Week 7: Audiences: What do people do with media?

In this week’s lecture we looked at audiences and what they do with the media looking closely at reception studies. The basis of reception studies differs from the Marxism view and instead says that the audience are not always passive but are rather individuals with different opinions. The view that audience members are actually the ones who hold power. 'It is often argued that the mass media 'give people what they want' and that the viewers, listeners, and readers ultimately determine the content of the media by their choices of what they will read, view, or hear.' (Katz and Foulkes 1962, 377)

The Long and Wall reading looks closely at key theorist Stuart Hall and his idea of encoding/decoding. With this he was 'thinking of the context in which media messages are made and interpreted, of the relationship between producer, text and audience.' (Long and Wall 2012, 308) It is the concept that in media production 'messages are part of a process, encoded in texts in production and then decoded in consumption.' (Long and Wall 2012, 308) However, Hall says that when media texts are decoded by audience members they are not always decoded in the same way due to social situations. Audiences will have one of three readings when consuming media texts: dominant, negotiated or oppositional.

The key reading of Gillespie looks at the idea that western soap opera constructs a 'symbolic community'. The reading focuses on the soap 'Neighbours' and how audience members can relate to characters in the soap and story lines. This ties in with uses and gratifications theory. 'Audiences approach texts out of a purposeful desire to satisfy or 'gratify' necessary personal and social needs.' (Long and Wall 2012, 305) Gillespie talks about the 'personal relationships' and 'personal identity' aspects of uses and gratification theory how audiences talk about popular soap operas to boost friendships and to be involved. Gillespie says 'soap talk is also seen as a way of bonding friendships, since, in discussing the problem that characters face and how effectively they deal with them.' (Gillespie 2003, 319) This fits in with 'personal relationships' while 'viewers may identify with certain characters, seeing themselves as in that characters shoes; they may regard them as a role model, imitating that character's behaviour,' (Gillespie 2003, 320) ties in with 'personal identity'.

The reading that I have acquired this week 'But This Time You Choose!' : Approaching the 'interactive' audience in reality TV' by Su Holmes. This reading is about the interactivity of audience in reality TV. This shares the concept of audiences being active so that they can interact. Holmes says 'that the TV viewer has never been so 'empowered'. Phrases such as 'You decide!' (Big Brother)' (Holmes 2004, 214) This says that audiences do have control rather than just being passive in comparison to what previous power relations were like.

Bibliography

Gillespie, Marie (2003) “Television, Ethnicity and Cultural Change” IN Will Brooker and Deborah Jermyn (eds.) The Audience Studies Reader. London: Routledge

Holmes, Su (2004) ‘But this time you choose!’ : Approaching the ‘interactive’ audience in reality TV. Volume 7, Issue 2. Unknown: Sage Publications. pp. 213 - 231

Long, P and Wall, T (2012) ‘Investigating audiences: what do people do with media’ IN Media Studies: Texts, Production,Context (2^nd Edition), London: Pearson. pp 300-337