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Audience Studies (3P18) Blog Post #3

Following my last blog, we have covered some interesting and thought-provoking topics based on understanding audience fandom, interactive audiences, and their subcultures. Sullivan targets the audience agencies in a cross-cultural context by analysing how the audiences’ field has transformed and the way changes are continually developing throughout the current timeline.  Fandom in audiences is a fascinating piece to discuss since the current technology has embraced a centralised society where many people are a fan of something in one manner or another. What we learn from the chapters in Sullivan is that fans being an audience are in constant involvement with admiring their favourite media contents.

These fans usually interpret the content available through numerous media sources and to acknowledge they tend to develop their own cultural construction of that media text (Sullivan, p.193, 2013). Therefore, we now witness diverse cultures that are further defined in cultural subgroups of people such as gender, age, class, and race that tend to reduce the empowerment of the fans of any sort of media text (Sullivan, p.193, 2013)). Universally the word fan is defined by a person who absolutely devotes much of his or her time, energy, and even funds into reading, watching, listening or meeting. Generally, it can be said that anyone can be a fan of something, various cultures have an access to the platforms which provides a beginning to fandom and assist it to continually grow, along with progressing and advancing the development of these media. Fandom is a way that the current society can enjoy things outside their real life and feel relaxed, away from daily activities.

Sullivan talks about Jenkins who mentioned, that when we start watching a television series our involvement is related to how it influences our way of thinking both emotionally and intellectually which turns a viewer into a fan of that media text (Sullivan, p.198, 2013). Thus it gives an understanding of why a viewer on various media platforms tends to form a group of fandom towards a certain TV show, sports team, movie, comics, or famous celebrities. It is utterly fascinating to get an insight into different stages of fans when it comes to studying a fan base, so the first stage we normally relate to just a “fan” and the next stage is being a “super-fan”. These “super fans”, sometimes dedicate too much of their efforts, time and even money into supporting their “idols” or any media content.

Sports fans or viewers are universally known to be passionate about their sports interests and affiliated figures. These fans have a die-hard attitude towards the type of sports they watch, the team they support or towards a particular athlete. When studying sports fans, these are not the usual orthodox kinds of fans that we generally relate to, these fans are at a completely different level. For them supporting their favourite team or athlete is quite similar to someone worshipping. Their devotion towards their favourites is astounding, these fans collect their team’s merchandise, posters, flags; some fans travel abroad to go and support their teams while others watch the sports on their TV sets and personal computers (Hewer et.al, p. 611, 2017).

As a sports fan myself, and coming from a South Asian country where Cricket is treated more like a religion than sports. It one of the first things we start to learn as kids, our parents and our grandparents share their experiences which increase the influence of this type of sports on us. In almost every street of Pakistan, you will find people of almost all ages playing cricket displaying their enthusiasm and dedications towards the sports. In recent times cricket has diversified itself into small regional leagues similar to football/soccer leagues that we find in Europe and North America. However, the type of cricket majority follows are the international tournaments that take place between cricketing nations. For example, India and Pakistan share a conflicting relationship which becomes even more so evident during a cricket match between the two countries. So whenever there is a match between both of these countries, we just don’t see the rivalry between two opponents, we also notice the antagonism between fans of both countries that display their extreme love for the sports and their nation.

Being a true fan, they set aside adequate time to be part of the proceeding activities. Like sports, artists also enjoy a massive fan following. Music Fans travel across the globe just to watch their favourite artists perform. The hardest part of this arena is finding the right words to scrutinise the difference between a fan and a supportive person since they sound one and the same thing. Some people dedicate almost all of their money too much, such that they work to support their favourite teams, artists and shows. For instance, being a dedicated fan of Real Madrid in Spanish Premier League, I try to watch their matches whenever it is possible for me, and at times I even missed school to watch their matches. I may not be a super-fan but being unconditionally committed fan but for sure I am a collector, thus I have various jerseys, scarfs and posters of Real Madrid in my collection. I sometimes find myself being late to accomplish my chores, especially when the team is playing and I have to watch the match on the TV. 

I have a number of friends who love Drake, a Canadian rapper, such that one even has a tattoo on his body with a portrait of the artist. In the weekends, these friends can travel miles to watch Drake perform.  

Fandom As Patronage

In this article, we get in insight over the connection between people who support a certain form of media and the mass media industries which then segregates the fans by classifying their corporation or opposition. Furthermore, there is also a distinction made between patronage and traditional audiences, as the patrons help in collecting funds to help in acquiring enough start-up capital for any new media content (Navar-Gill, p.213, 2018). The importance of patrons is far beyond to just helping in collect funds, as their contribution and assistance provide a significant valuation to the work of an artist (Navar-Gill, p.213, 2018).

This article helps to figure out why fans who engage through problematic and unconstitutional forms of involvement often referred to transformation of fans or the affirmation of followers who uncritically rejoice the broadcasting on the developed relationships (Navar-Gill, p.211, 2018). Moreover, we also learn that if the communication flow between the audience and the producer of a content increases then it may destabilise the balance of having control over a media content between the producer and the audience (Navar-Gill, p.212, 2018)

There have been various objections over the crowdfunding towards a media content; however, the devotion of an audience has always been appreciated, thus making such issues less problematic in contemporary media these days (Navar-Gill, p.211, 2018). So what is crowdfunding? It is a mechanism through which funds are collected from a considerable amount of supporters for a media project or a venture (Navar-Gill, p.214, 2018).

In the Veronica Mars Kick starter, the initial funds were collected by the patrons to stimulate the production of the film. During the time between the cancellation of Veronica Mars and the Kick starter campaign, the producers went back and forth to Warner Brothers for their assistance in producing the film, but due to the unwillingness showed by the studio the producers failed to gain enough funds to start the movie. In order to convince the studio, the Veronica Mars campaign was launched in order to see that how much capital can be raised through patronage (Navar-Gill, p.216, 2018).

       “The concept of patronage fandom, with its complex combination of affirmation and transformation of elements, shows how critical but self-circumscribed engagement with texts and industry can give fans greater power in their relationships with producers and productions“(Navar-Gill, p.212, 2018). The sustenance of the fan spectators enhances the authorial and artistic trustworthiness of the designer, bringing factual insinuations for the productiveness decision making through the economic power. Greater value is achieved through fragmentation of the audience market since it contributes to the re-building of the fan audience. The complex and disproportionate relationships that exist between customers and the designers they support offers an appreciated typical for a type of fandom understanding that is not appropriately neat for the prevailing topology. Boundaries of participation and audience power in the participatory culture are important concepts in the symbolic patronage being a good example of how the audiences have a good arena in influencing production and the industry’s decision making.

From the course materials, lecture and seminar, we discussed the power owners in this digital age and finally concluded that both the ventures and audiences have the power of different degrees. According to Sullivan, we as people/viewers of media content do not have that much of intellect does not have many capabilities to process the information all at once, thus it is done in steps and even though we are not processing all that information in our consciousness yet the information is being interpreted at the back of our mind which tend to dominate our decision making (Sullivan, 2013). In the digital media world, the participants, people, have the power such as the case of the Veronica Mars Kick starter campaign, where the fans were disappointed by the organisers due to lack of proper exclusivity of the audience who have quite a reasonable degree of influence.

How Social Media Editors Frame the News and Interact With Audiences via Twitter

Due to the changes we have seen in technology over time, social media has heavily influenced our society and to how it operates now. Journalism is also one of those professions which are now victims of the digital world where their content is now being massively altered by the social media. In this article, the study is done over how the editors reach out to the audiences through a social media platform like Twitter (Wasike, p.5, 2013). This was achieved through different frames that occurred in the news articles that were posted on twitter and they varied from that in the print and TVs. Articles in the SME format carried the technology frame while the print SME laid more emphasis on the human interest, economic and conflict impact frames (Wasike, p.5, 2013).

So the question that we must focus on is to why these editors choose Twitter? In this article, there are three reasons provided that justify the importance of Twitter as far as the new media journalism is concerned (Wasike, p.7, 2013). The first reason is that it is both unique and suitable for audience interactions, as it helps to provide the SMEs to the dedicated readers with quick and concise information as Twitter only allows limited amounts of characters for a single post (Wasike, p.7, 2013). The second reason is that on Twitter the news can easily be updated, so it the best way to provide breaking news to the audience to keep them up-to-date (Wasike, p.7, 2013). The third and the last reason is the diminishing trend of news readership as now the public have stopped trusting the news media and prefer social media or other online sources more credible (Wasike, p.7, 2013).

When it comes to using Twitter for updated news, if definitely comes quite handy; for example, whenever if I am attending my lecture or busy at work it is obvious that it impossible to watch TV or read the newspaper to get an insight of that day's news thus, it is far easier to keep myself up-to-date with news being posted on Twitter as it is fast and convenient.

Choosing Twitter as the best mode of the study was geared by its prowess as an adept news-breaking tool and uniqueness and suitability for audience interaction (Wasike, p.8, 2013). Twitter is a good arena for news dissemination, content posting, and interaction among the people.  Its large coverage makes it a good choice of targeting a larger digital platform audience (Wasike, p.8, 2013).  The trends and the occurrences in the world are the motivating factors for any digital platform to assist in news dissemination. Many people prefer Twitter since they can access the information they need anytime in the comfort of their phones or personal computers (Kietzmann et.al, 2011). Using Twitter has been well fuelled by the SMEs which have targeted more users online through creating traffic that lures more readers and viewers from a vast population and reaches a larger target audience.

The Dynamics and Potentials of Big Data for Audience Research

In our lecture, we have finally been able to realise that now due to technological advancement we witness various types of user-generated media content online. YouTube is a great example of user-generated media content, it is a platform we-we watch the videos which are created by normal people (Athique, p.60, 2018). For instance, if a company decides to use TV and radio stations, print media and social media platforms to make its advertisement, there are high chances that the ad will perform well in the market. Getting the right strategy to reach a vast society is the first step that any company needs for its development agenda (Athique, 2018). Portable media technologies and para-texts as discussed in chapter 10 are also good arenas for the current audience reachability. The demographic discussed aimed at analysing how the 18-34 years old uniquely use the smartphones, tablets and other digital portable devices (Athique, p.63, 2018). Most of the people just use it for fun and are always relaxed especially when on social media sites, interacting and socialising with friends. Some decades ago, such ventures were minimal or unavailable making it hard to reach a reasonable digital audience. The combination of the old media usage and the current digital platform brings a massive audience transformation today.

Just before I end my blog, I would like to share my side of experience towards the concept of ‘Fans’ or ‘Super-fans’. Back in 2016, there was a Bollywood movie which was about a die-hard fan of a Bollywood actor. This was a great way to understand how such fans cherish their favourite celebrities. In the movie you could how his room is full of the posters of that Bollywood actor, how that fan would always try to talk or dress like him just to display his affection. Well, that movie also displayed the negative effects of having such die-hard fan who can go the extent of hurting his/her favourite celebrity to just meet him once.

References

Athique, A. (2018). The dynamics and potentials of big data for audience research. Media, Culture and Society, 40(1), 59-74.    

Hewer, P., Gannon, M., & Cordina, R. (2017). Discordant fandom and global football brands: ‘Let the people sing’. Journal of Consumer Culture, 17(3), 600-619.

Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizons, 54(3), 241-251.

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

Sullivan, J. L. (2013). Chapter 8, Chapter 9 & Chapter 10. Media audiences. Sage.

Wasike, B. (2013). Framing news in 140 Characters: How social media editors frame the news and interact with audiences via Twitter. Global Media Journal - Canadian Edition, 6(1), 5-23.  

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Audience Studies (3P18) Blog Post #2

Any sort of accessible media has an audience, so whether it be an audience of a video game, a movie or the audience on social media networks. Various forms of communication or media on the vast digital platform massively influence audience judgement and involvement. Thus the creators of media content must take responsibility of providing the audience the content they want to see. Researchers have been so fascinated with the concept of the audience that there have been various studies done which were just designed to get an insight on how does audience reacts to diverse forms of media. Yet there is no single study can be found which can entirely aid the researchers in interpreting audience engagement towards a media. In relation to my previous blog, we dive further into using understanding the theoretical concepts based on audience analysis analyses that seek to create a better understanding of how the content material can impact audiences preferences through the development of audience ratings, audience gratification, and reception theory by analysing the concepts of encoding & decoding.

Uses And Gratification

The Uses and Grats 2.0: New Gratification and New Media article by Sundar and Limperos (2013) gravitate the focus on the theory of psychological and social origins of needs. Based on their speculation, needs tend to drive the expectations which get separated by a distinct system of media exposure. Their belief was set on the assumption that the media has the capacity to gratify the intrinsic needs of the audience (Sundar & Limperos, p.503, 2013)

First, they look at the concept of understanding audience experience by examining the psychological and emotional aspects of involvement, this view is based on defining involvement by setting main focus on audiences' cognitive responses to a given message. It helps define the emotional reactions received to both personalities and mediated messages. In this case, involvement refers to the extent of immediate psychological response a person has to any given mediated message. Thus, considered to be a dynamic process which incorporates both the consumption of media and the coproduction of media by means of mediated interactions (Moyer-Gusé, Chung, & Jain, p. 389, 2011)

This perspective has been pretty much scrutinised in recent years and has definitely contributed to the development of the entertainment media theory. In media consumption, Tan (2008) states that feelings and emotions play a role in the creation of entertainment experience. Therefore, the involvement of personae in the production of mediated narratives can foster media enjoyment.

The concept of involvement does seem to be flawed because as far as it explains the basics of social sciences in relation to individual experiences, yet it neglects the collective experiences in the consumption of media (Brown, p.261, 2015). According to Sundar and Limperos, (2013), involvement can also include behavioural, cognitive, and effective participation during media exposure. Today, media consumption is not just based on one form of media as this vast landscape of media now includes other forms especially social media like Twitter and Facebook. as the audience is completely involved during and after the media consumption; thus their experiences are important and the media along with social media has a major influence.

Development of Audience Rating

Another theory set on the development of audience ratings is what that typically keeps the audience mesmerised. Researchers have to actively find out media dynamics which determines the imperatives, motives, and presumptions that define audience data. Although many researchers believe that restructuring the epistemological premise of what is referred to as ‘data Arcadia’, yet this approach has shown some success in the present times and has been confirmed by few media outlets and content creators who continue to command the sector (Athique technologies., 2018).

So let's take YouTube, it is a very simple example of how easily media content can be produced. YouTube a digital platform where media solely rely on the content producer’s creativity and message. YouTube is a very typical platform for producing cheap media for the audience where the consumers enjoy the content free of charge (Andrejevic, 2010). Although the content available on media platform seems quite ordinary and can possibly be similar in the future, yet it remains uncertain if it is beneficial towards audience experience or not.

At some point, we must know that free content on media platforms is not always beneficial and has its consequences. The Internet can now be seen as a mode of recording data, whatever we search gets recorded, so when we browse through most of the free content floating on the internet that tends to be under scrutiny making the consumer being liable for the content searched. The same system has, subsequently, been used to create targeting strategies for advertising and other programs. As it may have been initially been develop to safeguard user privacy and information but it ended up being a new platform for advertisers or online retailers to attract consumers (Sundar & Limperos, p.510, 2013).

Based on the article by Buzzard (2015) A.C, Nielsen company had a huge role in providing information to assess the market performance to individual stakeholders. Helping them to compete with their competitors based on cost decisions, choice of delivery methods, and speed of delivery (Buzzard, p.511, 2015). the importance of geographic and demographic information being used enhance the process of understanding consumers as an audience and tracking their interest through marketing and advertising (Buzzard, p. 513, 2015). We know that the ratings we receive from popular TV shows or movies have its importance which determines the likes and dislike of an audience and their size is crucial apart from applying other methods which in turn develops a cost that is needed to be paid to the network

The content creators emphasise the creating a content that interests an audience; thus the relevance of the content has to be extremely crucial. When producing the content, creators must make sure that consumers must enjoy it. Hence the quality of the content has to be at utmost priority as many producers who look towards getting monetary benefits mostly fail.

Recalling one of my own experiences, recently when we were having elections in our country (Pakistan), one party emerged as the winner and that was Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI). The reason behind mentioning an experience of my own country is because Pakistan has been under severe economic crisis for the past few years. In such hard times, PTI was made in charge of to run the country. A party that is fairly new to politics, this is because our people were tired of the old and corrupt politicians who just knew to make money for their own benefits and giving nothing to the people of the country. Mr. Imran Khan the leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and the new prime minister of our country seems something unorthodox. As having a sports background, some may have had their concerns if he could run the country or not, yet he was made in charge of the fates of 220 million Pakistanis. This was all possible because he won the trust of his audience, he promised to make Pakistan a better place for its people and will help the nation rise from the crisis. This shows that his homework prior to elections, especially towards the audience, was spot on as he told the audience what they wanted to hear.

Audience Reception Theory And Encoding & Decoding Of Media Text

This idea of reception theory was initially developed by Stuart Hall that talks about the media text being encoded and decoded. According to Hall, audiences take three different positions when decoding a message; the dominant hegemonic position, the oppositional position and the negotiated position (Martin, 2018). First the dominant-hegemonic position, this is where the audience take a dominant standpoint when decoding the message, second is the negotiated position where audience decodes a message by making a comparison between the societal and dominant viewpoints and lastly the oppositional position where audience decodes a message and looks for an unintended meaning from it (Martin, 2018).

The article by Granelli and Zenor (2016) talks about the popular TV shows that judges our concepts of morality and justice. For instance, they used an example of a popular TV show DEXTER, in which the protagonist is an anti-hero who kills people (Granelli & Zenor, p.5056, 2016). Their approach towards finding their answers was through making use of reception theory in a more systematic way by look for four dominant modes of audience reception; transparent, referential, mediated and discursive. Transparent, under this mode, the audience read the text as life by having a parasocial relationship with the character and themes. Referential, here the audience read the text as it was similar to real life by comparing it to their personal experiences. Mediated, here the audience read the text as just means of production and they knew that whatever is going on I the show is not happening in real life. Lastly Discursive, this is where the audience reads the text as a message and takes three positions of dominant-hegemonic, negotiated and oppositional when decoding the text (Granelli & Zenor, p.5058, 2016).

There were other theories stated in the article which were based on how the audience interprets violence, sex or antisocial behaviour. The THEORY OF MORAL DISENGAGEMENT by Bandura, where the audience uses rationality to either excuse immoral behaviour or redefine it as moral. (Granelli & Zenor, p.5059, 2016). Then the SOCIAL INTUITION THEORY by Haidt (2001) was based on judgement and morality being was based on emotional felt; hence, being a dual process of moral intuition (emotion) and moral cognition (reasoning) (Granelli & Zenor, p.5059, 2016) and THEORY OF EMPATHY by Dolf Zilmann which talks about the psychological responses through a cognitive process (Granelli & Zenor, p.5059, 2016).

However, unlike many other theorist, Michelle (2007) was one of those who was able to profess the importance of audience making meaning from their experiences. Her model sets the bases to assist in interpreting how the audience may respond to their experiences. Hence, when it comes to understanding the relationship between mode of engagement and moral judgement, audience love to watch a character in shows like DEXTER who is morally ambiguous thus this way the audience can make an excuse towards his actions being justified. However, of the same character was not mortality ambiguous then the audiences might have dismissed the show through negative discursive reading (Granelli & Zenor, p.5073, 2016).

This article helps me recall one of my own experience of having a parasocial relationship with characters from movies and shows. the experience I mentioned in my previous blog about my fascination with the character of Batman, similarly, I have seen people nowadays being drawn towards character which are somewhat anti-hero. For instance Deadpool, unlike Batman this character is not a vigilante or someone who is there to serve justice but he is actually a professional killer who kills for fun or for his personal grudges. Yet this character still fascinates its audience, because of even a person like me tend to start like such a character as we know that superpowers are not real and no matter how disgustingly he kills in his movies we all know that at the end he is the hero of the movie. Thus, we tend to make an excuse for his actions to those who question the morality that after all, it is just a movie.

Nevertheless, it is understood that “it’s not about you, it’s about the audience” (Morgan, 2016) which makes it crucial to know what your audience actually wants. The only way a media content get successful when the audience approves it and enjoys it.

References

• Andrejevic, M. B. (2010). Surveillance and alienation in the online economy. Surveillance & Society, 8(3), 278-287.

• Audiences And Reception Theory By Julie Martin. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://lionandcompass.com/audiences-and-reception-theory-by-Julie-martin.pdf

• Brown, W. J. (2015). Examining four processes of audience involvement with media personae: Transportation, parasocial interaction, identification, and worship. Communication Theory, 25(3), 259-283.

• Buzzard, K. S. (2015). The Rise of Market Information Regimes and the Historical Development of Audience Ratings. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 35(3), 511-517

• Granelli, S., & Zenor, J. (2016). Decoding “The Code”: Reception Theory and Moral Judgement of Dexter. International Journal of Communication, 10, 23.

• Michelle, C. (2009). (Re) Contextualising Audience Receptions of Reality TV.

• Michelle, C. (2007). Modes of reception: A consolidated analytical framework. The Communication Review, 10(3), 181-222.

• Moyer-Gusé, E., Chung, A. H., & Jain, P. (2011). Identification with characters and discussion of taboo topics after exposure to an entertainment narrative about sexual health. Journal of Communication, 61(3), 387-406.

• Morgan, N. (2016, March 22). What Does Your Audience Care About? Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorgan/2016/03/22/what-does-your-audience-care-about/

• Sundar, S. S., & Limperos, A. M. (2013). Uses and grats 2.0: New gratifications for new media. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 57(4), 504-525.

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Audience Studies (3P18) Blog Post #1.

How Important Is It To Know Your Audience?

When we start to learn about the audiences, by definition it is a group of people who engage or encounter a work of art, literature, music, theatre, academics, and video games. Their experiences are basically the responses to how they affect or are affected by the different forms of art. There have been diversified studies which aim towards getting an insight of audience experiences in different media forms. However, chances are very low of having anyone comprehensive model that can be used to study and understand how different processes of audience involvement interrelate. There are some theoretical ideas that exist which may assist in explaining the concepts of communication through presence, absorption, and engagement to the audience.

While analysing the audience, the initial step is the exploration of psychological, and emotional forms of involvement. The idea of involvement mainly focuses on audiences' cognitive responses to any given message. Here we encompass emotional reactions to both personalities and mediated messages; thus, involvement refers to the extent of psychological response one has to a mediated persona or message. This is considered to be a dynamic mechanism as it blends the usage and creation of media through mediated interactions.

Until this day the viewpoint has been under scrutiny and apparently it has some contributions towards the development of the entertainment media theory (Klimmt & Vorderer, 2003; Moyer-Gusé, Chung, & Jain, 2011). In media consumption, Tan (2008) states that emotion plays a role in the creation of entertainment experience; hence, the involvement of personae in the production of mediated narratives can foster media enjoyment.

But one thing that stalls the concept of involvement is the description of social sciences in relation to individual experiences, as it fails to gather the collective experiences of media consumption (Brown, 2015). According to Rubin and Perse (1987), audience involvement can be in any possible way, it can be behavioural, cognitive, or effective participation during media exposure. In the society we live in, both media and media consumers are highlighted by their mass consumption of social media. That is why theoretical models hold that media consumers are part of a continuous involvement process with mediated personae during and after media consumption. The aspect is crucial in the creation of consumer or audience experience; social media is also playing a supportive role.

Content and Material Creation

When we dig deeper towards the creation of media and the research over the audience by the scholars, I certainly learn that there has been an immense effort to find out how media dynamics determine the presumptions, imperatives, and motives that shape audience data. This paradigm has been in development for over two decades; although, some researchers believe that there is a need to restructure the premises of what is referred to as ‘data Arcadia,' some of the current techniques have yielded to success; this is confirmed by some media outlets and content creators who continue to command the sector (Athique, 2018).

User-led systems are predominant in today's media production technologies. Such as YouTube, which is a digital platform that relies entirely on the owner's creativity to create value for the service. The media content producers have the freedom to produce whatever they think might interest the audience and gain the audience. YouTube is one of the many examples of cheap media production that is considered liberated in terms of not just cost but also expert intermediaries (Andrejevic, 2010). The level and quality of content in the future looks significantly mundane or liberated with the primary logic being focused primarily on achieving the commercial value of the World Wide Web in different ways, whether this is a good thing for the audience experience remains to be seen.

Although we know that free content is available online and easily accessible can be a good thing or vice versa. The internet is now regarded as a medium of record whereby any action results in a specific data point. It is because of that factor that user tracking was incorporated into web browsers and individual addresses for personalised devices, well at least theoretically. The move aims at permissibly identify individual users so that they can be held liable for their content. The same system has, subsequently, been used to create targeting strategies for advertising and other programs. While the plan initially worked to ensure the safeguarding of technology users, it ended creating a broader shift in commercial logic whereby the internet became a new arena for online retailers, internet service providers, credit card companies, and other secondary usage potentials (Athique, 2018).

Information suppliers who do not depend entirely on the online platform like Nelsen as mentioned by Buzzard (2015) depend and compete through factors such as; measurement innovations, cost decisions, choice of delivery methods, and speed of delivery. They also have to take into account elements such as geographic and demographic markets to establish audience preferences. All the stated aspects are instrumental especially because each of them determines the finalised created content.  Moreover, for such media, suppliers also tend to affect audience experience. For instance, for TV or radio ratings is an important determinant. Ratings are derived using various methods but are essentially based on audience size. On the other hand, audience size establishes the cost that is paid to a network.

Away from the creators and to the consumers; for audiences to remain interested in any given content, there has to relevance. Creators are always working towards creating what their target consumers are more likely to receive and enjoy. Developers, therefore, tread the line between the modes of engagement its moral implications. The study by Steven and Jason (2016) reveal that positive reading had a great influence on the receivership of what could have otherwise been regarded as moral ambiguity. However, is the writing, acting, or production of the cited shows had been poorly done; many people would have dismissed the show regardless of the moral standings of the featured characters.  In essence, the process of content creation has an instrumental role in the achievement of positive audience experience. Producers who only focus on the monetary facet over the quality of their content can end up losing it all.

Reception Theory

This is the last step of the audience experience. As mentioned above, various factors can affect the whole facet of content creation and consumption. The studies by Brown (2015) indicate the influence cognitive forms of involvement can have on receivership of media content. The existing theories of involvement have, nevertheless, developed insufficient integration between involvement processes and media personae. As a result, there is a weak epistemic operationalization and conceptual inconsistencies; the same goes for the reception theory.

Research aimed at creating an insight into how audiences interpret media messages reveals a veritable boom in the production of ethnographic audience. Audiences just as any other consumers have ever-changing needs and preferences. Viewers always go for the more creative content that pushes their imagination, educates them, or just blows their minds. Because of this, it is quite challenging to define modes of audience reception, what is good for one might be bad for another. In the attempt to create a better understanding of audience reception, Michelle (2009) proposed a systematic framework that aids in the categorisation of the dominant modes of audience reception. She defines four different modes of reception derived from the multi-dimensional model of audience reception.

In the first mode, she explains audience engagement as transparent, and that audience s read ‘text as life;' It entails situations whereby a person becomes lost in the belief in the fictional world of the text. Brown (2015) conquers with this in his involvement theory; he describes an imaginary interaction a viewer and television personality have. This relationship is entirely based on one-way also known as a para-social relationship. Thus according to Michelle (2007), an individual can develop a very strong bond with the content which leads to building up of strong emotional feelings towards the represented themes and characters. As I can relate to many of my own experiences that whenever I watch movies, I tend to relate myself to a character in the movie to whom I can relate to. For example, Batman is one f those characters from the DC universe that I somehow want to relate myself with; maybe because this character brings out my inner desire of being a superhero.

The seconds is referential and involves audiences considering ‘text as like life.' In this case, a person compares the material to his/her actual life but as a basis for interpretation. The third is mediated and involves the reading of ‘text as a production:' an individual only considers the content as based on the aesthetics of the media production. These are the kind of people who do not get carried away by what they encounter; they may enjoy what they are reading or watching but are less likely to engage the messages or themes of the content. The fourth mode is whereby some audiences read the ‘texts as a message' (Michelle, 2009). These are the kind of people who try to find out the intended meaning of what they have watched or read. By so doing, those individuals create an ideological point of view by analysing the dominant, negotiated, or op-positional aspects (Michelle, 2007).

Unlike other scholars, Michelle (2007) recognises and acknowledges the fact that audiences approach the processes of deriving meaning differently depending on their experiences. Michelle's model also provides for the possibility that viewers can also rely on other resources to develop their ideological perspective and standing when interpreting any given content. Michelle (2007) also notes that four notes the four modes are not consistent or exclusive as they can vary depending on the form of art can change over time, and can differ from one individual to another even in a single content. It is because of findings by theorists such as Michelle that the television landscape is now characterised by antihero protagonists and audiences who are breaching what were once thought to be clear lines of good and evil. We are now celebrating moral ambiguity in our movies as creators strive to accommodate every wild thought (Steven & Jason, 2016).

References:

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Athique, A. (2018). The     dynamics and potentials of big data for audience research. Media,     Culture & Society, 40(1), 59-74.

Brown, W. J. (2015).     Examining four processes of audience involvement with media personae:     Transportation, parasocial interaction, identification, and worship. Communication     Theory, 25(3), 259-283.

Buzzard, K. S. (2015). The     Rise of Market Information Regimes and the Historical Development of     Audience Ratings. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 35(3),     511-517.

Granelli, S., & Zenor,     J. (2016). Decoding “The Code”: Reception Theory and Moral Judgement of     Dexter. International Journal of Communication, 10,     23.

Klimmt, C., &     Vorderer, P. (2003). Media psychology “is not yet there”: Introducing     theories on media entertainment to the present     debate. Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments, 12(4),     346-359

Michelle, C. (2009). (Re)     Contextualising Audience Receptions of Reality TV.

Michelle, C. (2007). Modes     of reception: A consolidated analytical framework. The     Communication Review, 10(3), 181-222.

Moyer-Gusé, E., Chung, A.     H., & Jain, P. (2011). Identification with characters and discussion     of taboo topics after exposure to an entertaining     narrative about sexual health. Journal of Communication, 61(3),     387-406