and other forms of media. So, unless you isolate yourself on a remote island it is highly unlikely that you would escape the clutches audiences have on our lives. Our very own existence in modern times seems to revolve around what other people think of us, social media has created a world where people find value and acceptance through “likes” and “comments” rather than them being their own character regardless of what others think. This occurrence of people relying on social media for social interactions from an audience point of view is essentially amazing in the sense that you can have a reach to a large group of people but it comes with much negativity and the loss of our reality. In short, audiences come with ups and downs depending on the context.

For this blog, I will be looking at different articles and chapter 6 on John L Sullivan’s text “Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power”. This blog will be heavily opinion based as you have seen regarding my opinion on the modern social media world, it will also revolve around my own personal experiences with audiences and I will relate my experiences back to the textbook along with certain articles to strengthen my point and vice versa.

SEMIOTICS: In the text “Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions and Power” the sixth chapter is about interpreting and decoding mass media texts, the chapter goes on to talk about semiotics. The term semiotics basically means “the systematic study of signs and their significance in society” (Sullivan, 2013). On the other hand, it is also defined as “the study of everything that can be used for communication: words, images, traffic signs, flowers, music, medical symptoms and much more. Semiotics studies the way such “signs” communicate and the rules that govern their use” (Seiter,1992). Both of these definitions revolve around an object/message containing some form of a sign/meaning that can be interpreted. The text defines “signs” as “referring to things that they are not. They are markers that contain vital information about the experience, object or idea that is being referred to” (Sullivan, 2013). Semiotics can be used to give meaning to signs as follows.

One of the most influential television shows that I have had the pleasure of watching was “Breaking Bad”, it was a crime/ drama about a high school chemistry teacher who due to extenuating circumstances decides to become a meth cook. The show was directed by Vince Gilligan and I consider it one of my favorite TV shows of all time, as do many others. What made the show so interesting was not just the storyline but also the various uses of signs and messages that hold more meaning than you would see at one glance. There were many signs throughout the show with people coming up with their own interpretations for each of them. One memorable sign that I saw was the episode where Walter White spends an entire episode chasing after a common housefly, towards the end of the episode he says “Its all contaminated” to Jesse Pinkman. The housefly as I see it is a sign of where Walter’s life was at during that moment, his life at that point in the show was falling apart and he was not able to control it, just like how he couldn’t capture the fly.

Another memorable sign that Breaking Bad left behind was (Spoiler Alert, Skip to next paragraph if you do not want to see Breaking Bad spoilers) the final episode of the series. Oddly enough Vince Gilligan named the final episode “Felina”, at first it seems to be the term “finale” but in another language. However, looking further into the term “Felina” (as a sign) we can see that the director purposefully used elements in the periodic table to come up with the namesake of the finale. “Felina” would then literally turn into the elements Ferrous/Iron, Lithium and Sodium. However, the meaning goes beyond just the elements, this is because each element relates to an actual “object”. For Iron it would mean blood as Iron is found within our bloodstream, then for Lithium, it would be methamphetamine since lithium is a core ingredient in meth, and finally, Sodium can be attributed with tears. This is an ideal title for the finale because that is exactly how the story comes to an end, with Walt being shot and bleeding out on the floor next to the methamphetamine lab and Jesse escaping with tears in his eyes. No wonder its one of the best TV shows ever created, I was proud to be part of the Breaking Bad audience!

SIGNIFIER & SIGNIFIED: Modern semiotic studies have come up with different ways of theorizing signs, it was originally thought of by Ferdinand de Saussure who outlined how exactly to decode these texts using the ideology of the signifier and the signified (Sullivan, 2013). In short, the signified is how a sign is formulated/interpreted by the audience. Whereas a signifier is the object/sign/action in its entirety.

To relate the ideology of the signifier and the signified in an audience sense, I would use the example of a show that I have seen called “The Bachelor”. The Bachelor is a show that started out back in 2002 and is still running to this day, the show follows the basis of people finding love. The show gets an eligible bachelor who goes on dates with multiple women over a set time period and in the end chooses who moves onto the next round of dates, eventually the number of women slims down to a few and the bachelor has to decide on who they will end up with based on the brief experiences that they had. The method that is used for the women in the bachelor to go onto the next round is done by the bachelor giving a certain amount of roses to the women that he chooses, not everyone will get a rose and hence they are out of the running. To think of the show in a more audience studies related fashion, then we could look at what the signifier and the signified are in terms of the bachelor. The way that I see it, the signifier would be the rose, even the physical act of handing the rose to a woman. The signified, on the other hand, would have to be the feelings of attraction the bachelor has for the woman that the rose is presented to. As a member of an audience, it is up to us to determine what the “signified” meaning is, some people may think differently regarding the rose when compared to me. The Bachelor example is one of the easiest ways to put the terms signifier and signified into perspective, it is rather difficult to explain those two terms because of the varied perceptions that people may have and how they interpret the example provided (The Bachelor). P.S. Not a fan of the show it was just a simple way to explain the signified vs signifier lol.

DEXTER??: The Crime/ Drama is another one of my favorite TV shows that were ever made, it would be a crime in itself if I did not mention that within my blog. The article by Granelli and Zenor summarize the plot of the show by saying “The series followed the exploits of Dexter Morgan. By day, he is a blood-spatter analyst employed by the Miami Metro Police Department. But at night, he is sociopathic serial killer who functions outside of the written law, and dispenses punishment to those who “deserve” it. The allure of the character is the service that he provides. Dexter’s role is to make us safe by ridding the world of those who slip through the cracks of the legal system. This is what Dexter refers to as “The Code of Harry.” It is the standard by which others are judged. When they meet the code, only then can Dexter punish the guilty” (Granelli, Zenor, 2016). The article also goes on to examine the character of Dexter Morgan and the affiliations that people create with the fictional character. Studies are done on the participants to determine where they stand on anti hero like protagonists based on Dexter’s actions.  There are four factors that are brought to the article and each factor has to do with what a certain percentage of the participants thought about Dexter’s morality.

If I was to be included in this study, I would definitely be on either the first factor or the second because I am a genuine fan of the show. The article states that “Factor 1 does not believe that Dexter Morgan is a crazy sociopath. Instead, they believe that he is a hero. They believe that he is using his impulses for good and is not misusing revenge” (Granelli, Zenor, 2016). I tend to agree with that statement because Dexter seems to pursue justice and if he doesn’t act on his impulses then his targets would go around killing innocent people. However, a part of me does also agree with the second Factor because the deception that Dexter uses to fit in with everyone else, can actually be seen in our real lives by certain people (obviously not serial killers but “fake friends” would be a good example). Regarding factor 2 the article states that “they believe that the shows focuses more on the complexity of humans. For this factor, the show is about how Dexter Morgan is hiding his alter ego and reinforces the idea that we never know who people really are” (Granelli, Zenor, 2016). This statement is also agreeable because it is quite relatable to some of our every day lives and interactions that we may have with people that seem deceptive/off. This article in my opinion seems to be a little over the top because it is only a TV show, and TV shows are created with the sole purpose of entertainment in mind. So, Dexter is a really good form of entertainment if you are into shows in that genre. TV shows cannot cater to everybody.

Looking at the TV show Dexter in an audience studies perspective would primarily revolve around taking a semiotic point of view and also finding some aspects of the signifier and the signified. As far as semiotics are concerned, they are visible throughout the series, since Dexter was a show of deep symbolism as much as it was horror. There is a semiotic connection that exists with Dexter’s “trophies”, his “trophies” are samples of blood that he takes from each one of his victims before taking their lives. The trophies can be attributed with Dexter having a feeling of accomplishment. He feels accomplished because he believes that he is doing the right thing and the trophies are proof of his actions and of him honoring the code that his father left behind.

As far as the signifier applies in Dexter, it that would have to actually be the plastic wrap and the tools/ weapons that he uses. The signified in this scenario would be the death of Dexter’s target, since the plastic wrap is the last thing that the victim sees before going into the light (or hell), it can, therefore, be attributed with imminent death.

CONCLUSION: Congratulations you have made it to the end of my blog, I hope it wasn’t too bad. Hopefully, you learned something about the use of semiotics and the uses of the signifier/signified within and audience (in this case television shows). You probably also learned a lot about the kind of television shows that I am into and the ones that I typically do not like (the bachelor). You are now 66% of the way through in regards to reading my blogs, only one more to go! I don’t know who is more relieved, me or you?

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Audience Studies (3P18) Blog #1

Well hello, reader! I am here to speak about Audiences and my take on them. How exciting! Enjoy LOL. :)

Let us start with the facts, the term “audience” can be defined in many ways depending on the circumstances that surround it and the time in which it takes place. However, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term “audience” is defined as “the action of hearing; attention to what is spoken”. According to the definition provided by Oxford, it is only logical to assume that there is a countless number of possibilities as to what the term “audience” can refer to.

Throughout history audiences have changed drastically, we have gone from having performances created by remarkable playwrights such as William Shakespeare to a more technologically advanced era where we ourselves lead performances on social media platforms to our own audiences. Social media is one of the most prominent uses of “mass audience” in the modern world. The mass audience is defined as “where many anonymous individuals are receiving a particular message via some kind of media channel” (Sullivan, 2013). Which perfectly explains the massive reach that social media has within our lives, however, even at motion pictures people that are present would conform to mass audiences according to Sullivan (2013).

For this assignment I will be looking into a research paper by William Brown, to be specific it is the article “Examining Four Processes of Audience Involvement with Media Personae: Transportation, Parasocial Interaction, Identification, and Worship”.  The paper claims that “During the past 60 years, the influence of mediated personalities on audiences has substantially increased. Whether they are gifted athletes, popular political leaders, trusted news anchors, performing artists, seasoned actors, or even fictional characters, becoming emotionally and psychologically attached to such personalities, also referred to as personae, is common.” (Brown, 2013). According to William Brown, the people that are looked up to due to their accomplishments and position in society become role models to the common people and they form a sort of attachment with the so-called “personae”.

The power that these personalities have on people can be seen by looking at things such as social media, where stars like Cristiano Ronaldo have millions of dedicated followers, it can be proven by his 74 million Twitter followers and record-setting 142 million follower Instagram account, with thousands more following him daily. As Uncle Ben once said “with great power comes great responsibility”, the way in which these personalities use their influence has an effect on the public. It is essentially their own choice the message that they wish to project.

The term “personae” tends to appear quite a bit in William Browns paper, its best to define what that is and get that out of the way for the moment, it is essentially the plural form of persona. Cambridge states that it is “the particular type of character that a person seems to have and that is often different from their real or private character”. The best example of personae in action would be people purchasing products, dressing a certain way or acting in a way that emulates the message sent by an influencer/personality. This emulation is seen in our everyday lives such as Kylie Jenner’s lip kits, Cristiano Ronaldo’s jerseys and Michael Jordan’s shoes (I belong to a group that has bought both Jordan shoes and Ronaldo jerseys). People buy those products to feel like their idols and take up their personas or to spread a message. In my case, Ronaldo was and still is an idol, growing up playing soccer he was someone I aspired to play like. The jersey was merely motivation.

William Brown's article goes on to discuss the four processes of audience involvement with media personae, which will be where my personal experiences come into play to give a better understanding of each of the four processes. I will essentially be looking at each of the four processes that are mentioned and apply my real life audience experiences into the mix. The four processes that are mentioned by William Brown in his research paper are Transportation, Parasocial Interaction, Identification, and Worship.

TRANSPORTATION: The first of the processes that is mentioned in the paper is transportation, the author cites a paper that states “a highly transported individual is cognitively and emotionally involved in the story”(Green, 2004). William Browns also believes that “although originally focused on written fiction, the study of transportation into narrative worlds has evolved beyond audience involvement with novels and now encompasses all forms of media in which narrative worlds are created” (Brown, 2013). To sum it all up in terms we can understand it simply means that “transportation is the process of becoming wholly absorbed into a narrative during media consumption or through participation in a mediated event, which begins when media consumers think and feels like a person in a narrative world, and is characterized by having vivid images of that world and its personae” (Green & Brock, 2000).

As far as a personal relation goes in regards to something that transported me through the story from the beginning to the end would be the show “Dexter”, the story follows a “good” serial killer who tries to fit in with others while continuing his “righteous” killing. The show really spoke to me in the sense that Dexter was obviously not in the right when it came to the law, but deep down I wanted him to succeed and overcome the obstacles that came at him, so I was emotionally involved in the story. Watching the show from episode to episode felt like I was there in spirit watching the action unfold along with the cast. If you haven’t seen Dexter, watch it!

PARASOCIAL INTERACTION: The second step in the process that is mentioned in the paper is Parasocial Interaction, the author explains an experiment that was done by Merton (1946) where he studied Kate Smith and her listeners during the second world war where she was able to raise $39 million in bonds for the war effort. They listeners had believed that they responded to Kate Smiths appeals because they felt like they knew Kate Smith personally. The Parasocial Interaction is best defined as something like a one-sided relationship/bond. William Browns mentions a study that was done which states “they described PSI as an imaginary interaction between a television viewer and a television personality, which over time may develop into a self-defined one-way relationship called a parasocial relationship” (Horton & Wohl, 1956). In short, the parasocial interaction may lead to a parasocial relationship in some people. The idea of a parasocial interaction can be based around someone that forms a relationship with someone from a movie or a TV show or even the idea of some persona that they can coincide with.

In my case, the closest thing that I had to a Parasocial Interaction was when I watched Naruto growing up as a kid. I was able to relate to the character of Naruto because he felt alone his whole life, similar to how I felt like a kid with next to no friends. As the years passed and the character of Naruto got older we saw him evolving as a person and changing the people around him to a point where he was surrounded by friends. As a kid, I was able to admire what he was doing even if he was a fictional character. Once the show came to an end I was sad to see a show that I grew up with come to a stop but at the same time I was proud because I felt like I had grown up alongside him and got to see it through. It is probably one of the most inspirational shows I watched growing up and ended up teaching me some valuable lessons. It was an audience experience that was similar to no other because I felt like I had a connection with the protagonist and grew alongside him.

IDENTIFICATION: The third step of the processes is identification; the author lets us know that “identification is the process of conforming to the perceived identity of a mediated persona both during and after media consumption or through participation in a mediated event, which commences when media consumers begin to assume the identity of the persona by sharing or adopting the persona’s attitudes, values, beliefs or behavior” (Browns, 2013). Identification revolves around someone assuming another person’s persona, based on them participating in media consumption or by participating in a mediated event.

This is something that I can relate to wholeheartedly because of the late artist XXXTENTACION (X). When I first heard of X it was when he had issues with drake for stealing his musical type on a song. At first, I didn’t think anything of X, he seemed to be someone that wanted attention. A couple months later he released his first studio album, it was called 17, and I was in disbelief at the ability he had to not be restricted to a certain genre and create his own type of music. Not all of his music resonated with me at the time but many songs on his first album did. Months passed away yet again and he released his next project “?”. This album was one that went number one in the hot 100, it was then when I realized he hasn’t only changed as an artist but as a person as well. Don’t get me wrong he had a difficult upbringing and was in court for some serious offenses from his past that he couldn’t be free of, that was just his own curse. He changed as a person towards the end of his life but his own violent past caught up with him and he was shot on July 18, 2018. In a way, I was an audience member to not only his music but also his life, its fair to say that I have learned from his music and the way that he lived months before he died, it will most likely stick with me as I continue on with my own life. Rip...

WORSHIP: The fourth and final step of the process is Worship, the author lets us know that “Worship is the process of expressing devotion, commitment and love to a mediated persona both during and after media consumption or participation in a media event, which begins with the development of intense devotional feelings toward the persona and is characterized by a strong loyalty to the persona and willingness to give one’s time,  finances and personal freedoms to venerate the persona”(Brown, 2013).  Worship is simple to understand because it revolves around feeling emotionally devoted to a persona on such a level that it comes off as the persona having a godlike hold on certain people.

In my own case, there are few that would make me feel that way, the only people that come close are those that I consider my idols, my top idols would be Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Johnny Depp, the Weeknd, and Eminem. There are reasons for each persona being considered my idols ranging from them being some of my favorite athletes to amazing performers. Among them all, the one person I have looked up to for a long time would be Eminem, he is who I think of when I hear “self-made”, he came up from nothing (similar to almost everyone listed) and he forged his own path. Sure, he did fail in the past and went downhill multiple times but he was able to fight against his inner demons and come out on top (he’s 10 years sober now). He is now considered the greatest rapper alive and one of the greatest to ever exist. Viewing his life and his music has helped me against my own demons of the past and I’m sure that his music will be of great value in the future to myself and many others. In terms of an audience experience its different with Eminem, his movie 8 mile is one of my favorites, his newer and older music will always remain the gold standard in rap. Every time I listen to a song by Eminem the emotion whether its anger, sadness, depression, happiness is always so clear and a majority of his music leaves behind a strong message that people can understand and resonate with.

You’ve reached the end of my blog congratulations, there was a lot that I learned from comparing the paper done by William Browns with my own experiences and opinions. The four processes that were mentioned by Browns are all important when studying audiences and how people consume media along with the way people react to personae in their lives. It never occurred to me how much content there was behind audiences, it's fascinating to look at yourself in an audience studies perspective.  

Thank you!

References:

Brown, W. J. (2015). Examining Four Processes of Audience Involvement with Media Personae: Transportation, Parasocial Interaction, Identification, and Worship. Communication Theory, 259 – 277.

Green, M. C. (2004). Transportation into narrative worlds: e role of prior knowledge and perceived realism. Discourse Processes, 38, 247–266. doi:10.1207/s15326950dp3802_5.

Green, M. C., & Brock, T. C. (2000). The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 701–721.

Horton, D., & Wohl, R. R. (1956). Mass communication and parasocial interaction: Observations on intimacy at a distance. Psychiatry, 19, 215–229.

Merton, R. K. (1946). Mass persuasion: the social psychology of a war bond drive. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers.

Personae Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. Retrieved: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/personae

Sullivan, J. (2013). Media Audiences. Thousand Oaks, Calif. SAGE Publications.